As mentioned, I recently started going to line dancing classes.
What I hadn’t expected is that I’m learning so much about becoming a better singing workshop leader.
It’s not often I’m a punter, on the receiving end of teaching. I hardly ever get the chance to attend a singing workshop, but I have been able to start a dance class.
It doesn’t matter what the subject is, teachers can learn so much about teaching or leading groups by being taught themselves.
Here are a few things I’ve learnt (or been reminded of):
always start on time – our dance class starts dead on time, regardless of who’s there. Latecomers soon realise that they’re missing out.
don’t copy others – as soon as you begin to copy (and rely) on others, you’ll go astray. Take responsibility for your own learning, even if it seems that everyone else is doing something slightly different. You may well be right!
facing a different wall is hard – teaching is often done with people standing in set places, particularly in choirs. But in line dancing, every time you come back to the start of the dance you change to face a different wall. Then things can fall apart! It’s better to practice something new in lots of differing circumstances (while washing up, facing a new wall, walking to work) so it really beds in. If you learn all the time in one choir position then you perform in an unfamiliar space, it can so easily fall apart.
don’t leave hard material until the end – there is only so much new material you can learn in one session. Also people are getting tired towards the end. Don’t try to teach something tricky. Always finish with something easy and familiar so people go home feeling like they’ve accomplished something (and with a smile).
have reasonable breaks – in our line dancing class the breaks last about two minutes. This is great if you just want to dance all evening, but people also want time to socialise and go to the loo.
revise new material sooner rather than later – towards the end of last week’s class we went over a dance we’d learnt at the beginning. Most people had forgotten it! But with a bit of reminder, it came back to us all quickly. If we’d left it for another week we would have forgotten it entirely. Revise new material often and not too long after learning it.
Chris Rowbury
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