Teaching Philosophy
As a teacher, my goal is to provide an environment in which my students feel comfortable pursuing dance as an art and recognize the importance of individual achievement. I value the concepts of critical pedagogy in the ways that they support trust, growth, and relationship between teacher and student. I hope to break down the proscenium of the traditional ballet hierarchy that exists between these two entities and present myself as a tool by which my students can choose to succeed. Dance is a connection between mind, body and spirit and in teaching, I seek to relay this information in a way that can be easily understood and grasped by my students. I feel the dance I teach should be based on specific motor skills layered with the development of expression and artistry and focused on mastery as knowledge not perfection.
Who I Am
As a dance educator, I hope to inspire my students through passion, empower them through trust, encourage them through relationship, and motivate them through mutual growth. I strive to leave a lasting legacy with my students by developing a learning experience that is challenging yet gratifying, and exists in the balance between accuracy and exploration. Through establishing a positive working and learning environment, I will engage my students in processes that involve risk and will require them to step outside their comfort zone, take chances, and make choices. I seek to create a democratic atmosphere in class that gives students the freedom to make such choices regarding their movement and learning while also teaching in a way that may produce social transformation and moral development.
Focusing on the principles of critical pedagogy, I will encourage my students to take ownership of their learning through the realization that true embodiment can only exist when the individual fully engages in the experience. A shared passion is imperative for full investment. When the student possesses the desire to dance, they truly devote something of worth into the process of learning and become open to improvement. Thus, I will use my voice as a tool to encourage, direct, inspire and motivate my students on a path toward success.
What Students Can Expect
Technique makes a dance, but it takes passion to make a dancer. I feel that one who dances without passion, dances without heart, and one who moves without heart moves without purpose. As a teacher, I strive to have such passion that my students not only learn what it is like to dance, but feel what it is like to love dance. I want them to develop their own passion and move from this place of greater meaning. I will encourage my students to reach deep within themselves and dance from the inside out. I value a technique that actively initiates movement from the core and uses the strength and power of this engagement to teach full completion and seamless transition of movement. In moving this way, the dancer can take the movement from a place of execution and connect it to their inner desire to dance. A dancer can receive a greater physical understanding of moving from the inside out by drawing from the sensations of actively engaging the core, consciously focusing on the use of breath and feeling this passion that wells from deep within.
In my class, students can expect that I will arrive fully prepared and ready to work while presuming the same dedication from them. I feel that teaching is a two-way street, and without students willing to learn, my job has no true purpose. I will feed off of their energy as they arrive in class and adapt my class in a way that will be beneficial to their moods and their bodies. I hope to quickly learn how to read the class in a way that I can provide positive motivation and encouragement.
By creating a firm technical foundation while also challenging the limits of movement, I value a learning experience that occurs as a balance between precision and experimentation. My teaching style builds on the ideas of passion, trust, relationship and growth to encourage students to dance from the inside out, push the limits of movement, explore the boundaries of musicality, and learn from experience by going back to the basics. My main goal and focus as a teacher is to help my students grow as technical artists and to leave them with an increased knowledge and love of dance.
Photo Credit:
Bob Morrison