The Dance Teacher’s Plight

I am a dance teacher who has been teaching for over fifty years.  Have the times changed, or have I changed?  Is it my imagination that kids in the 1950’s seemed to have more determination to succeed and to be excellent than today’s kids?  Why does it seem that parents were more supportive of their children’s teachers in the “olden days?”  Today, I sometimes cannot tell who the parent is and who the child is.  So many parents allow their children to make their own decisions as to what their education should be.  Today’s mentality often seems to be one of mediocrity.  Frankly, I don’t even know how any child could excel at anything in this modern day because they do EVERYTHING:  Soccer, dance, piano lessons, acting lessons, scouts, dance team, swimming, and a multitude of other things.  What has caused these changes in only two generations?

During my early years of teaching dance, I felt I had much support from the parents, for the most part.  Parents made their children practice.  In dance class, the teacher could make corrections without the parents having a fit.  Kids learned because they wanted to learn, and they were expected to learn.  It is my theory that a child will live up to high expectations if the teachers and the parents demand it from them.  If you don’t ask for it, you won’t get it. 

By comparison today, children look at you cross-eyed when you ask them to work hard and to practice and know the steps by the following week.  The parents would never even think of helping the child at home, or to make sure that she/he practiced.  My motto of “perfect practice makes perfect” is unheard of probably because so many parents today think that once they have pushed their daughter or son into the classroom that their job is done.  It didn’t used to be that way.  Parents helped their children practice at home.  Today’s children are barely disciplined enough to endure a one-hour dance class without complaining. 

So, why can’t kids “tough it out today” like they did in the “olden days?”  Well, for one thing, they have too much entertainment at their fingertips.  There’s the TV, the video games, and cell phone games.  Today’s children are constantly being entertained.  Why should they have to work for anything?  Everything is provided for their comfort and entertainment.  They don’t have to use their imaginations anymore.  They probably don’t even run with the neighborhood kids and think up games to play after school.  Unless they are in sports, they get very little physical exercise.  A one-hour dance class once a week wears them out because they are so out of shape.

On the other hand, many parents make their children participate in so many activities that their children become overwhelmed.  No wonder they are so tired in dance class!  They don’t even have time to practice!  Back in the 1950’s, there was very little offered to girls in the way of extra curricular activities—thus, dance schools were in their golden years because every little girl wanted to learn to dance.  It was the thing to do. 

Whether a child is “underwhelmed” or overwhelmed by his or her schedule, it seems that children today have no sense of commitment.  They just want to have fun.  The art of dance requires commitment.  This means that the child cannot be involved in every activity on the earth!  It is my belief that once the child has found the avenue of his or her talents, then it is those avenues that should be pursued.  For example, dance lessons and piano lessons are probably enough for the average child to cram into his or her week.  Excellence should be encouraged.  From there, commitment is a requirement.  If commitment is to happen, then there will have to be sacrifices of time and energy.  A child should not be allowed to miss lessons at the drop of a hat just because the child would rather do something else on a whim. 

It is difficult to teach children that oft times, a sacrifice must be made in order to reach a goal of excellence.  How is a great concert pianist made?  Success is possible only because of the sacrifice of time and effort to practice and practice in order to attain a level of genius.  It is the same for a dancer.  To become an excellent dancer, a dancer must commit to learning; and he or she must sacrifice time and energy for the art. 

Question:  Is a person who has sacrificed in order to become excellent in the pursuit of developing their talent a happier person for it?  I argue that he or she is.  Too many people muddle through life staying in their comfort zone (a state of mediocrity) and only accomplish low levels of anything.  They arrive at old age, never having excelled at anything, and regret that they didn’t work harder; or they envy the person who has attained excellence.  Many people see others who have worked hard to excel, and just think that it must have been easy for that person; but I say that nothing that was ever worth learning was ever attained without working hard!  I believe that developing one’s talents to the fullest broadens one’s enjoyment in life forever—but it is hard! 

Now, not everyone is in that mediocre level of living.  There are always going to be those who seem to have an inborn determination to do well; but so many people in today’s society are in a state of apathy.  What has caused this?  I wish I knew!  Could it be a lack of parenting?  Could it be there are too many things going on?  Could it be that much of society has the general attitude that we are owed, and we don’t have to work for it?  If we are owed, then who is going to give it to us?  Will it be our parents, society, Government?  Yipes!  I hope not!  No, we have to earn it—otherwise, we won’t appreciate it.

In today’s “me” society, many people have become lazy, spoiled, and want everything handed to them on a silver platter.  I predict that if this mentality continues that soon we will have no more progress in this great nation.  If we want all those things, and we just want to have fun all the time and never work for anything, then I ask who is going to provide all those things we want?  Children should be taught as soon as possible to bear responsibility, and they should realize that there are consequences to willfully doing the wrong things.  They should be taught to work for what they get so that they will be successful in life.  Pursuing the arts is one great place to teach children these qualities of bearing responsibility, being accountable, working hard, and trying to be excellent.  This will make a better society in the future!

The plight of a dance teacher is to teach excellence at the same time competing with all the other distractions in the lives of the students.

The plight of the dance teacher is also to try to instill in the student a sense of dedication, responsibility, love for the art, and a determination to be as excellent as possible in the face of rampant mediocrity in the world.  If the student is in dance class only for fun, then the teacher has to help the student realize that the hard work that goes into learning to be excellent is what leads to the real rewards in life.  Hard work reaps true satisfaction in life.  Who hasn’t rejoiced in overcoming the big challenges in life?  Hard work to meet a challenge is always worth it.  In our “me” society of today, too many people only want out of life what is superficial.  They just want to have fun without the work.   For the short haul, the fun is good, and it brings happiness—but for the long haul, the fun without hard work is lost to a lack of direction in life, which causes the person to never attain any degree of proficiency in anything.  Attaining excellence brings joy (which is a deeper sense of happiness) and a sense of accomplishment.

In light of all the things we dance teachers are up against, sometimes, frustration sets in.  We can succumb to the mediocrity in the world, or we can fight against it.  Sometimes it feels like we are swimming upstream against the tide of mediocrity.  Now, we know that not everyone is cut out to be a dancer.  That is just a fact of life; but we must still insist on as much excellence as possible.  We need parents to be parents who guide their children to try hard and to be responsible.  We need parents who will support the teachers of their children.  We need a society who is not so bent on being provided with everything without having to work for it.  All these things would make it easier for the dance teacher (and all other teachers) to help their students attain their goals.  All theses things will make better future adults in the world.