Beyond Academics - Professional Real World Experience Integrating Dance Pedagogy
Disclaimer:
The opinions expressed here are my own. There is no intention to disparage or diminish Dance academics or their study. In fact, I myself have tertiary dance teaching qualifications.
The picture accompanying this Blog post is one of the things I am most proud of in my Dance Career. It is a bronze medal from the ‘Adeline Genee Awards’. Now renamed the Margot Fonteyn International Ballet Competition, it is a preeminent ballet competition for students who have passed the highest level of Royal Academy of Dance Exams with the highest of marks. At 17 years old I set off on Christmas Eve, all alone, to compete at this competition in London. I had a solo prepared to perform on the stage in a very basic leotard and half tutu. The solo was difficult, Act 3 Odile, the Black Swan from Swan Lake. A notoriously tricky solo with difficult turns in an open position and a series of turns in a circle at the end when the dancer is already super puffed out! I had been well rehearsed by my teachers, but nothing could prepare me for the crazy raked stage (this is a stage that is slanted from the back towards the audience) and the pitch-black auditorium with no lights except a tiny green exit light above the centre exit isle. Long story short, I learnt very quickly that I would have to readjust my weight in the turns and use the tiny green exit light to focus on and spot my head or else I was going to fall flat on my face. The good news is I ended up winning the bronze medal pictured here. The even better news is that I get to use this story as an example to inspire my students both young and old to really find sharp focus with their eyes when practicing pirouettes and turns in the studio. This experience gave me an interesting and creative way to help students visualise the reason why we need to spot and focus our eyes during turns.
So why am I telling YOU this story? Because I believe this experience, and the real-life industry experience of ex professional dancers brings something else entirely into their teaching practice.
The ability to teach the correct technical execution of the steps as well as pass on the refined meaning and interpretation of the steps in a creative, interesting and inspiring way based on their experience of PERFORMING as a professional.
It is a very blessed person that gets to do what they love for a job and whilst it is true that not every great dancer is automatically a great dance teacher there are more than a few reasons why great ex professional dancers CAN and DO make great teachers.
Before we discuss further let’s look at what most believe are the traits of a good dance teacher and how closely they align with professional experience.
Passion: we don’t just ‘like’ dance, we live dance, we breathe dance, our art is our religion and the theatre like a place of worship. We had enough passion to carry us through the highs and lows of a dance career. We have such an overflow of passion it is almost our duty to inspire future dancers!
Patience: in all aspects; in the teaching of a skill to varying ages and skill levels, in practicing to improve and building strength to be able to perform that difficult step or go onto pointe. The ex-professional has endured and practice this virtue for all of their career.
Professionalism: It’s not enough to just look the part, great teachers do more than act the part, they walk the walk and talk the talk, because it’s their language. They don’t just play the part; they LIVE the part!
Adaptability: Everyone knows kids are crazy on windy days, it’s the negative ions in the air or something like that?! So, what does a great teacher do? Probably change their lesson plan on the spot, adapt to the new situation, add some more jumps to expend the extra energy, change the music to a more upbeat tempo. Adaptability is a pre-requisite for the dancer who may find themselves on a raked stage in the dark with no time to rehearse or jumping into a role for the first cast dancer when they become injured 30 mins into a show. These experiences happen regularly for professional dancers and being adaptable is a most highly prized skill.
Being a mentor: A Dance Teachers role in their students training AND their lives is invaluable. As dance teachers we are luckier than schoolteachers because we get to share more than just the one year of our students lives. We get to watch our students grow and flourish over time as they discover their passion for our art. Relevant experiences from our careers are important to share with students, even if it means showing vulnerability or weakness. The struggles of a professional dancer need to be part of the conversation. Royal Ballet Principal dancer Steven McRae has most recently documented on social media his very arduous recovery from surgery on his torn Achilles. His experience and his openness to share the ups and the downs is a powerful lesson for all dance students. I have been fortunate enough to witness Steven teaching younger students and how he manages to share his passion, abilities, knowledge AND technical corrections can only be attributed to his depth of experiences as a professional on the world stage.
Musicality: is an often-underrated skill in Dance Teachers but as all professionals will tell you, musicality can make or break a meaningful performance. Dancing to an orchestra is an experience like no other, and working with a conductor, who often will attend company rehearsal is an invaluable musical education. One of my favourite things to do as a professional was daily ballet class with a piano accompanist. I learned more about musicality from these musicians than years’ worth of music theory books! Now, I always try to incorporate some musical knowledge and theory into my classes as I believe this helps students really hear all the nuances in the music.
Ex-dancers know what we don’t know: In my experience dancers who have moved onto teaching know very well where their knowledge is lacking. Need nutrition advice? Let me refer you to a Nutritionist. Injured? Here is the number for a good physio I know. Yes sure, we read journal articles and blog posts and magazines and anything else that is going to inform our practice, help or inspire, because as dancers we are lifelong learners. There is no such thing as perfection, every day we strive to improve, to learn. Ex-professionals know this because they have lived this, daily, but they also know when it’s time to ‘outsource’ and get advice from an expert.
I could go on and on……..
All of these skills learned on the job as a dancer, are honed after years in the profession and they are taken with the dancer when they move onto to the next profession.
Ex professionals have the ability to bring that something extra to the classroom…. experience, passion, creativity, hard won knowledge, inspiration from the stage, stories to inspire, real life experience of situations, a huge vocabulary of technique and very often a network of professional friends who often end up in places of great industry influence.
My own tertiary qualification has had a good and useful influence on my teaching career. I learned how to notate dance more formally, how to lesson plan in a more constructive way for a term and for each individual lesson, I even brushed up on my anatomy knowledge. I learned labels for all the choreographic elements I knew instinctively from years of performing and I even learned some administrative and business skills. I value all of these skills and I utilise them all in my pedagogy.
But the skills I find the most useful, the most creative, the most inspiring and the most well received by students are the ones I learned on stage and in class as a professional dancer.
Leanne Benjamin, ex principal dancer of the Royal Ballet, who incidentally began her dance training at a local school in Rockhampton QLD, has recently written an Autobiography titled “Built for Ballet”. The final chapter in her book is called ‘What I have learned and what I pass on’. She is now a highly sought-after coach on the world stage, but her words have left an aspirational lasting impression on me, even though we work at vastly different stages of the teaching spectrum.
“The great tradition whereby a dancer hands her knowledge to a younger dancer forms the backbone of ballet. It sustains the art form’s history at its best, it also looks to its future, nurturing a new generation with their own dreams and ideas.”
At Brisbane Dance Theatre we are privileged to have instructors that have had successful careers as professional dancers across a range of genres. These teachers bring their wealth of professional knowledge and care to each and every class they teach.
Melissa Lee