The Myth Of More, More, More — No Stone Unturned
There is a lot of pressure on parents to help their child get ahead, as if somewhere down the line a child’s failure to get that job, land that role, or succeed at each endeavor could somehow be traced back to that one stone left unturned in the child’s past. As a result, I see a lot of parents out there trying to turn over every stone along their child’s path. It’s exhausting to watch and even more exhausting to attempt.
In dance, this tendency translates into more money, more time, more classes, more performances, costumes, choreography, private lessons… more, more, more. Even studios feel the need to be everything to everyone, responding to demand and striving to supply. As a result, parents have some big questions on their lips…
How many hours spent at the studio is enough? How many competitions are too many? How much money should it take? How much experience should my dancer have in _____? How much is necessary to ensure that I’ve left no stone unturned?
Because the answers will be different for each family and individual, I’m going to help you answer the above questions for yourself. First, by dispelling some myths about dance training.
Myth:
If my child wants to advance or get ahead he/she needs lots of experiences with different dance styles.
Experience and exposure in a variety of dance styles is important for creating versatile dancers and may even be a necessity for aspiring professionals. Being well-rounded in dance is a good thing. Exposure to different dance forms, starting at a young age, is a great thing. So where’s the myth? It lies in the misplaced emphasis on experience and omission of training. Experience and training are two different things, and I’ll add a third level… exposure. To get ahead, your dancer needs a healthy balance of all three.
Exposure = Watching a variety of dancers, styles, and performances; Making contact with other students and professionals; Reading about dance or dance artists
Experience = Getting a taste of alternative ways of moving and patterning dance; Learning a dance; Participating in a performance; Working with master teachers or choreographers;
Training = Engaging in a course of study that prepares a dancer for the physical, cognitive, and mental requirements of codified dance forms/techniques; specialized practice and instruction over a period of time
When parents see a class that incorporates ballet, tap, and jazz in a single hour class, they may think that this is three times the experience for the price of one. Exposure, yes. Experience, maybe. Training, no.
The child in this situation has less time to develop in any one of these areas and in terms of training, often ends up shortchanged. “Combo” classes, or classes that combine two dance forms are not entirely a bad thing. Young recreational students may benefit from experiencing more than one dance style before deciding where to focus their efforts later. However if, later on, their in-class effort and focus on technique is still only 20 minutes because their hour is continually spent on learning choreography and preparing for performances, the value of their experience is diminished. They are no longer moving beyond the experiencing realm, and no amount of performing, competing, or exposure will make up for this.
Reality:
One hour of solid, well-thought training in a single dance form is better than ten hours of experience.- Training, whether focusing on ballet, contemporary, jazz, or tap techniques can always be built upon with the addition of other styles.
- An experience can rock your world but it can’t substitute for consistent effort and instruction.
- Good training roots exposure and experience, and allows versatility to flower.
What It Means To Be Well-Rounded
A well-rounded dancer has a balanced education with equal parts exposure, experience, and training.
4 Signs Your Exposure-Experience-Training Balance Is Off
- Preparing a single dance routine requires months of preparation. (Well-trained dancers are prepared for what is given to them, dancers who only have experience under their belt have a steeper learning curve because they must digest and acquire skills as they go.)
- Technique is the add-on in your regimen, while classes like ballet or jazz are spent learning choreography in that style.
- You have lots of exposure but within only a small range of activities. For example, maybe you devour everything about ballet but skip the article on improvisation, or watch major network dance competitions but pass on PBS, or travel every week to competitions but have never seen a live professional performance.
- You engage in tunnel-vision training (yes, a dancer’s balance can be overly focused on training, not allowing for diverse experiences or exposure).
Take some time to evaluate your child’s training. The time spent in additional classes should be relative to true desire and interest. It is important to build your repertoire of dance styles but look for a studio that sticks to the mission of providing an uninterrupted core of technique classes, while offering a chance to “taste” a variety of performance styles and choreography during workshops, via visiting teachers, conventions, and going to see dance performances.
When Is Too Much Not Enough?
As I’ve begun writing this series a theme has emerged. The query above may seem like a riddle but actually it’s not meant to confound and can be answered in many different ways. Through this series, I hope to continue to address this as an underlying question to your concerns about striking balance in your dancer’s study without turning over every stone.
What are other signs that a dance education is not well-rounded?
Can you think of other myths or questions you might have as a parent?
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Nichelle (owner/editor)
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This was perfect! It was so helpful to think about each of these aspects of training. ..
Here is another myth that I think might be discussed.
What one performs should not be their entire repertoire of skills.
I see a lot of right legged turns and dancers with routines that have been tailored to them. Skilled dancers can do whatever you want them to do. . . including reversing an entire routine AND it will look equally as good.
You are reading my mind, Anne 🙂 Some of those above “signs” are related to what you are talking about. However, I do have an article about this specifically. In fact, I even have a phrase I like to use… you’ll read about it in the future – promise!
I stumbled onto this site while researching articles for my magazine. First, I have to say that I love this blog, it’s more like a website, I would like to set mine up this way as well.
Second, the articles are interesting and the variety is great.
I’ve been using articles with permission of Suzanne Gerety of DanceStudioOwners.com. I would like your permission to copyright some of your articles and will certainly add your website and contact information to get my readers interested in Dance Advantage.
Keep up the good work.
Hi Karina,
I will personally contact you but generally I don’t have my articles reprinted elsewhere online. A great way to share the articles is to cite a brief excerpt and then link back to the original post here.
Thanks for your interest! I appreciate your kind words.
Wow! This is a great article to use as a guideline for parents, dancers and teachers. Great advice that would be so helpful if it was put on every school’s or studio’s bulletin board. I think the 4 signs your exposure -training-experiece balance is off hits the nail on the head.
The only thing I would add is in relation to finding additional training in the form of intensives, master classes, etc. This seems to be an exciting activity for summer months. As a parent, I think that our role has to be more as an information gatherer or resource for our children. My only caution is to make sure that it is your child (not what you want for your child) that the additional training is about. Present your child with the information about master classes, summer intensives and then see if they are excited about doing more. More is not better if it is not what the child is excited about. I think summer months are often used to get a “step up” among dancers in technique, training, etc. If this is my child’s wish then we do what we can to make it happen for her. But this is a lesson that all of us have to learn as parents; it has to be his or her experience. If the additional training or experience is your child’s desire (and not just your’s) then go for it! But I have learned that it needs to be just that – your child’s experience. Step back or away and let them gain from it whatever they can. I try really hard to let my daughter do 90% of the talking about the class without being bombarded with questions. Everything you need to know about whether the experience was beneficial will come from them. After a really good master class, my daughter is full of energy, excited to tell me about her experience, what she learned, etc. If that is the atmosphere in the car on the way home, I know as a parent that the extra training was a good experience. I guess my main point here is that extra experiences, training, exposure can be great IF it is the student’s desire. And as parents this should be a question we are asking ourselves every time a form is filled out, video sent in, whatever the case may be.
Melin
You are reading my mind, Melin. Actually I’m working on a continuation of this series (or perhaps it’s more of a thread about training from a parent perspective) and the point you are making about a child’s desire for more being paramount is definitely in there! So stay tuned for that. And yes, I believe master classes, intensives, etc. are an incredible plus (experience, exposure, and with good teachers a healthy dose of training too) but you are right that it all comes back to the child wanting to take it to the next level. I really appreciate your comment about the parent being the gatherer/the resource – it’s about facilitating not managing (or micro-managing).
Great article. My daughter fell in love with dance and has pulled me down the dance path with her. Dance is a whole new world to me and I often wonder why she needs to take so many technique classes when it seems just a rehearsal would do. Thank you for explaining it to me. I look forward to following your blog and learning more about my daughter’s passion, so I can help her take her passion where ever it’s supposed to go.
Thank you, J. It’s great to hear from another parent on this and know that it helped clarify. You aren’t alone in wondering why technique is important. Parents and sometimes even dance schools don’t make the distinction between learning a dance and learning how to dance. I look forward to more of your thoughts, let me know if you have other questions or things you’d like to see on Dance Advantage!
I think this post is awesome and is synonymous across all dance disciplines even street dance. I dont know how you feel about me commenting on this post as a street dancer but I feel dance is dance and I like this post. I have seen parents being so pushy to a point when the child starts talking and dressing in a style they feel is associated with streetdance when infact its not natural to them. My point is that I believe as well as your EET idea there should also be an enforcement of the history, pioneers and a question which all dancers should ask themself, “why do I dance?” cliche as it may seem I feel it’s important that for children to truly develop further in their dance training, they must learn alot more than studio training and comps that barely skim the surface of any dance discipline. I always enforce the ethos I learned through training that music is first, then feeling, then Dance. Music is important because its what came first, then an interpretation of the music should follow. How does it make you feel? Your body should be like an instrument responding to music making you move not forcing yourself to move. Finally the technique, although its 100% important it shouldn’t be at the top of your to do list. Focusing too much on technique I believe restricts ones ability to find your own style, your own reason to dance that’s why I agree with Anne on that a childs desire to dance is paramount before actually committing to taking lessons in a dance studio. Im still learning as a dancer myself and I am always researching new ideas on dance training to share with my students. So thanks again for sharing your wisdom, id like to hear what you think about streetdance ideology.
Michael.
sketchesofadancer.com
Thanks for stopping by, Michael. This particular article certainly crosses genres, even ones I wouldn’t have thought. It was commented on at length at a bellydance blog, which wasn’t in my mind necessarily when I wrote it but obviously struck a chord.
Imparting a sense of a dance form’s history and growth is an important part of a dancer’s education. This has been highlighted in posts here before. In terms of EET, I would put this under exposure, I think because it directly informs and strengthens the dancing and the mind of the dancer but does not necessarily address the physical aspects of dance.
I wanted to point out that I wrote a bit about the subject of a child’s desire being the fuel to train: https://danceadvantage.net/2010/09/29/equation-for-activity/ – it addresses the frequent parent question of when to add MORE training or classes but could be considered as a precursor to leaping into dance as well.
And no, technique is definitely not everything – I’ve been sort of mulling and sitting on a post about that too. It’s hard to say when it will make its appearance.
Again, thanks for your meaty comment Michael. Because street dance is not my area of expertise it does not always get highlighted on DA as much as I’d like but, I consider it no less an art or dance form than any of the genres covered more frequently. Your comments and contributions are welcome.
Such a valid topic. Everything seems to be about the well rounded dancer these days, in terms of versatily in genres, however there is still work for the soley ballet focused dancer, or tap focused dancer, etc. By focusing too heavily on all forms of dance a student can develop a decent training in each but may never excel to an elite level where they will be gain employment with a company. Versatility is great, but not at the expense of solid technique.
I love how you have emphasized the importance of training in being a well-rounded dancer. I am a ballet dancer and I know how important it is to focus on one dance form (in my case , ballet).
I think this is a great article and am going to share it with my students and parents that as we head to a convention this weekend, it is a really great way for them to understand why things at the convention are so different than in the classroom and why they need both!
I do want to say that I think that Number 1 of the 4 signs that your balance is off should be explained in further detail. I think what you are meaning is that the majority of the class is spent on choreography. For our annual concert in May, we do not start working on choreography until February; we take February and March to set choreography. Now while that may seem like a while, it is because we attempt to work on choreography for a small portion of the class, to ensure that technique is not neglected. Our older dancers of course have outside rehearsals in addition, so it doesn’t take them quite so long.
I think this is a great way to look at dance training and as I am gearing up for concert season at my school, I am realizing that I shouldn’t feel bad about giving up class time for a few weeks to learn choreography because it is such a valuable part of the dancers education, they really do need the balance. While studio owners and teachers may sometimes feel that concerts and recitals are more for the parents, I think it is important to realize that it is and should be a very important part of every dance training program… in balance of course 🙂
Thanks for your comments, A. I’m glad that you find the article worth sharing with your students and parents!
In answer to the Number 1 clarification, Number 2 was actually meant to cover the cases where the majority of the class time is spent on choreography (and not just recital choreography). However, I will clarify that when I say months of choreography, I was speaking of schools that begin recital dances as early as September or October. But you’re right, the two points are absolutely related.
Beginning recital dances in January or February for a recital is okay, I feel, as long as the actual technique part of class doesn’t stop then too. It’s worthwhile to note that less-experienced students generally require more repetition so there is a case for taking a few (2 to 4) months to slowly build the choreography.
My approach is this: a typical technique class format generally has some time spent on choreography anyway – learning short combinations in jazz or variations in ballet. As recitals approach, it seems natural that this will be replaced with dance preparation but this is maybe 5-15 minutes of a 1-1.5hr class. Definitely nothing to feel guilty about.
I think that recitals are a particular type of performance – a culmination of the training and a learning experience for the students – not really for the parents, or the audience, and not for the teachers either. It allows students to put together what they’ve learned and what they’ve been working on and translate to a stage atmosphere, where they also get to work the performance skills which hopefully they’ve had the opportunity to practice a bit in class too. The overall point is that recital choreography should match what the students are prepared to handle mentally and technically – if it does, then they’ll not need to discontinue technique week after week in order to master it.
Performance situations that are more complex like a full-length ballet, or a true performance (for the audience), or competition choreography which requires a more elite level of commitment and execution – I recommend rehearsal time scheduled outside of technique class. This is after all the way even professionals work – they would not sacrifice class time for rehearsal time because these serve different purposes. So if we’re talking about really preparing kids for the performance/choreography aspect of dance, then let’s really prepare them.
Sorry, that was long-winded! That’s ultimately why I tried to state it as simply as possible in the article, I think. But I hope this clarifies some of my thoughts on the time spent on recital choreography issue.