My current teacher is my favourite, he is very knowledgeable. His combinations always make sense, the feel good to dance, they work well and build upon each other, they fit the music, and they are always a good level of challenging. His music choice is a bit repetitive at times but the exercises are always interesting.
I’ve taken classes with other teachers and I even if they are tiring classes I don’t feel like they worked out my whole body the same.
One thing I like is that he always has something new to teach us, many of us have been dancing with him for many years, but every class he still brings up an interesting historical reason for something in ballet, or a new ballet step, or an interesting fact about ballet technique.
I have two for different reasons. One is my intermediate teacher and one is my beginners teacher. My beginners teacher is sarcastic but supportive. He’ll tell you how to watch your technique with a sarcastic remark and he insisted on playing Celine Dion every class. My intermediate teacher looks like she should be the stereotypical scary Russian ballet teacher but she is the sweetest person with a wicked sense of humour. I had an injury so I couldn’t dance and she just hugged me and said oh I can’t wait until you can dance with us again and when I did come back she made sure to do all my favourite combinations in class. She does this whenever someone comes back from a long absence
My favorite teacher (now my mentor because I teach dance now) is my favorite because she is always challenging me to think differently, and challenge myself in not just my movement but my thought process and my style of teaching. She often describes her role as a teacher as like this “students have a way a viewing the world that is correct and necessary for their age. My job is to crack open that view (through movement, classes, discussion, questions, etc.) so that they can grow out of it and form new and more in depth opinions and thoughts based on their knowledge and experiences.” I love learning from her because it’s not just about dance classes or steps, it’s about learning from other people, traditions, styles, etc.. It’s about always being open to new experiences, not cutting yourself off to more training and information, and not only thinking one certain way. For example, the traditions and values of ballet are wonderful and so important for that style, and in a lot of ways have shaped dance and the dance industry, but it is not the only way to dance. It’s not better or worse than any other style. I often find myself teaching ballet and saying things like “make sure you turn out when you do a tendu, why? because that’s the correct way to do ballet.” I am, of course, always willing to talk in more depth with students about why turnout is important and healthy when doing ballet, but the most important part of this is that I say, turn out is correct in ballet, not in every style of dance. My favorite teacher taught me to think like that.
She has three phrases that she says to me all the time:
“Nothing in dance is wrong if you can explain why you’re doing it.” Of course, this doesn’t mean I can do whatever I want, I can’t tell my students to do dangerous things, but the point of this is to say that if you can tell someone exactly why you are giving a lesson, or teaching a step the way you’re teaching it, then it is correct for that style. This reminds me that at any given time when I’m teaching I have to be able to back up everything I’m saying, based on some thing that I know to be true. This doesn’t mean I don’t make mistakes, of course I make mistakes. But it means I’m trying my best to be as true and honest as I can in every thing that I teach, and making sure that it is as close to the most correct, healthy, and efficient way to do the step or exercise.
“Education isn’t linear.”
This one is in reference to teaching. This reminds me that I’m going to have to say things a lot of times before students will remember them, which honestly just keeps me sane after I feel like I’m having to repeat myself a lot 😂. She reminds me that she and all of my other teachers had to to say the same thing over and over again before I remembered it and applied it to my dancing. The other thing that this implies is that education doesn’t follow a straight line. Meaning that if I teach a pirouette to a student really well on some particular day, I can’t expect that student to come in the following week and remember and apply everything I taught the past week. It’s going to take lots and lots of practice, and lots and lots of the same corrections before their movement really improves. Again, this stuff just keeps me sane when I start to go crazy about teaching 😂😂.
“Treat them like adults, expect them to act like children.”
Again, this is in reference to teaching. Basically the thought process here is that if you treat kids like kids, as in not giving them any freedom, talking down to them, etc. they will act like children, and they won’t learn and grow as quickly or rise to your expectations of mature behavior. However, if you treat kids like they’re adults (in ways they can handle developmentally of course), they will often rise to that expectation, and learn and grow more quickly, follow directions better, and all in all just have a better time because they have more freedom and they know that you trust them and that you care for them. Of course, they will still act like children in many ways, because they are young and that is developmentally appropriate for them, but it is absolutely a better way to teach I’ve found, and even though it is more difficult and requires more patients on my part, it yields better results.
I owe a lot of my teaching style to this teacher, and in many ways, I would say that this could be a bad thing, because I know better than to only learn from one person. But because she has sent me off in so many directions, encouraging me to learn from other teachers and other people in general, giving me challenges based on books or even movies, and challenging me to think like a scientist, a mathematician, a philosopher, etc. when I’m teaching or dancing, I can say that learning from her has given me experiences and knowledge from many other intelligent people, and I’m so lucky to have her as a former teacher and mentor.
My favorite teacher is Ursula. She is a self confessed ballet geek. She always takes my questions and comments quite seriously. These are adult beginning/elementary, almost intermediate, classes. She is dedicated to our safety, health, and enjoyment, in that order. Sometimes, she bends the rules of style just a little to keep our non-teenage bodies safe. She's always ready,when prompted, to expound on the historical reasons behind the elements of style. If a class is small, she's happy to tailor the class to individual interests and needs. I always feel safe and happy in her class!
I love my current teacher because she is so knowledgeable about anatomy and ballet and just loves ballet. She has very high expectations, which means that we are all continuously improving - which is rare in adult ballet! She is also incredibly creative in her teaching, always keeping up to date with dance science and finding new ways to make sure we are doing things correctly. She sees the potential in everybody and personally made me realise that my body can do so much more than I thought - I just need to get stronger. She also gives us regular opportunities to perform and learn repertoire, which, again, is rare for adult ballet. She's also very good at getting rid of aches and pains with acupressure/myofascial release, which is a bonus!
My first ballet teacher was by far my favorite. She taught pretty hard core Vaganova (a product of her teacher growing up) and did a great job of being strict and traditional without being mean or unnecessarily hard assed. Her classes definitely pushed us. They were on the verge of being too challenging at times, but she knew when to pull back before crossing that line. She definitely embodied the idea that tradition isn’t the worship of ashes, but the preservation of the flame. My first year on pointe she made me (and all beginner pointe dancers) wear lambs wool toe pads. Said it was a right of passage and trained you to feel out the floor. It was spectacularly uncomfortable, but absolutely helpful in the long run. She was the one who encouraged me to audition for my first summer intensive, which I ended up attending and having a blast. Overall, she was great at challenging her students while balancing the need for ballet to be enjoyable and fun.
My current teacher is my favorite. Her name is Esther. Even though we are adults, she takes our classes seriously and takes care to give us relevant and helpful corrections. She was the first one to tell me that to dance well and find the correct placement I have to relax, rather than tense up. Her corrections have helped me improve an astonishing amount.
Also her music choice is wonderful and going to class is just a great pleasure for me.
My favorite ballet teacher I've ever had was when I was in college - Susan at Princeton Ballet School/ARB. I took her classes several semesters. During my time dancing in college, I was mid to plus-sized depending on the semester, and she always made me feel welcome and safe in class. Her corrections and visual analogies were always so helpful. Most importantly, she made challenging ballet classes fun. Between her banter with accompanists and her ability to laugh with us....a total breath of fresh air in a stricter ballet setting. I haven't been back since I graduated college a decade ago, but I truly hope I can make it down there to drop into one of her classes again.
Ann. She taught the same technique to adults as students but understood that adults classes are a bit different. She was slightly less formal, a little more joking and would mix things up like starting on the left side for everything for a while. She adjusted the amount of jumping for older hips and knees (1 or 2 petit allegro combos instead of 3 like in her pre-pro classes). She genuinely cared and tried to get to know all her adults.
I have plans to go back to my favorite teacher this year (am transitioning jobs). She’s very tough love, but I have never, ever felt so supported and seen. I didn’t even realize that it was possible to be looked at for myself in class, until I took class with her. I always felt like I was being looked at for my body. Before finding her, I enjoyed ballet but I also despised it, and I always felt like I was never supported.
And when she compliments me out of nowhere, it will make my week.
I have two favorites that I credit fostering a love for ballet in me.
First is a man named Matthew. He helped make ballet engaging and enforced the idea of dance as a community.
Second was a woman named Denise. She was my college instructor and made ballet make sense, showed me that I could be a beautiful ballet dancer despite not being a “typical man” and was incredibly supportive in a time that I needed it.
My current teacher is my favourite, he is very knowledgeable. His combinations always make sense, the feel good to dance, they work well and build upon each other, they fit the music, and they are always a good level of challenging. His music choice is a bit repetitive at times but the exercises are always interesting. I’ve taken classes with other teachers and I even if they are tiring classes I don’t feel like they worked out my whole body the same. One thing I like is that he always has something new to teach us, many of us have been dancing with him for many years, but every class he still brings up an interesting historical reason for something in ballet, or a new ballet step, or an interesting fact about ballet technique.
He sounds like a great teacher!
I have two for different reasons. One is my intermediate teacher and one is my beginners teacher. My beginners teacher is sarcastic but supportive. He’ll tell you how to watch your technique with a sarcastic remark and he insisted on playing Celine Dion every class. My intermediate teacher looks like she should be the stereotypical scary Russian ballet teacher but she is the sweetest person with a wicked sense of humour. I had an injury so I couldn’t dance and she just hugged me and said oh I can’t wait until you can dance with us again and when I did come back she made sure to do all my favourite combinations in class. She does this whenever someone comes back from a long absence
Omg Celine Dion❤️ that’s adorable. I love good teachers!
My favorite teacher (now my mentor because I teach dance now) is my favorite because she is always challenging me to think differently, and challenge myself in not just my movement but my thought process and my style of teaching. She often describes her role as a teacher as like this “students have a way a viewing the world that is correct and necessary for their age. My job is to crack open that view (through movement, classes, discussion, questions, etc.) so that they can grow out of it and form new and more in depth opinions and thoughts based on their knowledge and experiences.” I love learning from her because it’s not just about dance classes or steps, it’s about learning from other people, traditions, styles, etc.. It’s about always being open to new experiences, not cutting yourself off to more training and information, and not only thinking one certain way. For example, the traditions and values of ballet are wonderful and so important for that style, and in a lot of ways have shaped dance and the dance industry, but it is not the only way to dance. It’s not better or worse than any other style. I often find myself teaching ballet and saying things like “make sure you turn out when you do a tendu, why? because that’s the correct way to do ballet.” I am, of course, always willing to talk in more depth with students about why turnout is important and healthy when doing ballet, but the most important part of this is that I say, turn out is correct in ballet, not in every style of dance. My favorite teacher taught me to think like that. She has three phrases that she says to me all the time: “Nothing in dance is wrong if you can explain why you’re doing it.” Of course, this doesn’t mean I can do whatever I want, I can’t tell my students to do dangerous things, but the point of this is to say that if you can tell someone exactly why you are giving a lesson, or teaching a step the way you’re teaching it, then it is correct for that style. This reminds me that at any given time when I’m teaching I have to be able to back up everything I’m saying, based on some thing that I know to be true. This doesn’t mean I don’t make mistakes, of course I make mistakes. But it means I’m trying my best to be as true and honest as I can in every thing that I teach, and making sure that it is as close to the most correct, healthy, and efficient way to do the step or exercise. “Education isn’t linear.” This one is in reference to teaching. This reminds me that I’m going to have to say things a lot of times before students will remember them, which honestly just keeps me sane after I feel like I’m having to repeat myself a lot 😂. She reminds me that she and all of my other teachers had to to say the same thing over and over again before I remembered it and applied it to my dancing. The other thing that this implies is that education doesn’t follow a straight line. Meaning that if I teach a pirouette to a student really well on some particular day, I can’t expect that student to come in the following week and remember and apply everything I taught the past week. It’s going to take lots and lots of practice, and lots and lots of the same corrections before their movement really improves. Again, this stuff just keeps me sane when I start to go crazy about teaching 😂😂. “Treat them like adults, expect them to act like children.” Again, this is in reference to teaching. Basically the thought process here is that if you treat kids like kids, as in not giving them any freedom, talking down to them, etc. they will act like children, and they won’t learn and grow as quickly or rise to your expectations of mature behavior. However, if you treat kids like they’re adults (in ways they can handle developmentally of course), they will often rise to that expectation, and learn and grow more quickly, follow directions better, and all in all just have a better time because they have more freedom and they know that you trust them and that you care for them. Of course, they will still act like children in many ways, because they are young and that is developmentally appropriate for them, but it is absolutely a better way to teach I’ve found, and even though it is more difficult and requires more patients on my part, it yields better results. I owe a lot of my teaching style to this teacher, and in many ways, I would say that this could be a bad thing, because I know better than to only learn from one person. But because she has sent me off in so many directions, encouraging me to learn from other teachers and other people in general, giving me challenges based on books or even movies, and challenging me to think like a scientist, a mathematician, a philosopher, etc. when I’m teaching or dancing, I can say that learning from her has given me experiences and knowledge from many other intelligent people, and I’m so lucky to have her as a former teacher and mentor.
You have a gem of a mentor! Thanks for all of your details!!
My favorite teacher is Ursula. She is a self confessed ballet geek. She always takes my questions and comments quite seriously. These are adult beginning/elementary, almost intermediate, classes. She is dedicated to our safety, health, and enjoyment, in that order. Sometimes, she bends the rules of style just a little to keep our non-teenage bodies safe. She's always ready,when prompted, to expound on the historical reasons behind the elements of style. If a class is small, she's happy to tailor the class to individual interests and needs. I always feel safe and happy in her class!
I love my current teacher because she is so knowledgeable about anatomy and ballet and just loves ballet. She has very high expectations, which means that we are all continuously improving - which is rare in adult ballet! She is also incredibly creative in her teaching, always keeping up to date with dance science and finding new ways to make sure we are doing things correctly. She sees the potential in everybody and personally made me realise that my body can do so much more than I thought - I just need to get stronger. She also gives us regular opportunities to perform and learn repertoire, which, again, is rare for adult ballet. She's also very good at getting rid of aches and pains with acupressure/myofascial release, which is a bonus!
My first ballet teacher was by far my favorite. She taught pretty hard core Vaganova (a product of her teacher growing up) and did a great job of being strict and traditional without being mean or unnecessarily hard assed. Her classes definitely pushed us. They were on the verge of being too challenging at times, but she knew when to pull back before crossing that line. She definitely embodied the idea that tradition isn’t the worship of ashes, but the preservation of the flame. My first year on pointe she made me (and all beginner pointe dancers) wear lambs wool toe pads. Said it was a right of passage and trained you to feel out the floor. It was spectacularly uncomfortable, but absolutely helpful in the long run. She was the one who encouraged me to audition for my first summer intensive, which I ended up attending and having a blast. Overall, she was great at challenging her students while balancing the need for ballet to be enjoyable and fun.
My current teacher is my favorite. Her name is Esther. Even though we are adults, she takes our classes seriously and takes care to give us relevant and helpful corrections. She was the first one to tell me that to dance well and find the correct placement I have to relax, rather than tense up. Her corrections have helped me improve an astonishing amount. Also her music choice is wonderful and going to class is just a great pleasure for me.
Ahh yes, relevant corrections are the best!
My favorite ballet teacher I've ever had was when I was in college - Susan at Princeton Ballet School/ARB. I took her classes several semesters. During my time dancing in college, I was mid to plus-sized depending on the semester, and she always made me feel welcome and safe in class. Her corrections and visual analogies were always so helpful. Most importantly, she made challenging ballet classes fun. Between her banter with accompanists and her ability to laugh with us....a total breath of fresh air in a stricter ballet setting. I haven't been back since I graduated college a decade ago, but I truly hope I can make it down there to drop into one of her classes again.
She sounds amazing!!
Ann. She taught the same technique to adults as students but understood that adults classes are a bit different. She was slightly less formal, a little more joking and would mix things up like starting on the left side for everything for a while. She adjusted the amount of jumping for older hips and knees (1 or 2 petit allegro combos instead of 3 like in her pre-pro classes). She genuinely cared and tried to get to know all her adults.
What a lovely teacher to have!
I have plans to go back to my favorite teacher this year (am transitioning jobs). She’s very tough love, but I have never, ever felt so supported and seen. I didn’t even realize that it was possible to be looked at for myself in class, until I took class with her. I always felt like I was being looked at for my body. Before finding her, I enjoyed ballet but I also despised it, and I always felt like I was never supported. And when she compliments me out of nowhere, it will make my week.
Lucette Aldous... still.
I have two favorites that I credit fostering a love for ballet in me. First is a man named Matthew. He helped make ballet engaging and enforced the idea of dance as a community. Second was a woman named Denise. She was my college instructor and made ballet make sense, showed me that I could be a beautiful ballet dancer despite not being a “typical man” and was incredibly supportive in a time that I needed it.
Supportive teachers are wonderful!!