The Dance Teacher Life
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Dance Teacher Professionalism Tips That Will Set You Apart
A few dance teacher professionalism tips that don’t cost a cent. We’ve all seen ‘em. We’ve even met ‘em. Some of us have even looked up to ‘em. You’ll see later why I say SOME of us. Yep, it’s no secret that most of the time when a dance teacher reaches a point where he can openly call himself a professional, he lets some of the great foundations one clings to as an amateur slide. Today I want to talk about a few of those foundational, amateur values that are worth holding on to even once a person crosses over to being a professional. And the good news? They don’t…
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Dance Clothes: Leggings and Pants I Love for Teaching
One of the perks of being an artist for a living is that I get to live in stretchy pants. I’m pretty sure I’ve only worn jeans a handful of times since starting my freelance writing and dance teaching career. However, the functionality required of the dance clothes I wear when I am writing in a coffee shop are quite different from those I wear when I am teaching ballet and tap classes or salsa dancing. When I choose what leggings to wear while teaching I look for them to be comfortable, durable, and stylish. Any dancer will agree that wearing comfortable clothes in class is high on the must-have…
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Dance Outfits: Under Armour Edition for Teachers
Today the topic of discussion is: my favorite Under Armour outfit for teaching ballet and tap classes. I generally go for neutral colors like grey and black when I am teaching or dancing. I just feel the most comfortable in them and think that they are the best fit for me. I will admit, I don’t have a whole lot of Under Armour in my closet. But my recent discovery of this outfit combo has me thinking that I’ll want to take a look at more work out clothes from here in the near future. I’m sure there are lots of teachers out there who discovered the wonder of this…
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A Few of the Most Underrated Dance Movies Around
Dancers just love watching other dancers dance. It’s inspiring and when you love something, you just can’t get enough of it. Even after I’ve taught all day and gone to rehearsal or class afterward, adding a little more dance to my day is rarely out of the question. There are many dancer movie lists out there. Still, I’d like to offer one featuring a few of my favorites. The main requirement a film had to pass in order to make it into this particular post was this: it possesses solid, great quality dancing. There are some ‘dance’ movies out there with okay-ish dancing. However, in my opinion, the dancers and…
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Feeling Inadequate? : 5 Things to Do When You Feel Like You’re Not a Good Dance Teacher.
Are you a worrywart? If you are, you’re not alone. I am too. Especially when it comes to my art and most specifically, teaching dance. Nothing can get me riled up in the exact same way that thoughts of a class that didn’t quite go my way can. It’s incredible how quickly I can spiral into a fretful mess which generally ends in convincing myself that I’m just not a good teacher–a failure, pretty much. So, I’m sitting here. Today wasn’t anything remarkable. Nothing very extraordinary or out of the ordinary happened. I taught my classes, responding to freelance writing related emails and ghost-wrote a non-fiction book in between. Sure,…
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Another Day to Dance: Stopping to Be Thankful for My Legs
It had been one of those weeks. I was tired. It seemed like a sore throat from talking over kids whose lot in life appeared to be interrupting me, had become the norm. As I pulled myself out of bed that morning, I was able to muster up one positive thought to keep me going: It’s finally Friday! Wrapped up in my robe, being careful to keep my feet on the bath mat and off of the floor that was cold as an ice rink at this time of morning, I attempted to stretch my neck. Even the hot shower had been unable to loosen up the kinks woven into…
