Thread: Success! A student that "gets it"

On Tuesday last, I started up a new session of beginners. It's a small group, but it seems fun and outgoing. Cool. ..g.:

I kept it really simple: warm ups (include dance movements such as rib slides/circles, belly work, shoulder rolls), learned how to walk and step-together-step, then took a long look at the hip swivel (sometimes called a hip twist): we did singles, doubles, multiples on one side, and various speeds of shimmy . . . oh! we even walked with it just a bit! I constantly reminded them about correct alignment, foot/knee placement, weight placement, etc.

At the end of class, I was disseminating more info and asking for questions when one of the gals said, "I had no idea this dance was so technical!"

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I coulda cried with joy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I went home a happy teacher.

Makes it all worthwhile, doesn't it?

<sigh>

Deborah

LOL! Congratulations, Deborah!

yay! evidence that those students really exist. Maybe you should put it down on tape so we can all hudle around our computer to listen to when we had a crappy class with students who keep asking wether they can turn pro after three classes.

I was recently told by a teacher / dancer who has a lot of ME students in her beg class that they look at her and say, this is hard! You make it look so easy! Why can't we?

She tells them, when you've been doing this for 15 years, you'll make it look easy, too!

{{{HUGS}}}

...

Congratulations !

I can feel your joy of teaching !

Fantastic! and congratulations! It is one of the best feelings to have a students that "gets it." I am dealing with a four-class-wonder right now. I have to let her down easy tomorrow. She can not teach at her local Y after only four classes and a healthy dose of Neena and Veena DVDs.
Sigh... I dream of your class!

Congratulations. I have a new student starting tomorrow. A teen who wants to become a pro dancer and is very excited. It will be fun because she says she wants me to correct her, to do it right, different from many of the "whatever" types I usually get (laid back small town). I've told her that it is not just shaking and wiggling, hoping she is one who can get that and it will be fun.

I know I've had many other students over the years who have understood, early on, that there is more to our bee-u-tee-full dance than shakin' and bakin' -- it's just I hardly ever get to hear it!

And here's the rub: some folks embrace the challenges associated with learning something new, but many are frightened by it and some of those won't last the session, let alone continue. For new students of MED, I think part of the reason for the high drop-out rate (in a parks & rec setting, anyway) is that they do think it's just shakin' and bakin' and get quite a shock when they find out there is technique involved, even in the shakin'!

Update on my Tuesday "gets it" student: wouldn't you know, she asked me about taking an additional class each week . . . I'm very excited to hear that! Unfortunately, I can't get her into another class with me, but I did give her some leads for other teachers in the area.

Yay!

* happy * happy * joy * joy*

Deborah

Originally Posted by jaziri

Congratulations. I have a new student starting tomorrow. A teen who wants to become a pro dancer and is very excited. It will be fun because she says she wants me to correct her, to do it right, different from many of the "whatever" types I usually get (laid back small town). I've told her that it is not just shaking and wiggling, hoping she is one who can get that and it will be fun.

That is sooooo cool! If she has other dance training (real training, as in disciplined training) in other dance forms, she'll already know that it takes time, energy and commitment to learn this dance. If she has all that, what a wonderful student she will be!

Congratulations to you, Jaziri -- and good luck! ..g.:

Deborah

I know how you feel! Congrats!!

I had a student in one of my classes, who at the last class of the session, came over to me just to say she was happy she found me and the class...she said the dance has made her feel so much better about herself...She was just so happy! I melted!!

No better feeling!! ..l;,

I keep seeing this thread... I suppose I'm odd in that just looking at belly dance, I could see it had to be technical (maybe that's because, coming out of modern, I knew how hard "weird-looking" (for lack of a better word) moves tend to be) , so I wasn't surprised at all at that (and thus, had no need to say anything about it to anyone).

Very cool that she's looking into it further, and Jaziri - that's great that she's serious!