Teaching Philosophy

Being a student-focused teacher is my first and foremost priority. There is a desire to see my students be able to adapt with ease. I was trained predominantly by a teacher who said, “Rather than teach you a style, I want to teach you clean, solid classical ballet technique. Let someone else style you.” I have seen how that mindset influenced me in my ability to adapt to different teachers’ various styles over the years. I want to pass this on to my own students and to encourage students to combine the best parts of different styles and experiences with different
teachers to be the best dancer they can be. I would strive to instill a growth mindset in my students and teach them the value of driving improvement from a desire to see yourself be better than your previous self, rather than from a desire to be better than others. Finally, I want my
students to develop a love of dance and to see it as a method of expressing themselves, regardless of if they wish to pursue a professional career or not; I fully understand that a career in the field of dance can mean a multitude of things and want my students to keep all of their options open.

It would be crucial for me to implement a more scientific approach to teaching, rather than relying on my own previous experiences as a student. This means using my psychology degree where I focused on human psychological development in combination with my ballet
pedagogy classes to understand where my students are developmentally and how best to plan classes that are suitable for their age. Furthermore, this involves recognizing possible signs of stressors or disorders in children and addressing those in the best manner possible.