In August 2014, Valerie Gutwirth and I published a pocket guide/journal of 55 teaching tips we wished we had learned before embarking on a career teaching children and teens. This book is not teaching advice about content or lesson planning; it is about those essential details – the brass tacks (teaching supplies, paychecks, shoes for teaching, observing at the school before you begin, protocol for days when you are sick…). Whether you are teaching one class a week or twenty, these tips are practical and easily applicable right away in a wide variety of teaching settings including in a studio, preschool, or K-12 school. Since many dance teachers teach a variety of ages within a given week, Dance Education Essentials touches upon ideas that are universal to all dance classes as well as some specific to preschoolers, elementary age students, and teenage students.

For the next few weeks, we will share some of these teaching tips. If you would like to purchase your own copy of the pocket guide/journal ($7.99), click here.

We welcome college professors to print out these teaching tips and use within a college course on dance education.

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TOPIC: SELF-CARE

Tip #11: Your Energy Level

During your first year of teaching, you might be very tired. Heading to class or rehearsal each night, on top of teaching, can be difficult. Be prepared; pace yourself. Think about non-dance activities that can be relaxing and recuperating for you to balance the exertion of teaching – reading, gardening, working out, hanging out with friends, or hiking. Let those near and dear know that support is welcome – meals, calls to check in, massage gift certificates, or whatever works for you.  

Tip #20: Commute Time and Prep Time

Piecing it together – consider your commute time between various sites and home, the number of different lesson plans you will teach each week, and how much time you will need to prep.

Tip #22: Time for Your Own Dancing

When piecing together various jobs, do you still have time each week to dance (take class and rehearse)?   

Tip #37: A Mentor

Mentors are incredibly special and important people in a dancer’s life. Mentors offer support, guidance, questions, and encouragement. Seek out a seasoned dance teaching artist who might be willing to meet with you once a month (or every few months or every week) for coffee, to come see you teach, and/or who might be up for answering questions via email about lesson plan ideas.

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About the authors:

Valerie Gutwirth began teaching dance to children in high school. She graduated from Connecticut College in 1984, and received an MS in Early Childhood/Elementary Education from Bank Street College in 1992. She has taught movement, dance, and fitness classes to people from birth to age 80+, from Mommy and Me classes in church basements to Juilliard’s dance department, and everything in between. Valerie’s dance and performance experience includes companies in New York (1984-1991) and the San Francisco Bay Area (1995-present), most recently with Paufve Dance and the dance/singing/ body percussion group MoToR. Valerie has been thrilled, inspired, and challenged as a dance teacher in the Berkeley, California public schools for the past 17 years.

Jill Homan Randall graduated from the University of Utah in 1997 and has been teaching dance, or directing arts education programs, ever since. In the San Francisco Bay Area, Jill has taught in a wide variety of settings including preschools, community centers, dance studios, and public and independent K-12 schools. From 2004-2006 Jill was the Director of Education for the Lincoln Center Institute affiliate in Berkeley, California, and from 2006-2010 Jill directed Shawl-Anderson Dance Center. Jill currently teaches dance full-time at The Hamlin School in San Francisco. She has performed extensively with Nina Haft & Company and Paufve Dance. As a dance writer, Jill maintains three blogs on children’s books on dance, careers in modern dance, and the intersection of dance and technology. In 2013, Jill received the Herbst Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence.

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