Newsletter

Heather Watson
West Jordan
Dance
Leadership Engagement 

Leadership Through Dance

For my project I decide to use teaching dance as a way to help me become a better leader. I teach dance at the Cedar City Aquatic Center, and I am the head teacher. I was in charge of organizing and (unexpectedly) hiring other teachers. I had to create lesson plans, schedules, and organizing showcases as well as teaching. I also had the opportunity to be a role model for young children.

I had quite a few goals as I went about this project. I have been taking anatomy classes, and other courses that have taught me about dancing safely and teaching children to avoid injuries. I also wanted to help the students develop their creativity and confidence in themselves. I wanted to challenge my students and give them a solid and correct foundation in dance technique. Most of all, I wanted to provide a safe and fun environment for children to learn and explore. 

My inspiration for this project really came from my desire to become a better leader and teacher. I love working with children, and felt that I could do even more to help them learn and encourage them to reach their full potential. I wanted to try and practically apply all of the anatomical knowledge I was gaining in class, and I felt that this would be a good venue for using this knowledge to help others. I knew that I had improved as a teacher and a leader, but I wanted to be doing more and become even better. I felt that if I documented the things I was doing, I would have time to reflect and see my progress and shortcomings, and I felt that would be very beneficial to me as a teacher. 

Some of my biggest challenges involved keeping the class together. Teaching dance involves a different environment than most other teaching. There is no set place for anyone to be, and there is just an empty room for them to run around in. Some students would refuse to move and others would refuse to stand still (or attempt the steps we were doing together). I found that sometimes I was trying too hard to be their friend and be nice, when what they really needed was a strong and insistent leader. 

I also had a really hard time hiring replacement teachers. I had met all the applicants before and knew they were good dancers. I had them come and help teach a class instead of a formal interview. Each teacher had different strengths and weaknesses, and I had a really rough time deciding who to hire. It was definitely a learning experience for me, and I grew a lot as I struggled to make this decision. 

I believe that through this project I was able to help others. It was a lot of fun to get to see children who had never danced before gain skills and confidence. I was able to see them grow from awkward movers to coordinated dancers, but that wasn't the most fulfilling thing I was able to do through this project. I was also able to help them learn about life. We had several discussions about not looking at our "neighbors" and feeling inadequate because they could stretch farther or turn faster than we could. I was able to make the comparison between physical looks, interests, and body capabilities to help the students understand that we are all different, and that that's okay. 

We also talked a lot about failure. I saw students get frustrated or upset that they still weren't getting something right, or that it was harder for them than some of the other students. I remember one day in particular that we talked about ice skating, and how ice skaters say "If I'm not falling, I'm not learning." I emphasized that I didn't care how long it took them to understand a concept or to do it correctly, I just wanted them to never stop trying. Some students took this idea a little more literally than I meant it, but I hope that they will remember it and apply it to more than dancing. 

This project also helped me grow a lot. I am kind of a shy person, and not too long ago stand in front of anyone and speaking would have been terrifying. I have been slowly overcoming this fear over the past few years, but this project really expedited the process. I have found that I am not only capable of being in front of a group, I really quite like it. I really enjoy getting to share something I love and being a positive influence in children's lives. 

I was also able to improve my organizational skills and learn to be more flexible. I found that something that worked for one group of students did not work for others. There were also some concepts that some students picked up on quickly and others struggled with a lot. I found that many times I would come to class with an idea of what we would do, and it would change completely by then end of the class. Sometimes it was hard, but I think it is invaluable to be able to recognize what works and what doesn't and problem solve quickly and under pressure. 

"We had a talk today about failure. Some of the dancers seemed a little frustrated about their progress, and so I decided that it was time for a talk. I told them a story about when I was learning to ice skate from a professional ice skater, and she said that if we weren't falling, we weren't learning. We then talked about what this means in dance. I told them that it doesn't matter how many times we don't get it quite right as long as we keep trying. They took it a little bit literally, (there was a lot of talk about falling when we dance) but I think it helped. The rest of the class seemed to go smoother, and they all seemed determined to keep trying to progress."       ~Session Two Day Seven