What I DIDN'T learn about teaching from a chain dance studio...
Working with Rhythm Dance Company. Santa Cruz, CA
My first experience in a dance teacher training was when I was 19 years old, I knew zero about teaching and I was still learning and discovering dance in my own body. I had no clue what I was doing but somehow knew I could do it and be good at it! You can imagine how uncomfortable and self conscious I was being so young, especially since all the other teachers were older, more sophisticated and who seemed so confident (more on that later). I didn’t know what it meant to be an effective teacher.
That first training was intense! I learned 9 dances of the American Style Ballroom and Latin dance syllabus, bronze through gold. There were many late nights of pizza and wine with the other teachers in training, practicing with each other. Fun times! I learned the leader and followers parts of the patterns, learned basic understanding of lead and follow, timing and rhythm of each dance, how to dress for lessons (more formal than I was used to coming from a Hip Hop and Contemporary dance background), what to say on the intro lessons and how to “service” my students. That last one makes my skin crawl just to write it! But that is how the studio described supporting students. Once that initial training was over, that was pretty much it for furthering my teaching skills.
If I were to become the great teacher I wanted to be, I would need to go explore, spend the money, the time and find it on my own.
So this leads to the first thing I didn’t learn - How and where I could continue my training as a teacher not only as a dancer. In the many years since that first teacher training, I have taken it upon myself to seek out the dancers and coaches that I resonated with and who truly made an investment in ME. The list is very small but the few who are on the list are not only incredible teachers, they are amazing humans and continue to lead by example by ELEVATING themselves and others around them.
When I was feeling empty and felt that I had nothing to teach, I quit for a year, decided to step back in the dance studio as a student again. I reconnected with the joy of dance, took different styles of dance and filled myself up with knowledge. And I noticed I paid more attention to not only what the teacher was saying but also HOW they were saying it. After that I was inspired by one of my students who asked a question about what muscle they were using during a movement, I didn’t know the answer! So I decided I needed to learn more about anatomy and the function of muscles. I became a student again and received my fitness certification. For a long time, I felt content with my teaching. I had the skills to teach different students of all ages and levels.
Then I started to feel teacher burnout, uninspired, tired of teaching the same thing over and over. I wasn’t being challenged and fulfilled with my job. I lost my WHY.
So once again, I became a student, this time it was yoga! What I learned most from my yoga teacher training had very little to do with the physical. What I didn’t realize is that I needed to grow personally in order to serve my students more fully. Through the inquiry of myself, digging deeper into who I am, what motivates me and by asking the difficult questions, I learned how to stand in my own body with confidence. You could say I became a student of myself. I found my WHY! I help people connect to joy through movement and transform. I learned how to truly hear what my students needed from me and teach from an authentic, compassionate place. The second important thing I didn’t learn from my first training - How to speak with confidence, authenticity and compassion.
Some might say that this comes with time and age but I disagree. Yes, there is a layer that only maturing and life experience gives you but had I known some of the positive language and communication skills I know now, I probably could have saved a few partnerships or at the very least used more compassionate words during arguments about being “too heavy with a connection or not leading on time (you know, the real important life saving things, haha!)
I’ve realized that using language skillfully is like using a technique in dance, you’ve got to practice it with mindfulness and eventually it becomes a habit. I’ve learned that language has a huge impact and skillfully choosing your words, adjusting the dial, can make the difference between giving a correction that makes a student feel disempowered to providing constructive feedback that allows students to intelligently explore their bodies and empower themselves.
Which leads to my final thing I didn’t learn - How to teach older students or those with physical limitations. As a yoga teacher we are trained to teach the whole person; body, mind and soul. We are taught anatomy and how to access the body through meditation and breath. That each body is different, bone length is different, their life experience is different. Also that mental and emotional trauma gets held in the body and we just never know why a student can or can’t do something. The first thing we are taught to ask is do you have any injuries or limitations I should know about. I now do this with all my first time private dance lesson students and it has helped me to design lessons with their best interest in mind and to truly serve them and their goals.
The takeaway here. . . always remain a student of life and keep learning!