Teaching and the Art

Autor: Leyla Najma

A very interesting topic came up today that I wanted to share with all of you. This topic came to my attention many years ago because I asked one of my first teachers this question, "How long should I study with you?"

Now the reason why I am bringing this up is because I feel it is important for dancers to learn from as many teachers as possible. This way your creativity is always inspired but with different philosophies on dance.

Every teacher has her own different and special ways of teaching. This we all know but sometimes when we spend so much time with one teacher we can become the carbon copy of how they dance.
Also a problem that can come up is difficulty learning from other teachers.
What can happen is a comparison to the speed at which a dancer learns moves to how she learned previously. Dance comes into our bodies at the speed our bodies can handle it and in order to build up our speed we must take in the movement like a sponge.

But the question that I asked so long ago still lingers in my mind.

Over a year and a half ago I had a student who was doing very well under my coaching. We worked on her body image and we also worked on what she was trying to cover up. A former teacher had told her that she must cover her ample bosom and not show it off. My first question of course was, "Was your teacher small busted"? And the answer was "Yes". I laughed because I was only joking when I asked her this question but she answered me very seriously. My student was also an African American woman that was just lovely. And she came from a studio that left her feeling different, uncomfortable with her body image and inferior to the other dancers. She left that teacher feeling like she would never get to her dreams and aspirations because she was not shown how to be herself and to be proud. So we went to work and almost a year later she was a different person. She did the work and I was the support system. But I did something that some of you may think is unusual, I told her at almost the year mark that our time as student and teacher was over and that she must go and learn from someone else. I had a teacher in mind and I had already recommended her to my dear friend, Rozana al Jinan. She was thrilled I found her a new teacher but she wasn't happy with me for ending the classes. I may have done the opposite of what I intended and she may have felt that I abandoned her. But as I told her, her first day of class that one day I would see the need for her to move on and that day had arrived.

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