VERY much enjoyed your post, ariel - thanks a lot - look forward to more (sorry if that sounds greedy!)

I am not very aware of studios in Dubuque, Ia but would recommend you take the 1 hour drive to Iowa City which is on I-80 to the Univ. of Iowa. They have a strong modern program.

Thank you for the info, dancing_granny, and welcome!

Let me add my welcome too, Dancing_Granny and thank you for the information.

ari, i thought your post was fabulous, i love hearing about others experiences. i've noticed at large studios like Broadway dance center that an instructer usually waits to see if you are in class a few times before giving any attention or comments. i imagine in a place w/that many drop in students it is daunting for the teacher as well. i'm interested in the comparison, NYC vs Chicago

That's a very interesting comment J - I have noticed that too. Many instructors wait to see if the student comes back a few times to offer comments and/or corrections.<P>However, what do you think about that? After all the student, even if only coming to the class once, has paid for it. That's how it always seemed to me anyway. When someone would come to my class, I figured that was part of what that student was paying for. <P>But, on the other hand it happened to me a number of times as a student that the teacher would wait. I am not sure I like that.

no more class reviews for now -- i'm scamming around chicago to locate something, now. =)<P>and thank you very much, dancing_granny, for the iowa suggestion! that's been the hardest to locate so far and i will definitely go up to iowa city if i don't find something in dubuque. =)<P>re: repeat students and comments: i think it makes sense to not comment on seeing a student once. if they're doing something outright wrong (ie, they're out of alignment, they're not getting their heels down on jumps), that's one thing and there should be an intervention. but a drop-in student who is just not doing everything exactly right (ie, my arms in grande jete are probably not the demonstrated arms, simply because there are several variations and my muscle memory will often override the instructions no matter how hard i internally scream) can't be given some of those comments because they just might not mean anything. if you've only showed up once, maybe you're an out-of-towner who's just there for a second before she goes back to her other world; if you're a visiting professional (as i would guess one of the other women in the class was, but maybe she was just very balletic naturally), their comments on "put your arms here," or "your head goes here" or "try to suspend your jumps more" might just be irrelevant because if this student is just there once, by chance, and spends the rest of his or her life aiming for a different aesthetic...the comment isn't pointful.<P>but if a student shows up, and re-shows-up, and re-re-re-shows up, a teacher can get a feel for what is "wrong" for the student and what is just different based on how that student does things. and, on a short-term one-class basis...it's silly, i would think, to make a correction like "put your arms *here*, not *there*, when you grand jete" if it looks like the arms are going to a correct place, not just the officially sanctioned correct place.<P>caveats: this holds more for students with a basic competency; this holds much more for ballet than modern b/c ballet is much more codified, but codified in different ways; this has NOTHING to do with faults in the movement/alignment (if i am holding a grande plie with my knees going in, as i tend to if i forget to really smack them outwards, i would *hope* the teacher would say something before something goes terribly wrong), but more along the lines of corrections that are the next level...<P>but now that i think about this, maybe it is all wrong. but i will put it up because i am sure those of you who have *experience* teaching might have something wise to say. =)<P>signing off from chicago,<BR>--ari

your input is adding a new dimension, ari - thanks for these posts. i',m inclined to think that the class is what has been paid for (including group 'corrections'), and that individual corrections are better to leave till you have a bit of a feeling for the 'person' as well as for the 'body' you're seeing - which would take a couple of lessons. except, as you say, gross technical faults, which present a danger - however it tends to be the way of it, that those with the MOST glaring (therefore dangerous) faults, are the very ones who may behave extremely wierdly if told so!

Hmmmmmmm why is my view so different? I am trying to remember - when I went to a brand new class, I always looked forward to having the teacher give me a new view of things.<P>While I certainly agree that the best corrections come when the teacher is more familiar with the student's particular body and mind set, I also felt that there could be some input even in that first lesson with me. <P>As a teacher, I know that the student who comes for the first time is naturally a bit stressed as anyone would be in a new situation. However, I would always make sure that I let that student know that he/she interested me, and had my attention.<P> Sometimes it could be something small, a new way to use the arm, a different outlook on how to balance. A new imagery for the mind. I felt that I should offer something for that student to take away with them from my class. Whether they used it - was up to them. <P>This is an interesting discussion and exchange.<P>

in practice, basheva, i certainly do offer lots of thoughts the first time - IF i feel the student is comfortable with that. but i am dealing with children/teens now, and i know that in my experience of BEING in adult classes, it was not common for there to be individual corrections at all, and what i have observed is that the more experienced teachers didn't give individual corrections to newcomers. (not in the big studios in london, anyway.) <P>so quite possibly we are talking a little at cross purposes. in terms of my own experience as a dancer/student, individual corrections were not common, and never with newcomers. except in small personalised classes, out of major cities, where all the interaction is on a friendlier more eye-contact basis.<P>but as a teacher, i have to try hard to stifle myself, with anyone new, because i know it is often a dangerous thing to venture too much with a newcomer, without knowing what their assumptions are, based on their previous training, about how to do things and why, etc. <P>i'm not saying it's right or wrong, to give or to not give corrections, just reporting on what i've seen.

I agree, Grace, I don't think there is a right or wrong here - just different ways. I, too, have hesitated to give in depth corrections to a new student, for exactly the reasons you state. <P>But, I do enjoy as a new student having the teacher give me some input. And as a teacher that is what I tried to do with a new student. Sometimes you can just see whether the new student really wants to remain "invisible" for a time or not. I guess it is a fine line, isn't it?

I read with interest the comments about giving/not giving new comers corrections. I am not a dance major, or old retired professional, simply an "old" adult student. It is hard enough to go to a new class, especially as an adult dancer, and to know that some teachers never give corrections to new comers is dis-heartening. I don't know if I would go back to a class where I didn't feel noticed. That attitude would make me feel less than welcome, not to mention the fact that one is paying for the class. In fact, I hate it when I come home and have not recieved a correction even when my regular teacher says that when she says nothing "you are doing well".

Dancing Granny - I very much agree - both as a student and as a teacher. Something, anything - even just an acknowledgement that you are doing well is better, to me, than nothing. When that happens, I usualy feel that I might as well have stayed home and given myself a class. <P>But obviously, there are different points of view on this....and perhaps it is a matter of degree. It's great to have your input.

dancing granny - what i would recommend in that situation is that you actually say to the teacher before the class - 'i'm really keen to learn. please don't hesitate to give me feedback - i can take it!' - especially to any new teacher. then you have given the teacher permission to offer you what s/he can, and made your own wishes clear - thus removing artificial barriers. as a teacher, i'd love that. you'd then get more attention than anyone, i confess!

Thanks for the suggestion. I never thought of that. Guess I just thought that as an adult walking into an intermid. class it would be assumed that one was serious and in class to learn.<P>Thanks again.