Notes On Teaching By An Inexperienced 20 Year Old

• People don't want to learn from the greats –– they want to be like the greats, but learn from someone closer to them in reach. I've noticed that students want to learn from someone on the path to becoming great, but not yet there. You need to be one "rung" above, instead of many –– that way you're knowledgable, but also accessible.
  • Ofcourse, everyone likes the thought of having learnt from an expert in the field. But, the greater you are, the more intimidating you are.
  • Maybe the greats are where they are because of talent and skill, but there's a lot to do with luck, too. [[Fooled by Randomness - Nassim Taleb]]
• The cliched "learn by teaching" actually works. Some lessons I've learnt while teaching:
  • Knowledge is meant to be shared.
  • The most successful people put their egos aside and ask for help and get the help they need to better themselves.
  • Constant learning is a sign of wisdom.
  • Knowledge can’t be forgotten because it is almost like a "personal truth". Knowledge is pure understanding of a subject or concept - even if that means facts or not (biases or other) - but if you understand it, you can’t “forget” it.
• The Socratic Method, I'm yet to read more articles by Richard Garlikov, but I think there's a lot more for me to learn in this field.
• Why are teachers so under-valued, under-paid and under-appreciated in communities?
• #covid means a lot of change for the education world. Getting schools to "normal" after the pandemic is certainly not enough. There's both good and bad things that can come out of this.
• How can schools/colleges/other education institutions set us up for life-long learning? Why don't they know? And why is the current education system so flawed?

Dance, Movement, and Choreography

• Tik-tok and the rise of "Instagram dancers" somewhat distorted my relationship with movement.
  • See also: My ruined relationship with my mind and body
• If you come to a dance class, you're there to learn. Western studios, and now ones in India too, expect you to learn a choreography and bring it up to "performance" quality within a matter of hours. We forget that we're there to grow and learn, and not to perform - not to take instagrammable videos.
• If it's too easy, you're not doing it right. If you're in a class that you're acing, add elements to it that make it more challenging. You want to be struggling - because if you're not, it means you're not growing.
• If you're feeling uncomfortable - that's great. The less good you think you look, the better. That's why my choreography isn't focused on the aesthetics, but on the feeling in your own body. If you're in positions that are uncomfortable to your body, you're more vulnerable - and if you're vulnerable, you're connecting with your audience and yourself far better.
  • I think this applies to generally learning things too - it's not about how it comes off to others, it's about how much you yourself understand.