#33: How Does Music Training Actually Benefit Ballet Teachers (and their students)?
Nov 20, 2020First run of the course is done!
Surprises, thoughts and reflections..
Having completed The Official Music Training Course for Ballet Teachers (The OMTC) with my inaugural group of 'students', I'm extremely excited to say there was very little to tweak and SO MUCH positive feedback to enjoy! I did find that I had a couple of surprises that I wanted to share with you.
Surprise #1
My list of 'students' wasn't what I expected it to be!
I expected to have a group of young, inexperienced beginner teachers who knew they needed music training.
In actuality, I had some younger teachers wanting to use music better as ballet teachers, some older and experienced ballet teachers who took it mostly out of curiosity about the course and even a dancer who felt that understanding music better would improve their dancing!
Surprise #2
Connecting with these 'students' throughout the course was a HUGE highlight for me. Through many emails, DMs and conversations, it struck me that there were MANY benefits to music training that I hadn't even considered!
Benefits You'll Discover From Taking Music Training!
1) Confidence and vocal presence marking set AND unset exercises
I had a teacher named Shannon who emailed me this part way through the course.
"While teaching I've tended to be on the quieter side with vocal delivery and I feel like a lot of my marking in the past has sounded very similar regardless of the type of music I was counting with. I have already felt a big boost in confidence through this course that's allowing me to start using my voice much more effectively now that I feel that I understand the music better and can demonstrate that in my classes."
2) Greater ability to create unset exercises using unset music
Another student commented that after working through the music training...
"I feel like I can make more deliberate choices with what I want to use when I'm lesson planning and teaching (as opposed to kind of just making and exercise and saying "yeah, I guess this music goes with it" haha)"
3) More efficient class time usage because of less repeating/clarifying
Show me a teacher who doesn't want more time with their students and I'll show you a baker who doesn't cook with butter.. it's just a non-possibility really! lol. Through using the music skills I teach in my course, your exercise teaching/marking will become more efficient and less of a time suck!
4) Refreshed creativity; jump out of the 'same same' track!
Another student, Diana, said..
'..I felt confident in putting the exercise to a 6/8 march (from the Music Training for ballet Teachers Course). I would have never been able to do that before! Yay, progress!'
Additionally, there are some other BONUSES that aren't as immediately obvious but certainly beneficial to you and your students!
Secondary BONUSES of Taking Music Training
1) Students become more aware/musical through your clear teaching
Here is a little secret for you, musical teachers train musical dancers!
Another comment by Shannon;
"I've started to use the quality of my voice to better demonstrate the music when I'm marking exercises, and I've noticed that my students (the older ones in particular) seem to respond well to that, and they seem to find it easier to count the music now that I am more confident demonstrating it."
2) More class time for corrections and student development
A BONUS benefit of being able to teach clearly and articulately is that you have more class time to correct and help your students with their technique!
3) Ability to fine tune/finesse your dancers' abilities through targeted exercises
When you can confidently create exercises that target and challenge your dancers' weaknesses with intentionally selected music that perfectly supports the movements/accents, you're reaching heights that many ballet teachers will never reach.
In Conclusion
If some (or all) of these stories sound amazing and awesome, make sure you sign up to be on the waitlist for The Official Music Training Course for Ballet Teachers, registration will be opening up again soon!
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