Direct your teacher or let your teacher direct you?

[classydancer]

My partner and I have only worked with long-term coaches (people who have seen us regularly for at least a year). But this year, we've decided to branch out: attend some dance camps and work with visiting teachers. One of these professionals is the teacher of our main coach. He's been telling us to come prepared with questions for her, as opposed to only dancing for her and saying, "What do you think?"

I don't mind asking questions - and there's definitely a dialogue between us and our coach - but when I'm working with a different teacher, I feel like I'm going to her because I'm interested to see how she approaches our dancing. Maybe she'll see something different, maybe she will have deeper knowledge about movement, or maybe she'll see the same thing as our coach but say it in a different way. I feel like telling someone what to teach me (whether directly or in the form of questions) defeats the purpose of going to them for their thoughts.

Or does it? Maybe dance instructors want to be directed? Instead of being an open book, should I have a plan for my dancing and tell all my teachers what I'm going for, and ask them to direct me in such a way?

I don't know! So my official question is the following: Is it better to drive a lesson with your questions or let your teacher look at your dancing and decide where to go?

 

[Warren J. Dew]

Most visiting coaches are fine with taking charge of the lesson. However, each coach is unique. Since this is your teacher's coach, your teacher may have specific insights about how to get the most out of this specific lesson.

If they don't think answering your questions is the best use of their time, the visiting coach will likely ignore your questions and teach what they think you need, anyway.

 

[raindance]

As a student, you can also be very general, very specific, or anywhere in between with your questions or areas to work on.

For example, things like "we'd like to work on waltz today" or "we've been working on this aspect of frame (or presentation, or movement, or ...) lately" or "we're having trouble with XZY on the second step of this figure and we've already tried A, B, C, but that's not helping."

Also, sometimes things take more or less time than you'd think to work through, so it can be helpful to know what question is most important to address today (in case you find that first issue takes most of the lesson time), and also to have some other questions ready that you may or may not get to.

 

[fiesta0618]

Asking questions is always a good idea. The coach may work with you on something totally unrelated, but even so your questions have value. What you ask and how you ask it offers important insight into the depth of your understanding of dance, the way you process data, and your personality. This is triply useful with a coach that doesn't know you very well.

Any teacher worth their salt will, of course, show you what you need to learn, not which is not necessarily what you want to learn. But the things you ask can help them determine what it is you really need, and how best to present it to you.

 

[classydancer]

I always ask a couple first do they have questions or an intention for the lesson. Then I ask to see a round. Then I take what they wanted and what I see they need and base my coaching off of that.

Thanks, Larinda! I was hoping you would offer your perspective

 

[j_alexandra]

The only time I had an outside coach, she asked Teach in advance what he wanted me to work on. His response: "Just let her ask questions." So she let me ask a question. BAM! By the end of five minutes, she had figured out what I needed (not necessarily what I wanted) and how to get me to do it. BAM!

Magic. It was magic.

 

[IndyLady]

Those are the best coaches, Larinda and j_alexandra's. The kind that let you pick the starting point, and then they run with it.

Generally when we have an outside coach, the directive is for them to take a look at either a Showcase routine or comp amalgamations and make it better. Every coach I've ever had has found a plethora of things to fix/improve, and more often than not we run out of time (not horrible, it usually means we're getting somewhere on thing #1).

 

[classydancer]

Those are the best coaches, Larinda and j_alexandra's. The kind that let you pick the starting point, and then they run with it.

Generally when we have an outside coach, the directive is for them to take a look at either a Showcase routine or comp amalgamations and make it better. Every coach I've ever had has found a plethora of things to fix/improve, and more often than not we run out of time (not horrible, it usually means we're getting somewhere on thing #1).

My concern isn't so much about finding things to work on, but rather who decides what is important. It sounds like the best way is what Larinda said: discuss the intention/bring up questions, do some dancing, and let the teacher take it from there.

 

[IndyLady]

My concern isn't so much about finding things to work on, but rather who decides what is important. It sounds like the best way is what Larinda said: discuss the intention/bring up questions, do some dancing, and let the teacher take it from there.

That's pretty much what I said and was agreeing with.

 

[classydancer]

That's pretty much what I said and was agreeing with.

Yes I see you said, "Those are the best coaches, Larinda and j_alexandra's. The kind that let you pick the starting point, and then they run with it."
It looked to me like you were trying to address an additional concern when you brought up, "Every coach I've ever had has found a plethora of things to fix/improve, and more often than not we run out of time (not horrible, it usually means we're getting somewhere on thing #1)." So I thought I needed to clarify. Glad we're on the same page

 

[classydancer]

Asking questions is always a good idea. The coach may work with you on something totally unrelated, but even so your questions have value. What you ask and how you ask it offers important insight into the depth of your understanding of dance, the way you process data, and your personality. This is triply useful with a coach that doesn't know you very well.

Any teacher worth their salt will, of course, show you what you need to learn, not which is not necessarily what you want to learn. But the things you ask can help them determine what it is you really need, and how best to present it to you.

I appreciate this response very much. It's insightful and makes want to improve the way I ask questions. Thank you

 

[ProgressNotPerfection]

Generally when we have an outside coach, the directive is for them to take a look at either a Showcase routine or comp amalgamations and make it better.

The only time I had an outside coach, she asked Teach in advance what he wanted me to work on. His response: "Just let her ask questions." So she let me ask a question. BAM! By the end of five minutes, she had figured out what I needed (not necessarily what I wanted) and how to get me to do it.

Pro & I have our first lesson with an outside visiting coach next week. I have no showcase routine or comp amalgamation to show her, and I don’t have any specific questions to ask. So...what would be the best use of our time with her:

1. Focus on my best dance (waltz) so she can help me take it to the next level;
2. Focus on my worst dance (FT) so she can help me make it tolerable;
3. Dance short demos of all 7 styles we’ve worked on so far, and let her choose what to focus on;
4. Other-please-specify?

 

[fiesta0618]

Pro & I have our first lesson with an outside visiting coach next week. I have no showcase routine or comp amalgamation to show her, and I don’t have any specific questions to ask. So...what would be the best use of our time with her:

1. Focus on my best dance (waltz) so she can help me take it to the next level;
2. Focus on my worst dance (FT) so she can help me make it tolerable;
3. Dance short demos of all 7 styles we’ve worked on so far, and let her choose what to focus on;
4. Other-please-specify?

My opinion is #3. If you have no immediate concepts or goals, showing your entire dance catalog allows the coach see consistent patterns across all your dances, and choose a concept that applies to many or all of them. In this case, expect to do very little dancing--this approach usually leads to a body awareness or control exercise.

Alternatively, it shows the coach what your greatest weakness is, so that you can identify the area that most needs work overall.

The only limitation I might recommend is that, if you know the coach has a specialty, limit you showcase to the style that you know is in their wheelhouse.

 

[singndance]

Agree with @fiesta0618, if the coach has a specialty, pick that style for your first lesson. But if you are only taking one lesson, you may waste valuable time showing the coach multiple demos. I have found that one coaching lesson passes in a flash, and getting through the first few bars of one dance is the norm. This was extremely frustrating to me when I first began, but necessary...My personal preference is to show them the dance that I am most uncomfortable with, and asking for help with that dance. Pro and I discuss this and agree in advance of the lesson. I usually get a lot of valuable insights and ideas that can be applied to other dances.

 

[Warren J. Dew]

4. Other-please-specify?

4a. Let your pro decide what to show her first.
4b. Ask her what she's like to see.