4teachers – Page 9

So, You Want To Teach Dance? The ABC’s Of Getting Hired

June 26, 2013 by 4dancers

by Risa Gary Kaplowitz

I have just been reviewing my latest masterpiece. It’s not what you think. It’s the schedule for my dance studio’s upcoming summer intensive. The process of completing this seemingly never-ending logistical nightmare is akin to choreographing a do-se-do of guest instructors, permanent staff and three student levels. Just one other job is harder–finding the right teachers to fill the slots.

The criteria of hiring guests and regular staff are very different from each other. For the prominent roster of guests, I am mostly interested in what they have to offer our students for the relatively limited amount of time (anywhere from 2-6 days) that they are with us. The students and I are so fortunate to have a solid core of exceptional guest teachers year after year. This summer, ballet legends Susan Jaffe, Cynthia Gregory, and Kyra Nichols, and former principal and current Pennsylvania Ballet Artistic Director, Roy Kaiser will share priceless wisdom with us as they have done for several years.

But hiring teachers who will teach for multiple weeks or multiple years takes more time to get right. I am lucky that my proximity to Manhattan makes finding a plethora of former professional dancers relatively easy. However, finding someone with important characteristics of a great teacher can be much more difficult. These are the ABC’s that I look for when auditioning a permanent dance instructor: [Read more…]

Performance At Its Best

May 21, 2013 by 4dancers

By Janet Neidhardt

It’s that time of year again–time for the end of the year performance for dancers in schools and studios. My students just performed their dance concert and I’m pleased to say they did a wonderful job! A lot goes into teaching students to give their best performance and I often seek out new ideas on how to pull out their strengths in the art of performance.

But how do you get your students to really perform movement fully and to the best of their ability? I find performance is a quality that can be difficult to teach and is sometimes difficult to articulate with words. My students are required to see professional dance concerts during the school year and then they write a critique on the show that specifically describes a performer that catches their eye. In anticipation of their upcoming performances, I asked my students”What does it look like when someone is performing movement well?” Some of the responses I got were:

They look confident
Moving from their center and into their limbs and finger and toes
Their focus in the face is clear
They have purpose in their movement

These are all important elements of crafting a strong performance. I think that being able to articulate this information helped my students to find that performance within them. Things I do as a teacher to help my students perform to their fullest are: talk about performance with all movement executed in class (like during warm-ups), videotape their dancing and have them critique themselves, have them watch each other and discuss what they are doing really well, and of course ask them to articulate what performance looks like.

I find that when I build performance into the craft of choreographing a dance my students have more time to work on the movement and its projection. Instead of teaching movement first and then talking about focus and performance later, I try to talk about meaning and stylization right from the start so the dancers will know what is expected from them and their movement.

Students also perform more strongly when they have ownership over the movement they are dancing. I have my students choreograph movement for their pieces all of the time so that they are more invested in the work and deeply a part of the process. The emotional connection to the work can be another catalyst to a great performance.

Needless to say, teaching students to perform to their fullest can be challenging. At the end of the day, if I know my students felt good about the show they performed and they had fun while doing it–then they have succeeded greatly.

dancer posing upside down — Janet Neidhardt

Contributor Janet Neidhardt has been a dance educator for 10 years. She has taught modern, ballet, and jazz at various studios and schools on Chicago’s North Shore. She received her MA in Dance with an emphasis in Choreography from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro and her BA in Communications with a Dance Minor from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Throughout her time in graduate school, Janet performed with Sidelong Dance Company based in Winston-Salem, NC.

Currently, Janet teaches dance at Loyola Academy High School in Wilmette, IL. She is the Director of Loyola Academy Dance Company B and the Brother Small Arts Guild, and choreographs for the Spring Dance Concert and school musical each year. Janet is very active within the Loyola Academy community leading student retreats and summer service trips. She regularly seeks out professional development opportunities to continue her own artistic growth. Recently, Janet performed with Keigwin and Company in the Chicago Dancing Festival 2012 and attended the Bates Dance Festival.

When she isn’t dancing, Janet enjoys teaching Pilates, practicing yoga, and running races around the city of Chicago

Book Review: Dancing Between The Ears

May 14, 2013 by 4dancers

by Emily Kate Long

I had high expectations just reading the title of Debra Webb Rogers’ Dancing Between the Ears: accessing a dancer’s mind is the key to unlocking the potential of the body. Aimed at students, teachers, and professional dancers, this book does not disappoint. Over one hundred pages of ideas and images are organized into chapters for alignment, work at the barre, port de bras, turns, jumps, and traveling steps.

The value of Dancing Between the Ears can be summed up in a line from Rogers’ introduction: “For experienced students or professional dancers, the most important thing in dance class is not to learn new steps, but to discover new ways of thinking about the old ones.” This book contains many familiar images, and plenty I had never encountered. Some of my favorites included visualizing the vertebrae as jelly sandwiches and trying to keep all the jelly from squeezing out, imagining the legs as two opposite barbershop poles or two opposite tornadoes, floating the arms on imaginary water to keep them buoyant and supple, and running up a pretend ramp or runway on the takeoff for large jumps.

As an experienced teacher and former professional dancer, Debra Webb Rogers would know: Practice makes permanent! Sometimes all it takes to break an old habit is to practice a new way of thinking. Students and teachers all learn differently and think differently about their bodies in motion. Dancing Between the Ears offers a rich variety of images in multiple iterations—there is something for every kind of thinker in this work.

5 Great Teaching Phrases For Tots Dance Class

April 19, 2013 by 4dancers

by Maria Hanley

When I tell people I teach 25 classes of preschoolers and toddlers a week, their eyes pop out of their head! Even though they think I’m crazy, I’m over the moon about it. Teaching that many classes can take a toll, but for me, the way to get through each week is to have clear expectations. I show my expectations for my “littles” by using specific catch phrases. I say them frequently and as the weeks go on, they catch on.

If you are a teacher with a lot of experience you probably have your favorite phrases that work to manage the classroom. If you are a new teacher just starting out, you will develop what works for you. I thought I would share mine that have developed over the years. Feel free to use them!

“Happy Dance Day!”

This is my standard greeting when I meet them at the door. If it’s ballet class I will say “Happy Ballet Day!” It’s just a little happiness to greet them before class and to let them know that they have my full attention. They say it back and they get so excited to dance. Do you meet your dancers at the door? Do you go with them outside after class to give an extra goodbye? I always do. I think that’s one of the most important touches, like two exclaimation points at the beginning and end of class!

“Watching eyes on, Listening ears up, and Marshmallows in.”

I do the motions for this one. I make glasses for eyes, and use my hands to turn up my listening ears. Eating marshmallows makes their cheeks puffy and therefore no noise can come out. It’s a fun little trick to get their attention instead of just saying “be quiet!” like a broken record.

“When I see it, I will say it.” OR “My eyes are open.”

Many times when we are exploring movement, they want me to see what they are doing. They will call out “Look at me, Miss Maria!” or “Like this?” This would be fine, except when they all do that at the same time, it gets really rowdy. Instead, I tell them that when I see it, I will say it out loud. This encourages them to continue to explore the movement while still getting the attention of their name and movement called out.

I have gathered that as attentive as I am to my dancers, they still want to know that I’m watching. Reassuring that you are is important.

“I love the way…”

Goes along with the one above. This is a phrase of praise. When you see an interesting movement or a student thinking outside the box, instead of saying “great job” say “I love the way… you are making that shape with your arms up high and your legs twisted down low.” Be specific so that the other students can hear what you like about what that student is doing with their body.

I must admit, this one takes a while to get used to. It’s important to put it in your vocabulary for added clarity and encouragement to your dance room.

“I’m looking for the quietest and most still dancer”

I use this one for picking students to go across the floor or for turning on the music. Of course once you say this phrase they want to please you. I use it mostly for management of the next exercise. Then I call out names – “Maddie looks ready” “Jessica looks ready” “Emily looks ready” and so on. It works like a charm…unless it’s Halloween! 😉

What are your favorite “work like a charm” catch phrases to use with your preschool dancers? I would love to hear and exchange!

BIO: A passionate advocate for early childhood dance education, Maria Hanley specializes in teaching ages 5 months to 6 years. She currently designs and implements creative ballet programs for the young families and after school division at the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan. Maria teaches a variety of creative dance and infant/toddler programs throughout New York City, including The Mark Morris Dance Group, Dancewave Center and 92Y Parenting Center.

Maria authors the blog Maria’s Movers (http://www.mariasmovers.com) where she shares creative ideas and strategies for teaching young dancers. The blog unites a community of teachers who are inspiring our youngest dancers every day. Maria holds a Master’s degree in Dance Education from New York University and a Bachelor’s degree in dance from Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania. Maria served on the Dance/NYC Junior Committee for 2 years and presented at the 2012 Dance USA Conference.

The Arts – A Positive Impact On Bullying?

April 16, 2013 by 4dancers

by Janet Neidhardt

I have the opportunity each year to choreograph class dances for a spring dance concert at my school. I often seek out social issues that my students might find meaningful to base our work on. In the past I have choreographed dances based on body image and depression. Recently in one of my classes, through much discussion with my students, we came to the conclusion that bullying was a very important topic for them. So we have now begun the process of creating a piece based on bullying.

I started off by having my students write journal entries about how it feels to be bullied, what it’s like to be the bully, and what do we want our audience to walk away thinking or feeling. I picked out phrases and words from their entries and I’m now working with a composer to blend spoken word with music so their words will be heard throughout the piece. We have started the creation process with movement as well and the students have come up with some strong images of being left out, put down, as well as finding confidence. It is important to me and my students that we end the piece on a positive note to show the strength of being an individual.

It has been a month now that we have been working on this piece and something interesting has occurred within my class. I have seen positive changes in individual students as well as the dynamics of the whole class. Some students who have been very quiet during this school year are finally speaking up and volunteering to give ideas and even take on solo parts within the dance. Students who tend to be outspoken are listening better to the ideas of their peers.

Overall this group of students has become more supportive of one another and is really embracing their differences. I see new friendships developing now, at the end of the school year, which never occurred over the last 6 months. Although this has always been a nice group of students, I believe that creating this work about bullying has raised their own self awareness and that these students are thinking twice before they act.

After observing these changes within my class I started to think about how the arts inherently praise individuality and that perhaps the arts could be a great place to stop bullying before it even starts. Students are under so much pressure to fit in and standing out is seen as a bad thing. In the arts however we celebrate differences and unique thoughts, calling it creativity. So it makes me wonder if students were able to create art work from a young age and celebrate each others creativity and ideas, perhaps they would find self confidence earlier and not be so scared to stand out.

There is no question that bullying exists within every school at every age and so to have students confront it together might be a wonderful way to help them learn how to relate to each other in positive way. Creating an artistic work through any medium about bullying could be a very effective way to combat it at any age. I look forward to seeing what the audience reaction to this piece is when we perform it in May. Hopefully it will be so strong that I will write a second blog update about it.

Contributor Janet Neidhardt has been a dance educator for 10 years. She has taught modern, ballet, and jazz at various studios and schools on Chicago’s North Shore. She received her MA in Dance with an emphasis in Choreography from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro and her BA in Communications with a Dance Minor from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Throughout her time in graduate school, Janet performed with Sidelong Dance Company based in Winston-Salem, NC.

Currently, Janet teaches dance at Loyola Academy High School in Wilmette, IL. She is the Director of Loyola Academy Dance Company B and the Brother Small Arts Guild, and choreographs for the Spring Dance Concert and school musical each year. Janet is very active within the Loyola Academy community leading student retreats and summer service trips. She regularly seeks out professional development opportunities to continue her own artistic growth. Recently, Janet performed with Keigwin and Company in the Chicago Dancing Festival 2012 and attended the Bates Dance Festival.

When she isn’t dancing, Janet enjoys teaching Pilates, practicing yoga, and running races around the city of Chicago.

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