3 Types Of Dance Education
There are three types of dance education.
Toxic
Neutral
Healing
Let's break them down one by one.
1. Toxic
I need to put a little asterisk here. *There might be a place for toxic dance education. That sounds weird, but I just like to keep an open mind. For people who are training to be professionals, what I consider "toxic" might be the very thing that will get them a job as a ballerina.
The dance industry is cutthroat. It's competitive. It's push-your-neighbor-down-so-you-can-stand-up-taller. It's looking the part. It's pushing past your limit. It's teachers that make you cry.
And you know, some people might be looking for that. That is what I consider pre-professional. Frankly, that is not what I teach, and that is not the space I work in. There is NOT a place for everyone in that world. Some are NOT good enough.
My goal is NOT to train professional dancers. If that is what you want, I can recommend different programs for you.
If you or your kiddo are looking for that kind of rigor, that is a completely different category. And, some of it is still toxic anyway and needs to be eliminated.
2. Neutral
I consider this just... neutral dance. Kids aren't scolded for making mistakes, but they're also just having fun. Which is great. Fun is the reason for life. These are the classes where kids can just skip around in tutus and wave sparkly wands (we do that, don't worry.) But that's it. They just learn how to plié and they're out. It's a hobby class.
My classes are so much more. Dance is so much more.
I strive for the third type of dance:
3. Healing Dance
When I was at a very broken, messed-up place in life, dance healed me. Ballet healed me. I spent years researching and trying to figure out what happened, and actually, the neuroscience is all there.
Somatic practices heal trauma. I was blessed to randomly stumble on teachers who taught holistic dance courses. Who incorporated principles of the Alexander Technique.
Through dance class, I became aware of my body. I became mindful of the way I was standing, the way I was breathing. I was able to slowly start releasing the tension from my body more consistently.
I felt so vulnerable in dance class. I was standing in tights and a leotard, it didn't feel like there were many places to hide. But the community of dancers around me saw me, celebrated me, and built me up. I did the same for them. Dancing together felt... really magical. I felt connected in a time I had felt alone.
Quality dance education meets you right where you are. It doesn't put up a bar of how cool or pretty you look when you dance and see if you can do it. Quality dance education progressively guides you through the baby steps so that one day, your body starts getting stronger. You suddenly can do a pirouette. You start seeing changes and being able to do what you couldn't before. Not by trying harder, but just naturally by being consistent. Seeing the physical progress in my body was impossible to deny, and it gave me hope that I could grow in the invisible areas of life, too.
Dance can be a tool for creative expression. For healthy regulation of emotions. For integrating our minds and our bodies, expressing joy, for healing trauma.
Dance can be all these things.
It's all in the hands of the teacher.
P.S. Pardon me for being a little rude, but this is why I have a problem with many studios just hiring girls who used to dance for them once they graduate. Just because you can dance doesn't mean you can be a teacher. In fact, the better the dancer, the harder it might be for them to actually teach someone new.
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