How friendly do you get with teachers?

[MadamSamba]

Just wondering how friendly everyone gets with teachers. I'm not talking romantically (but obviously that's relevant). I'm talking about socially.

At my studio, several teachers socialise frequently with select students (inviting them to personal parties or events, not necessarily dancing ones) while others won't disclose a scrap of detail about their personal lives, both cases of which I'm sure many of you are familiar with.

For those who are friendly with teachers, does it ever get awkward during classes or when you decide you don't wish to be taught by them or simply want to go somewhere else? How do your other classmates feel about this, if they know, and how do dancing friends feel about it?

I ask because I'm very friendly with one particular teacher who's always going out with me and my friends (and vice versa). I don't have a problem with it, but one of my close dancing buds gets annoyed because he's never invited. Frankly, it's none of his business, but it must be awkward for the teacher. I've given up being embarrassed by it!

[Genesius Redux]

How friendly do I get with my teachers? Hmm, let's see. This weekend, one of my former teachers is leaving her out-of-control Weimaraner puppy with me for a week while she goes off to visit family.

I get very friendly with all my teachers, maybe because I'm a performer as well and we share that much. Where I used to dance, the teachers were actually forbidden to associate with students outside the studio--so if you ran into them in the real world, they'd get these horror-stricken looks on their faces like, "Am I going to get fired?" What that meant was that email and telephone was the only way to really cultivate a friendship, and even then--I was told by at least one teacher that she thought one of the studio managers had gotten into her private email through the work computer!

Anyway, that's a bad scene. Much more natural where I'm dancing now; working in the arts develops a closeness, and even in big cities the arts community tends to be a rather intimate one. I think different teacher and student combinations are going to be different, and it often depends on the student as well. I teach poetry and drama at a university, and I know that there are some students (usually advanced undergrads or graduate students) who become friends. There it can be awkward--but that's because I have to grade them, and also because they see me in my work mode, where I have to be understanding and accepting, and not in my out of work normal self.

I think it's the same with dance teachers in some respect--when they're teaching, a lot of them work very hard at making their students feel comfortable and welcome and self-confident. Nobody wants to take that job into their social life. So chances are that when teachers become friends with students, it's generally with the students that they don't have to "handle" so much, the ones where they feel they can get down to the business of teaching dance without putting on a front.

My current teacher sometimes goes out dancing with students--and I've taken to emailing or calling every now and then so we can get rid of all the non-dance topics that we sometimes find ourselves sucked into during a lesson, like what's happening on "Average Joe" or the latest theatre gossip and whatnot. If anything, we have to have a relationship outside the studio--otherwise when I'm there, we'd be jawing so much we'd never get anything done! :roll:

[tsb]

there's already been a topic on this earlier this year. jenn can probably find it although i couldn't.

GR makes a good point that i don't recall reading in the previous topic that some studios forbid fraternization between teachers & students anyway. otherwise it just depends on the teacher - there are so many unique & relevant factors.