Ideas for motivating and teaching life skills to your dance students. Did you know that dance teachers are also psychologists?! Some have had formal training and others have simply devised systems over the years that give support to their students and produce the results that everyone is hoping for. Understanding Your Ability To Influence First and foremost, it is important for any dance teacher to realize that he or she is an important role model to their students. Those students will look to you to decipher what is important and what is not. It is extremely helpful for any dancer, whether serious or recreational, to come away from their training with more than simply the knowledge of how to dance. As young students go through your programs there will be all kinds of psychological issues that will come into play either propelling them ahead or slowing them down to almost a complete halt. They may be slightly affected by these issues or greatly affected by them. Guiding students through these moments and teaching them how to ultimately work through them on their own, will not only make them better dancers, but will also prepare them for whatever may lie ahead by giving them needed coping skills.
Serious dancers are more willing to commit the time and the energy necessary to create change. Recreational dancers may not be as willing. However, all of your dancers will be hoping for good results, no matter which level they find themselves at. It is our job as teachers to assist these young dancers to develop sound working habits that will give them the self-confidence necessary to be successful in whatever field they choose.
Instilling A Willingness To Learn: All dancers need to develop a learning attitude. They need to understand that it is important to be open to honest evaluation of themselves and their technique and to be able to take the information they are given in a positive way. In other words, they need to understand that when their teacher gives them a correction, it is a gift and one given because the teacher knows that they can do better if the problem is fixed. So many times a child takes a correction from their teacher as a negative; consequently the problem doesnt get fixed and the student withdraws further into their low self-esteem. We actually train our dancers to say thank you to a teacher when they receive a correction so that they are always reminded that a correction is a gift given from the heart. It is important for dancers of all ages to learn these skillsthey are life skills, needed in every walk of life. Of course, a dancer also has to be aware that change is needed to improve in a class or performance. Without understanding the weak and strong points in any performance, it is difficult to recognize the need for change. Positive changes happen as a result of repetition. Repetition can sometimes become monotonous, but without taking the time and making the effort to make the changes, the dancer is going to find it difficult to improve.
How To Bring About Change: Many peoplenot just dancers are afraid of change and want to remain in their comfortable, if limited, position. With many dancers it is an uphill struggle to get them to move out of that comfort zone. Once they do, however, it is a tremendous confidence booster for them. This type of thinker has to be made aware that comfortable is limiting, and that active steps need to be taken to bring about improvement. A well-prepared dancer is a self-confident dancer. A self-confident dancer believes that they are capable of producing onstage and attaining a high level of performance. A dancer needs our reinforcements psychologically, to be able to go on stage and present themselves to hundreds of people. As teachers it is a constant challenge, and often an extremely frustrating one, when dancers do not grasp what we are trying to make them understand. By taking baby steps in their development and using repetition patiently, you will, in time, see the differences in their approach to their classes and performances and the positive changes in them that make it all worthwhile.
