From the Vault: Healthy Student Troupes

 

This article was originally published via Facebook Notes on July 10, 2017. Upon the demise of Facebook Notes, the article was archived and is being republished here, with pronoun usage (s/he and him/her) updated. The elements in the article are based on my direct experience from having spent years in a student dance troupe run by a prominent dance company.  

 

Dancers from the Nefer Tem, Red Lotus, and Blue Diamonds belly dance troupes.

Healthy Student Troupes

My students approached me a while ago and asked if I would direct them as a student troupe. I shared with them how moved I was that they should ask me for this, but I declined, citing job and family life. I could see their disappointment; however, I stand by my decision because I know a lot about being in a student troupe. I do not want to commit to such a task until I’m able to structure my life and my time to help my students grow and be successful. Any dance teacher considering setting up a student troupe should reflect on whether they have the time, the leadership skills, the committed vision, and the ability to detach and let dancers grow.

Successful troupes (student or otherwise) need leadership. It is rare that a group can operate with flowing synergy and no direction, yet many teachers are willing to believe that student troupes will do just that with merely a contract or a code of conduct. Leadership is vital, and leadership is NOT 1) dictatorship, 2) gatekeeping, 3) remote parenting, or 4) the short straw drawn. If your leadership has any of those qualities, your student troupe is doomed to dissolve in throes of gossip and grumbling.

Leadership is not a dictatorship; every member of your student troupe needs to have agency. That does not mean that every member can disagree and start directing on their own; the leader is the final decision-maker. But if your students don’t have agency, they will develop an enormous dependency on you for EVERYTHING, and that turns into resentment. Certainly, rules and expectations are important, and everyone should know the chain of operations, but in a dictatorship, voices are silenced. Meanwhile, mini-dictators sprout up below, damaging respect and trust. Every member needs to feel that they are not there just because of the director’s benevolence, but because of the value that they bring to the group. They need to be able to speak up and be respected when they contribute, and they need a tiny bit of freedom to occasionally push boundaries - that’s what makes good art. Without this agency, the art that is created fails to exist as a product of the artists, but exists rather as a product of the teacher. If the troupe dissolves under its own weight, that failure is the teacher’s alone.

Leadership is also not gatekeeping. Your role as a student troupe director is not to keep people out of your professional troupe, nor is it a holding pen for the people that you don’t know what to do with. If that’s why you’re creating a student troupe, you are being dishonest to your students. Yes, we all have students who have been with us for years and have ceased to improve. Create student haflas for these dancers, and praise and support them for all the work that they do in them. However, the second you create one of these “holding pen” student troupes for those students who have been with you forever, you are setting up a class system that wordlessly communicates status to everyone. This is not a healthy relationship to have in your studio. If those students want to do more than student haflas and decide to form troupes on their own, let them. Focus on growing what you offer in your class and impart quality instruction there. Troupe-as-gatekeeper is a slow and agonizing road to failure.

Leadership is not remote parenting, either. Student troupes need constant interaction to keep dynamics operating healthily. If you do not have the time to devote to this, expect conflicts due to your absence. When conflicts arise, they need to be dealt with directly, and that means talking openly to people. This does not mean sending letters or memos to people about their crimes, angry mass emails chewing out unnamed individuals, vague-booking, herding people into meetings to express displeasure, or making general statements in class like, “I’ve been hearing complaints about XYZ…and it needs to stop.” Such communication removes agency from people and completely erodes their respect for you. Think about it: do YOU thrive in an environment where you don’t know whether you’ve broken a rule? Do you perform your best when leadership is vague or distant? Treat your student troupe the way you would like to be treated if you were in it.

Finally, leadership is not drawing the short straw. Directors who don’t want to have a hand in their student troupe often pawn the job off on one of the professional troupe members. This can work if that member actually wants to take on the job of directing a student troupe. More often than not, this member is not, in fact, empowered to direct the student troupe: they are merely a leader, a guide, a mentor, or just the person who books the gig. Any issues, conflicts, or creative projects are still brought to the Director, who is already removed from the troupe. This is a recipe for group dynamics disaster; every member of the student troupe will come to realize that the leader of the troupe has no real authority and is just a babysitter for troupe rehearsals. Think about it: would YOU perform your best under such circumstances? The director of the student troupe needs to be empowered to make the final decisions and support the students at all times, never throwing them under the bus when a conflict arises.

It is wise to consider the following needs before setting up a student troupe.

1. Student troupes, by definition, need a teacher in charge of a structured troupe class. Troupes take a LOT of energy, sort of like a litter of kittens with families, jobs, schedules, and personality conflicts. Either commit a teacher to direct the troupe, and completely empower them to direct it, or don’t create a student troupe. Never allow a student troupe to operate without a teacher firmly at the helm. Don’t create a student troupe because your students ask for it; create a student troupe because you want to take your students on a vision for you and them.

2. Student troupes need goals and gigs. The classic model for professional troupes is to toss the gigs that no one wants to their student troupe. First of all, this is bad for dance in general and devalues the art in the eyes of the public. Secondly, it doesn’t keep the student troupe engaged in regular work, thus making it difficult for members to plan and commit when gigs do eventually arise. We are familiar with this scenario: a student troupe starts off strong, but eventually, no one can commit to a gig. Instead, admit that your responsibility to your student troupe is to find gigs for them. Be fair about compensation; they put a lot of work into the performance, and they deserve that reward just as your professional troupe does. This shows your commitment and keeps your students constantly working towards goals. If you do not have time and energy to commit to this, don’t set up a student troupe. Don’t create a student troupe to do what you don’t have time for; put in the time and energy to set them up for success.

3. Student troupes need agency. Performing for your praise is not enough reason to be in a student troupe. Troupes need to be performing for the collective identity of the troupe, and that collective identity needs to be able to say something of its own, not just parrot your own voice back at you. At some point, you will begin to see that they are taking on their own “flavor” of the dance, and you need to respect that. Your goal is not to make them into “mini-you”; your goal is to help them be who they are going to become. Authoritarian troupe directors unwittingly set up the student troupe to grow into a sort of rebellion, inviting gossip, cliquishness, and disgruntled attitudes. Instead, give them the nourishment to help them grow in the direction they are going. Don’t create an atmosphere where student troupes cannot question, experiment, or take responsibility for themselves; they will only grow to resent you.

Before setting up a student troupe, ask yourself: for whom am I doing this? If the answer is “for the students,” make sure you know what that means. You need to dedicate yourself wholly to them, finding them gigs, giving them time, and supporting them when they begin to develop their own identities and style. If the answer is “for myself,” create the troupe experience that you would like to be a member of, and craft yourself as the student troupe director that you would like to have had when you were in your student troupes in the past. Your students’ success reflects directly on you.