Thread: What qualities does a teacher need?

When I'm looking for BD teachers, I want someone who can break down moves, who knows history (or is willing to find the answers I seek), someone who is warm and patient and encouraging. First and foremost, though, I want someone with phenominal musicality.

What qualities do YOU expect in a teacher?

I like someone who has a good sense of herself and a willingness to mentor others.

Most important qualities in a teacher to me:

1. Desire and ability to teach
2. Knowledge of the history and cultures where the style is from
3. Technically proficient in all elements of chosen style
4. Knowledge of the different aspects of performing
5. Be ethical and professional
6. Be able and willing to admit if she/he doesn't know something and suggest other resources for students

The rest is negotiable. For me, a teacher should always be interested in sharing his/her knowledge and skills and should not hold back any of that from their students.

My personal goal as an instructor is to be all of those things and to treat all students as though they will become professional dancers.

Good topic :)

For me, it's depended on where I was at that particular point in my dance journey.

When I was a baby beginner, it was really important to me that the teacher taught in a safe manner (didn't want to get hurt), was able to get me doing at least a few simple moves correctly right away (I didn't have a lot of paitience for things that were "too hard" back then), and made the class a fun and inviting place that I wanted to be. At that time, Belly Dance was a fun little lark; an hour a week that I was able to spend on me, not my job or my family.

As an intermediate student, I really looked for teachers that had specific qualities in their dancing that I wanted to emulate. One teacher I chose because of her beautiful internal Egyptian technique, to counteract the crazy bouncy bigness of my prior instructor's AmCab style. Another had the most amazing carriage and posture, so I took up with her for a good while. At that point I was fairly serious (practicing outside of class 3-4 times/wk and performing at haflas and the occasional workshop show), and mostly wanted to fix my bad habits from the devil-may-care days and develop new/good ones.

As an advanced/professional student, I wanted an instructor who would push me physically, mentally and creatively past my self-imposed limits. I also wanted someone with some serious ME cultural knowledge and credibility. Not surprisingly, I had to drive all the way to Chicago to find someone who fit the bill. A 3 hour round trip for lessons is quite a pain sometimes, but my current teacher is worth every penny of gas that goes in the tank.

I wrote something similar recently on my dance blog, APOSTATE, "Teaching raqs: a few observations."

I mostly focused on what I would call "external" activities; things I've seen people do that's outside the dance proper that makes them great teachers. Although there's absolutely no substitute for being a well-trained dancer, and you're 100% correct about having strong musical skills, I also think we, as a dance form, tend to be very inwardly focused on issues like this. I'd love to see more emphasis paid to not only training excellent dancers, but also to having them think about the dance on multiple levels (but not over-think!), in part as a groundwork for making great teachers, and overall ambassadors for the form.

Passion. Someone who loves what they do, cares about the students and the dance, and brings joy and enthusiasm to every class.

Originally Posted by elljay

Passion. Someone who loves what they do, cares about the students and the dance, and brings joy and enthusiasm to every class.

Yes, but also knowledge and technique to back that up. Musicality, a must.

If I walked in a class and the teacher had bad posture, I'd run!

I'm talking about ALL dance forms right now, not just specific to bd.

Laura, I agree with you. Different elements during different phases of my dance development.

Beginnger: I needed someone to break down the moves and teach correct posture. Musicality and passion really wasn't on the list but someone to show me how to properly move my body was.

Intermediate: Someone to teach transitions and phrasing.

Advanced: I looked for someone with superb musicality, technical proficiency, and someone that understood my body. I'm tall and not all teachers understand that some moves don't work on a tall body.

I also needed someone to look at what I was doing, understand it, and correct it if needed. And as always, encouragement and construction criticism is a must.

I want a teacher who is well versed in her area. She should be confident, great posture, know about music, if I have a question that she can't answer I hope she would be able to guide me in the correct direction. Someone who is not afraid to say she doesn't know everything. Being to cocky is a big turn off. Someone who can teach without having to use choreography ALL THE FREAKING TIME.
That is what I look for in a well rounded teacher.

There are many qualities which a dance teacher needs, but I would say that fundamentally, at the very least, anyone who wants to teach dance should personally have the ability to stay on the beat - whether during choreography or improvisation. This would seem obvious to dancers in any other dance form, but it amazes me that belly dance students who have not even achieved this most basic skill feel themselves qualified to become teachers. ..c::

All I have to say is there is a difference between qualitities, and required knowledge and skill set. An Instructor can have the best qualities and still fail to have the knowledge and skill set required to instruct students.

I have to say ~ ability to teach & be able to break moves down.

Be ethical and professional also. I think if there is a problem in class with a student, she should not wait until that student leaves class after the session is over and discuss it with the whole class. Or talk bad about another teacher that she dislikes, by picking her apart in the front of her students. .. I feel it only make her look bad.