A Four-part Examination into a Special Subgroup of Student
Part Three: The Emotional and Artistic Aspects of Teaching Late-beginners
Why is it important to give attention to the emotional side of late-beginners? It is our responsibility as teachers to not only guide late-beginners through technical concepts safely and effectively so their bodies function properly, we also need to offer them artistic encouragement so their souls may delight from the freedom that emotional expression can bring. To that end, when teaching late-beginners, we must not only focus on their specific physical needs, we must also take into consideration their specific mental and emotional circumstances. Older dancers have more life experience to bring to the artistic side of dancing. They know themselves in a more meaningful way, and therefore should be given the tools to help develop a rich emotional and spiritual experience with their dancing efforts. Therefore, artistic and technical information should be shared with students simultaneously.
What is the late-beginners biggest challenge? The habits, fears, and self-imposed limitations of older students take extra care to work with, as they can predispose a student to specific injuries or hardships during their study. Many late-beginners enter their dance studies with a pool of negative past experiences that can influence their learning ability in the present. Some of these experiences concern the trepidation of changing or expanding the way they move, feeling self-conscious in front of others, being fearful of ridicule and judgment from teachers, having anxiety over learning new things and not being very good at them, or believing that dancing in a beautiful, graceful, articulate way is not possible for them.
Further, the post-pubescent mind often has fixed ways of accepting new information and certain ideas of what is and what is not possible. Again, to compare with a student who is a child, this is very different. The innate integration of the physical with the emotional, mental and spiritual parts of ourselves we had naturally in childhood has, as adults, become disconnected. We no longer feel as free to experiment, play, or make mistakes. I believe this is the late-beginners biggest challenge to overcome. Helping to ease our students through emotional difficulties and helping them to find their artistic voice is one of our greatest obligations as teachers.
What are some specific artistic ideas that a late-beginner can especially excel at? Two aspects of artistry a late-beginner can excel at in particular are with regards to port de bras and musicality. In both aspects, it is the ability to make conscious and purposeful choices in movement quality that give the late-beginner an edge over their younger counterparts in artistic expression. Teens and adults have the wonderful ability to make highly personal choices regarding their self-expression, no matter what their level, and after all, isnt that what dancing is all about?
Part Four, the final installment in this article series concerning late-beginners, will give attention to the specific personal and communal benefits that are to be gained by encouraging late-beginners with their dance studies.