Above Ballet Company

B A L L E T is for everyone.
But E X C E L L E N C E is exclusive.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/AboveBallet/cl/s?utm_campaign=fp_sharesheet&utm_content=amp20_t1&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link&lang=en_US. Share or donate if you can. 📍

I have had more traction and gained access to more opportunities since obtaining my teaching qualification with the ISTD than I had in my two-decade of teaching prior but my vision and quest for excellence did not start with that qualification. | 🩰🎉

My introduction to any kind of movement was through martial arts and karate. A devout teacher lived near our house who inspired the love for movement and flexibility in me, and taught me to split. This was long before dance crept into the picture and took over the picture. 😂👇🏿

Years later, I would go on to gain teaching qualifications with the Cuban school, the ISTD and the ABT (PP-L3) and continue my pursuit of becoming the best teacher possible for my students. But the foundational skill that became the cornerstone of my teaching practice was birthed in experimentation, repeated failures, teaching in diverse settings, far flung from sprung floors and mirror reflections. It was birthed from paying attention to learning and my willingness to invite others to my messy process. 🧘🏿🚶🏿

Qualifications are good: they can offer students clarity of training, grades and a particular vocabulary, but a teacher who understands how to plan a lesson, how to effectively execute the lesson for the benefit of the students in class (and not some imaginary ideal bodies), to review a class and adjust accordingly and to offer useful corrections in the language that the students understand, is the students' true asset. Coupled with a student who wants it badly and is open to doing the work, a skillful teacher is unstoppable -- but skill can be gained with or without a teaching qualification. 🎓🏅

At the end of it all, the ballet dancer who truly inspires audiences is one who is both a technician and an artist, taught through years of instruction and application. The ballet technique must be lifted off the pages and out of syllabus booklets into hearts, bodies and feet, so that what we share is the universality of art. 💕

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