Exaggerating your "experience"

[Amanda (was Aziyade)]

I was contacted by an organization about two hours away from me to see if I wanted to come over and dance at their event. It's way out in the country, and I'm not really interested in driving that far, so I was googling cities around that city to see if any of my bellydance pals were teaching there.

Googling a city about 30 min from me, I'm surprised to find STUDENT X is now advertising that she's teaching adult ed classes at a college. I'm more surprised to read her bio and see that she "has been studying Turkish, Egyptian, cabaret and folk style dancing for more than five years."

Saying she has been studying this for more than five years is a HUGE exaggeration. An acquaintance of mine only started teaching there about 3-4 years ago, and that was on a semi-monthly basis.

I bought my first Alexandra King video in 1991. Can I say I've been studying since 1991???

Whatever. Anyway, what really confused me was that she's been studying Turkish.

Um, where exactly? I go to EVERY event in the Midwest that focuses on Turkish folk dance and bellydance. I've had workshops with Eva, Artie, and Ahmet. And I've NEVER seen STUDENT X in the crowd. I do know she went to one workshop with an Am Cab dancer who claims she dances Turkish (I don't see it, but whatever.) Same with Egyptian. Where exactly is she getting this specified training??

This is NOT a big area, geographically. I know (At least I know their faces) practically everyone involved in teaching or performing in this area. I know who goes to Mendocino, who goes to KDI folk dance camp, who goes to Morocco's weeklongs, and who goes out to Cali for Suhaila training.

Now, personally I fly all over the country for training, and I know some others dancers in the midwest who do the same thing. That's my own weirdness. I have never heard of STUDENT X doing so, OR her teacher or former teacher.

Again, just from Arts Council associations, and generally trying to immerse myself in the whole bellydance culture of the midwest and south, I know who's training in what and where -- especially within an hour of my hometown! I owe it to my students to be able to send them on to who can give them the advanced training they want.

Why do some people feel the need to exaggerate what they know?

Here's my new bio:

Aziyade has over 30 years experience in Middle Eastern dance
(cause I started ballet when I was 6, and doesn't that count?)

and has studied (ie, bought a video)
Lebanese, Syrian, Moroccan, Algerian, Egyptian, Turkish, Lebanese, Saudi, African, Polynesian, Flamenco, and folk dances from every country on the planet (except Canada).

She even studied Flamenco music and dance in SPAIN!
(as part of a English-speaking student cultural tour, but so what -- it's still Spain, right)

She will teach you everything you need to know about Bellydance in four sessions or your money will be refunded.

(vent finished)

 

[Yasmine Bint Al Nubia]

Hi Aziyade, You have actually summed up most Oriental dance bios on the web today, so it becomes difficult to find the real gems among the rhinetones. Even a lie told so many times becomes the truth.
Yasmine

 

[Persephone]

Are there teachers you don't know in the area? It could be possible that she takes classes without going to workshops, maybe because she can't afford them.

Honestly, outside of outright lying, I can't get myself too worked up about online resume-padding. We dancers (heck, all women) are in a double bind: some people won't hire you if you've ever seen a wrinkle, and some won't unless you have a resume a mile long. That's easier for ballet dancers to manage since they have parents putting them in baby barre classes at 4 or 5 years old, but most of us don't start dancing until at least our teens. So we have to be aggressive about the experience we've got -- besides which, it reinforces us against the inevitable customer who says "why are you so expensive? It's not like it's real work."

 

[sedoniaraqs]

I know the phenomenon. Honestly, I think these people know so little that they don't know how much they don't know. They are so clueless as to how big the iceberg is that they think that the small effort they have put forth is alot.

I see the same thing in the students I teach in my college biology classes and I associate it with their generation. They are so clueless about how much effort should be put into learning that they think their grossly inadequate amount should be more than enough. They say things to me like "I studied a whole two hours for that test I failed". That two hours seems like an eternity in the same way that watching Neena and Veena seems like professional training to these dancers.

In my town the beginners who think they are professionals pop up with predictable frequency. Right now there is one floating around town who has had ONE 10 week beginner course 3 years ago, which she translates into "study for 3 years". Another has had no training besides video but is dancing at public events (haven't seen her not sure I want to).

Sedonia

 

[Suheir]

There's a teacher in the UK who claims to have learnt to dance from "The Arabs" when she was teaching exercise dance to ex-pats in Bahrain for a year in the early '80s - when she came back to the UK she had one lesson, taught herself to dance from a book and then started teaching and performing. She gave it up after a year, starting teaching and performing again 20 years laters and now claims to have been teaching belly dance for over 25 years.

I studied ballet between the ages of 3 and 7 - if I took it up again this week could I claim to have been a ballet dancer for 29 years?

 

[Shanazel]

Oh, eat your hearts out, babies. I went to a ballet recital when I was two, so I can claim 50 years dance experience. I didn't dance, I don't remember it, but by gosh, I was there!

 

[Amanda (was Aziyade)]

Oh I guess this all boils down into the "You really shouldn't be teaching yet" argument, and that just gets my feathers all ruffled.

Thing is, I know the lady in question and she's sweet. But you're exactly right, Sedonia: She doesn't know what she doesn't know.

This begs the question, which I'd like to also address: What do you need to know to teach an adult ed beginning class? Do you need to be a dance ethnologist, or is getting a Neena and Veena video enough?

thoughts please?

 

[Moon]

I think to be a dance teacher you should at least have studied like 5 years with a real instructor, not just videos.

 

[Shanazel]

The emphasis on how many years a person has studied is misplaced; the emphasis should be on what was learned and how well it was learned. We've just made the point (and hammered it in with a sledge) that years in dance can be exaggerated to the point of meaning nothing. Dance experience aside, how well can a person teach? Being a wonderful dancer is not the same as being a wonderful teacher.

I don't know of any sure way to qualify this- look at the public education system, full of people who are certified to teach but whose students would be better off if the teacher had chosen to dig ditches for a living. Certification doesn't prevent bad teachers from slipping into the system, people who have the papers, but not the ability to impart knowledge to others. Caveat emptor in dance teachers as in everything else. Exit the workshops and classes of the lemons as soon as they are discovered to be lemons, and cherish the real teachers. What else can you do?

 

[Suheir]

Oh, eat your hearts out, babies. I went to a ballet recital when I was two, so I can claim 50 years dance experience. I didn't dance, I don't remember it, but by gosh, I was there!

:lol: This is exactly the sort of disguised crapola that regularly appears on dancers' websites, "Tilly Twinkletoes has been dancing for 40 years" or "Dancing since the age of 4" meaning she did some toddling about with her teddy bear then a few years danced in her bedroom to David Cassidy records.

 

[da Sage]

My new, INFLATED bio:

I want to play, too!

Trained in other forms of dance from the age of 5, da Sage began studying Middle Eastern dance in 1992.

(my mother enrolled me in ONE "creative movement" class when I was in kindergarten, and in 1992 I took a teaser workshop from someone who taught bellydance in the next state)

After a year with her first teacher, da Sage moved on to study American and Indian forms of bellydance.

(I attended the workshop again a year later, and then began learning from Atea, Veena, and Neena via video )

Da Sage has danced in public schools, and taught in the most exclusive private dance studios.

(I took a class located in the hallway of a local high school in 2001, and I once taught my non-dancing friend some moves in the lobby of the local big-name dance studio/performance space)

She has a thorough knowledge and appreciation of Middle Eastern music, history, and culture.

(I own a drum, and can play 8 rhythms on it. I took a course on the history and literature of the Mideaval Middle East, and I read "The Middle East for Dummies. Also, I think Tarkan is hot.)

Da Sage know that a true teacher never stops learning.

(If a true teacher always remains a student, then as a student, I must actually be a teacher!:lol: I neglect to mention any of my current or past teachers by name, however...why should I point potential students to my competition?)

Da Sage will make her 15 years of rich and varied bellydance experience available to you for only $30 an hour! Studio space and fees not included.

(Of course, because I've only been seriously studying bellydance for a little over 2 years, I don't actually teach, but it's fun to think about)

 

[Suheir]

Oh, and if a dancer's been abroad *once* and danced on a Nile cruise boat (along with all the other tourists), for instance, she becomes an 'International Performer'!

 

[Yasmina]

Haha I just love your resumes

This exaggerating thing used to make me soo mad, but now I'm used to it. My first experience with this kind of bullsh*t was a girl who took ONE WEEK of workshops at a festival in Germany and after that started her own school. In her website she claimed that she was trained by world star A, B, C, D etc (all the names of that festival she attended).

The thing is, not only do THEY not know what they not know, so does THE AUDIENCE. Most people don't have a clue and they will be impressed if you put on a shiny costume and do a figure 8, a shimmy and a camel. This art form is not a part of our culture and that's why it's so easy to exaggerate....

I think this type of exaggeration is really annoying and an indicator for a lack of style, ethics and artistic consciousness.

 

[Amanda (was Aziyade)]

She has a thorough knowledge and appreciation of Middle Eastern music, history, and culture.

(I own a drum, and can play 8 rhythms on it. I took a course on the history and literature of the Mideaval Middle East, and I read "The Middle East for Dummies. Also, I think Tarkan is hot.)


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm rolling!!!!
TOO funny!:lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Kharmine]

Personally, I think we should call it what an 4-year-old would -- LYING.

I'm a freelance writer. I have two degrees, served three different internships, have more than 20 years experience writing for publications, and at least 10 years of full-time editing. I can list all my major full-time employers and all the publications I've written for in the last seven years, the titles of my most recent articles and their dates of publications.

All of which I can prove with addresses, phone numbers, the names of my supervisors and other basic contact info.

On one page. In 12-point type.

Any prospective employer can easily check my information. In addition to that, when I apply for some jobs I have to pass an editing test. Others, I have to submit "clips," copies of my published writing.

I don't know why ANYONE'S qualifications should be any less vague. Which is why I tend to get a little snarky when somebody tries to pass herself off with no verificable proof as having studied dance since she was pulled out of the womb.

A dancer who wants to be considered a professional doesn't need a paper degree, but she should be able to list who her dance teachers were, and for how long. She should be able to list what dance workshops she attended, where and when and who taught. If she claims teaching experience -- where? when? how long?

And, dammit, CONTACT info for verification.

In lieu of some accredited paper degree, dancing professionals should have to prove what martial artists and hatha yoga teachers traditionally are expected to cough up -- proof of LINEAGE, line of instruction.

Enough with the hype. Let's get real. And let's DEMAND reality. Whatta concept.

 

[Suheir]

Personally, I think we should call it what an 4-year-old would -- LYING.

:clap:

 

[Mariyam]

This exaggerating thing used to make me soo mad, but now I'm used to it. My first experience with this kind of bullsh*t was a girl who took ONE WEEK of workshops at a festival in Germany and after that started her own school. In her website she claimed that she was trained by world star A, B, C, D etc (all the names of that festival she attended).

The thing is, not only do THEY not know what they not know, so does THE AUDIENCE. Most people don't have a clue and they will be impressed if you put on a shiny costume and do a figure 8, a shimmy and a camel. This art form is not a part of our culture and that's why it's so easy to exaggerate....

Absolutely, entirely, completely agree

 

[Fatima]

I sometimes blame the teachers for the "healthy" ego of some instant professionals. The most recent case I witnessed was that of a basic course graduate (yes, she graduated) that was told by her teacher that she only needed to take a workshop now and then. Now she's out there dancing in restaurants, fairs and such.

I know of a couple of very talented baby dancers that have been told by their teachers that they're talented and they believe that means they're ready to become pro (ok, it's not the teacher's fault rather the baby dancer's misinterpretation, but I come to believe that teachers should refrain from making that kind of comments).

 

[Aisha Azar]

Super Resumes

Dear Group,
I agree. In doing my website, I was very careful to keep my info real, and in fact a little less that I might be qualified to say, because I was SSSOOO afraid of saying more than was true.
I think part of my paranoia was due to the dancers who go on and on about how they are experts at a million dances, personally danced before the Sultan of Swing or whoever, taught thousands of satisfied and now professional dancers, etc.
Unfortunately there are many innocent victims out there for these people to prey on, and if we say directly who they are, then WE are the bitches in the eyes of the belly dance community. Politically coreect is rampant in our community and often takes precedence over truth and integrity for the dance. That is one reason why I was so proud of Gia and others for coming out to let MichelleD know how the dance community feels about such drek.
Regards,
A'isha