From the Vault: The Multi-level Dance Classroom

 

This article was originally published to the Al-hambra Dance Company Facebook page as a Note. Since the demise of Facebook Notes, it has been archived and published here. The approximate date would be between 2015 and 2017. Since its publication, it has been altered to reflect the change from ATS® to FCBD®-Style dance.

 

The Multi-level Dance Classroom

by Leigh Anne of Al-hambra Tribal Dance

I am a veteran of FCBD®-style dance who teaches a dance class at a local Parks & Recreation site. The reality of my P&R Belly Dance class is that I am fortunate to have a coterie of wonderful, joyful, dedicated dancers who come to class because they just love it. In addition, I get some total beginners who try it out on a lark because that’s what P&R is for. The staggering gap between the two groups puts me in the situation of teaching a multi-level class. Fortunately, I’ve had some amazing instructors over the years who have taught me some tips that I have learned to employ to make my class meaningful and fun for all levels.

One of my teachers is so adept at teaching multi-levels that she doesn’t even realize she’s doing it. She sets up the intermediate/advanced students with the work drills across the floor on one side of the room, frees herself to get the beginners started, and travels back and forth between the two groups as seamlessly as a butterfly flitting from flower to flower, offering critiques and clarifications. She unwittingly sets up a safe environment whereby students of whatever level they perceive themselves to be that day can move to one side of the room to benefit from the instruction level there. Another of my instructors does her drills in the round, allowing those struggling to come into the center as needed to sort out the concepts before joining the rest of the group. She gives the advanced students layers to add while allowing the newer students to sort out movement from the feet on upward. Finally, my personal trainer has a keen eye and ear to what my physical capacity is on any particular day, and she tailors our sessions to benefit me while not aggravating my injuries; it is in both our best interests to ensure that I feel sweaty and challenged, but not injured or fearful of pain after my session with her. All three of these instructors are operating on key principles that I have distilled into my own teaching of the FCBD® format, and I hope they are useful to those reading this article looking for gems to help them in their own multi-level FCBD® or other dance style classrooms.

Principle 1: Your job as a multi-level dance teacher is to provide a meaningful experience to all. It is not to create superstar dancers (they are the only ones who can do that), and it is not to grow your own army of dancers whom you will direct (that’s for a performance troupe class). Your job as a multi-level teacher is to meet each student in that class as s/he is on that day, with whatever skills and issues they may have, and provide something for them to gain from. Whether and how much they gain is up to them, but you have to provide something to all levels.

Principle 2: A meaningful experience is attained when everyone feels both struggle and success. Students at my P&R class come back because for every bit of sweat involved, they also feel they grow a little bit. You can’t just “aim for the middle” with a large skill gap in your class; you need to address each level accordingly. Your newbies have plenty of challenge, so balance the details and critique with plenty of encouragement, humor, and joy. For your longest-attending students, give them a challenge that is just beyond their skill level so that they always have a perspective of where they are, and where they can grow. But don’t make it an unachievable precision military drill; that’s for an advanced class that you might teach someday, but not today. With the multi-level class, you need to bookend the challenges by pointing out the good things that you are seeing as well as the critiques. Praise, jokes, and inviting intermediates to take small leadership roles in the class are tiny ways to help someone feel success when things get challenging. Because dance is challenging…remember?

Principle 3: Keep all the nuances of a step in your pocket, and only reveal them bit by bit over time. It’s tempting to teach EVERYTHING about a step when you introduce it; after all, you want students to learn it completely, and you want to imbue them with the love of the dance that you have. However, with every paragraph you utter verbally, your newbies are shrinking with intimidation or info overload. My instructors taught me that the body craves symmetry in movement, and it will work out a lot on its own if the brain will just get out of the way. For your beginners, focus on teaching the “feel” of a step while resisting the urge to reveal every element of it as you introduce it. Then, select one or two nerdy details for your intermediates to explore in that same step while your newbies are finding their sea legs. While the beginners are grappling with the basics, your intermediates can focus on nuances of angle, velocity, height, pace, attitude and expression, accent, or take the step into fades, levels, circles, or to a particular tricky song, or in duets. Pulling out one obscure nuance to practice keeps your long-termers challenged and growing, and the newbies can focus on their own task without feeling left behind or stared at by a skilled dancer.

Principle 4: Don’t level people; level the class. The last thing I want to do is to confer upon a dancer that she is beginner or intermediate or advanced; that could get interpreted a million ways and could affect how they continue to see themselves. Therefore, I set up the space like so: “On this side of the room, I’ll be working on the basic Four Families of Movement, and on that side of the room, I’ll be working on Egyptian spins and fades.” Dancers sort themselves accordingly. This gives intermediates freedom to choose their focus for the day, and it removes some intimidation from beginners because they know a place has been carved out for them.

Principle 5: Be sure to give EVERYONE achievable critique, and let them know when they’ve achieved something. Critique by a teacher shows your students you care. If you don’t know how to give critique, or if you have a sharp tongue, this will be your downfall as a teacher. Always speak from a position of wanting to guide and help, never personally judging or criticizing. But be sure to give critique to every single student – speaking from experience, nothing is more deflating than the teacher never once in a class bothering to come over to take interest in your growth. If your least coordinated student only gets the “1” on the Egyptian, praise the hell out of that “1” and set the goal of the 2-3-4 for the next class.

Here is an example of a multi-level 90-minute first-of-the-session class that I found successful. This is an FCBD®-style class, and I’m teaching the slow, arrhythmic moves of Taxeem and Body Wave, and the Four Families of Fast Movements.

· 10 min Dynamic Warmup and Grounding:

1. I insert conceptual groundwork for the movements they’ll be learning today. For example, we’ll be doing Egyptian, so in warmup we do very loose touch-step hip swivels that will turn into Egyptian basic later; we do chest lifts and drops that will turn into Body Wave and Arabic.

2. A slow warmup follows that includes Grounding. Here, I ask them to dedicate their practice to someone. It helps remove the stress of learning something new and turn it into a giving action, which is a position of power.

· 45 min Four Families of Fast Movement

1. Intermediates: As Intermediates always need more dance practice, I immediately put them into duets/trios to dance and test out any moves that they might want to ask me about today. I put on a song on repeat and let them practice.

2. Beginners: I introduce Egyptian basic and Pivot Bump, the history of their terminology, and the key elements of their movement. I illustrate transitions between the two. “OK, you drill it and I’ll be back shortly.”

3. Intermediates: Clear up any q’s about steps they have. Give drill in Egyptian calibrated spins (which they know, but need practice in).

4. Beginner check-in: I walk to each dancer and give helpful technique pointers. If they’re confident, I add the half-turn and give them a combo to practice. I leave them to it.

5. Intermediates: Check in on spins and give technique pointers. Give fade combo: Egyptian forward, cue spins and spin, Egyptian back, cue spins and spin, Arabic and change leads. Leave them to it.

6. Beginner check-in: Water break, then give minor technique pointers and lots of encouragement. Add Arabic step and Shimmy to combo. Let them practice.

7. Intermediates: Ask to see fades with spins. Comment and praise. Water break.

· 25 min Taxeem and Body Wave

1. Go through taxeem and body wave to all, illustrating how even skilled dancers will continue to hone them; this always elicits agreement by intermediates! Start drill by asking a couple of intermediates to lead a couple newbies; I choose the ones who were most frustrated by the spins, and this restores their confidence. Others who want more challenge are given a combo involving a fade, or a level, or a duet formation.

2. Split group again. Intermediates get water; Beginners get instruction pointers and a drill combo; I leave them to drill on their own. Intermediates get body wave and taxeem fade drill in formations. I call out the things they need to focus on, like “slow it down! Ooey gooey, remember?”

3. Beginner check-in. Beginners get water and come over to watch intermediates. I continue to give critique to intermediates with beginners watching. Praise the good stuff so that everyone hears it.

· 5 min Slow-fast song all together

1. I congratulate newbies on their first class (my lovely intermediates always join in), and invite them to follow this short song, and “roll with” anything that I lead them though. Most of all, they should follow the best they can and have fun!

2. I take the opportunity in this song to show off the dance; I recognize that my students want to and should see me dance, and I really work it with attitude and sass and a super-cool song that everyone leans into. This is perhaps the most important part of the class: the newbies need to see what the dance looks like all together, and the intermediates need to notice nuances like attitude and presence.

· 5 min Cool down

1. I remind them that they did a lot of work and they need to stretch and drink water when they get home.

2. We applaud and zaghareet and congratulate ourselves for our hard work.

With a commitment to everyone’s success, your multi-level class can be successful if you follow these 5 principles. Happy dancing and teaching!!