Aziza Sa'id's FAQ - Dance Styles

Have you done any teaching before, even other subjects? If you have, you already know that teaching and doing are two very different sets of skills... being a good dancer is not the same thing as being a good teacher. You've landed on one of my pet subjects, so there's quite a bit here, probably more than you wanted to know. If you have specific questions beyond this, don't hesitate to contact me.

Here are some things to think about as you prepare to teach:

1) Most important: make sure your knowledge of technique, posture, stretching, warm-ups and cool-downs is current, complete and SAFE. Many dancers learned this stuff from others who didn't really know the rights and wrongs of these important subjects, and as a result, teach things that can cause permanent injuries in their students. This information has changed over the years, make *sure* what you are teaching is safe.

2) Think about how you were taught, what worked for you, what didn't. There's room for many styles of teachers, but consider subjects like level of organization, level of skill, ability to communicate, way of breaking things down, way of giving feedback, choreography vs. improvisation... Make a list of the characteristics of your teachers that you liked and try to incorporate those things in your teaching.

3) Think about your goals for teaching... to have a student troupe, to share it with friends, to make a living... how you organize your classes, how much you demand from your students, what you charge will depend on these things.

4) Organize what you want to teach. For instance, classes of moves:

Figure 8s
- hip forward
- hip back
- hip up
- hip down (maya)
- camel
- body wave
Traveling steps
- step lift
- glide
- sideways hip twist
- 3/4 shimmy
Props
- cane
- veil
- zills

5) Make a plan of how to approach the material - for example:

Teaching order:
- hip 8 forward and hip 8 back
- hip 8 up and hip 8 down (maya)
- camels
- body wave
Variations:
- hip 8 forward and hip 8 back
- smaller/faster
- larger/slower
- syncopated timing
- Egyptian style
- Turkish style

6) Make lesson plans so you don't flounder around in front of the class:

Class 1 -
- Warm-ups;
- Stretches;
- Hip lift technique;
- Hip circle technique;
- Rib slides;
- Start snake arms;
- Head slides;
- Hip shimmies;
- More Stretches;
- Cool-down.
Class 2 -
- Warm-ups;
- Stretches;
- Hip lift walking;
- Hip circle with size changes;
- Rib slides;
- Finish snake arms;
- Head slides;
- Hip shimmies and Shoulder shimmies;
- More Stretches;
- Cool-down.
Organize your music too:
- Raks Orientale 1-6 for warm-ups;
- Leila for stretches;
- Amro Diab (blue) for Hip Lift Walking...

7) Don't try to teach too much too fast - it's a common error of new teachers. Take your time, break it down, make sure they really get it and have time to practice it before going on to the next thing. Teach a foundation move, then elaborate on it, then add arms, then add style. Don't ask or give too much at once, make it bite-sized. Develop a step over weeks instead of trying to get it in with all its details in one lesson. Students need time to assimilate, if you give too much too fast, they will far less of it than if you spread it out over time.

8) Be lavish with encouragement and gentle with criticism. People are more fragile than you think and you, as a teacher, have more power to do harm or good than you realize. Learn the difference between encouragement and false praise - the first is essential to helping students deal with the frustrations of learning, the second harms the student by obscuring things they probably need to know and giving credit where it hasn't been earned.

9) Teach simple choreographies to help students "tie it together" and work on transitions, as well as give them something to practice on their own.

10) Teach the practicalities and the history as accurately as you can - how to deal with audiences, how to educate about what this art is about (no, I don't do hoochie coo..., here's where the dance comes from...), what the real history and cultural context is. Helping them understand the culture this dance comes from will help them become better dancers too...

11) Concern yourself and them with the ethics of dance: Don't undercut other dancers; Don't dance in venues you aren't prepared for; Don't engage in cross-school politics and bad-mouthing; Honor the copyright laws and don't copy music and videos for them. You are their teacher and guide in these things too.

12) Help them to find themselves in the dancing, not just mimic what you do.

13) Make sure they are having fun in your classes as well as learning. Fun brings back more students for the next class than hard work does, so make sure no matter how hard you work them, they have fun too.

14) Continue to study so you improve your skill, stay sharp, and expand what you know. It teaches them to keep their minds open and ensures you will always have more to teach them.

15) Finally, be brutally honest with yourself about your level of readiness for being a teacher. Think hard about how good you are as a dancer, a technician, an entertainer, a teacher... what you really know (and what you just assume), and what your motivations are. When intermediate dancers teach beginners, they do not really have a complete understanding of the material and often teach incomplete, incorrect and unsafe techniques to students who are not equipped to know the difference and suffer for it. If you really believe you are ready, then go ahead, but be a diligent student and educate yourself so what you give them is safe, correct and useful.

I hope all this helps you with your on-going growth as a dancer, teaching - when you are ready - will really help you advance your own skill and it can be great fun and wonderfully rewarding.