Dance 101

Signs of a Good Dance Teacher

After deciding to enrol in dance classes, one of the decisions you’ll ponder is how to choose a good dance teacher. Whether it’s you or your child who is taking dance, you want to be sure you have the teacher who is best for you. While there’s no magic formula for what makes a good dance teacher, here are some aspects of a good dance teacher to watch for:

Experience
You want a dance teacher who is knowledgeable about the dance form you or your child is learning. You don’t need to learn how to waltz from a former international ballroom champion, but you do need a teacher who is familiar with the dance style, able to articulate clear instructions, and able to give helpful corrections. Youth doesn’t necessarily mean your teacher is inexperienced; many young teachers have spent years studying dance intensively.
Organization
Is your dance teacher prepared? Are they in studio early, do they have a clear lesson plan in their head? Do they remember the names of students? Are they building on ideas learned in previous weeks? All of these are signs of a thoughtful, organized teacher who has a class plan s/he is following. An organized teacher means the lessons you’re learning will be more clearly articulated and will more naturally build on what was learned in previous weeks. This will make the steps easier for you, the student, to learn.

Flexibility
Although having an organized teacher is of the utmost importance, having a flexible teacher is equally so. Look for teachers who can ‘roll with the punches’, especially in classes with younger children. While lesson planning is still important for teaching this age, so too is the ability to harness the students’ energy and ensure everyone is participating and having fun, even if that means deviating from the lesson plan.

Patience & Interactivity
Patience is perhaps the key skill for dance teachers. One of the challenges of teaching is that students will absorb the lessons and corrections at different paces resulting in a class full of students at different levels. You want a teacher who can multitask well, and is prepared to tailor the class to his/her students’ abilities. A good teacher is one who is prepared for a class that will need variations and has learners of different speeds. Providing slightly more challenging sequences for the older, quicker students is an easy way to solve this situation and keep everyone in the class focused and dancing.

Positive Feedback
When giving corrections, is your teacher clear on what must change? Does s/he use language that is appropriate? The way to correct a six-year-old student may not be the best way to correct a sixteen-year-old student, let alone a sixty-year-old student! A good dance teacher is able to articulate the same concept in a variety of ways thus ensuring each student can understand the fix. A good teacher is also one who compliments in addition to making corrections. Look for a dance teacher who is striving to ensure students are enjoying themselves, as well as being ‘perfect’ in their positioning.

The most important tip in choosing a teacher, however, is how they make you feel! Look for a teacher who helps you learn, excites you with your progress, and allows you to have fun while dancing. After all, the most important aspect of learning to dance should be how much fun you find it.

By Katharine Harris
(published September 13, 2010)