|
Standards.
A look into the confusing maze of issues….
‘I’ve just read an article on your web site
and wanted to talk to you because I don’t want to upset you and I think
you were talking about me’, said the voice on the phone. Which
article? I had never written about Joan in my life. But, on
reflection, some of it did apply. ‘You know what they say: If the cap
fits …’, I told her. Joan is a student of no exceptional skill – her
technique is limited but she loves to dance. She had asked me to start
a class near where she lives but I already teach 9 classes a week and it
is enough. In desperation, she started a class herself. She didn’t
tell me but of course I heard on the grapevine.
I am not one of those people who is
territorial and won’t share her turf with anyone else. I have
encouraged four or five students to teach – and all run regular classes,
two are studying for the JWAAD teaching diploma. These are people whose
personal technique & ability is of a good standard. Not all are
necessarily dynamic performers but the two skills are not the same.
‘I’m in a dilemma’, I told Joan, ‘I can’t
take on another class, nor can any of the girls I would recommend. Is
it better that the people near you have access to something rather than
nothing? How honest are you with your students? If you are straight
with them about your ability and encourage them to get involved in other
things and go to other teachers, I think it is fine. If you pretend to
be something you are not, they will find out and feel cheated’. Joan
assured me that she was honest with her class and that for most it was
just a bit of fun.
This is a genuine problem. There are areas
around the country where I go and teach and the standard is not very
good. In some classes I cannot tell the students and teachers apart.
This is not necessarily anyone’s fault – sometimes folks are pushed into
teaching like Joan. It seems to me that in these areas people think
that their dance standard is higher than it is. My theory is that
because the teachers level is not high, the students soon match and
surpass them so believe themselves to be great dancers because they have
no other point of comparison. The reality is that they are probably
what I call good hafla dancers. This is not meant to be derogatory but
there is a large leap between a good hafla dancer & a professional one.
The issue of standards is a tricky one.
‘Belly Dance’, I tell my students, ‘is something anyone can do, it
doesn’t matter what your age, shape or size is.’ And this is completely
true. I have haflas where I encourage all my students to dance. It
doesn’t matter how good or bad – it is the participation that counts.
Another student of mine cannot hear the beat and is no great technical
shakes but when she dances, she shines. I love to watch her. This is
fine for a class hafla in a supportive atmosphere but if she asks to do
a solo at higher profile events, I have to say ‘no’. Class haflas are
about inclusivity and encouragement but, what is acceptable at a hafla
or in a party situation, is not appropriate elsewhere. I started a club
night, ‘Cairo Beats’, a year ago. The idea being to give dancers a paid
platform. I am choosy about who I invite. In my opinion once you start
to get paid to dance, the audience has a right to expect a certain
standard.
I would be the first to agree that the
skills required to perform and teach are not the same. I know great
performers who cannot teach for toffee – and great teachers who are not
good performers. The most inspirational are good at both. I think to
be a good teacher you have to have decent technique even if you are not
good at performing. How else will your students learn? A good teacher
should always continue learning themselves and recommend to students
ways they can continue to grow and develop. I pushed my top students
into doing the JWAAD teacher training course. I felt it would be good
for them – both on a technical front and for the teaching skills they
would learn. When I studied with JWAAD myself, I watched people blossom
through the course. Their own personal technique and dance style
improved and developed – in some cases beyond recognition. For myself,
it was the way my classes changed – they became so much better
structured and planned, designed to have fun and learn. I feel those
people that took classes with me in the early years should have a
refund!
Since achieving the JWAAD diploma, I am now
a teacher on the course myself. One of the things I love about teaching
is encouraging the development of others. To work with the same group
of people, all who want to improve, what a joy! Josephine Wise,
director & co-creator of the course (She and Maggie Caffrey were the
original founders), has asked me to take over running it from the 2007
intake. I felt like a rabbit in headlights, blinded by panic. Elation
at the excitement of the possibilities it opened up yet fear at the
responsibility it entails. But, it is something I fervently believe in,
so I agreed.
As a starting point, I wanted to find out
what qualified JWAAD teachers got out of it – and if there were areas
they had suggestions for improvements so I sent out an e-mail
questionnaire.
Why did you do this course & what did you
get out of it?
The theme that kept recurring in responses
to this question was that people wanted to improve their own personal
technique – and all felt it had been of benefit in this area. A lot
felt they had profited in particular from the musical instruction & the
history & culture. Then, of course, there was the social & networking
side – a highlight for many people. Some folks had considered other
courses, one person said: ‘I felt that the JWAAD course was done in far
greater depth and accuracy and attracted a more professional group.’
Suggestions for improvements:
Including more teachers on the course itself
– this has happened with the addition of Raphaelle Mason, Trish Rapley
Giles and myself. Also one Northern lass (not me) said they felt the
venues could be moved so at some point there was easy access for
everyone. Valid point. The problem here is that the course is starting
to attract international students so a venue near Heathrow / London is
actually the fairest option at the moment.
Now, to be accepted on the JWAAD teacher
training course, you have to be of intermediate standard. When I did
the course it was split into two levels, Dance Teachers and Dance
Leaders. If your own technique was not of intermediate standard, you
would qualify as a Dance Leader. It didn’t work, the levels were not
sufficiently defined. It led to confusion. If folks were studying with
JWAAD, everyone just assumed it was as a teacher. Josephine decided to
drop this and now just runs the qualification for teachers.
My current dilemma - I have people like Joan
and others who have started classes in their areas who could never
aspire to doing the Dance Teachers qualification. Petra, another
student started a class in her local area ‘I love my ladies, and they
love me,’ she explained, ‘I don’t want to do any more & the JWAAD
qualification is too much for me but I do feel I need something to make
sure I am doing it right.’ Am I letting them down by only concentrating
on the ‘A’ stream students? Maybe we should re-launch the Dance Leaders
qualification but run it completely separately. It could be a shorter
course, less involved but still give people the basic safety information
& ideas on structuring classes. I really am interested in Mosaic
readers thoughts on this. Please e-mail me:
kay.taylor@btinternet.com if you would like to have some input. Or
call me 0191 519 0305. If you would like details on the next JWAAD
Teacher Training course, get in touch and I’ll send them to you – or
check out the web site
www.jwaad.com.
Ps. I have over 150 students and have
changed names to maintain anonymity. I am sure I will get phone calls
from 4 or 5 folks asking if I was writing about them!
Update: Jan 2007
I had so many responses to this article, it
has been great. Josephine & I got together and decided to re-design the
course. A Foundation course which will be open to anyone and cover the
anatomy and safety elements that are vital to ensure you understand how
to avoid injuring your students. This is a pre-requisite to the JWAAD
diploma. The foundation course will be assessed and have a 10 minute
micro-teaching. In this the students will need to demonstrate they can
teach a safe warm up in 10 minutes to prove they can apply the safety
principles. In order to apply for the JWAAD diploma course, you will
need to have passed the Foundation course and be of intermediate
technique level. If you are considering this, you should let us know on
the foundation course and we can tell you if you are of the relevant
technical level and, if not, the areas you need to work on.
Because we have taken some of the content of
the diploma course into the foundation course, this will make the
diploma course shorter and therefore more affordable for people.
Below is a bit more on the background and a
copy of the application form in case you are interested.
JWAAD initially launched the teacher
training course in 1992. Josephine Wise and Maggie Caffrey saw there
was a need for teachers to be trained in the discipline of Egyptian
dance. It was becoming more popular and many people up and down the
country were starting to teach with varying degrees of skill, knowledge
& ability. Many knew nothing about anatomy, how to teach a class safely
or how they might unintentionally injure someone. Most had very little
knowledge of the music, background and culture of this fascinating dance
form. Together they designed a course which would give graduates a good
knowledge of it’s background, how to teach & help improve the
individuals own personal technique. From the first batch of graduates
Margaret Krause & Yvette Cowles were asked to join the teacher training
team to spread the workload.
The original course was run in 2 parts. You
could collect ‘hours’ and once you had 50 hours under your belt, you
could apply for the intensive. Some of these hours were specific
subjects, others were general technique or interpretation. It was an
absolute nightmare to administrate. When you applied to go on the
intensive course, your technique was assessed and depending on your own
personal level, you were either accepted as a dance leader or dance
teacher. No one ever wanted to be a dance leader so this caused some
dissatisfaction amongst students – and it also caused confusion
elsewhere. No one understood the different levels. People assumed
everyone was the same level and this caused some criticism of the
diploma.
Maggie Caffrey left the team and Josephine
Wise had to review the whole course. She decided that she could not run
it in it’s current format and that, for it to work, she would need more
people on the team. Kay Taylor, Raphaelle Mason & Trish Rapley Giles
were delighted to be asked. Josephine re-wrote the syllabus to last
over 18 months with individuals having to sign up for the full course,
some of which would take place at existing events, other part at
designated times & exclusive to the teacher training students. To
remove the confusion of dance leader / dance teacher, it was decided to
only run the dance teacher diploma. This meant everyone had to audition
and be of intermediate standard before they would be accepted on the
course. In this way, the course became easier to administrate and
simpler for outsiders to understand. The downside was that it became
more expensive & it excluded a large amount of people teaching in the
UK. Sometimes for financial reasons, sometimes because their technique
was not good enough, sometimes the practicalities of committing to 6
residential weekends / weeks across the 18 month course.
Josephine Wise decided to ask Kay Taylor to
become Head of Teacher Training. Kay had already been writing articles
on standards in various publications and had canvassed peoples thoughts
on what they felt they needed. There seemed to be a large body of
people teaching who may have fallen into it by default. They are the
only person in their area – or their teacher moved away and they have
been left with the class. Many of these women take their responsibility
quite seriously and do continue their own development but are also aware
they are not qualified to teach dance. Many just teach one or two
classes a week and have no desire to do more – but want to know that
what they are doing is right / safe.
Kay suggested tweaking the course again.
Why not have a foundation course which included the safety / anatomy
elements of the course and was open to anyone. This would be a
pre-requisite to the main diploma course. It would be open to anyone
and obviously be a lot cheaper than signing up to the whole course. It
would also have more flexibility and could be run in different parts of
the country as there would probably be a larger catchment group that
would be interested. It would also give people some idea as to what the
whole course would be like and whether they wanted to sign up for the
main diploma. Josephine liked the idea and so she & Kay spent several
days going through the course and deciding how the new version would
work.
Here is what it looks like:
Foundation Course:
Ideal for anyone who is teaching or
considering teaching that has not had formal training. A pre-requisite
to the JWAAD diploma course. Can be completed as a stand alone course
with a pass or fail element. If students wish, they can complete it
without the assessment element however this would not count as being
sufficient to go on to do the teaching diploma. Some may choose to do
this foundation course for information and not as a qualification. No
minimum technique level required.
The JWAAD Foundation Course
Certificate of attendance:
– not a qualification but shows you have
attended and completed the course. Ideal for people teaching at a
community level that do not need proof of learning but want to teach
safely.
The JWAAD Foundation Course –
including assessment.
Certificate of achievement – Pass / Fail.
You require a ‘pass’ if you are considering
going on to do the JWAAD Teaching Diploma. A ‘pass’ will also be
accepted as evidence that you understand safety in dance classes for the
MADN insurance policy.
If you fail, there will be options to
re-take some parts or you can choose to receive a certificate of
attendance instead.
What is included?
**Anatomy – 3 hours
**Safe warm ups – 3 hours
Technique classes – 4 hours
Administration & professionalism – 1.5 hours
Fundraising and facilitating – 1.5 hours
**Health & safety in the Studio – 1.5 hours
Teaching basic technique – 1.5 hours
**Lesson planning – 1.5 hours
Individual tutorial - .5 hour
Warm up microteachings – 2+/- hours
The course will take place over 2 weekends –
some may be residential, others non residential dependant on what
facilities are available in the different regions. Both weekends are
very intensive as there is a lot of ground to cover. There will be 4
homework assignments (marked **. The ‘safe warm up’ homework is
preparing your micro-teaching) which will be given out on the first
weekend. There will need to be submitted 2 weeks prior to the second
weekend taking place. This will give tutors the chance to mark them
before the second half of the course. The course will culminate in a
session in which everyone will complete one 10 minute microteaching to
demonstrate that they can incorporate the principals of safe warm ups in
the classroom. This course is designed to be a practical and non
academic as possible. We are interested in how you apply knowledge, not
whether you can spell or write an essay! Your personal technique will
be assessed through the course in case you wish to continue on to the
JWAAD Teacher Training Diploma.
The Diploma itself will be cheaper as it
will be shorter. Details will be announced for Fantasia
.
Costs:
£135 per person per weekend. £270 +
assessment fees for the full foundation course.
Assessment fee £10 for each piece of
homework submitted & marked.
|
