We have a small group of dance teachers keen to take this free session with me. The session will take place on Sunday 29 March at 11am (UK, London time). If you wish to join us then please leave a comment either in the previous post or this one so that you can be sent an invitation to the Zoom Meeting. You do not need to have a Zoom account to be able to join the meeting but you will need an invitation.
Please leave your comments by the end of today Saturday 28 March 2020 so invitations can be sent out.
I am looking forward to meeting you and enjoying sharing some mindful relaxation.
If this first session works well I will consider doing more free mindful relaxation sessions during this time of lockdown
With so much change happening in our lives at the moment it can be good to take a few moments to relax and just be. With this in mind I thought that as a fellow dance teacher you may wish to take 20 minutes to join me sometime soon in a mindful relaxation session online.
Do you want to take 20 minutes to relax for free?
Many of you who have worked with me know that I am a big fan of relaxation and mindfulness and incorporate aspects of them in my courses for teachers.
Here in the UK we are in lockdown. We knew it was coming just as other countries have experienced this too. We have been told to stay at home unless we need to buy essential food or medicines or go out to take some exercise.
Who would have thought that we would experience a situation like this in 2020?
But with today’s technology we can continue to learn and develop despite classes being temporarily stopped in many places.
The current Short Online CPD courses for Dance Teachers are in their third week when usually teachers would be teaching their planned class to their chosen group of dance students and reflecting on them afterwards. However, as many dance schools have had to stop classes for the moment adjustments were made to the week 3 reflective task so that teachers could still complete their courses.
With the next group of courses starting in April adjustments will also be made for the week 3 reflective task for any teachers unable to teach a class or session. If you are taking a course in April you will be able to either do the usual week 3 task if you can teach a class where you are in the world or choose to do the adjusted reflective task instead. Whichever you choose you will receive the usual personal feedback for your weekly email tutorials which aim to contribute to your continuing professional development.
If you are concerned about being stuck at home with nothing to do then why not take a look at the April list of courses that you could take? It might be the ideal time for you to do some CPD. The list of three courses starting in April can be found on the Book a Course page.
Stay safe, take care wherever you are. Positive thoughts to you all.
Don’t forget that you can take advantage of the cheaper price of courses by booking before the end of February. You can book any of the courses listed until May 2020. You can find all the details in this earlier post.
Courses for March are looking good and as this post is just after the closing date we are extending the closing date to 25 February so you can still book until then (UK time). It is always enjoyable to work with teachers again and it is good to see current bookings are a mix of teachers new to these courses as well as teachers who have taken one or more courses previously. As always it will be great to have this opportunity to work with you.
NB: although the Book a Course page gives the closing date as 21 February you can continue to book until the end of 25 February (UK time).
This video popped into my inbox today and I want to share it with you. Squats per se are not perhaps what many view as a dance move or step but we do dance versions of squats. Pliés may be viewed as a similar type of movement but clearly they are not the same as squats – we don’t want the angle of the body and pelvis as required in a squat to be the same for pliés but we can see how the basic squat strengthens the big muscles of the legs, for example, so dancers may use squats as a strengthening exercise for their dance moves.
I like the fact that the trainer in this video, Aaron Barnett, national trainer for Fitpro team, explains the functional reasons for doing squats – being able to sit down and get up again being a key functional reason for doing squats. He goes on to explore a variety of ways to perform squats, adapting them to take account of anatomy, injury, purpose of performing squat and so on. From a dance teaching perspective it is a useful video to watch and consider how this could be useful in dance teaching.
You might want to watch the video and give some thought to understanding more about the functional aspect of movements that you teach and how this could relate to your dance teaching practice. You may not want to teach squats in the middle of centre work in a ballet class, for example, but can you think of steps and movements that you teach where there could be benefits for both teacher and student from understanding more about functional aspects or adaptations that could be made to suit individuals and their needs?
If you teach dance to older people then you will know that many older people lose muscle tone and strength as they age. Considering the functional aspects and value of dance moves could help older people to continue to perform movements that will help them to retain dignity and independence as they age.
After watching the video you may want to think about some of the teaching ideas presented that you could make use of in your dance teaching practice. Why not share ideas that you have got from this post in the comments below.
