Me, teaching?

Ariella

New member
Hello all,
I just thought I would announce that I have begun my first venture into teaching. Allow me to explain: It is now winter session where I go to university. Winter session is a time where students return early before spring semester, and take fun classes(glassblowing, magic, truffle tasting, tango, etc.) for a month. A lot of the classes are student taught.

So, I thought I would teach a bellydance class this year. I've never taught before, so I only took 6 students. I realize that I am not a fully qualified instructor(I've been studying since the early days of high school, but I still don't think that's long enough) and do not mean to undercut all the great local instructors in this area. So in teaching this class, my goals are: I want to make these girls fall in love with bellydancing, go out and take classes locally, and have the motivation to stick with it and practice.

Class lasts for an hour and a half, is twice a week, and will last for 4 weeks only. I also managed to get a slot in a really nice dance studio on campus with HUGE windows. If I can remember, I'll take pictures and post.

I've taught two classes so far, and today will be class 3. It's been going really well so far. The girls have been really excited to learn, and pick up what I teach quickly. Since it's so small(only 5 students now since one girl dropped), I can focus in on what they request, and review exactly what they want. I might show them a bit of veil towards the end of the session!
 
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Hi Ariella, So how does it feel to teach?:) You sound as if you enoy it, you may just find you have a knack for teaching and can explore other options in the future. Good Luck!;)
Yasmine
 

Maria_Aya

New member
Great start Arierlla:D
And the way you think of it its the best.
Go for it, and after many many years you will remember it as the sweetest memorie ;)

Maria Aya
 

Ariella

New member
Thanks so much for the support all! So far, I absolutely love teaching. Also, this experience so far makes me truly admire all the seasoned instructors out there. It's a lot of work to come up with coherent lesson plans, think of how to explain things, create a stretch routine to go with the movements, think of how to work up to certain movements, and put things together. It's certainly a lot more physical and mental work than taking a class!

I would like to ask the opinion of the forum on something new I'm trying:

At the end of class, I give everyone "free time" where I put on a song, and let everyone dance around on their own. I'm doing this because I think that improvisation is a really hard thing for some people to learn, and I'm trying to get them started early. However, they have had two lessons from me so they're not quite ready to listen to the music and physically express the emotion they feel like in true improvisation.

Do you guys think this is a good idea to do? Is it a waste of class time? Is it good to open their minds to personal expression early? Should I begin to introduce them to the emotion involved soon, or just continue with unstructured "free time?"

Again, thank you all very much for the positive support and commentary, this forum is truly a great resource for anyone involved in belly dance!
 
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Salome

Administrator
Hi Ariella,

these are my thoughts and what I do with students who are brand new to Oriental dance... We start with learning how to just dance to the beat. And when I ask them to do improv that is all they are expected to do. I may ask them to divide the beats and fluxuate back and forth in their improv this way. But dancing to the intricate individual instruments is saved until they can hear it and have a stronger command of movement to do something with it with some level of confidence. I also don't start actively coaching emoting until this point. I don't think improv from the beginning is a waste of time. It's a good idea. But I think it's important to look at your group, evaluate what they are able to do in improv and set attainable goals for the improv of that session. Eventually they are going to grow and be ready to take on more.
 

Aniseteph

New member
Hi Ariella, congratulations on the teaching!
I think the way you're trying to give your students a taste of what it's about is an excellent idea. From my student point of view, about free improvisation time; I think it's a great idea if there's time - we don't do much and I miss it!

But thinking back to to when I was a new beginner and what I'd have found difficult; first, early on you have so few moves to work with, and second, the music can be VERY unfamiliar to start with. OK not such a problem if you are just getting people used to having fun doing a few hip drops etc in time to a piece of accessible ME pop, but add in any expectation of emotional expression as well in the first couple of weeks and :shok: - maybe it's just me and my British Reserve, but I'd have found that quite off-putting. It's difficult to remember just how hard those hip drops were, and how strange some of the music sounded.

For me, learning this dance is a bit like learning a foreign language. I know the language has fluent speakers who can express themselves eloquently with it. But to start off with you learn how to say what your name is, to count to ten and to ask where the Post Office is. :D

Happy teaching! :dance:
 
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Babylonia

New member
I love it when we have free time at the end of class. The teacher says it's important because it helps you to develop your own style as opposed to dancing just like your teacher does.
 
Hi Ariella, Since you only have a month to teach, then adding some improv at the end sounds like fun. I agree with the other replies as you don't want to get to heavy into music/rhythm interpretation at this time, but maybe you can play some Modern Arabic pop which is a lot simpler for beginners to dance to.
Yasmine
 

Huraiva

New member
Sounds like you are doing a great job of teaching Ariella. As someone who has been dancing for five years, I find dancing improv the hardest thing. I wish I had learned to do it early on. I think it's great that you are incorporating it into your classes.

Luckily I have a friend who encourages me to do it when given the opportunity. ;)

Huraiva
 

Ariella

New member
Hey all,
Thanks so much for the advice on improv instruction. Everyone on this forum is so helpful. :D Today I gave them "free time" to two different songs: A Nancy Ajram song, and a really simple drum solo. They all seemed to have a lot of fun with both, and commented that they really enjoyed it afterwards. I'm thinking of making "free time" a regular thing. Should I be correcting them during free time? Also, should I be making suggestions before hand? (Such as, when you hear the heavy accents in the song, hip locks go nicely.) I'm not sure if I should be helping their interpretation, but at the same time I don't want to stifle their creativity.

Also, I'm going to get started with veil next week. Do you guys think it's too early to introduce a prop? I was initially wasn't sure if I was going to, but I think the group is capable of handling floating around the room and some swoops and such.

This teaching stuff is really a lot to think about, phew! Again, kudos to all you teachers out there!
 
Hi Ariella, Good Job so far. As for correcting them during free time, I would say no. IMO, free time should be just that, free from instruction or correction. Assuming you are not dancing in front of them, they should be 'free' to explore theier own creativity. IYou can gve them suggestions as far as the music is concerend before this section however. You've mentioned the class is only a month? Veil work is tricky for new students, who are still working the basics since you have explain dynamic of air flow, arm positioning, fabric selection and choosing the appropriate music. Do you have time for this?
Yasmine
 

Moon

New member
Hi Ariella,

In my class we often have some free time at the end of the lesson. The teacher dances freely together with us most of the time and sometimes she helps people when she sees they are obviously struggling or when they come with questions themselves.
I did beginners class last year and we got like, 2 veil lessons, one cane lesson, 2 zills lessons, etc. So I don't think it's too early to introduce a prop, but maybe it's best to make it some kind of "introduction to the prop" lesson and not yet a whole series of lessons with the same prop.
 

Aniseteph

New member
Hi Ariella - glad it's going well!

From a student's perspective, I agree with Yasmine about the veils. We've only just started doing some serious veil technique as a regular thing in our class, and we've all been dancing one or two years. I think our teacher leaves it this long so she knows we can add the veils in without completely losing the rest of the moves.

BUT... as a taster session and to just do a bit of swooshing around and playing, I think it would be fun. :dance:

(I love my veil :D)
 

Ariella

New member
Thanks for the advice all! The veils have not yet arrived, so we will be doing veil in class for the first time Thursday.

The girls seem to be feeling much more comfortable with free time than when I first started it. It's really interesting to see some of the stuff they come up with! I think some of us just get so locked down with proper posture and dancing correctly and such that we aren't as creative(Not that proper posture and dancing correctly is a bad thing!). Some of them will stop me as I dance by and ask me questions like, "How does an undulation work again?" while others seem to be starting to emote a bit at times! If I start seeing more and more emoting, I might be tempted to talk about it a bit...

Additionally, I have a question for the instructors/students out there. How long does it take to learn snake arms? The girls are picking up everything else really really quickly, but still seem unsure with snake arms. I'm not certain if I should think of a new way to teach it, or if they just need time.
 
Additionally, I have a question for the instructors/students out there. How long does it take to learn snake arms? The girls are picking up everything else really really quickly, but still seem unsure with snake arms. I'm not certain if I should think of a new way to teach it, or if they just need time.
Hi Ariella, I'm glad to hear your classes are going well! Maybe the students need more time with it since most students tend to push thier arms forward than keeping them at the side of their bodies. From my students, I notice they don't engage their shoulders enough at the same time they should be bending their elbows. As a suggestion(if you haven't tried it yet) have them start with their arms in basic postion, then have them roll each shoulder back(shoulder roll), usually as the shoulder rolls back, the arm will follow and that will create small bend in the elbow. I hope that helps.
Yasmine
 

Ariella

New member
Hey Yasmine,
The class had good fun with the veils. I think this experience has made me a proponent of veil for beginners since they are so fun, and encourage creativity.
 
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