Dance Teacher Training Tips

Each year new students will enter the world of dance eager to learn jazz dance. While there are many styles of jazz, the same teaching principles hold true for each one, and they will make a big difference in your students’ growth.  When students are first learning jazz dance it is important that they learn about resistance, control, isolation and explosion. These 4 elements are critical in the development of beginner students. When young dancers are taught correctly, they can begin to understand how jazz movement works and how their bodies are used.

Jazz Dance Teacher Tips...

Let’s examine each one and explore ways to teach them to your students.

Resistance

This I believe is the most important part of jazz (and, for the most part, all forms of dance). Students need to be taught resistance of arms, legs and torso. I like to use the analogy that they are working in water and that with every movement there is a force holding that movement back. A great exercise is to have your students hold their arms in jazz first and gently press down on their arms while they are resisting. You can do the same in second and while they are doing slow port de bras. This gives them a true feeling of resistance feels like. I also like to have students stand in second position, bend their knees and have them hold this position while I apply slight presure on the out side of their legs. This helps prevent a caving in of the legs, which will create a weakness in the knees if not addressed. You can do the same with torso movements so they fully understand what pushing against a force feels like, again using your hands to create a resistance against the way they are trying to go. This resistance will also help them develop a newfound strength that will aid the dancers with the next element.

Control

There is a lot of talk about control, but the key is how you get your students to understand it and use it. Once the students really understand how resistance works, it can be applied to enhance control. As they learn to do developpés, passé relevé, jumps, leaps and pirouettes, they can use resistance to help them control coming out of the movement. They can apply this force-against-force to create that feeling of being up and lifted. As they continue to understand the basic principle of resistance, they will increase their strength. They can also improve their overall strength by resisting with your help or by using resistance bands.

Isolations

This is, unfortunately, a bit of a lost art. I recommend to all dance teachers that if you want your students to develop fluidity in movement, then they must learn how to isolate and how that will be used in isolations when they dance. Simple head, shoulder, rib cage and hip isolations need to be taught to beginners in each class so they can master how each body part works and which muscles are used. Once they understand how to isolate, they can really learn about freedom of movement. When you learn to move one body part and nothing else, it also enhances the strength of the student. When your students can really isolate, you will notice a big improvement in the fluidity of port de bras—now they will understand how to incorporate the back and rib cage and master the overall depth of any movement. I like to call it that lingering effect. Like Silly Putty when you pull it apart, it stretches out a long, long way!

Explosion

This is especially needed for port de bras! There is nothing worse than wimpy arm movements. Teaching students that port de bras starts from the back, moves through the shoulder and elbow and finishes with the fingers will help create great, powerful arm movements. This explosion is also important in their kicks, leaps and overall attack. You have a real advantage with the student who is first learning jazz over trying to retrain a student who already has a muscle memory blueprint that you are trying to change. When you teach this right from the start, it is amazing how these new students get it almost immediately. Here is an exercise that I find works very well: Have the student stand in second position and lift arms with bent elbows, hands pointing toward the floor. Now slowly extend elbows with hands flicking at the end of the movement. You can do this with arms to the side, front and overhead. Start slow and you can build up speed as you move forward. This simple little exercise has helped me teach beginners the feeling of finishing their port de bras. The added benefit is that once they understand how this movement works and how to finish with the fingers, they can apply this to a kick, with the foot being the last part to finish (with pointed feet!). Understanding muscle memory and how it works can be very powerful tool for your students.

Use these dance teacher teaching tips to help your students shine. Keep in mind that you can mold your beginner students with the correct basic technique right from the get-go!