Refections this week

"Of course, talented and obedient students are pleasanter to teach, but it is the difficult students who shape the growth of the master of teaching. In short, the new teacher must observe the activity of the psyche, learn psychology and, in general, aid the pupil to develop his personality." - Nikolai Tarasov

Reading, “Technique for the Male Dancer”, by Nikolai Tarasov has been really interesting for myself. I could have read this book as a young teacher and not really obtained very much from it, but having read it now, having gained many years of teaching experience, the book is much more meaningful to me. This book is also a reflection of where and what I have learned throughout my own experiences as a dancer, and now teacher, which shapes me into the teacher I am today.

The above-mentioned quote couldn't be more true. I teach many adults as well as students who wish to become professional dancers at some point in their lives. With these two groups of students, I have met some of the most challenging situations that I have ever come across while teaching.

Adult students: why do they dance; what life experience has this mind and body seen thus far in its existence; and why can't this student just do what they are told? These are just a few of the complexities of adults that I have been working on and trying to find the answer to as a teacher. I have come to realize that everyone has their reasons, and as a teacher I can't expect every student to give the result that I ask for and when I ask for it. Different people take different amounts of time to apply and produce, or even understand the task given to them.

Professional Students: "So you would like to become a dancer and with this body? Do you love it enough and understand what you will need to put yourself through to become what you WANT to be?" Sadly, the answer most of the time is "yes". That leaves me and other teachers the difficult task of having to figure out ourselves how to make this human being into a professional dancer. There are no cookie cutter dance bodies and in Victoria, B.C., Canada, it’s very difficult to find a 10-year-old who has been instilled self-discipline from a very young age as it may be in other parts of the world. There are few families that are the two parents-children unit.  I see many split families where the parents are too often fighting each other instead of looking out for the child’s best interest. With inconsistent boundaries given at a very young age, by the time the children understand that they want to be a classical dancer, it is too late for us the teachers to instill discipline into the child. Or we have to waste too much time and energy teaching the student basic skills to navigate society by understanding social cues, discipline, and empathy, that we never end up being able to teach the students what we are really supposed to teach, which is how to dance. Some teachers tell me that I shouldn't bother teaching the students the life skills that they need to survive in today's world. However, I have learned through experience that dancers need to be human in order to be able to communicate human emotion to a human audience. So, N. Tarasov was right, the most difficult students are the ones who can really teach the teacher how to teach, even if they don't mean to, and neither the student nor the teacher will ever be able to predict what learning will come from the experience, but we can all be certain, that learning will happen.