Observation 4: Erin St. John

Thursday, Feb 4th (9:15-10:30)
Today, I took a ballet 2 with Erin St John, a dance professor at Nova. I really enjoyed her ballet class. The classroom setting was comfortable, unlike other ballet classes, which can be very tense at times. She teaches a lot through her words; although, she does demonstate at times. At a level 2 class, she expects much of her students. When she speaks in French terminology, she expects her students to understand. Of course, she does not expect them to know everything, then she would have no reason to teach. If you take her class, you will definitely be challenged. She pushes her students in order for them to gain the strength and stamina needed for ballet. One thing that I wish she would do more of is hands-on instruction. I noticed that she makes a point to put you in something that may be uncomfortable, but she knows that it will help you grow as a dancer. At the end of class, I asked her a few questions about teaching dance and a little bit about her professional career. I learned that she started teching when she was very young. At 13 or 14, she was an assistant teacher and she began to teach classes on her own while she was obtaining her masters. She told me that she loved teaching dance because it enabled her to carry on the traditions that she had learned from her teachers. Dance technique is an oral tradition that needs to be passed on from generation to generation. She takes pride in teaching students new to dance and seeing how far they come along. Later, she went back to school to get a degree in education in order to further her knowledge in teaching. She feels that in order to TEACH dance, you must know how to teach. Professional dancers may be great at dancing, but are they great at teaching it? There is a strategy for teaching dance and it is important to learn it. She also explained to me that while teaching it is important to sense the engergy in the class from the students, in order to get a feel of where the class should and should not go. You never want to push the students further than they can go. I was really glad to be able to speak with her and I learn a lot. :)

~AMY~ ttys