Teaching Philosophy

My path to teaching dance was paved by artists who were as warm as they were demanding, who affirmed my strengths while inviting me to delve into growth areas, and who saw me as a full person for whom dance was one of many avenues for place-sensing in the world. I am proud to continue that legacy – in anonymous evaluations, my students at Belmont University and the University of North Carolina, Greensboro routinely reported that no matter their relationship to dance, they felt encouraged, supported and challenged in my classroom.

As I cultivate my teaching practice for the university student, I aim to uphold high standards for technique and scholarship while caring for the whole person and nurturing everyone’s potential as members of an artistic community. I aim for all of my students, regardless of career aspirations, to leave my class equipped with 1) an appreciation for their growth; 2) anatomical fluency that supports their longevity; 3) a network of supportive peers; 4) and the academic and artistic acumen necessary to continue reaching toward their goals. Art both preserves and enhances our humanity, and toward those ends, my dance classroom also equips students with critical thinking skills, social-emotional capacity, and self-reflective depth.

Fundamentally, I am dedicated to training students while caring for both the body and the mind. Using anatomy and basic kinesiology as guides, I help students motivate movement mechanically as a foundation for empowering them to further explore their artistry. Prioritizing safety and efficiency over aesthetic ideals, I use Pilates principles, elements of Limón technique, and somatic guiding strategies to teach students how to navigate their humanity via movement. Alongside, students develop mindfulness methods to assess their body’s capacity from day to day, including Bartenieff movement fundamentals, elements of B.J. Sullivan’s Safety Release Technique, Alexander technique’s inhibition practice, and Anne Green Gilbert’s Brain Dance patterns.

Drawing on scholarship by Carlos R.A. Jones, Crystal U. Davis, San San Kwan, and others, my critical dance pedagogy includes diversifying the scholarship I select for students’ coursework; naming and contextualizing systemic racism, especially as it relates to concert dance in the U.S.; affirming my students’ lived experiences and ensuring course content reflects and expands the diversity of the classroom; and guiding students through reflection regarding their privilege (which includes being transparent about mine). That work is constant and riddled with opportunities to fail, but it’s important to hold myself to high standards while challenging my students to do so.

As members of a learning community, all students and the teacher have much to gain and much to give – and one person’s experience (mine among them) is not privileged over another’s. I have very little control over external societal realities that shape my students’ experiences. Rather than assuming my pedagogy will guarantee a “safe space,” the onus is on me to model and shape a learning community where students are welcome to engage in collegial disagreement, sharing our curiosity rather than leading with certainty. My students and I collectively agree that the classroom functions best with encouragement over competition and open-mindedness over judgment.

Since dance class is simultaneously a first-person singular and first-person plural experience – both “I” and “we” – I offer pathways for students to be in their bodies AND in community during our time together. Students get to know each other through reflective correction applications, movement co-creation, and lively and frequent discussions. I am also mindful of identifying and affirming students’ “superpowers” – those traits that are improving the overall experience of the group which I can name and nurture. These pedagogical practices initiate thoughtful exchange, preparing students to listen to themselves and each other more deeply.

I set students up to succeed by clearly communicating expectations and assessment metrics upfront, continually clarifying as needs arise, ensuring I’m available for one-on-one feedback outside of class, and returning written work in a timely manner so students know where they stand. I’m inspired by Mary Harding’s work which centers co-creation of rubrics, shared aesthetic determination as a class community, and peer-to-peer feedback, all effective strategies that de-mystify pedagogy for students and encourage them to assert their artistic voice independently of the teacher’s preferences. Reflexively closing the multidirectional feedback loop, I also genuinely invite and value students’ evaluations of their time in my classroom. Because of my academic background as a dance minor who simultaneously pursued multiple interests, I support all dance students in their quest to make scholarly connections between artistic practice and other modes of showing up in the world. These connections are central to my teaching and are intrinsic to my choreographic process. I am proud of my track record of successfully building community among interdisciplinary student populations, and I am committed to equipping dance students with the academic and professional skills they need to navigate the university system, explore their diverse interests, and eventually succeed in whichever industry they choose.