My Teaching Philosophy

I believe one of the educators most valuable tools is the authentic experience. Dance
provides the authentic experience of expressing individuality and valuing others
individuality. Individuality promotes self-love and a community where various roles exist.
We live in a society where we must be aware of individuality, respect differences, and be
culturally sensitive. My classroom offers real world experience in a manner presenting the
opportunity for personal and artistic growth, through group based assignments, collaborative
projects, individual-based assessments, and higher order thinking assignments.
One of my responsibilities as an educator during the creative process of dance making is to
assume the role of a facilitator and to create a nurturing environment for exploration. When
composing a dance work, students have the privilege and responsibility to share their creative
voice, artistic choices, and movement aesthetic. Within this process, the students and I both
learn to value differences, respect intellectual property, and express individuality, which in
time contributes to developing a community of diverse roles, through Liz Lermans
choreographic evaluation method. This method has three roles; the observer, the artists, and
the facilitator. The observers critically observe the artists work by describing what, who, and
how, and provide interpretation and ways to improve the artists communication of their
message, while the facilitator provides structure for critical feedback. In this part of the
process, observers must be careful to provide feedback without biases or a favorable tone, but
instead using a subjective tone. The artist must be ready to receive feedback respectfully and
provide explanation for artistic choices. Students must come to a place where these
differences in interpretation and opinion are only subjective rather than objective. This
evaluation method is known to work in various settings outside of dance, which provides a
connection to the real world where students live in community of various ethnic, racial,
cultural, and religious backgrounds.
To enrich students appreciation of individuality, I emphasize cultural experiences. Studying
world dance forms is another way for students to become culturally aware, as culture-specific
dances reflect chief principles of the lifestyle, beliefs, history, and mannerisms of a culture.
My brief experience with Azteca dance, West African dance, and traditional Chinese dance
greatly enthuses me to share the cultural dance experience with my students through means of
multidisciplinary assignments combining history, literature, art, dance, and music to gain a
holistic view of the culture. I will teach my students to take on the role of dance
anthropologists, through authentic assignments, such as field trips to local cultural dance
concerts where students will be responsible for collecting information on who, what, and how
during their observations. This strengthens their ability to synthesize and analyze the purpose
of movement and view dance without biases, while it also promotes respect for cultural
differences.
My goal as a dance educator is provide each student the opportunity to genuinely appreciate
dance, and then place dance into perspective in their personal lives. My central idea is that
there is a role for everyone in dance. Do you become a performer, choreographer, teacher,
audience member, an anthropologists; or a dance writer, researcher, or advocate? Each role is
connected and supported by another, like a community. I believe that students will gain a
greater sense of what community means, and how to appreciate everyones role in a
community through this personal investigation.