Making a Difference?

After teaching a class of which there were only 3 students in total out of 19 from the previous week I got into a  conversation with the dance teacher who is usually present during class at the school (a extra-curricular class) where I teach to reflect on the lack of presence of the students in class that day.   Needless to say I didn't feel great about it and got into an old pattern of thinking that their lack of presence was attributed to my class and its content and style or perhaps it might have been too hard. Or another old pattern was "well here we go again! as an after school club they are not required to attend. Pulling my bootstraps up I thought well... for those who stayed I will give them a really meaningful experience and pay attention to particular issues/themes they would like to focus on.  In the end the class was great and it gave me an opportunity to observe the two who stayed (the 3rd student was so unwell that it would not have benefited him to stay - he clearly needed to be in bed, but at least he turned up!)   I know that a bug was going around the school which not only affected a couple of the performing arts teachers but it seems to have affected the vast majority of students who should have turned up for class?  Surely 17 of them could not have been struck by this deadly bug! I wondered whether for the younger students mostly year 7 whether dance was that important to them and as it was only a club didn't take it too seriously despite promises that they would attend.  I also know that for some of the older students in my class year 13s there is a lot of pressure on them at the moment to commit to and finish assignments related to their performance arts course which meant staying behind after school for subjects closely related to their course.

The group I am teaching this term are ranging in ages from 11 to 19 years (years 7, a couple of year 8s, a handful of year 10s, years 12 and 13) - its quite broad and is reflected in the type of class I teach which  although I want to teach a more Horton based class have to differentiate massively and theme it in such as way through a piece I am setting that is more all encompassing, all inclusive  and not specifically stylistic in the Horton sense).

Reflecting back to the conversation with the dance teacher, she told me that for a cluster of the year 13 students she has charged them with attending open days at colleges, universities and conservatoires to look at what they would like to do and focus on in terms of further study at higher education level or an alternative possibly. Some of the year 13s were a little unsure what to study at university level and felt a little pressurised by other areas of the curriculum subjects they studied plus parental pressures.  Dance for some seemed to be of a lower priority that is until it all changed after attending some university open days. All agreed that they wanted to study dance at a either university or conservatoire level and it was interesting that each university had a different characteristic that favoured their choice of dance at a higher level.  The teacher reported that they had a light-bulb moment! They wanted to study dance. One thing they fed back which was a resounding yes, was that they needed to get back to my classes!  I was heartened and also humbled because in previous times last year in particularly and a little bit this term those very students who made that statement didn't come to my classes!  So the pressure is on for me to make a difference in their learning experiences and hope that I can draw out their potential to meet their own personal needs and aspirations and marry that to the type of university they wish to attend to further their dance training and career.  One girl in particular has always attended my classes and I was really impressed by her hunger, openness and physical development intelligently in her body and also by the way she moved.  She recently attended the summer school at Laban over the summer and boy did I see a change in her, in her approach to moving, her intelligence the way she modelled a way of moving that had nuances of what I had taught her throughout last year, but also physically her body was a blank canvas ready to take on   degree of intense dance training that will have a positive impact in her career.  It made me wonder despite the ups and downs of low attendance at my classes whether what I teach and in terms of a modern dance technique albeit it an adapted form make a difference and was  preparation tool for them to choose their dance pathway.  It made me think of my own paths and choices and how my training and more intensively when I trained in Horton how much of a tool and conduit it became for my dance career path and the types of dance companies and choreographers I worked with in the past.

I hope that for those students who after attending open days come back to my classes so that we can all walk on that journey in readiness for the next chapter of their dance careers.  I also hope that the 'bug' that afflicted so may has gone so that I get my other students back and I hope that I really can make a difference.  Incidentally I had one student who finished year 13 last year, accepted a place studying dance at a university but due to personal circumstances has deferred for a year.  She has asked permission from her dance teacher at school if she can attend after school classes and particularly mine!  Her aim is to do as many classes as possible in this gap  or deferred year to keep in shape and in readiness for when she starts her studies.  It was humbling how she talked about my classes and what it did for her previously.