My Perspective as a Dance Teacher
As a teacher, I am motivated by my personal experiences of being a student of multiple dance styles and dance education institutions. I wish to carry on the legacy of my own teachers, who stressed the importance of clean technique, artistry, and being well versed in many styles of dance to increase versatility. In my college experience, I learned the value of studying the history, methodology, and anatomy of dance genres, especially of cultural dances that I was previously unfamiliar with. In addition to what education and opportunities I was given, I want to give students tools that today are getting more attention but were not as prevalent in my background like anatomy studies and low impact cross training. I want my foundation to be science based and treat my dancers as athletes, as they are high performance artists with physical and mental health needs that can be ignored when not realized for the value they hold. That is why I also want to be a mentor for dancers as students and as people. I was so fortunate to have dance as a safe space for me to be myself, and my teachers would always lend an ear to a student who wanted to discuss their dance progress and even stressors and successes in their personal lives. Compassion and understanding will lead to mutual respect in the classroom and thus is a central tenet in my teaching. Only when dancers are treated with dignity as human beings can they grow into empowered artists. I also want to emphasize being open to discussion, and different perspectives and identities in my classroom. Being actively accepting and empowering rather than merely tolerant is so essential to creating a nurturing environment for any art form and educational space. I want to create social change through my work in pedagogy, and make an impact in the world and lives of my students even larger than just teaching dance technique.
I want to teach in studios and conservatories, as well as travel and be a guest artist in schools. I enjoy traveling, and I like to encounter new styles of dance and methods of teaching so that I keep learning and staying up to date with the current dance industry. My ideal environment is a progressive studio that pushes dancers to achieve but doesn’t discriminate or bully, taking the wellbeing of their dancers (and their teachers) very seriously. I also believe that it is important to give back to the community and help those who have not been given as many opportunities. One of my biggest goals is to teach underprivileged students in community centers, and possibly my own studio one day. I understand the financial burden and time commitment of pursuing the arts, and I want to make dance more accessible to anyone, regardless of income, disabilities, age, and identity. Being involved in the arts, and quite simply having a safe place to go after school, has been shown time and time again to enrich lives and keep children and teens off the streets. By reaching out to the community and providing joy (and even life-long passion) for dance improves the path of so many, beyond just those dancing in classes, but also for viewers who may or may not have gotten the chance to see live performances before. The arts are shown to be undervalued in American society, and I want to do my part to change that. Often this results in very expensive long term training but a career that pays little, further increasing barriers to pursuing these careers. I hope to encourage more dancers to pursue dance, whether professionally or not as a career but one of their many passions, by eliminating stigmas and tuition costs that might prevent underprivileged students from attending excellent training in studios and conservatory.