Calling All Dancers!! HELP!!

Question

Hey, I'm a 16 year old male in Brooklyn, NY. I am now a hip/hop- popper. I want to become a dance teacher on the weekends. I need advice and what I should do and how to get started. And, if you know anywhere I can go to in the brooklyn anywhere, please let me know.

I also need to know:( education is the #1 priority) So, if your in college, you start freshmen year and leave sophomore year to go on a tour, Can you get a tutor to tour with you to teach you the work you need. And, when you go back to college will I be able to go back as a junior??? (my back up besides dance is to be a physcologist)

AND!!! how can you let your parents approve of you becoming a dancer/choreographer???

Also, feel free to leave comments to help me in dance as a hip-hop/popper, also any other classes I should take, and over all anything that would help me in my future.

Need Hints on getting in shape to dance!!

- Much Love

Answer 1

I don't think you're ready to be a dance teacher either. You need to take some ballet or lyrical classes to learn correct technique. In ballet you learn the right way to do jumps and flips and lifts so you don't hurt yourself. You must learn that so you can teach others the same so no one gets hurt. Plus ballet helps in popping a lot! So study dance a little more and then go try to teach. Try putting together a choreographed piece and then teach it to one of you're friends who have NEVER danced before. This will help because most of the people you teach (unless in advanced class) will have had no prior training and it will be like a real class. Get experience and maybe assist a dance teacher in one of his classes. Hope I've helped.

Answer 2

Hi again, Jude,

I'm sorry to say that you're not ready to become a dance teacher, even for hip hop/popping, because you've never fully participated in any dance classes, yourself, on an on-going basis. You therefore have no understanding of how dance concepts get passed on from teacher to student. A dance class does not consist of the teacher just standing in the front of the class demonstrating what they can do and trying to get the students to copy them. There really is no road towards advancing as a dancer except through taking dance classes, yourself, plain and simple.

On the other hand, if you're talking about being a volunteer teacher on the weekends, that's a different matter. You just can't be paid to teach with no prior experience.

Next, college is not like high school. When you take a leave, everything pretty much comes to a halt - with the exception of on-line classes. But lots of dancers - and especially the guys - have been known to take a leave from college when a dance contract comes along.

Finally, if you can manage to get a dance contract in the middle of your college program, I don't think you'd have a problem with your parents. No parent is going to object to their kid being able to earn some good money. It's not like psychology majors can pull in $1,000 a week from their freshman-level psychology skills.

Even without a dance contract part-way through college, your parents really can't stop you from double-majoring in psychology and dance. And if you're paying for college, yourself, then there really is nothing they can do. Follow your dream, work hard (and learn how to spell psychology) (this is not the first time you've misspelled it and I've been writing it correctly each time I answer you), and your parents will come around and be proud of you.

P.S. Think about taking the time to pick a "Best Answer" when people take the time to answer your questions - including via email.

Edit to answer "Additional Details":

Jude, my answer still stands even for you to be an assistant teacher. To be an assistant, you'd need to know how to pick up someone else's choreography very quickly and also be the best one at making corrections when the teacher says that something is not quite right and needs to be changed. An assistant is like being the head of the class, but you've never taken real classes, so how can you be the head?

Seriously, you really need to take some classes for awhile before you can even absorb any other advice about dance. Without knowing for yourself what it's like, our advice is not going to do you much good.

PPS: I'm thinking more along the lines of starting with a hip hop class, not ballet. In my opinion, ballet is not related at all with popping and is kind of the opposite of popping. You'd just feel overwhelmed by starting classes with ballet. Plus there's the fact that you're 16 and your parents aren't crazy about you studying dance. Get yourself to Broadway Dance Center and at least take a few beginners' hip hop classes.