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Teaching
Today I started teaching again at Dance Space (I have a hard time calling it Dance New Amsterdam). I've been a guest artist teacher there since 1995. My class has been slowly but steadily evolving and teaching there has taught me so much about what to expect when teaching in New York. This has been a touchy subject for me since I have strong feelings about how teachers are treated by studios and also how they are paid. Maybe someone else can share their experience on that. Lately though, I've really been enjoying myself teaching at Dance Space. I've been building a loyal following for a while and classes have been fun. Teaching has taught me so much about what is important to me as a dancer and has improved my communication skills in so many ways. I feel like my eyes are learning to see clearly about how dancers move. If it weren't for these classes I think I'd be really depressed just dancing and working in a restaurant. I have taught at several places including Movement Research, Sarah Lawrence College, Impuls Tanz Wien and soon at NYU. I also have taught extensively under the auspices of the Stephen Petronio Company for many years and has spearheaded their teaching program on their way to developing a school. This has been extremely rewarding. Teaching, however, has its ups and downs. Today I had no energy coming into the class but as soon as we started things began to flow. This happens quite frequently. Although, more often than not I look forward to creating exercises, seeing the evolution of an idea into physical practice and making challenging phrases. I'd love to hear what others have to say about this, especially those who have been teaching for so many years.
Today I started teaching again at Dance Space (I have a hard time calling it Dance New Amsterdam). I've been a guest artist teacher there since 1995. My class has been slowly but steadily evolving and teaching there has taught me so much about what to expect when teaching in New York. This has been a touchy subject for me since I have strong feelings about how teachers are treated by studios and also how they are paid. Maybe someone else can share their experience on that. Lately though, I've really been enjoying myself teaching at Dance Space. I've been building a loyal following for a while and classes have been fun. Teaching has taught me so much about what is important to me as a dancer and has improved my communication skills in so many ways. I feel like my eyes are learning to see clearly about how dancers move. If it weren't for these classes I think I'd be really depressed just dancing and working in a restaurant. I have taught at several places including Movement Research, Sarah Lawrence College, Impuls Tanz Wien and soon at NYU. I also have taught extensively under the auspices of the Stephen Petronio Company for many years and has spearheaded their teaching program on their way to developing a school. This has been extremely rewarding. Teaching, however, has its ups and downs. Today I had no energy coming into the class but as soon as we started things began to flow. This happens quite frequently. Although, more often than not I look forward to creating exercises, seeing the evolution of an idea into physical practice and making challenging phrases. I'd love to hear what others have to say about this, especially those who have been teaching for so many years.
posted by Gerald at 4:35 PM
1 Comments:
teaching is a two-way street. despite the best preparations, a class can fall flat. totally unprepared, a class can somehow flow naturally. what is the difference? the quality of the dialogue between teacher and student. not a verbal dialogue. energy. you (teacher) watch bodies, you feel for breathing, shifts of energy, you get to know your students and notice subtle changes in their attention, you know when to push and when to let them go. all these things create an atmosphere where the student is not so much being "taught" as they are UNCOVERING WHAT ALREADY EXISTS in themselves. teaching then becomes a kind of uncovering, studying becomes remembering.
i teach yoga, which by its nature is non-presentational, non-performative. this changes things. dance technique involves an outward-ness that yoga doesn't. it's got a different set of questions. e.g.how do you teach a dancer to be intimately connected to herself and at the same time generous enough to give everything to the audience? but though the variables change slightly, but i think the practice of the teacher remains the essentially the same: plan & prepare, research & create.....but then listen, watch, observe, and the students will show you what they need to learn.
ps for the record gc you are an amazing teacher.
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