What inspired you to pursue a career in dance teaching?
I’m very privileged in my role here at WAAPA, that I work professionally as a performer and creative, alongside continuing to develop my teaching practice. I don’t know that I ever decided to pursue a ‘career’ in dance teaching, however I’ve had some wonderful mentors over the years, who have shown me the value in the intersection of creative practice and dance pedagogy. In 2014 I had the opportunity to tour with Buzz Dance Theatre, delivering educational dance workshops to remote communities in Western Australia. The tour challenged me to interrogate the real purpose of dance and question what was important for that particular environment, community and moment in time. It’s something I’ve held onto over the years and I think continues to shape the way I approach teaching dance.
Do you tend to specialise in a particular age group or level?
I’ve worked across community settings, dance schools, dance in education, youth dance companies, tertiary dance and delivering class for professionals. Each of them has offered my teaching practice different challenges and asked me to refine and clarify my interests and what is most important at that moment in time.
Currently at WAAPA I teach mostly into the third year Bachelor of Arts (Dance) course. I love this space as it feels like the beginning of the bridge between the training institution and ‘being a student’ and the profession and ‘being an artist’. The students have spent two years really honing the technical foundations, and then I get to push them into the unknown a little more, ask them to be curious, find their personal interests and what drives them and allow them some space to find themselves within the dance.
How do you approach balancing technique and artistry?
I think the fostering of curiosity is vital to exploring the balance between the two. Curiosity about the body and its capabilities and curiosity about the world and what excites them. I spend a lot of time talking to the students about options, the grey between the black and the white, what else is possible? The contemporary form continues to shift and change and so as movers it’s vital we can be adaptable, curious and vulnerable in the not-knowing.
What do you find most rewarding about teaching dance?
I love the challenge of facilitating a space for young people to know themselves better, what drives them, challenges them, pushes them out of their comfort zone. In someways, always offering a space to re-think ‘what is dance’. It’s amazing to see people evolve and be more curious about the world around them. There’s always an opportunity for me, then, to interrogate my own practice, a space for my own self-reflection. I think I know that I’m “doing a good job” when I come away from a class being asked to re-shape information, to communicate better, to think more deeply about my practice. That’s always rewarding.
what qualities make an effective and inspiring dance teacher?
The world we live in is fast, instant and at our fingertips. Dance and learning to dance isn’t necessarily aligned with this. It takes time, can be slow, stories reveal themselves over time. The studio can become a little bubble, a little safe haven, a place to make mistakes, try and try again, ask questions and make time for discoveries. If I think about the dance teachers that have inspired me over the years, they’ve allowed for all of these things, they’ve given space and time for discovery, of self, of the body, of others. I think for me, a great teacher has the ability to foster a love for learning, discovery and curiosity.
How has dance training changed since you were a student?
There’s so much information, much more readily available these days then when I was training. I think sometimes the accessibility has the potential to support complacency, as it’s so easy to find things out, maybe there’s less drive to actively seek the information. BUT, on the flip side it’s amazing to be able to spend an hour going down a worm hole on Instagram and discover artists, companies and performances that are happening across the world. I wish that was available when I was training, maybe it would have given me more space to see the breadth of dance, bodies and ideas that existed in the world.
What would you say to a student considering a future in teaching?
Dance teaching is so much more than dance. You have the privilege of working with people as they find themselves, challenge themselves, are vulnerable. Most people you work with won’t go on to working within the dance industry specifically, so how else are you contributing to their being-in-the-world?
If you could pass on just one lasting piece of advice to your students, what would it be?
Continue to be curious, follow your interests and find joy in what you are doing.