Regardless of over 15 years experience and a large handful of awesome mentors, having 5 kids and being part of the ballroom world has been a challenge and a circus act, but I'm a better teacher because of it.
WHY? you ask.
WELL, LET ME TELL YOU:
Patience
I am not a saint, but I hang out with five people whose favorite word is "Mama" and I only yell at them to stop 10 times a day, so… I'm pretty close.
But seriously, living with a quintet of kids under 10 has given me a high threshold of patience for people
- not listening to me
- not understanding me
- needing to be told something 100 times before they do it
- being unnecessarily loud or talkative
- being crabby [note: usually it's because they're tired or hungry; teacher's suggestion: bring a snack to lessons, yo]
Insistence
Have you ever tried telling a 5 year old to brush their teeth? Or a toddler to finish their food? I HAVE.
It is thrilling. And repetitive. And necessary.
Kids don't know what's good for them… just like ballroom dance students. When I tell you to do a toe lead on 3 and you don't do it, I'll keep telling you to do it. UNTIL YOU DO IT.
Simplicity
While it is really fun to use as many words and as many ways possible to describe a thing, it's also really nice to be able to boil a process down to it's simplest form with as few words as possible and then SAY THAT.
"I never knew words could be so confusing," he tells Tock. "Only when you use a lot to say a little," the watchdog replies. – The Phantom Tollbooth
Vocabulary
Matching fun dance words with techniques and proficiency levels is like using new words with kids. While kids might infer from context what you mean when you use a big word, they also might make up their own definition and be totally off the mark.
I was making a shopping list and wrote down "avocado" and since I'm slightly crazy and always surrounded by people, I said it out loud. My 2 year old loved the word and started saying it around the house. "Avocado. Avocado! Acovado. Avocado. Avocado!" Good times. Then we went to the store. I picked out an avocado. "Watz dat?" she asks. "Avocado," I reply.
"AVOCADO!"
She was thrilled that her great new word had a meaning and continued to yell it joyfully to strangers around the store.
Similarly, I've often heard dance jargon thrown around with little conviction, and while I love my technical terms, "CBM" can sound like something much different than it is without a clarification of the acronym and laymen's terms of what it means and how you're probably using it already.
Bribery
After you finish your vegetables, you get dessert.
After you do 50 heel turns, you get Hustle.
For those of you who think bribery is beneath you, think of it as POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT.
Bullshit Radar
"Did you make your bed?"
"Yes."
…
"Did you practice this week?"
"Yes."
…
In both instances, I get a strong feeling that you're lying and I'm usually right [and it's not just because I'm a lady – ba dum ching!]. My radar also works on "Oh, that hurts", "I can't do that", and "That's not how I learned it."
Practice
Of course, most of my favorite teachers had these amazing skills as well. Did they all have kids? No. But I get a lot of practice working with these virtues from sun up and to sun down (and from sun down to sun up). So don't give me crap OR I'LL TURN THIS CAR AROUND.
Four years ago: Happy Wednesday
Six years ago: LLLL
Riot and Frolic 
Leave a comment