By Francisco De La Calleja

So, you are a good dancer, have won a few competitions; you perform regularly at shows and congresses so teaching came as the logical thing to do next. Perhaps your friends prompted you into it, or maybe you were inspired by your own instructors. Maybe you wanted the extra cash or maybe you just wanted others to benefit from your experience and share your passion.

You may have already noticed that teaching requires quite different skills from those you apply into dancing and performing. It is perfectly normal to ask yourself if you are doing it right or if there is something amiss in your new career. Here are some clues that indicate that you may need to upgrade your teaching skills:

You dread or hate teaching certain classes / students.

Sure, there are lessons that are more stressful than others. But your work as a dance teacher isn’t just to teach how to dance. You also have to learn from each lesson you teach so that in every lesson thereafter you may apply a greater mass of knowledge for the benefit of all your students. You are not going to learn anything if you keep an eye on the clock and try to just get through a challenging class as quickly as possible. You need to optimize your over-all teaching mindset and learn how to turn negative energy from your student into a teaching asset.

You improvise.

Improvising a lesson is not an “artistic” frame of mind. This means that you are not planning your lessons, which in turn means that you are not setting goals for yourself or your students. Progress is difficult to measure in this case. Yes, in a dance lesson you need to be flexible since the plan is often the first victim of reality but that is why you should come to work with a plan B and just in case, plans C, D and E. You need to work on your management and organizational skills.

You believe in “beginner hell”.

The beginning of the learning process is the most exciting moment in a student’s dancing career. It is the moment when everything is possible. It is also the easiest. Fictional passages of woe such as “beginner hell” are the way inexperienced, dogmatic or unorganized instructors excuse their own lack of knowledge and of goal-setting experience before they even start teaching. You need to learn more about learning curves, motivation techniques and pace of instruction.

No one asks questions in class.

This is not a sign that you are the perfect dance teacher. It means that you have created a learning environment where a student would rather be ignorant than appear ignorant. Your teacher image needs a complete make-over.

You believe that some students have or lack “talent”.

Talent is defined as the natural ability to do something well without being taught. Well, since you are in class to teach, talent could be removed from your students’ learning equation without any consequences. To classify your students by their fictitious level of talent is to turn a blind eye to all the other parameters by which you can get to know your students and the best way of teaching them. You need to better understand your student’s learning process.

When someone asks a question your answer always includes the words “watch me…”

You probably learned by watching so you naturally assume that everyone else learns in the same manner. Not everyone is visual and not everyone has the same spatial / logical /bodily awareness. You need to learn to better evaluate each student and become a more flexible communicator.

If you recognize one or more of these points in your teaching it may be time for you to invest into becoming a better instructor. 

Remember, there are hundreds of great dancers out there, but exceptional teachers are truly rare. Be part of the true professional teaching elite. Contact us for information about our teacher training program at www.shedanceswithhim.com