This month I have gathered together some quotes from Master teachers around the world showing their insights into teaching. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

"The work of the instructor is an art, and what a great art! The artist creates the role; the teacher molds the personality of the artist into one capable of creating an artistic image…let us not discusses who is more important. Let us agree that the work of the artist and the work of the teacher are both arts."

Galina Ulanova

"I try to encourage dancers to be faster, or slower, or stronger, or to turn more, or to develop artistically, rather than just concentrating on technique (although, certainly it is through technique that one expresses oneself). I try to develop a love of movement."

David Howard

"Learn your art; be musical; and have a thorough knowledge of anatomy."

William Christensen

"I'm talking to you now, but if you do not listen to what I have to say, it's my fault because I have not been able to capture your attention."

Gabriela Darvash

"You must let go of egotistical ambitions for your students. It's their life, not yours. So why should you be ambitious for them? If you are you will have problems and you're going to have disappointments. Remember, you're not there for yourself. You're there for them. It's difficult---sure---to leave the spotlights and go into the shadows, but it's a choice. If you're not willing to make it, don't become a teacher."

Alexander Ursuliak

"I don't think exercises or the structure of the barre make a good teacher. Naturally, a good teacher combines all these things, but the most important thing, I think, is that he is willing to learn as he is teaching, that he's willing to give and is committed. I've known so many good teachers who can't count 8's, or who don't put their exercises in phrases, or who don't do the same thing on both sides. But the best teachers are inspirers. All the rest is like frosting. It's the most important quality. A good teacher inspires people to believe that they're capable of doing more, as well as giving them the confidence to try doing something a different way. To go that extra step, try harder. And part of inspiration is making people think in a way that they might not on their own---consider things like musicality, phraseology, and timing. The truth is that dance is an art form. And hackneyed and perhaps embarrassing as it is to say, part of being an inspiring teacher is being an artist and helping other people to appreciate something like dancing in terms of art rather than in terms of just plain physicality, aptitude, talent and facility."

Larry Long

"I try to make every movement I give in class exact, precise and beautiful. Afterwards, I want expression put into it. Students have to feel that they have something special to reveal---and not necessarily what the teacher wants them to give, but what they themselves feel individually through the music."

Christiane Vaussard

"Teachers have to be both visual and rhythmic. They have to have a mixture of confidence and humility. The confidence is important in order to give others confidence---to make students believe in what you're doing. You can't constantly appear to be questioning yourself. This confidence must reveal itself as a belief in dance itself---not as a belief in yourself as a sort of pundit on dance. And if you let this belief in dance take over, it sort of carries everybody along. It's catching! And then you must have humility. It's what keeps you learning. When I watch people's classes (if I don't fall asleep because it can be so soporific!), I'm always saying, "Oh, that's nice---oh, I must try that." I know all the years I've been teaching have been teaching me to teach. And I'm sure I haven't learned all about it yet!"

Anne Woolliams