2016年8月14日 星期日

Why 10 Dances? - (part 2) more is more



What happens when you want to one day be a dance teacher yourself? More is more; more dances mean more inspirations; more dances mean more opportunities; more dances mean more income.

As a dance teacher who is eligible to teach up to 29 different dance styles, I can assure that the above statement is very true. It is quite hard to gain sufficient students if you are only focusing on one dance, no matter how good you are at that particular dance. Having perfect technique for one specific dance could be a selling point, but it is definitely easier to have classes to suit different people when you have pressure from the rent.

As said before, technique in one dance is always relating to the other dances, so learning them all is not really hard if you are already good at one of them. The inter-relations not only limited to Ballroom & Latin, Smooth & Rhythm, Line and Swing, the relaion web in fact has captured all kinds of dances. I am saying this not because I do not know these dances, I am saying this because I know and I teach them. My classes range from Ballroom & Latin, to Line Dance, K-Pop and Break Dance, Jazz, Bollywood and other Club dances like Salsa and Argentine Tango (It is interesting that I actually started dancing with Chinese Dance 30+ years ago but I have never thought of getting the teacher's training in that). When I am doing the choreographing I always drag elements from various dances to enrich my routines.

Surely, the dances all have different style, but they share the same actions. As dance history is as long as the human history, dancing has already explored all possible body actions.  No matter how innovative you are, choreography cannot go beyond bodily constrains so dancers can only present possible actions with their own expression of the music and give their own personal characters.

So, I am actually saying that, study how expression can touch people and how body actions can fit into music can help your dancing, thus help your teaching of dancing; otherwise, you are just another dancer who hold teaching certificates. Do you know how many teaching certificates are being issued every year?


Why 10 Dances?
part 1- 10 dances give bonus dances
part 2- more is more (you are here)

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