- Home
- Nejla Yatkin
- Philosophy of Teaching
Imagine Dance Blogs
Imagine Dance Bloggers
Philosophy of Teaching
Experienced and Inspirational Dancer, Nejla Yatkin explains her method
Posted Aug 18, 2011 by Nejla Yatkin
As an artist and performer, I am very passionate and always thrive for excellence. This has become infused into my approach of teaching and learning. At its root, teaching dance is an extremely intimate as well as complex art form in and of itself. It involves connecting with your student on multiple levels: intellectually, physically, spiritually and at a level beyond words and experience. Since I attempt to address all of these dimensions, my approach to teaching is multi-faceted.
First, as a teacher, I play many roles. For example, in this capacity, I guide, instruct, hear, feel, intuit, dispel, correct, inspire and counsel. Most important, however, I seek to create opportunities for students to externalize and make sense of their gifts. Emile Zola once said: “the artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.” Acknowledging this, I believe that the teacher helps the dance student discover her/his own strengths/difficulties and use these in a way that promotes change and development as dancers, artists, citizens and humans.
Second, although I play several roles in the classroom, I view teaching and learning as a reciprocal partnership where everyone involved enlightens others as well as gain new insights. It should be clear: I do not see my role as “all-knowing” and students as “only-listeners”. Essentially, the characteristics associated with teaching and learning parallel the dynamics intrinsic to a dance between two partners. For example, in the traditional style of teaching, one leads and the other follows. This is identified when the teacher lectures and students take notes. In contrast, my teaching style and conceptualization of learning is best thought of as an interaction between two partners. Here, each actor has their own knowledge, abilities, and artistic expression; together the pair learns from one another and becomes something new – both individually and collectively.
Finally, coming from a multi-cultural background and having studied multiple dance techniques, I can give my students a broad perspective on dance and dance technique. Some artists seem to be interested in analyzing the differences between different cultures and dance traditions. I am interested in comparing the similarities – to take threads of thought that come from different techniques and weaving them together into my own patterns. One culture’s way of expressing something is as valid as another’s. I am fortunate to live in a time, when walls are literally falling down and dances from around the world are available to me – seeing their means of expression enriches my own as well as informs my students and connects them to a larger community.