Introducing my Dance Teacher Blog: The Dream is Still Alive

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Dance Teacher Blog: The Dream is Still Alive

By Brandy Curry

One of the things that drew me to teaching dance in education is that I had the opportunity to watch young dancers live out their sweet dreams in a ballet role, or in a contemporary dance piece while applying the same rhythm of learning a math problem in their academic classes.  The only difference between the private dance studio and a dance class at a school was that I was giving my dance students a grade for their work.  At first this seemed foreign to me, giving a grade for ballet, however, as I grew with the process it became manageable.  I looked for books and other resources like Dance Teacher Magazine to guide me trough the assessment process. I found incredible books, Gayle Kassing's, Teaching Beginning Ballet Technique , and The Pointe Book by Sara Schlesinger and Janice Barringer.  However, I needed more visual aids, and needed a plan on how to set my dance classroom up for success.

I, like most of you, had a difficult time transitioning from the private dance studio world into education.  All of a sudden the technique seemed to not matter and the grades and behavior logs did.  Perhaps you are a Physical Education teacher now teaching two periods of dance in a one hour and forty-five minutes block.  Or you just finished a tour with a ballet company and now you have two periods of beginning ballet and two periods of advanced ballet.  Whatever your story is you must believe that the dancers in your classroom are just as passionate as the dancers in private dance studios.  While the parents in a traditional school are not paying for the dance lessons and the commitment in the dancers is seemingly absent you have one pivotal thing…performance, concert, recital!  Creating an end-of-the semester showcase, or by-monthly in-class showings gives your dancers (and, their parents) something to look forward to, and a sense of accomplishment.

While these are all challenges a private studio faces as well, it is up to you to create classroom norms and show your students and parents how things are run.  Run your classroom like you would your own studio; be an entrepreneur.  You may have a Principal, Vice Principal, Dean, Curriculum Coordinator, Assistant Principal, Department Head, Headmaster, Assistant Head Master to help you through the basic information of your classroom norms.  But can they teach dance?  It is up to you to promote your class and get kids interested.  I started as a substitute teacher and seven years later I became the Department Chair over two faculty members that were once my dance studio teachers.  I had maintained my notebooks, and kept my files, evidence of student work, assesments, rubrics, final examinations all in order and when it came time to hire a Department Chair I was a solid fit because I was well prepared to guide other Dance Faculty, I was tech savvy and talented.

There is little information on how to connect private studio thinking and transform it into education.  The days of walking into the classroom and just teaching dance are long done.  Dancers now have too much stimuli that keep them engaged and on their toes, literally.  Dance in education requires a teacher that is not only talented, but well prepared.  Private Dance Studios give assessment test, like the R.A.D. and Cecchetti Ballet tests.  Transforming this thinking into dance education allows for a cohesive dance world. This blog discusses simple lesson planning strategy, how to keep non-dancers interested in the class, how to keep advanced dancers engaged, helpful activities that are learning tools, and how to keep up and stay ahead of technology. Even if you have never taught dance at a private dance studio most of your dancers have had classes at private studios and they and their parents are expecting your class style to be very similar.