But I Only Teach Beginners
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Last year I attended a very interesting one day workshop sponsored by the dance department of the University of Calgary. The focus of the course was to present alternative methods to strengthen chronically weak muscles. The instructor was an Austrian modern dancer turned physical therapist. Because I am also a dancer turned therapist, I was very impressed with his presentation and extremely interested in his perspectives, which complemented many of the methods that I use. However, what impressed me even more was the fact that all of the other 30 dance instructors (predominantly modern and classical dance) who attended the workshop with me knew their anatomy and knew it very well. This was especially relevant because, although they were not therapists, they did understand and accept the fact that such knowledge was necessary to enable them to properly instruct their students.
We not only have a moral responsibility to our students, but we also have a legal obligation to NOT CAUSE HARM. We are required to pursue and achieve sufficient understanding of the body’s anatomy including joint function, muscle locations and actions, correct alignment and appropriate exercise protocol, if one is to avoid causing harm.
Oriental dance has traditionally been passed down from mother to daughter, as groups of women dance with and for each other during special events and celebrations. Only very recently has this dance form begun to be presented in an organized class setting i.e.45 years ago saw the first dance schools in America while only 15 years ago presented the first dance classes in an Arabic country. Therefore, it is not surprising that there is a relative absence of universally accepted technique, terminology, standards and teaching guidelines.
However, as a result of the huge growth in the art form all over the world there is a great demand for classes. These are now taught not only in academies devoted exclusively to oriental dance, but also in every community center, neighbourhood gym, and night schools program.
But who are the teachers, where did they come from, what is their training and what are their qualifications?
My qualifications:
- Teaching for 32 years (now more than 40 )
- Therapist and instructor of massage therapy, as well as post grad advanced techniques in massage and manual therapy
- 20 plus year refining the application of anatomy, kinesiology and remedial exercise directly to our dance.
- The synthesis of this info and much more into a 100 + hour multi level instructor training course, which I have been teaching for 12 years now.
The students who attend my Instructor training courses are a combination of 20 year veteran iteachers, professional and novice dancers who would like to teach and prefer to start out with a strong foundation of information, as well as dancers who just want to understand their technique, their bodies and how they learn in order to become better dancers themselves. All of them find great benefit especially from the segments of the class that present anatomy and apply it speicifically to oriental dance. Other invaluable concepts are correct alignment (how to recognize it and teach it), as well as teaching and communication skills, understanding of technique, music, history and more…..
I do realize that some high profile schools do give certificates in technique and some even have extensive instructor training programs, although most of them are comprised of dance techniques and choreographies for advanced dancers, as opposed to the training of instructors. I also know that few of them present or even understand the accurate function of the muscles involved in our dance.
I also understand that not all teachers or potential teacher s are concerned about getting any qualifications or training. In fact, it is usually the dancers and instructors who are the most qualified who are the ones who seek out more qualifications and knowledge.
But what promoted me to write this article was a private class I taught about a month ago. The student was returning from a weekend workshop instructed by one of my colleagues. She booked a 2 hour private class me to “refine her technique”. However, after 2 hours we had not progressed past the first few movements of the warm up routine and a few basic techniques; she was unable to find and maintain her body in a position of acceptable alignment; could not do a basic 4/4 shimmy or move her arms while doing any basic steps. She then informed me that she is presently teaching classes her community. I was quite shocked to hear that she was teaching and suggested that she attend my upcomingLevel 1 teacher training course, study my instructional videos and book as many private classes as possible with a very knowledgeable and accomplished instructor located near her home before teaching any more classes.
Her reply was that she could not afford it after the expenses of her pricey weekend workshop fee, hotel and plane ticket. This was especially sad because our private class had demonstrated that this workshop had not accomplished the intended goal of helping this woman with even basic technique, let alone teach her a “choreography”. Then her final words were “After all, I ONLY TEACH BEGINNERS”!
My response was that for the sake of her students, she could not afford NOT to get this training. Beginners are, in fact, the people who need the most highly skilled instructors. Intermediate students can protect themselves from an uninformed and/or inexperienced teacher by drawing upon previous good training, but a brand new beginner will faithfully and without question believe and follow everything presented by her instructor, even if that instructor teachers her incorrect techniques and does so in a way that injures her body. Once this happens, it is almost impossible to correct the student’s bad habits and replace them with correct technique. To understand why this happens, I will explain the term “Muscle Memory” is, in fact, the establishment of engrams for complex motor skills.
As we begin to learn any complex motor skill, chemicals called neurotransmitters, are passed from one neuron (brain cell) to another. The interconnecting sequence of neurons is like a pathway. Each specific pathway is translated into the specific physical action. Initially, this pathway is like a very tiny trail through a wild forest. The more times we travel on the trail, the wider, and smoother it becomes until eventually we have created a super highway. As soon as we even THINK about a movement our brain has already departed on the superhighway and the action is done. This is known as an Engram.
This means that if we create a superhighway that results in a movement that is incorrect, it is extremely difficult to block the corresponding superhighway, interrupt the automatic incorrect movement to allow a correct movement to take form. In fact, it is almost impossible and very unfair for the student who has placed her faith in and paid her money to her instructor with the hopes of learning how to execute this beautiful dance form properly and gracefully.