Dance Mentor

[MichelleD]

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[Aisha Azar]

Dear Belly_Dancer,
I have no psychology training beyond a couple of college classes, but I have been teaching now for over 30 years. I have developed a teaching philosophy in which the priority element is the dance itself in relationship to the students. I call the concept "Student Awareness Based Instruction", and I teach it in seminars, where key concepts in developing student awareness are taught and discussed. The purpose is to get teachers to understand that their top priority is to give the student ( Notice the stress on the individual here) whatever we can in terms of helping her/him to become the best dancer she/he can be. In order to do that, it is necessary for the teacher to first know the subject, and that is what my message to Michelle is really all about, along with caring about the needs of the student.
Regards,
A'isha

[belly_dancer]

SOOOOOOO perfectly said A'isha! thank you!
maybe a "performance coach" (if you have lots of "other" types of dance training ALONG with performance experience).... but a teacher... or mentor (which to me is "bigger" & more involved than a teacher) in a specific style... with so little experience????... but it sounds also that you are coming from more of a psychological/ "mind set" as well..... are you trained in this field????

Hi A'isha... I think I (WITH A CAPITAL I!!!!) did not make myself clear.... I LOVED the way you responded to Michelle.... sensitive/etc... my question was TO MICHELLE not YOU regarding the psych stuff..... as it sounded like even though she did not have much mid east/belly dance training she MAY have been coming from an "improve your self esteem" or some other "mental" type place.... so I was just trying to clarify, for myself, if this was the case.... sorry for what I think was a misunderstanding!...I am however interested in the class you mentioned you teach A'isha... can you expand on that subject a bit??
peace!

[Kharmine]

I wish you well here, Michelle, but IMHO it's rather premature to call yourself a teacher or mentor.

Potentially, you can do what you claim to do, but it takes more than heart and a video camera to compete with people who have been teaching, coaching and mentoring for years.

[Persephone]

Aisha, you definitely said it best.

*sigh* Now I wish I had state of the art video equipment, though...

[Gia al Qamar]

I tend to get on well with dancers below a 'certain age' if you know what I mean .

Yep...I think we all know what you 'mean'. I believe the word you're looking for isn't 'young' it is 'naive'.
Gia

[MichelleD]

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[Aisha Azar]

Dear Belly_ Dancer,

OOOPPPS!! Sorry, I thought it was the same paragraph and you were addressing me, still.
Re: my Student Awareness seminar, basically the idea is to teach instructors to be aware that the class should always be oriented toward the needs of the INDIVIDUAL student. (This is one reason why I limit my classes to 30 people. I may never get rich this way, but I will definately be able to help each student with their personal dance needs.) Part of the class goes into the work of Howard Gardner ( Multiple Intelligences) in order to convey the idea that people have different learning styles. His work is applied to teaching dance concepts. Part of the idea is to help the student to be culturally aware, so that they understand the dances are from specific regions and peoples. The seminar gives tools and concepts for becoming an instructor who truly cares about the dance and student when teaching. It covers things like, how to really LOOK at a student to see what their bodies are doing, how to teach about how movement differes in various styles, how to teach the student to stand ( which is a HUGE issue accross the U.S., I have found), how to teach the student to become body aware. It is generally about a 3 hour class, with a lot of "hands on" time since the best way to teach it is to experience it yourself.
Regards,
A'isha

Hi A'isha... I think I (WITH A CAPITAL I!!!!) did not make myself clear.... I LOVED the way you responded to Michelle.... sensitive/etc... my question was TO MICHELLE not YOU regarding the psych stuff..... as it sounded like even though she did not have much mid east/belly dance training she MAY have been coming from an "improve your self esteem" or some other "mental" type place.... so I was just trying to clarify, for myself, if this was the case.... sorry for what I think was a misunderstanding!...I am however interested in the class you mentioned you teach A'isha... can you expand on that subject a bit??
peace!

[Gia al Qamar]

I'd like you to elaborate on this. Sounds like an accusation of exploitation of young people. I haven't charged anyone yet so maybe you'd like to retract that comment......

Do you charge to teach dance??

You proudly boasted that you get along best with dancers 'below a certain age'. Why is that? I think that it's obvious that you don't have enough training to offer this service to anyone, let alone younger, naive dancers.
Collecting money isn't the issue here. The issue is that you're offering your services and I see no evidence that you have any qualifications to do so.

Do I charge to teach? Absolutely. Do I have years & decades of training in ballet, jazz, theater arts, Middle Eastern dance and more? Absolutely.

Gia

[Shanazel]

It is time to retreat, Michelle. Suheir's reproduction of your July post is particularly illuminating. Some of us have been dancing and teaching longer than you've been alive (28 years according to your profile), and when people with the chops of Gia and A'isha suggest your reach has far exceeded your grasp, it might be a good idea to listen.