Top 10 List: Reasons Teachers Should Continue their Education

Is the expense to attend a teacher training or summer seminar worth it?

Particularly when money and times are tight, dance educators wrestle with this question. It seems we find it hard to justify spending money or attention on our own development, though we would encourage it for our students. Below is my top ten list of reasons you would want to seriously consider some continuing ed for yourself this year.

1. New Classroom Tools

Teacher workshops directly provide curriculum, music, or methods for your use. As a participant  in technique class, there is opportunity to experience new ways of combining steps, of structuring a class, of delivering a concept. Take notes throughout your experience, borrowing the best from your observations.

2. Remembering What It’s Like

Students feel pressure to do well, they get nervous, they are sometimes afraid to try something new, they struggle with physical or psychological challenges. The occasional reminder of what it feels like to be a student, to push oneself through challenges, to risk and take on something new will bring added depth and understanding to your teaching.

3. Physical Exercise

If you are a teacher, you probably recognize that the physical demands of instructing students is very different from actual dancing. You spend time moving but not as you would as a class participant or performer. A challenging program or class can help keep you in shape.

4. Mental Exercise

Ditto on giving your brain a workout. Teaching can become routine and repetitive. Demanding more of your brain is stimulating and refreshing.

5. Creative Input/Output

Teachers do a lot of giving. Choreography, class exercises, working with students – these things require creativity. However, consistent output without refilling the well of creativity can cause the source to dry up. And creativity does breed creativity. Sometimes even taking the opportunity to create something for your own pleasure (an art class, a writing workshop, crafting, even a choreography workshop) can replenish your reserves.

6. Improved Business

Each new experience adds credibility. Parents and students will appreciate that you’ve made an effort to improve your teaching, expand your repertoire, study and grow. The more diverse your education, the more marketable you become as a teacher. You want to be able to share what you did over summer vacation, too!

7. Networking

A dance-related conference or seminar offers the chance to interact with other teachers and professionals from all over the country or world. Making these contacts strengthens your ties to the dance world beyond your studio, creating opportunities for you and your students. Events in your own backyard can still add benefit. You may develop friendships or connect with those that are willing to donate, offer sponsorship, or collaborate on a project. You just never know.

8. Validation

If you ever feel like others in your life (husbands/wives, friends, relatives) don’t understand your passion and commitment to dance and teaching, here is a chance to be among others that get it! Not only is sharing your thoughts and ideas with these folks restorative but the affirmation you receive among comrades can sustain you through the coming year.

9. Personal Growth

Address your own need for development. Mastery and accomplishment serve to increase self-confidence in your pupils and will do the same for you. And, this could be a separate point but, your willingness to grow and learn will inspire the same in your students!

10. Staying Ahead of Change

The quote below, really says it all. New theories and practices in physiological science are changing the ways dance teachers teach. Dance training, though rooted in tradition, is a vast field – there will always be something new to learn and discover. Staying on top of your game will benefit you and your students.

“In a time of drastic change, it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.” — Eric Hoffer, US philosopher

Though it is a great idea to set aside some funds for you and/or your teachers to attend workshops or summits, I want to emphasize that growth experiences do not have to be pricey or far away. In fact, they may not even have to be dance-related! There is much to be gained from observing teachers who specialize in other disciplines, from opening yourself to new experiences, from simply taking time to create or learn something just for you.

Do you have a reasons or benefits you’d like to add to the list?

What are some experiences you’d recommend to other teachers?

What inexpensive or even non-dance activities have informed and supported your teaching or helped you through the year?

Guest Post: Dancers Connecting to Their Faith and Enriching Their World

The following is a guest post by Randall Flinn, director of Ad Deum Dance Company in Houston, TX.

The Relationship Between Faith and Dance

Dance is born from the heart and soul of people and cultures. Long before the polished refinement of classical or contemporary dance movement, dance lived and thrived in personal expression and communal relationships within a society. Dance was also a highly important and viable means of worshipful devotion, as worldviews of faith were visually demonstrated through offerings of dance. It may seem that as dance evolved more to a stage performance art form that these sacred expressions of faith began to disappear.

Perhaps not completely recognized or documented, dance as a form of worship or as a means for visually incarnating one’s faith is one of the oldest and perhaps richest offerings of dance. Although it is clear that dance and faith have always maintained a dynamic interaction throughout history, it is in this present age that dancers are finding a fresh significance in regards to integrating their beliefs with their artistry.

Dance in Worship and Fellowship

There are now many worldwide expressions of what may be called liturgical or sacred dance forms. In the past few years, even several dancewear companies have begun designing entire lines of worship and dance ministry performance wear. Organizations such as the Christian Dance Fellowship maintain an extensive networking of fellow dance worshippers and sacred movers.

Dance it seems has finally made its comeback as an acceptable and welcomed form of worship in many churches of various denominations throughout the world. There are now many workshops and conferences that are organized with the sole purpose and vision of expressing faith through diverse forms of dance.

Artists Articulating Faith

While the liturgical forms or church oriented praise dance expressions are wonderful displays of freedom in worship, there are other dance artists that are traveling more on the cutting edge, engaging culture with relevant and contemporary works of dance that are derived from their faith and supported by their worldview of life.  These dancers and choreographers may not be gracing the altars of the local church but they are nonetheless articulating their faith where art meets the whole of life, and not just the familiar floors of sacred or religious spaces.

Over the past twenty years there has been a worldwide networking and fellowship of these Believer artists. Professional companies and dance movements have sprung forth from these relationships including ProjectDance.com which conducts international arts festivals, The Culture House in Kansas City, Creative Arts Europe, Xaris Dance Company-Europe, Word in Motion –Los Angeles, Inlet Dance Theatre in Cleveland, and Hosanna Sacred Arts in Alabama. All of these dance arts organizations are directed by professional artists who hold fast to their faith while exercising their gifts in the marketplace.  Dancers from around the world have been drawn to these companies due to the integration of “keeping the faith” while engaging the culture with artistic excellence.

Reconciling Faith and Art

The gulf between faith and art is finding needed reconciliation and a more holistic view of what it truly means to create art that is informed and supported by one’s personal faith.  As many artists during the time of the Reformation knew, the gift of art is a gift of God to mankind who has created us in His image. The artist therefore can understand themselves as servants of God to humanity, enriching life and upholding its’ truth and beauty through their offerings and servitude. The artist then finds freedom from the pull of celebrity appeal to the higher call of a creative servant, meeting this world in its’ need.  The arts were meant to bless and enrich our world.

As artists reevaluate their journey, maybe more healing will be poured upon the soil of life through their work. Dance and expressions of faith truly belong in relationship to each other. For dance was born from such expressions, as a celebration of life and the validity of its joys, sorrows, journeys and discoveries. It may be true that indeed all artists create from the great need and passion to speak, as it were, from the inside out.

Perhaps the arts really do reveal, more than we may realize, what lives on the inside of who we are and what we believe. As the artist finds freedom to live out their faith within this world, then we can hope to see more light shine over the darkness and injustice of our times. The arts are indeed one of the richest gifts to humanity. May the arts bloom and blossom in this new year through the faith and belief of those granted such an incredible gift.

Photographs of Ad Deum Dance Company by Visage Photo Studio

Randall Flinn is the founder/artistic director of Ad Deum Dance Company in Houston, Texas.  He is a professional choreographer and teacher who has worked with Houston Ballet Academy, Cirque Du Soleil –Alegria, Houston Met Dance Company, Project Dance Times Square, Hong Kong Ballet, Ballet Magnificat and the dynamic Lakewood Church of Houston and Hillsong Church-Sydney.

Ad Deum (which means “towards God”) Dance Company began their full time work in January 2000, with a clear mission of integrating their Christian faith with relevant and redemptive artistry. Ad Deum has been honored to perform the works of other professional dancer/choreographers from around the world whose art is also informed by their Christian faith. Choreographers who have regularly set works on Ad Deum include Hope Boykin of Alvin Ailey, Steve Rooks –ten year principal dancer for Martha Graham, Caleb Mitchell –former Houston Ballet company dancer, Stephen Wynne –Talk Dance Company, and Bill Wade –Inlet Dance Theatre and Freddie Moore –former Ailey II dancer. Ad Deum maintains an international touring schedule and offers spring and summer intensives and a nine month pre-professional training program.