Being A Dance Educator

Being a dance educator, I am capable of expanding the knowledge of my students. Attending technique courses such as, ballet and modern, courses based on exploring the science of the body, history, composition, and production have contributed to my knowledge of being a dancer. It is the students that will be the future educators, performers, and artists of dance. I will encourage the students to not only learn from myself, but themselves and their fellow classmates. Learning from other students is a way to pick up on mistakes and help one another. I will encourage my students to pay attention to all questions that are asked, not just in a technique class, but other dance courses for the sake of clarification. I will commit myself to educating

Each course will be two hours long in order to accomplish all tasks for the day. Before moving across the floor in the modern course, ten minutes of conditioning will be included to increase core and upper arm strength to assist exercises such as inversions. Prior to each ballet class, a test will be provided to each student to test their knowledge of the ballet terms. Similar to the modern course, there will be ten minutes of conditioning to increase core and leg strength after an hour at the barre. I ask for my students to dance full out and present with their best every time, but also to dance safely. Any dancer that chooses to not dance full out, will be addressed in a professional manner and asked to dance bigger. Dancing bigger will not only help with clarity, but also with exploring the kinesphere. Exploring the kinesphere allows the dancer to realize how big or far they can actually move, while marking a movement does not. Dancing safely means notifying the instructor immediately if something is hurting such as a knee, back, or hips, incase medical attention is needed. Many injuries occur from incorrect alignment while doing a phrase. For example, there are many times where a dancer may result with soreness in their hips during or after barre work from the ballet course. This issue could be a result from misalignment that can be easily fixed by hands-on attention. I am able to approach any misalignment in the body by assisting it personally by physically touching the dancer to prevent any future injuries. A student that has not applied my assistance to the alignment issue will then be given tactile feedback and expected to make improvement. In addition to the technique courses, a history course will be available and optional every Friday. Learning the history of dance allowed me to show dedication and appreciation to each contribution to the form of art such as the development of tap,