"To be a really good teacher,
one has to truly want each person to learn
and want to touch each student."
-Miss Mary Day.
Anna Kisselgoff, The New York Times article, 2006
With my first dance students: The Washington School of Ballet
Mary Day was an extraordinary artistic leader in the Washington DC ballet community. She was the founder and director of both the Washington School of Ballet and the Washington Ballet. When I started studying at her dance school, she was eighty-five years old, I was fifteen, I was extremely fortunate to have been her student. Her extraordinary eye for talent and how to develop that talent is still something we discuss in the dance classroom today. When she passed in 2006, Anna Kisselgoff described her in a New York Times article as, "one of American ballet´s most distinguished teachers."
(Article Link: Kisselgoff, New York Times. 2006)
When I turned eighteen Miss Day called me into the office one day and asked me if I was interested in learning how to teach? She told me she liked the role I played with my classmates, the way I calmed everyone before a performance and always made other dancers feel more confident. She loved hearing me give insightful corrections to my classmates when asked for help. I was surprised she had noticed, Miss Day was a busy school director, and it meant the world to me that she did take notice- At that age everything about life was overwhelming and the idea of having potential for teaching filled me with happiness. Miss Mary Day thought it best that I started training as a dance teacher right away. It was a crazy time for me, I was dancing with Spanish Dance Theatre and was participating in a massive production with the Washington Opera to dance in Placido Domingo’s Le Cid. Still Miss Day thought it was time that I started my dance teacher training even though I was so busy. She believed I had way too much to learn to wait... and she was afraid that she was not getting any younger and wanted to make sure she could devote me that time. At that time I was too young to understand the great gift she was giving me. She was 89 years old at that point, and more lucid than I when she spoke of dance education. To this day, teaching class, I am my happiest. Miss Day was right to push me. She retired three years later after training me and passed away three years after that. To this day I miss her, and take great pride in my legacy.
Miss Day convinced me that my dancer´s life would be short and that my life long. Dance education would last me a lifetime, and could become a great source of creativity and inspiration. She taught me three rules to follow:
1) Do not let parents obsess about the student´s professional potential. Students may surprise. Tell them we have to focus on the child´s development first. We start with skipping, it´s a long and slow process.
2) Always remember you are educating human beings first. Everyone benefits from dance education regardless of where it takes them.
3) This is by far the most important one of all: When in doubt always focus on learning. When things are not being done correctly in the classroom the student´s learning will be compromised. If I were to focus on learning, I would always make the correct decisions and modifications to lead me there. The focus is not on my teaching process, but on the students´ learning journey.
Her teaching philosophy and consequential rules are still relevant today. In the last few years however there has been a shift from the old days, when I studied with Miss Day. With the development of early stimulation programmes and parents requesting classes for younger and younger children, there has been the evolution of Baby Ballet as part of our course offerings. My dance teacher preparation contemplated my starting with Ballet I for 6 and 7 years old. In the last twenty years though, I have found an increasing demand for teaching younger and younger students. So much so, that the term "Baby Ballet" has become a common course offering.
It is no surprise that parents are seeking early dance programmes for their children. Children are able to receive classes in music, languages, gymnastics, dance and other areas. All wish to take advantage of children's mental plasticity and great learning ability demonstrated by children in their early stages. The programmes are packaged commercially with very attractive names such as Baby Einstein, etc. In general, parents perceive that these programmes will promote the development of extraordinary, genius babies.
Fascinated by childhood development and after working at preschools and deciding that I truly needed to learn and prepare better, I decided to start studying Early Childhood Development. My studies carried me through a Bachelors in Education and a Graduate Degree in Early Childhood Education. I became particularly attracted to the Theory of Multiple Intelligence Theory developed by Howard Gardner. The theory identifies Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence as one of the intelligences of human beings. As a dancer and teacher I was a witness of the daily manifestation of bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. Gardner states that, "characteristic of such an intelligence is the ability to use one´s body in highly differentiated and skilled ways, for expressive as well as goal directed purposes" (1993) of course dance education fits perfectly within this description. In a quest to understand bodily intelligence I entered in a long process that did help me prepare my classes better. I reached several conclusions in my learning process that I believe will affect my approach to Dance Education for the rest of my professional practice.
Firstly, as dance teachers we need to receive better formation regarding child development and learning theory focused in our knowledge of the different developmental stages, areas of learning, social-emotional aspects of child development, special needs, and sound pedagogical practices. Our field is filled with extraordinary teachers with impeccable dance formation, exquisite connoisseurs of their dance form...how magnificent would it be that combined with our knowledge of dance with a profound expertise in educational and pedagogical theories.
Secondly, we need to enter a sincere conversation with parents regarding the expected outcomes regarding an early stimulation programme of dance. The ethics of a dance form that seeks truth and beauty through an unbreakable work ethic, can not fall into false commercial claims of creating young geniuses by taking a dance class at an early stage. No early stimulation programme can promise such a claim. Early stimulation programmes provide children with readiness, higher self-esteem, and greater experience. However, developmentally children will be able to reach certain milestones once their cognitive and physical maturity reach the stage that allows such a change to occur. These milestones can not be hurried or changed in their process. Cognitive psychology though the work of many researchers such as Skinner and Piaget, have been able to identify developmental changes and milestones, and all of these imply maturity as a result of a biological process. Children do not need to start Baby Ballet at a very early stage in order to become dancers. Formal training begins when the child is physically, cognitively and emotionally ready to receive the complex and taxing knowledge that will pave the way to their learning. Starting early implies that the student is exposed to information earlier, but not that learning will occur earlier.
Third, and lastly, early dance programmes that are well-structured bearing in mind the students´ developmental process can be extremely enriching for a child at very early stages. Stage experience at an early age can be exhilarating and can help forge a healthy self-esteem before insecurities set in at a later stage. As Gardner eloquently states, "But the body is more than simply another machine, indistinguishable from the artificial objects of the world. It is also the vessel of the individual´s sense of self." Artistic exposure at an early age can lead to great musical and dance appreciation. Developmentally, children need plenty of exercise and their development of strength, balance and coordination is greatly aided by dance activities. Furthermore, children learn by playing, a dance programme that provides opportunity for improvisation, imagination games and exercises all enhance a natural development of the dancer within.
It is no surprise that parents are seeking early dance programmes for their children. Children are able to receive classes in music, languages, gymnastics, dance and other areas. All wish to take advantage of children's mental plasticity and great learning ability demonstrated by children in their early stages. The programmes are packaged commercially with very attractive names such as Baby Einstein, etc. In general, parents perceive that these programmes will promote the development of extraordinary, genius babies.
Fascinated by childhood development and after working at preschools and deciding that I truly needed to learn and prepare better, I decided to start studying Early Childhood Development. My studies carried me through a Bachelors in Education and a Graduate Degree in Early Childhood Education. I became particularly attracted to the Theory of Multiple Intelligence Theory developed by Howard Gardner. The theory identifies Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence as one of the intelligences of human beings. As a dancer and teacher I was a witness of the daily manifestation of bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. Gardner states that, "characteristic of such an intelligence is the ability to use one´s body in highly differentiated and skilled ways, for expressive as well as goal directed purposes" (1993) of course dance education fits perfectly within this description. In a quest to understand bodily intelligence I entered in a long process that did help me prepare my classes better. I reached several conclusions in my learning process that I believe will affect my approach to Dance Education for the rest of my professional practice.
Firstly, as dance teachers we need to receive better formation regarding child development and learning theory focused in our knowledge of the different developmental stages, areas of learning, social-emotional aspects of child development, special needs, and sound pedagogical practices. Our field is filled with extraordinary teachers with impeccable dance formation, exquisite connoisseurs of their dance form...how magnificent would it be that combined with our knowledge of dance with a profound expertise in educational and pedagogical theories.
Secondly, we need to enter a sincere conversation with parents regarding the expected outcomes regarding an early stimulation programme of dance. The ethics of a dance form that seeks truth and beauty through an unbreakable work ethic, can not fall into false commercial claims of creating young geniuses by taking a dance class at an early stage. No early stimulation programme can promise such a claim. Early stimulation programmes provide children with readiness, higher self-esteem, and greater experience. However, developmentally children will be able to reach certain milestones once their cognitive and physical maturity reach the stage that allows such a change to occur. These milestones can not be hurried or changed in their process. Cognitive psychology though the work of many researchers such as Skinner and Piaget, have been able to identify developmental changes and milestones, and all of these imply maturity as a result of a biological process. Children do not need to start Baby Ballet at a very early stage in order to become dancers. Formal training begins when the child is physically, cognitively and emotionally ready to receive the complex and taxing knowledge that will pave the way to their learning. Starting early implies that the student is exposed to information earlier, but not that learning will occur earlier.
Third, and lastly, early dance programmes that are well-structured bearing in mind the students´ developmental process can be extremely enriching for a child at very early stages. Stage experience at an early age can be exhilarating and can help forge a healthy self-esteem before insecurities set in at a later stage. As Gardner eloquently states, "But the body is more than simply another machine, indistinguishable from the artificial objects of the world. It is also the vessel of the individual´s sense of self." Artistic exposure at an early age can lead to great musical and dance appreciation. Developmentally, children need plenty of exercise and their development of strength, balance and coordination is greatly aided by dance activities. Furthermore, children learn by playing, a dance programme that provides opportunity for improvisation, imagination games and exercises all enhance a natural development of the dancer within.
Baby Ballet Course: Developing Self Awareness Onstage
National Auditorium with Mariana Solano and Adriana Porras, teacher assistants
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