I've been home for a month - now what? Teacher Edition!

Beautiful dancers, we are moving into our fifth week of being locked down in our homes and it's definitely been taxing (tax deadline extended, by the way, yay!) on all of us, on our physical health and mental well-being.

I understand not everyone is able to work from home and as many people have noted, it is indeed a privilege to be able to work from your home. My gratitude and appreciation go out to the health care workers, grocery store employees, delivery people, and everyone else involved in a service industry deemed essential to the running of our country.

Dance teachers like me and many of my friends have had to scramble to put our businesses online in some form or another. We look at each other and try to follow the best path, cobbling together something that resembles our classes without being anything at all like them. How could they be? Each of us teaches in a different way and our personalities, our pet peeves and our quirks distinguish us from one another. We are not one-size-fits-all in real life; yet we can't truly be ourselves in the virtual world.

Blossom is my at-home assistant

We want our businesses to thrive, of course, but we also want our students to thrive. We are teachers because we love our students, we live for our students! We worry about them alone at home, not having someone to correct their errors or not taking class at all. I want my students to build on their technique with my guidance but how can I do that when I can't see them or gently prod them? One student emailed me that she missed my "stern gaze" but she also missed her fellow students' gazes. We all want to do well for our teachers but we want to perform well for our friends and fellow dancers.

Teaching virtually has been trial-and-error and sometimes fraught with anxiety! Had we all had time to prepare for online instruction, we would have invested in home studio equipment, microphones and cameras, a powerful internet connection. We would have researched the various platforms, tested them alone and with our students. We would have asked our students which platform suited them, which was easiest to use, what times to teach, and so on.

I know it's hard for you to train at home; it's lonely and hard to stay motivated! It's hard for us too. I miss seeing you dance across the floor to a combination I put together. I miss seeing you apply a correction I give you and the look of "Aha!" on your face.

Blossom loves ronds de jambes

Teaching from home, I've discovered, is not at all the same as teaching in a studio. For one thing, I have to watch my pace more. The usual benchmarks of a clock or simply seeing students' faces or fatigue would let me know when to move on, when to give more instruction, when to answer a question that hasn't been asked. I have to anticipate questions and problems. I have to do the exercises so I know where the problems could be since I can't see them on students' bodies.

However, I have to watch when I'm giving too much instruction and talking too much between exercises. Why? We're at home with a million distractions! There's my dog, Blossom, who barks at unusual times and sometimes wanders in when I'm doing ronds de jambe. There's my phone and my social media feeds; my kitchen which has coffee and snacks; and sometimes there's the pandemic itself which will consume my every waking thought until I can't focus on anything but the doom and gloom.

Whereas in the studio I might have another class coming in or a rehearsal to get to, at home I try to limit class to just an hour in order to keep it moving and engaging. I don't want you distracted either! And I certainly don't want you to feel the doom and gloom - for at least an hour!

Forget doom and gloom when Blossom's in the room!

And technology? Well, when it works, it's fantastic and a true gift to teachers and students alike. When it doesn't? Yeah...I'm a dancer not an IT expert. I get frustrated and upset and I just keep "turning it off and turning it back on" - over and over and over.

The fact is, like our current situation, teaching and taking ballet class online are fluid. We don't know what will happen tomorrow or the next day so have to take it as it comes and respond accordingly.

We dance now because we can.

We teach now because we can.

We fill our lives with joy when we can.

Stay safe and healthy! Happy dancing~