Life Class in Dance Class

Life Class in Dance Class:

How to Nurture Dancers to Become Best Version of Themselves

Do not tell your children to become the best there ever was. Do not tell your children to aim for gold.

Tell them to become the best version of themselves. Tell them to challenge themselves, using themselves as a measure of success.

Life Lesson in Dance Class #1:
I have noticed that often parents will instill a competitive nature in children. This is not a misguided goal, because setting their child up with skills and habits that will bring them success in life is the best gift a parent can give. However, this often mistakenly takes the form of negative reinforcement in disguise.

For one child to win, the majority must lose, and while that may seem like a great incentive to work harder, it creates a history of failure. You might be setting up your child for a cycle of hard work fueled by regret or anxiety or anger from losing.

Instead, set them up for success! By aiming to become the best version of themselves, they focus on
their own improvement and celebrate success using only themselves as a measure. They embrace
their unique skills and individuality instead of imitating others, which leads to better self-esteem. As an instructor, I always try to emphasize hard work, humility, and patience so my students can become the best version of themselves, without comparison to others. Positive reinforcement, all the way!

Many times I see that children are more focused on where they are standing in the formation... Am I in the front or am I in center? When dancing across the floor and learning a new technique, they are more focused on the rest of the students' reactions to what they are doing than actually just focusing on themselves and refining their movements. Why? Why is our focus so skewed from such a young age?

I beg to argue that these are habits and beliefs formed in the subconscious mind that can show up EVERYWHERE. And since I believe that what you focus on is what you will get - I aim to change my students' focus. I aim to clear out the distractions and help them love themselves and gain confidence instead of letting their emotions be dependent on whether they are in the center-front or if the other student approves of how they are dancing. If we can all as a community, help the youth understand that they are doing a wonderful job and re-iterate that it doesn't matter if u are center-front. If you just focus on being the best dancer you can be, people will watch you even if you are all the way in the back. hard work matters and it will get recognized. But we must first start with your soul and make sure you love yourself enough to clear out all the gunk and just focus on the beauty of YOU!


Life Lesson in Dance Class #2:
The power of a smile. I teach students from various social economic levels and have noticed a beautiful commonality in every child/family/area/school/etc and it is the universal language and power of a smile. Children may have had a bad day at home,. I may have had a rough day, we might be tired today, etc. but during the short time that I am with my students, SMILING is #1 on my list. When my children share their happiness with me, I forget all the troubles of my day and am in the moment and I reach to be able to give them the same every day. I had a mother share a story with me about her child and how she wrote a paper in school saying that she loves and appreciates her mother so much. One of the main things that stood out to me in what this little girl wrote is that she mentioned how her mom smiles all the time and that makes her happy. Who would have thought such a little thing would be appreciated so much that she would write about it? The power of a smile can be underestimated and it affects our children more than we realize. Make sure to smile a littel extra today.

Life Lesson in Dance Class #3:
The way you face the smallest of challenges in life, reflects on the way you will face the greatest of them. Build your muscles today!

I had a student in  my class who constantly gave up after 1-2 pushups (when we do 3 sets of 10!!!). The student would laugh and smile after choosing to not try to complete the whole set. Of course I understand that children need time to be able to build the muscles to be able to do all 10 pushups, let alone do 3 sets of them :) BUT this was about 4 months into our classes now. So I finally stopped the class and spoke to the student and addressed the issue ' If you give up so easily on doing 10 pushups, it is going to reflect on how you handle challenges outside of this studio. You are enabling a habit that will follow you for the rest of your life. Start creating the muscles in your mind and do not give up so easily.'  The student nodded and we continued our last set of pushups. the student completed ALL TEN PUSHUPS. I was so proud and thrilled and saw the same expression on her face.

Learn to set your standards high and be the person you want to be - whether it is by yourself in your room, in front of a classroom or at a dance studio :)

Life Lesson in Dance Class #4:
Help each other help each other. Being in a group environment can be difficult. You deal with several personalities and emotions. I personally consider myself to be sensitive to each others' feelings and I am partial to helping foster that environment in my classes. If a child laughs when someone messes up a dance step, I make sure to ask them 'how do you think that made them feel' and help them understand that they shouldn't act in that way again. Vice versa, we perform for each other in small groups and I watch the audience more than the performers at times to make sure they are being a good audience and not talking, as well as making to sure to applaud at the end.A support system is needed everywhere in our lives and it is also needed in our dance classes because a strong support system ensures the best environment for the students to do and become their best.
I remember once a student accidentally stepped on another students foot causing them to trip. This 4 year old girl started crying away, when the other student responded with an 'I'm sorry', the little girl stopped crying, looked at him and said 'It is okay.' I realized not only is it important for us to say Sorry but equally as important for the other person to let the one at fault know that it is okay. This 4 year old girl had accepted a life lesson some of us have still to learn. :)

Keep on Dancing to Inspire!
Amna