Rhythm of our Lives

Rhythm is in our Lives

How has the rhythm of your day impacted upon your teaching? 

If you've been rushing about trying to drive the children to school and catch up on admin, etc how does this effect your teaching?  Do you bring the rhythm of your day into the studio?  How do you manage stress?

Or are we always able to switch hats and our professionalism kicks in?

Is it important for our participants to see the 'perfect us'?  The perfect us that we always feel we have to present - the performance?  Does it start the minute we step through the door?
Or can they realise that we all have pressures and responsibilities and we are in fact human?

After watching and listening to the wonderful Liz Herman I have been wondering about how my experience at home and at the 'studio' growing up has shaped me as a teacher and communicator.  I think the plastic self protective shield struck a certain chord.  I think I was brought up in a strict environment at home and in the studio and living up to those high expectations around me and of myself all of the time has been a pressure which at times has become impossible to endure.  We only get to become professional dancers, performers and teachers/choreographers/directors through sheer hard graft and determination, don't we?  In fact, nothing is gifted, or certainly hasn't been for me. 
Is this reality balancing a normal family life, being a good mum and running a great business always achievable?  Particularly as we constantly have such high expectations of ourselves and others.
I have noticed teaching in different settings that other people around me often don't hold the same level of expectation and find it strange that it matters so much.   Not all children can run at 110mph and some don't want to despite our desire to.  Not many will be at a dance class to achieve 'excellence' and most have more important hills to climb which I try to climb beside them.
I have realised over time and at different stages in my teaching career that sometimes we just have to 'ease up' on ourselves as well and the work still gets done. 
When I am rushing around, I contemplate the rhythm of my life and take time to stop and breathe.
How it in turn affects my pupils. 
I have learnt to manage my time and expectations from the day more realistically now.

I am keen to know how do you do this?  
How do you manage the rhythm in your day? 
What are your expectations of yourself and others?

 

Comments

  1. MaiteMAPP16 October 2017 at 01:57

    Hi! Reading your post made me think of an experience I had last week. On Wednesdays I teach 5 ballet classes for children and then I have to run and go to another school to teach an advanced adult contemporary. Last Wednesday I was unable to calm down after a long and stressful day with the children. As I was teaching my first exercise, the words I said didn't match with what I was feeling and what I wanted to convey to my students. I felt disconnected with my body and the environment. I noticed this quite quickly and decided that I would do an improvisation exercice. It was mainly for me, so that I could have the time to arrive in my body and reconnect. I thought at first, this is not the 'perfect me', this is not what a teacher is 'supposed' to do (I shoudn't look after me in a class)... But my students benefitted from the situation. I could have continued the way I started but taking the decision to do something for me, and to tell my students: "I feel very disconnected right now, we will do something else", I showed them that I am not perfect. I also showed them how important it is to be aware of the state of your mind and body, to react, to solve the problem. And finally, they noticed that it is important that we all create an environment together where dance can be lived and where learning can happen. During that day, I didn't manage my time well, I didn't met my expectations of myself and maybe I didn't meet the responsabilities of a teacher, at first. But by accepting that I am only a human, I believe that my students and myself, we learnt something important from the experience: You can change your plan and adapt it to the current situation because as a human, we are always moving and changing and it is important to listen and respond.

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