Teaching as a two-way exchange

Or leaving space for others

Or the “right” amount of uncertainty

My husband recently pointed out that I tend to dislike participating in projects where I’m not in charge. Rude! I can take direction! I can be led! And then I thought a second longer, and then quickly agreed. The thing is, I’m not a great team player, if I don’t think the team is being led well. I have lots of thoughts about how to lead a room, teach a dance, give direction, and I find that if people don’t live up to these ideals, I become the internally squeaky wheel, secretly being *so* annoyed. 

One of my biggest complaints about the dance world, especially for Western forms having some basis in ballet, is teaching students to silently accept direction. (Now, note that my viewpoint is based in teaching adults and taking class with adults from a community to professional level. Teaching children is a whole separate discussion.) I recently attended an audition (already a stretch for me) where the person leading the room was so lackadaisical about directing the experience that I knew I would have a hard time participating in the project, even if I was cast (don’t worry, I wasn’t). I’ll spare you my full list of complaints, but my biggest issue was that I could sense the frustrated energy in the room coming not just from me, and this director did nothing to acknowledge/shift/address that perhaps things weren’t going as smoothly as they had imagined and carried on with the plan. 

I’ve had similar experiences in partner dancing — the dances I enjoy the least are the ones where the leader seems to have a very clear idea of what they’re trying to do; I clearly have no idea what that is, and we just continue in this battle of misinterpreted cues until the song is over. Was that worth it? In my opinion, hell no. 

The best leaders (and by extension, teachers) will be responsive to their followers (students/collaborators/employees/children). They will work to create a culture where one can voice their needs and questions without feeling shame, and they will be sensitive to the energy of the room, working to shift it when necessary. (Teaching toddlers forces you to become capable at this this very quickly, if you want to survive!)

As much as we like to believe it, the world is not full of absolute truths. Things we learned in grade school may turn out to be inaccurate, mis-representative of how the world is, or just a picture of the common viewpoints at the time. Things that feel very true today may turn out to be less true tomorrow. The leaders & teachers that I have found most engaging acknowledge this flexibility, and guide students to experience this porosity in a safe, yet provoking manner.

I think the most effective teachers will also be clearly intentioned about what they know, what they don’t, and what they’re hoping to discover with the class. In leading class, I am sometimes intentionally vague about directions — “Should my foot be pointed?” “How many steps do I take?” Usually my responses to these questions is something along the “Whatever-you-feel!”-lines, which I know can be frustrating for students. Just tell us what you want, Lydia! Here’s the thing — I’m still figuring it out, and I think that’s the beauty of the classroom. My vision of teaching is that I’m guiding you through something that we’re discovering, in part, together. I try to leave enough space for you to feel like you can embellish/modify/disrupt the experience I’m offering you to find the thing that you need. 

When I allow this process into the dance studio, we often end up in an unexpected, and rich territory — making discoveries that we hadn’t anticipated, and I think we’re all the better for it.