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| A dance stage, Tsim Sha Tsui |
And so you know I have been dancing for long, and I have been living by dancing. It has been fun but of course there have been exhausting times.
Some of the dance classes that I have been teaching are not regular weekly classes, they were on demand and sometimes in a hush. For example, there was a troupe of six people, whose only dance experience had been random wiggles at pubs, asking for four 2-hour classes in two weeks, in which not all the people would be able to attend each time, so that they could give a reasonable performance at their company's annual event. Other more common cases are wedding couples coming to learn a first dance at last minute. So you know, being a full time teacher offering all kinds of dance styles need to prepare for clients with all level of dance experience; therefore, one should always have a plan B.
During busy seasons, I will be having 3-4 couples a day, plus regular classes, and could still be fortunate enough to get sudden projects. We always tailor made the dance for non-regular comers, so even they have the same songs the choreography may not be the same. To better prepare the class, we usually politely ask questions like the dance experience, injuries, how willing they are to incorporate lifts and drops, and more importantly, how much time we would be having before their big day or performance day. After having a very basic background, I will get the song, and I will keep listening to it until I can also sing at least the chorus (yes, no matter in what language it is), and I will count the beats and bars for verses and chorus, and then I will start to write the dance which from my point of view that will suit the clients' level.
However, as I said, I always have plan B. You know what, when a wedding couple said they had danced Salsa before they could have just the experience of moving to the music at a Salsa pub once; or when a group said they had little dance experience they actually had been performing at their annual events and could move quite well to the beats; or when they said they had some ideas and would like to discuss at the first class, they were bringing their own choreography and asked if they could polish it...
A dance instructor needs to get prepared for every and all unexpected incidence, so s/he has to be flexible enough to feel alright to abandon what had been prepared and get into an unseen routine on the spot. Through time, I have developed an instinct to first search around to see if a particular song gets an official dance MV; at the same time, mark at least 3 variations for each highlighted move; and make my own notes for what have or haven't taught in each class. Oh and I find making notes is extremely important, since I have several clients learning different dances every day, if I haven't make my own notes after two days I will definitely forget who is doing what. The worst is, I can't depend on them to tell me the progress, because some people do not practice at all, and every time we need to pick up the fragments bit by bit.
In short, teaching dancing is hard, however it is definitely fun, I think the experience of teaching people at different level and in different ways in fact enriches myself as a dance instructor as well as a dance.
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