Recently I watched a film with a few friends and we decided to watch 'One day' a classic chick flick obviously! But anyway in a certain scene one of the main characters line is 'Those who can do, those who can't teach.' Now he wasn't talking about dance specifically but it definitely made me think about it. I wanted to know if you think this is this true or not?
Do you think there is a higher standard in teaching if you have experience after having a professional career? Can you pass that experience on to other students? And will it help them later in life?
OR not having the experience but being able to interact with students and discussing situations that may or may not happen in a professional career?
Interesting topic!
ReplyDeleteIn my personal view, it's always better to have a dance teacher who has had professional experience of dance. However, you could argue that this is only necessary if they are training future professionals - all of the teachers at my college were ex or still-working professional performers in their discipline: how can you train someone to be a TV actor if you have no personal experience of TV acting, for example.
Having said that, there are so many courses and classes teaching people how to teach: if a child is going to ballet class once a week, does it matter if their teacher is ex-Royal Ballet, or not, as long as they are a good teacher, teach correctly and make the classes fun?
There's also the old saying that the worst teacher is a 'failed' professional, and I have friends of friends who started teaching because they couldn't do anything else or couldn't get another job after they had auditioned without success for a couple of years.
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I am actually looking in to this at the moment because of a book i'm reading.
ReplyDeleteBrenda Pugh, the author states "Dance can be taught in both ED and physical education with the highest integrity. Both the physical educator and dance specialist bring specific skills and backgrounds to dance, and both ably teach dance to achieve their goals and standards." so she is saying, in regards to dance being taught in schools, it has many benefits no matter how the teacher got to where they are.
I started Ballet aged 3 at a local dance school, then went on to learn Modern, Jazz and Tap. I was taught very very well.
A lot of people went straight on to cruise ships as dancers from my local dance school aged 18, without even going to a dance or musical theatre college etc.
Some of those teachers had professional experience, some of them didn't, but they were all trained as teachers to be the best they could be.
I know people like Dani mentioned, who went in to teaching just because they didn't get a stand out role for a couple of years, but I also know people who just wanted to teach...
For me, I am obtaining this degree as a back up. If I get nodules, or arthritis, or god knows what else, I want something to fall back on. But I am certainly giving the "do" a good go at until that happens!
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Thank you for these comments! Sarah I'm going to look up the book you mentioned, as any information will help with my research. I went to a dance college and as the same as Danni all my teachers had obviously had a professional career before going into teaching and also had lots of connections in the dance world which helps a lot. But can you actually pass on that experience to another person or student? Surely we do not all have the same problems as each other in the dance world? It comes down to hard work and motivating yourself at the end of the day?
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand when I was young I loved the fact my ballet teacher was an actual "ballerina" I always remember looking at pictures of her on stage and I guess that is what motivated me.
I think this topic is quite personal to me because a part of me wants to audition for cruises or something just to say I done it at least. Otherwise I WILL regret it! I ended up teaching after college, my best friend got me a job at a dance school that she was working at as I had no income and it just stuck. I love teaching and I always wanted to be a teacher in the long run but you can't keep a job and have days off auditioning it just wouldn't work!
Xx
Good teachers will always be good teachers, and sometimes ex-professionals may not be the best as they may pass on their own bias or possibly bad experiences to the students.
DeleteHaving said that, when training professionally I feel I certainly respected those teachers more that had had that professional experience. It sounds bad, I think, but because that was what I wanted to do I looked up to those teachers more, worked harder in their classes and wanted to impress them more, as opposed to the one teacher who had not had professional experience - she was a great teacher though, and looking back on it now, she gave me a lot more corrections, technique advice and support than some of the others.
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I actually completely agree with you in that sense, you do respect and want to impress your teachers a lot more if you're driven by their success in a professional career.
DeleteBut now looking back our teachers didn't talk about their past experiences in class, it normally came down to us students researching into them and finding out as much as we could. That might have just been our school, being weird? But you would think teachers or members of staff would want to motivate students and talk about jobs, past experiences, what they enjoyed or even dislikes! Xx
good conversation thread - this is a real questions for many now with a teaching pathway - Ahmet Ahmet and Daisuke Miura blogs might be good to look at - one Ahmet was looking at preparing for teaching drama in schools and Daisuke worked as a dancer but shared his knowledge with others as a part of his work at the dance company...
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