Thread: It's special, it's a Private

So a famous well known dancer comes to your town. Your in awe of her dancing. She agrees to give you a private. What do you want to cover during that private? How would you benefit most?

Boy, this one's tough. Unless that dancer had some specific thing I wanted to learn (Hey, Aziza, show me how you do that float thang!) I'd probably go for a critique.

I'd probably start by explaining what I'm already currently working on (posture, arms, etc) so they'd know which issues I'm already aware of. Then I'd dance for 2-3 minutes and ask Famous Dancer to show me what they think I would most benefit from that might take me to the next level.

I'd also be prepared to ask some specific questions in case it wasn't going in a direction I liked. Some teachers will auto-pilot to their favorite topics, whether it's what you really need to learn right now or not. I'd be prepared with questions related to that dancer's specialty -- no point asking an AmCab dancer to teach you about Ghawazee.

I regularly teach private lessons. Recently I have started to send new students a form where they have to fill in the number of years they've been dancing, what they can do best, what they would like to work on, what their goals as a dancer are and what music they like.
This is how I build up the private lesson.

Privates are expensive, so you better think well about what you want to learn and tell it to your teacher BEFORE she even comes to town. That way you don't have to spend a lot of your precious time on that.

Is there a special reason why you booked a class with THIS teacher?
Is there anything that impresses you most about her? Or something else?

Have fun!

MEISSOUN

Originally Posted by meissoun

I regularly teach private lessons. Recently I have started to send new students a form where they have to fill in the number of years they've been dancing, what they can do best, what they would like to work on, what their goals as a dancer are and what music they like.
This is how I build up the private lesson.

Privates are expensive, so you better think well about what you want to learn and tell it to your teacher BEFORE she even comes to town. That way you don't have to spend a lot of your precious time on that.

Is there a special reason why you booked a class with THIS teacher?
Is there anything that impresses you most about her? Or something else?

Have fun!

MEISSOUN

Well I havn't booked it yet... Still waiting for a reply if she would even do it. Her stage presence impresses me the most and her music interpretation..

In this case, you could ask her to go through with you some music you really like. What kind of things she would use in this music? How she hears the music? It would be better if you have not danced or used the music yet, so you will really listen it with new ears with her, but at the same time you know the music enough to really undertand it and see the different feeling she has than you would have your own. Can you send the music to her before, so she can get familiar with it? I don't mean choreography.

I think these kind of stuff is really interesting.

Or you could ask her how she would put it on stage? What kind of feelings she would express?

After the class you can actually make a choregraphy, if you like, or partal choregraphy or some thing for performing.

These would help you do something different, but the result would still look like you.