Julianna Hane
Growing up in the dance field, I remember teachers talking about the difference between giving class and teaching class. I think this idea can be applied to aerial teaching as well. Here is the difference according to dance educators: Giving Class When giving class, the teacher guides students through planned sequences so they can follow along. The teacher may somewhat tailor the class to the students, but only to a certain degree since this type of class is usually a master class (a one-time class with a guest instructor). In the aerial arts, giving class works well for workshop instructors who travel around and teach a wide variety of populations. It also works well when teaching a brand new group of students you have not worked with before (as in a new session or drop-in class). Workshops and master classes allow students to experience a different teacher’s point of view. It also requires less planning time on the part of the teacher since they usually teach the same workshop in different cities. (After all, how can a workshop teacher plan specifically for students they have never met?) I picture the teacher as the driver and students as passengers along for the ride. Teaching Class Teaching class, on the other hand, is a different animal. While teachers may still follow a class plan in this situation, the plan is tailored to the specific students who show up to that class week after week. The teacher also offers modifications and variations, and isn’t afraid to change course altogether based on the needs in the room that particular day. In the aerial arts. teaching class (instead of giving class) is more possible when the same students attend class over a longer period of time. In this situation, I imagine the teacher in conversation with the students at a dinner table. The teacher offers information, the students respond, the teacher answers back, and so on. Is one better than the other? Since both giving class and teaching class are effective formats, it is a completely personal choice as to which one you prefer. Some teachers find their niche as workshop teachers since they know how to give a really great class and reach a broad base of students in a short period of time. While I enjoy teaching workshops and meeting new people, my favorite is teaching class because of the back-and-forth conversation that occurs over a longer period of time. Do you notice a difference between workshop and weekly class teaching? Which do you prefer and why? Do you have any strategies that help you navigate classes versus workshops? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below! by Julianna Hane
The art of cueing students through aerial skills is vital for safety and learning in your classes. As with most things in life, the only way to get better at cueing is to do it A TON. Here are some creative and effective ways you can practice your aerial cues. 1. Cue yourself through a skill as you practice on the equipment. Ok, this one is not so creative, but it is the most fool-proof. Describe what it is you are doing with your body as you move slowly through a skill. To make it more fun, add imagery and quality words (hover, pop, stir the cake batter, etc.) 2. Cue a colleague through a skill and ask for their feedback. That’s right, an outside eye (or ear) is helpful….especially another aerial teacher. 3. Film yourself doing a skill, then practice cueing it as you watch the video. This is great for visual learners. See if you can match up your wording with the movement. You may wish to perform the skill very slowly so you have time to give the information you need. 4. Practice cueing just one student, as in a private lesson. Notice whether or not your student “gets” each skill based on your cueing. Ask for more direct feedback after the lesson. 5. Have a friend demonstrate the move while you cue the skill. This is a great co-teaching style, and is useful if you end up teaching during a pregnancy or while recovering from an injury. 6. Record yourself teaching (video or audio), then listen only to the audio. This is great for auditory learners. Notice if your word choice, pacing, and vocal presentation worked or not by gaining an outsider’s perspective. 7. Cue a friend without demonstrating the move, and see if they can guess which move you are teaching. You can practice this almost anywhere - on a road trip, at lunch, on the phone, etc. 8. Practice cueing aloud while doing housework, taking a shower, etc. Make mundane tasks much more fun by adding aerial cues to the mix. You can even sing if you want. If you have a pet, speak your cues to them, too. This technique gives you permission to make mistakes in non-threatening situations. Remember, the key to finding your best cues is to say them aloud, and practice. What ways have you practiced cueing? Let us know in the comment section below! Have you ever noticed how certain teachers have a magic about them, an energy that radiates through the room and invites every student into their world? Some students “get it” instantly; they are motivated to follow the teacher's guidance into the unknown. Others know there is something more there, but not quite sure what. In either case, everyone is engaged, alert, and suddenly curious.
I have been lucky enough to work with teachers like this. My modern dance professors at the University of Utah certainly had that “thing” all teachers hope to have. That magic. That light. That drive. Chatting in the hallways with classmates, I realized I wasn’t the only one amazed by our professors. I have always wanted to be like them, to teach dance in a way that is more meaningful, going beyond the steps into something much deeper. But what is that special “thing” these teachers have? What makes a class “great” and keeps people coming back for more? I believe it has something to do with the soul of a class, or what my professors called the “why.” “Why did you choose those exercises? Why are you dancing, or “aerial-ing”?” The why points to motivation: Why do we learn? Why do we teach? I’ll put it another way: What is it you are ACTUALLY teaching? In my mind, it’s actually NOT dance, aerial arts, or conditioning. It is so much deeper than that. Back in those beautiful mountain view dance studios in Salt Lake City, I learned that: The “why” is always greater than the “what.” So why do people move? We move to feel connected to something greater than ourselves. We move to experience joy, sorrow, and all aspects of the human experience. We move to express ourselves, to share our spirit with others. We move to just be. It is so much more than memorizing steps. We move because it means something to us, and it makes us feel alive. The same is true in the aerial arts. The moment we finally conquer a new skill, or finish a performance, is a moment we feel truly connected and alive. We feel stronger, brighter, and more aware. We feel fulfilled, even for just a moment. So how do we bring that soul, that feeling of being alive, that “why” into our classes? Like my dance professors taught me, the why goes deeper than learning the steps. After all, there are only so many things the human body can do. And every teacher will eventually run out of new moves to teach. The why is about engaging curiosity and creativity...engaging the soul of the learner. The why allows students take ownership of their learning, making it personally meaningful to them. And then they discover who they are. They have the opportunity to become leaders in their own lives. For some, a new conditioning challenge excites them. For others, figuring out how to work with a cumbersome costume is interesting. In either case, curiosity goes beyond reproducing what a teacher offers, and leads to exploration and invention. We are pattern seekers and meaning makers. We like to solve puzzles and create. The puzzle might be figuring out how to do a pull-up after a pregnancy, or discovering a wild route into good ole “lion in a tree.” It might involve developing a new character, exploring a new apparatus, or building an entire performance piece using a towel as a prop. When you engage curiosity, you empower students to make discoveries for themselves. They become aware of their incredible potential. They seek it, find it, and own it. They find the magic in themselves, and you get to watch the lights come on. And that is the best kind of magic. The kind that is given away, and then reflected all around in the lives of others. So remember, when in doubt: Capture your students’ curiosity. The why is more meaningful than the what. Give them a logic puzzle, or a creative assignment. Acknowledge that soul, that spirit, that personal uniqueness they bring to the community. Because the real soul of a class is not in the teacher’s outgoing personality or intricate sequences. It’s in the teacher’s ability to see their students’ uniqueness, and challenge them to go deeper into their own personal why. I wish you lots of curiosity, creativity, and “Aha!” moments in the New Year. Happy 2016, and Happy Flying! Julianna By Julianna Hane
As aerial arts take the country by storm, safe and informed teaching is a must. With so many teacher trainings out there (and many excellent options, I might add!), how do you know which program will meet your needs and interests? For all the research types out there, Rebekah and I want to share what makes this program different. That way you can decide if it is a good fit for you. 1. We have diverse movement backgrounds. Both Rebekah and I are dancers, but we have studied so many types of movement including somatics, yoga, ballet, modern dance, acrobatics, Pilates, and Laban Movement Analysis. It’s so much easier to cue students through skills when you train in various types of movement because your have more tools to work with. 2. We emphasize concepts. Yes, we do teach many skills, but we focus on the concepts underlying those skills. A conceptual framework gives the teacher more tools to teach with, and gives students more opportunities to create their own moves or transitions. (We like creativity!) We not only teach you what concepts are, but how to dissect them and weave them into a class. 3. We dive into mixed level classes. It’s common for teachers to have a mixed level class at some point. If you are concept focused (see #1), you’ll have a much easier time challenging students at various levels within the same class session. The live teacher training includes a sample mixed level class so you get a clear picture of that class style. 4. We offer both linear and global teaching methods. Our aerial teacher trainings are 50% skill based and 50% teaching methods. Linear teaching involves step-by-step instruction, and global teaching often poses a problem to solve (see The Aerial Teacher’s Handbook for more). We like both methods, and since your students may gravitate to one or the other, we offer both in the program. 5. We include curriculum development in all of our courses. Knowing how to teach aerial skills is one thing, but framing the skills in a clear flow that progresses over time is a whole different animal. While we challenge participants to really think about how they want their curriculum to be structured, we also offer guidance along the way. 6. We offer online modules in correlation with live trainings. Live trainings are vital to developing as an aerial teacher, but what happens after a full week of immersion? We like to keep you linked into the community and further developing your teaching skills. The online modules offered through the Born To Fly ™ Certification support your continued growth as a teacher. Ready to sign up for a training course? Check out our Training Page for Upcoming Events. We’d love to work with you! By Elizabeth Stich “I’ve often said that marathons are like my graduate school. They give you the intensive, specialized, in-depth training that you didn’t get during the course of your normal four-year degree. That’s because they’re long enough and challenging enough that the slightest imperfections and inefficiencies—the ones that you might never notice in your daily run, yet cause the cumulative damage over the years that can wreck your running career—eventually come out.” -- Barefoot Ken Bob Sanders Although I am not a runner, I love this quote from the book Barefoot Running. I am currently in the home stretch of my own 150 theme park show marathon and reflecting on the lessons it has given me not only as a performer, but also as a teacher. Even though many of my recreational aerial students will never reach this level of intensity, the same solid foundation of good technique applies whether attending class once a week or performing in hundreds of shows a year. The following list may seem like common sense, but my marathon experience has continued to remind me how important these simple truths are for students and professionals alike. This summer, I am attempting to be my own best student! 1. Always practice a skill on both sides. As a teacher, I always have students learn and practice both sides of a skill in class. But what about when we move from mastering classroom skills to performing choreography? I have found that this is challenging not only for the obvious, glamorous tricks, but also for the sneaky asymmetries that hide in repetitive choreography. When I was choreographing my silks act for this show, I made a deal with myself that if I included angel roll-ups I also had to practice the skill on my non-dominant side after the first show of every day. At first this was a challenge, but now my other side is looking pretty good and my shoulders are even and happy! As the show run progressed, though, I realized that the more challenging asymmetry to tackle was the drop at the end of my act. I choose not to train or teach advanced drops on both sides (In the heat of the moment in performance, when lights, music, and audience can make thinking challenging, I want my body to have muscle memory of executing potentially dangerous drops on one side only); however, I still had to figure out a way to safely address this imbalance. For me, the answer was to practice my flamenco S-wrap entrance from my non-dominant side and then windmill down instead of wrapping for the drop. This gives me the same sense of spiraling entrance and rolling descent, without actually wrapping the drop on my non-dominant side. 2. No cheating when it comes to technique. Not only does clean technique look better aesthetically, but it is also your first line of defense for injury prevention! After an intense 10-day rehearsal period, our cast went straight into performing 19 shows a week. No matter how much training time I logged pre-contract, it couldn’t completely prepare me for the amount of energy and endurance required for the real deal. Towards the beginning of the show run, I began to notice myself taking a short cut in my inversion technique. Instead of choosing to invert from long arms/dead hang or from short arms/lock-off, I was hanging out in that inefficient no-man’s land in between of partially bent arms that can lead to tendonitis in the elbows. Ironically, this is a bad habit that I always caution my students against! Once I noticed the problem, the solution was simply to put myself back into the student mindset and review and condition all the basic straddle back progressions. (If you’ve forgotten these stepping stones along the way to a beautiful inversion, they are conveniently included in the new Rope Manual Vol. 1 by Rebekah Leach). 3. No one can do it all.
You have a limited amount of time and energy, so choose warm-ups, conditioning, injury prevention exercises, and stretches wisely. For the past several years, I feel like all I've been able to focus on is opening my shoulders. I have focused on them so much that I almost forgot that I have a lower body. Well, thanks to this summer job for reminding me! In addition to performing my aerial acts, I spend a good portion of the show jumping on and off stage, running through the audience, and negotiating the uneven surfaces of trampolines, BMX bike ramps, and crash mats. It didn’t take long before I started to feel a tweak in my ankle, which I promptly addressed by adding a ballet releve` sequence into my daily warm-up routine. Since then, I've had to learn to trust that my shoulders will be fine even if I turn some of my attention to other parts of my body. Thankfully, from a lifetime of studying different movement practices (ballet, modern dance, Laban Movement Analysis, Anusara Yoga, and circus arts), I have many tools upon which to draw in response to my body's changing daily needs. As a teacher, this reminds me how important it is to give students a variety of exercises to stock their own personal warm-up, conditioning, injury prevention, and stretching tool-kits and to encourage them to cultivate the self-awareness to know when to choose a particular exercise. Elizabeth Stich is a Salt Lake City based aerialist and dancer who spent the summer flying high over BMX stunt riders performing with All Wheel Sports productions. When not on stage, you can find her in the studio sharing her passion for both aerials and dance at Aerial Arts of Utah, Westminster College, and Salt Lake Community College. by Julianna Hane
The aerial community is full of self-taught DIY-ers leading the pack in their city or town. The desire to fly pulls at the pioneer’s heartstrings! While I certainly fit into the self-starter category, I am grateful for the mentors who have shared their hard-earned knowledge with me through live teacher training programs. In honor of my mentors, I have developed a list of why even the most go-getter individualists benefit from an aerial teacher training program: 1. Develop a plan to help keep students safe. Even the most skilled aerialist needs to think differently about the skills when teaching. What could go wrong? What tends to be confusing? What is your back-up plan if something does go wrong? Remember, safety first. 2. Learn and practice spotting techniques. Spotting involves technique just like skills in the air. Spotting helps keep students safe, guides them spatially, and reassures them when a chattering mind gets the better of them. 3. Spend time with like-minded people who are passionate about the aerial arts. This is huge! Many aerial teachers (including myself) have felt isolated from other aerial teachers due to geography. Teacher trainings help you network. Some of my greatest aerial friends I met in a week long training and we are still close to this day. 4. Clarify your teaching philosophy. It’s time to dig deep. Why are you a teacher? What is it you are actually teaching? Hint – it’s a core message or principle, not the aerial skills themselves. For more, check out The Aerial Teacher’s Handbook. 5. Discuss issues in teaching with other instructors, share stories, and get advice. Every aerial teacher needs a circle of colleagues to confide in. And if you fall into that “geographically isolated” category mentioned earlier, you definitely crave that support! 6. Learn to break down skills into smaller steps. The aerial arts grew out of the circus tradition and skills were only taught to students who proved a certain level of prerequisite strength and coordination. If we open recreational schools to “any body,” then we have to develop new teaching methods for the layperson. Translation: baby steps. 7. Practice cueing students through skills, and learn the "magic words." Experienced teachers who have trained many types of learners and bodies have accumulated a huge bag of tricks, including “magic words” or verbal cues that work on almost every student. You will leave a training with a notebook full of these tricks of the trade. 8. Explore the concepts hidden within each skill to develop a curriculum and distinguish levels. It is impossible to know every move on an apparatus, especially since the art form is so young and new moves are invented every day. It is possible to learn secrets to how the apparatus works. This allows you to teach students for depth (not just breadth, or 1,000 different moves). On a side note, building a curriculum with levels is also much easier when looking at underlying concepts rather than individual moves. 9. Expand your aerial vocabulary horizontally. The beauty of a teacher training is that you get to experience skills you know well from a different perspective, and you get to expand your skill set outwardly (not just upwardly, or getting more advanced). Some students will always be at level 1, and you need to compile more skills and activities at that level to keep those students invested. 10. Further your own technique. As a dancer, I am always taking ballet technique classes because I can never know it all or be perfect. A teacher training gives you an opportunity to develop your own technique and get feedback from experienced artists. 11. Get feedback on your teaching and receive guidance. Never underestimate the power of constructive feedback from an outside source. You will be a much stronger teacher as a result. Teacher trainers are your greatest advocates offering support, resources and guidance for future growth. We want you to succeed! by Julianna Hane
Last time: We discussed how progressions are the key to solid teaching, not repeating what you learned in your first aerial class. (If you missed Part II, click here). Today we’ll bust: Myth #3: Those who can do can also teach. I have saved my favorite topic for last. This one can be controversial, but stick with me. First of all, performing (doing) and teaching are very different processes. Doing involves a combination of physical, mental, and emotional abilities. Teaching involves communicating body knowledge to another person through a variety of means (physical practice, mental theory, analogies, etc.). Just because someone can do the skill does not mean they can explain it in a way that makes sense to others. To clarify what I mean, let’s backtrack a little. Many professional aerialists started out at such a high level of ability that their training solely focused on breaking down elite level skills. They often lack experience with beginner progressions, and may not understand the recreational student body: lack of upper body and core strength, lack of coordination, under-developed spatial awareness, and the list goes on. A teacher who has lived the challenges of their students often has keys to help them succeed that naturally talented people may not have access to. Let’s look at an example in another subject. I once worked with a teacher who loved teaching fractions – she just had a knack for breaking it down in a way that kids could understand it. If you’ve ever tried to teach fractions, you know how hard it is to do! One day the teacher revealed her secret to me – she loved teaching fractions because she absolutely struggled to learn them as a child. Fractions did not make sense to her at first, and she worked very hard to master them. When she became a teacher, she wanted to ensure that her students did not have to feel defeated by fractions like she did, so she used many different teaching methods to help them learn to love fractions. (Remember how experience is overcoming a series of obstacles? If you missed out, read the blog about Myth #1.) Of course, there are talented aerialists who are also great teachers. Like having a talent for performance, some people just have a knack for teaching. But I want to emphasize that a great performer does not necessarily a great teacher make. To tease these skills apart, I evaluate teachers using the following questions: 1. Does this teacher have the knowledge? 2. Does this teacher clearly communicate their knowledge? Great aerial teachers have both vast knowledge and communication skills. Now ask yourself the questions above - how do you rank? Do you feel confident in your knowledge base? Do your students understand your teaching? If you wish to grow in your teaching, we can help! Check out our teacher training and certification program. Join us for an aerial nerd-out session like no other. By Julianna Hane
Last time: In Part 1, we discussed how weekend courses in aerial teaching offer lots of great info, but the full journey into teaching must extent beyond that week for it to have any meaning at all. (If you missed Part I, click here). Today, we get to bust: Myth #2: You can teach first-time students the same skills you learned in your first class. This was probably the first lesson I learned in aerial teaching. When I began studying aerial fabric back in 2005, I travelled far and wide to take private lessons because aerial studios were not a “thing” yet. The skills I learned in my first lesson, while appropriate for my abilities at that time, were not appropriate for most of the students I ended up training. When I opened my studio in 2008, students poured in from all walks of life and I loved it! But I realized that the skills I had originally learned had to be broken down into even smaller chunks to serve my students. I learned to do this the hard way – by teaching, and then noticing when students seemed lost or frustrated. Whenever a student hit a roadblock, I had to instantly come up with a better way of presenting that skill. If you have ever taken an improvisation class, then you understand the roots of my teaching practice – responding in the moment. Luckily, I could read people pretty well and had lots of ideas for breaking down skills. I noticed how my students revealed their hang-ups, and responded to them. I wasn’t perfect, but I began developing a series of progressions that turned into a larger curriculum. Many years later, I am still experimenting with different teaching methods. I am finding better ways of presenting concepts, and am reaching more people as a result. Aerial teaching is the best puzzle – it never gets boring. But what if I don’t have time to develop my own progressions from scratch? Here’s the good news: you don’t have to reinvent the wheel! Rebekah and I have worked on building a full certification program to share the methods we have developed over many years of teaching. Our big goal is to support the growth of the field through teacher education. We are absolutely passionate about teaching, and would love to work with you. by Julianna Hane
The aerial arts industry is booming, and we love that! With performances spreading like wild fire, more people are inspired to take classes in our beautiful art form. With the rising interest in teaching aerial arts, myths about teaching have popped up. Today, we will bust: Myth #1: You can learn to teach in one weekend. Truth: It takes years to develop a personal practice in the form before even considering teaching it to someone else. Enrolling in a one-weekend teacher training course may expose you to some incredible ideas about aerial teaching, but it is literally just the tip of the iceberg. Think about the last intensive training you attended. The presenters probably gave you so much information in such a short amount of time, filling your notebooks with handouts and points to remember. But how long did it take those expert speakers to learn those things for themselves? My best guess…years. Experience, and lots of it, is the best teacher. It is simply the amount and quality of time invested in learning. By spending lots of time in the air, you learn how different skills relate to one another, what can go wrong in a move, how to cue a move so it is clear to different types of learners, and so many other lessons. Experience can only be acquired by overcoming roadblocks. Get through the days/weeks when “I just want to quit,” so you can get to the days when you can say, “I am so proud of myself – I am changing for the better.” When you overcome problems and make it to the other side a bit wiser, other people will want to know how you did it. They seek your guidance - you become a mentor because you earned the title. The great mentor has experienced failure and rejection, and has many more scars (both physical and emotional) than the student. The great mentor has stared their deepest fears in the face and moved forward anyway. No one can gain this level of experience and wisdom in one weekend, but that information can be absorbed over a longer period of time if you set the intention to do so. This means showing up consistently for your personal practice. So why are aerial teacher trainings usually offered in a 2-4 day format? The weekend format works for most people who have full-time jobs, and for those who teach a full schedule at a studio. In fact, many teacher training programs purposely offer multiple weekends of training to help trainees absorb information over a longer period of time. This gives participants time to apply the teaching techniques they learn in the live course before returning for another round of training. It also gives time for supplemental training in anatomy and rigging, and observing or assisting other teachers. So how can I develop as an aerial teacher? A weekend aerial teacher training is a great start for those who wish to become aerial instructors and have maintained a strong personal practice for a few years. In a live training you can get your feet wet, meet new people, and learn various teaching and spotting techniques. Then, when the weekend is over, train rigorously in preparation for the next live weekend. Stay involved in your teacher training program or certification over the long haul to get the absolute best results – both you and your students will see the difference it makes! If you would like to know more about our teacher trainings, click here. Rebekah and I would love to work with you!
1. Observe an experienced teacher.
I always learn so much about the teaching process by observing someone else teach a class. This process is far different from taking a class, because it forces you to be in “teacher brain” rather than in “student brain,” better known as, “I’m going to zone out and completely devote this time to me and my body” brain. By observing a teacher from the outside, you can notice a lot and take notes. First, how does the teacher greet students? What is the energy of the room? Next, is there logic behind the warm-up? What teaching methods are being used (demonstrations versus verbal cueing, for example)? Then, how does the teacher approach struggling students? Does the teacher spot or offer assists, and are they appropriate for the context? You can discover a great deal about effective (and ineffective) teaching by sitting out of a class and using your powers of observation. 2. Assist an experienced teacher. Rather than jumping into teaching head first, I like having new aerial instructors assist me so they can practice spotting. The beauty of assisting is it allows the new teacher to take in what is happening in the entire room, and then zoom in on just one person and work with him/her one-on-one. The students don’t mind it either – in fact, they often appreciate the extra attention! Assisting also sets you up as a liaison between the teacher and the students. When I assist, I get to experience the class from both the teacher and student perspectives. When this happens, I can decide how I might teach the class or even notice things the lead teacher does that I would never have considered before. I can notice both what the students want from the teacher, as well as what the teacher is trying to offer the students. Holding both perspectives at once is a powerful tool toward becoming a great teacher and communicator. 3. Teach a class while an experienced teacher observes you. While it may feel intimidating to be observed by another instructor, this person can give you so much feedback to help you improve your teaching. If the class you are teaching is for beginners, you could opt to have an assistant to take some of the burdens of spotting everyone off your plate. In my mind, it is better to hear the constructive criticism from someone you trust than to hear nothing and wonder why so few students attend your classes. Take the feedback like a pro, apply it, and watch your classes flourish. 4. Teach a class on your own. Finally, we arrive at our goal – teaching solo. Once you are prepared for this step, it still might be nice to have an assistant especially if you have a larger class of beginners. In some cases, you might want to co-teach. Co-teaching is where two teachers of equal standing work together to teach a class. This setup can allow teachers to break a class into smaller groups according to level or interest, or it can be useful when teaching duo or partner style classes. Ultimately, teaching is a process just like learning. By taking it step by step, you will gradually become more comfortable and confident in your teaching abilities, and also have the skills to ask for assistance when needed. Happy Flying, Julianna Julianna Hane traded life on a cotton farm to become a dancer and aerialist. She is a master teacher trainer with Born to Fly™ Productions, a writer, and a dance professor at College of Charleston. |
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