Thread: GAH!!!

What I just got in my mailbox:

Subject: Private classes

Hello Cassi,
It's my boyfriends birthday in a few weeks and i've been watching some belly dancing classes on sky and i'd like to do a peformance for him. I've never belly danced before but i was hoping we could skip straight to intermediate/advanced to create a routine. Please let asap please.
Thankyou



What I replied:

Hello there ******,

Many thanks for your enquiry, however I don't think I'll be able to help you.

Bellydancing is a highly technical dance form that takes years of study to perfect. I'm afraid it's just not possible to "skip straight to intermediate/advanced to create a routine" as it would take a few months just to learn the basics.
I've been dancing for over twenty years - I studied ballet, contemporary and jazz to a professional level and then had to study again to learn how to bellydance. Yes I know that top dancers make it look easy, but believe me, it takes a lot of practise to make the moves look effortless.

If you are really interested in bellydancing, I suggest you find a local class and give it a try - I'm sure you'll really enjoy the challenge!

Good luck!

Caasi


What I really wanted to say:

Just give your boyfriend a shirt for his birthday you silly cow!
And learn how to write properly.
And spell my name right.

GAH!!!, ,m::

Just wanted to say - know how you feel!!!

Email's great for giving us the opportunity to be diplomatic isn't it?

Hi Desna,

Ha, ha, yes indeed - I'm turning the other cheek as we speak...tho I think it might be my arse cheek! Sorry!

I can't stand those type of people who think it's just so easy. And the nerve to want to do it for her boyfriend's BD party, and she's never even tried it before! I wanted to say those smart remarks for you. Good for you, Caasi!

OTOH, I would have replied with:

Bellydance is a technically difficult and complex dance form that takes many years to master. However, it would be possible for me to put together a very simple and short beginner choreography for you to perform in a few weeks' time, provided that you are able to meet with me AT LEAST three hours per week (at $xx per hour) for instruction and can practice at least an hour a day on your own time. It would be a huge challenge but you might just be able to pull it off.

***

Honestly, I might not even require THAT much practice - she wants to bop around a room for her bf for his birthday? I doubt she's going to poach the local restaurant jobs, especially if you drill into her head that the dance form involves MUCH more than what you can learn in a few weeks. Is it really any different from teaching the women at a bachelorette party a short choreography? Few of them have ever had dance training, and I'm pretty sure none of them are going to call themselves bellydancers once the party's over.

Im with Lilya. Actually, while I completely agree with how she ... hmmm... is misunderstanding (trying to stay nice :D) how difficult it is to learn bellydance, my teacher pulled that off once. Two ladies wanted just the same, though I do believe they did meet and practice quite a bit. In the end, it turned out these ladies threw a hellova party for their husbands, and it ended up being a pretty good gig for my teacher as they hired her (and her advanced students) to do a 1-hour or so performance. That, I think, ended up being a good business move, and you know what? The girls did pretty darn good! She thought them basic beginner moves and they ended up doing a cute little duet on a popular song. I dont know how long they practiced for, I want to say 2-3 months for sure.

Kudos to my teacher for sure, she thought them very well!

This rang an ancient bell for me, from the dinosaur days. Years ago when my thing was internal style martial arts (before I got the tumor in my head that messed up my balance, and life therefore turned in a different direction), there was an actor who needed to appear a scene in a play doing T'ai Chi form. I was asked to teach him what he needed to know in, I don't know, 2 or 3 lessons! It certainly wasn't like REALLY teaching T'ai Chi and he didn't go away with much more understanding of the art than he had in the beginning, which was zippo. But I did manage to teach him to do something for a minute or two that would look to a general audience like T'ai Chi, though a real martial artist in the audience would have known he was not a true practitioner. I certainly do not think he went away suffering from any delusion that he had truly learned to understand T'ai Chi. Au contraire; he was thoroughly humbled about any such notion. It was a weird assignment indeed, but okay for what it was.
Rosette

And then there are those who really think they can learn to belly dance with this attitude.

A lady contacted me about taking lessons at one of my locations. She told me that although she had not done any bellydancing, she had done cheerleading and would be bored in my beginner class learning the basics. She had so much natural skill at picking things up that she would just start in my intermediate class and go from there. Otherwise, she would not take classes from me at all.

Originally Posted by Halima-Dances

And then there are those who really think they can learn to belly dance with this attitude.

A lady contacted me about taking lessons at one of my locations. She told me that although she had not done any bellydancing, she had done cheerleading and would be bored in my beginner class learning the basics. She had so much natural skill at picking things up that she would just start in my intermediate class and go from there. Otherwise, she would not take classes from me at all.

I get this all the time, too. I insist that former cheerleaders, ballet dancers, ballroom dancers etc start at the beginner level, so they'll have the proper foundation, but throw them a bone by saying that since they have related experience, they will probably progress quickly. Once they get into class, they realize that what they're learning is totally different from what they already know.

,r:;I can;t figure out where people get these ideas. I do have a background in other dance and cheerleading, and musical instrument training. It never crossed my mind that I should get to skip levels. Some skills are transferable, but there is still plenty to learn. Better to have an easy class so one can focus on details then to be in over your head and not learn anything.

Originally Posted by Halima-Dances

A lady contacted me about taking lessons at one of my locations. She told me that although she had not done any bellydancing, she had done cheerleading and would be bored in my beginner class learning the basics. She had so much natural skill at picking things up that she would just start in my intermediate class and go from there. Otherwise, she would not take classes from me at all.

when I started belly dancing, the whole idea of levels was odd to me. it wasn't until I had studied at a CC for a year, or with a teacher who taught there, that I was introduced to the concept. And even now, there are teachers who kick my back side!

{{{HUGS}}}

on the other hand
let them skip to the intermediate level - with your best students and go right into the hardest routine you've been teaching

then as Bravo says "let's watch what happens"

it is all in the wording. People get turned off by "beginner". It sounds so baby and basic. When I changed my "beginner's class" to a "fundamentals class", the attitude changed. I even have intermediate students signing up for my class. I love it! All I had to do is change a title and now it is ok to take. whatever works!

My old piano teacher told me of a call he once received, from a guy who wanted to learn to play the piano. When he arrived for his lesson, he said that he wanted to learn a specific sonata (forget which one). Although the teacher energetically assured him that there was a lot of work to do before they could get to that stage, this guy was insistent that he only wanted to learn the fingering and tempo of the piece, so my piano teacher threw him out on his arse.

Gets everywhere probably, especially when a particular thing is highlighted by the media. I imagine tennis coaches get irritated when Wimbledon is on.

Things sometimes look so easy and when you watch them you sometimes feel like you can do it too, already. Like coming out of a cinema having watched a Bruce Lee film. But I wouldn't think I could go to black belt in 3 weeks or something!

I understand the irritation, the way she wrote it kind of pushes the buttons doesn't it!

I would have offered that student private lessons to create a simple & short choreo to dance for her bf's birthday. IMHO that's not so much different from when people do a few classes in ballroom so they can dance at their wedding.

And ya never know, they could get the bug and become a regular student.

I did that with a student who was keen to dance at her sister's birthday, and she pulled it off and is now a regular participant in normal classes.

Mmm - as Jilyan said, the way she wrote really annoyed me! If she'd asked me to to help her put a few basic moves together for a routine I would have been a bit more receptive! But it was the "skip straight to intermediate/advanced" bit that irked....

At the moment I'm to busy to give privates anyway so it wasn't really an option for me now...you never know, she might try some classes...

Truly, people just don't know any better. We used to get this stuff all the time at the ballroom studio I managed. We always trained our staff to smile & nod their heads and then just teach them what they needed to know anyway.

Wedding couples are notoriously bad for not planning ahead. I actually had a couple come take a lesson the morning of their wedding day!! Truly! What the heck do you think you can learn in an hour??

It's not ideal, but it is a business with expenses...so I took their money, taught them some very basic skills, and tried to make it fun enough that they might hopefully return in the future for a more substantial investement of time.

Heh heh heh heh heh heh...yeeeeaaaahh. Gotta love that--"let's just skip right to the advanced stuff" attitude. And that's possible just how? Maybe beeeecause you think the foundational/beginner stuff is an unnecessary and silly thing we dance instructors make up just to haze our students? *shakes head in disbelief*

I do agree, however with what a couple others said. In situations like that (and I've encountered them...) what is and isn't realistic, and then explain that though I can't help them "skip ahead to advanced," over the course of a certain number of private lessons (and with plenty of practice time on their own) I *can* teach them a few basic moves and we can put those together into a very short, simple choreography. It's not going to look like a professional dancer or like Shakira or whatever, but it can be a little flavor, a little start. Sometimes that's good--she just really wants to surprise the husband/boyfriend that she thought to do/try something like this. And...sometimes the fantasy is blown...or worse, she remains optimisitic that some other dancer CAN work magic on her and turn her into a REAL belly dancer in 2 weeks. (Yikes.)