Teaching Is Symbiotic

by Danielle Jeal

Dance Education has changed over the past decade, and changed very quickly in the past 5 years. Inspiring your students has always been beneficial for developing keen and attentive artists, but in recent years there has been a shift where inspiration is critical to engagement. Even advanced dancers often need educators to spend considerable time advocating for the immense benefits of strong technique and discipline before their movers are prepared for deep work. So, the question is: How do dance teachers find enough time to train standard execution, technique, and artistry, while focusing on engagement?

I have lamented with many an educator of late on the time spent in class coaxing groups of intermediate and advanced students to be on time, and motivated to work upon arrival at the studio. I have heard many a sorrowful "When we were young..." and "Dance is an elective sport, right?" from disappointed and disheartened teachers. Often followed by my own sigh of understanding. There is a tidal wave of dancers who no longer willfully participate in the relentless training that crafted so many dancers in generations past. While I have a few thoughts on the necessity of committed practice, today I am here to discuss the symbiotic relationship that happens in teaching, and that is being damaged by the mentality shift occurring in the dance community.

Teaching is vulnerable. I never considered this as a student, but as a teacher it is present with me each day. For me to educate my dancers I must be willing to share with them (appropriately of course) what I experienced, how I comprehend movement, what is occurring for me internally, and the assets and weaknesses of my own practice and talents. It is raw. This vulnerability is offered to help dancers reflect on their experience and make connections, differentiations, and choices to develop their own talent. The more I offer, the further they grow. The win for the educator is dancers who progress.

Learning to dance is vulnerable too. Students listen to their teacher's insights and guidance and then apply it to their own experience. During this application they open themselves up to their teachers and peers while they trial and error the information they have received. Students reflect in real time on the way the application is changing their practice as a means of seeking coaching from their educator. The win for the dancer is that they progress.

Both the teacher and the student are working towards the same end goal, progress for their young artist. Both the teacher and the student are showing up willing to share their personal experience and tweak it to develop the dancer. It is symbiotic; for dance education to work all people in the space must be offering and responding to one another's insights.

I believe that this relationship is hitting hard stops in the current social climate because of the pervasive unwillingness to be vulnerable. It is not an unwillingness to "work hard" or a lack of dedication in dancers, rather it is a deep seated fear of failure, shame, and irreparable error.

This is not surprising in a life intertwined with performative social media. Students and teachers alike are inundated with peak performance videos, idealized training practices, extreme tricks, and unyielding perfectionism. If not these types of images and videos, we are ingesting an onslaught of negative "trolling" and canceling of people that were previously exclusively idealized. The line of "in" versus "out" is black and white, and crossing from one zone to the next can happen instantly and innocuously. To protect themselves dancers are showing up performatively or preventatively. It is nearly impossible to be vulnerable in either of those head spaces.

So, to return to a symbiotic relationship in dance education, I propose that we (educators) invest in relationship building in our classrooms. If we can garner our students trust, we just may be able to coax them out of their fear and bring them into the studio in totality so real work can begin.

Here are 3 simple ways to invest time in relationship building in your classroom that I am trying out this season:

• Use student's names frequently. I have favoured generalized corrections in the past in hopes of protecting students from discomfort in the studio. But this year I am trying to use names to offer direct praise and correction. It seems to be working.

• Create opportunities to learn more about them and their interests as pertains to dance. This season, I tried a get to know you sheet (available as a free download in the download sections) and Dance Deep Dive assignments (also available as a free download). My goal with the assignment is to share a little of my own dance interests with my students, and learn about their dance dreams, interests, and hopes, while weaving in some dance history.

• Be early to teach. This can be very difficult as dance educators often have multi-faceted careers, but I think it is integral. It provides an opportunity for you to engage with your students without the pressure of class times and transitions. In addition, cultivating a welcoming and calm space in the studio that dancers can depend on being there is a way to disarm them and provide comfort to dancers that is integral if we want them to be willing and vulnerable in class.

All in all, I feel that teaching is a privilege and the onus is on us as educators to shift the energy in the studio back towards safety and play. More on a teacher's already full plate seems like a big ask, but I know that if educators work together we can lessen the load and move the needle in the right direction!