Are Dance Students Different Today?
YES! They are Indeed!
It is NOT your Imagination!
What's Going On?
Are you a Dance Teacher who has been teaching for 10 + years?
Do you have questions AND concerns, not to mention frustrations about how different the student's of today seem to be.
And if you have been teaching over 25 years the difference is quite startling.
What IS Going On?
There are a lot of causative factors such as:
Screen Time
Screens are 2D and we live in a 3D world (4D if you count time!). Screens are also always flickering whether we can process it or not.
Both of these contribute to stunting brain development and confusion with interaction in the real world and within our 3D bodies.
On top of that, most games and activities, even educational videos are formatted to cater to an extremely short attention span.
Over Stimulation
The students of today, are so over scheduled and over stimulated that they are in a constant state of stress. Without the obvious "stresses" students are still thrown into a "flight and fight" state because they are in essence running from one activity to the next daily.
The added chronic pressures of social media for students old enough to be on social media (but are they?), is added never ending stress.
Pandemic
All dance teachers are noticing that the 7 years old of today, are more like the 5 year olds of yesterday. Why this common 2 year difference?
The loss of the social-emotional development and time spent moving outdoors that was so limited by Covid restrictions is like a scar on our young students. Yes, they really lost almost 2 years of development and we are here dealing with the consequences and need to adapt.
Environmental Toxins
In the world of today there are toxins everywhere and anywhere, from in the food and water, to the constant electromagnetic fields bombarding our delicate and sensitive systems. And for the average person, they have easily up to 12 hours a day of this toxin.
All of this is stress on the bodily systems and therefore the brain. In essence, the body-brain will see toxins as a threat.
Parenting Style & Choices
Every generation, parents change in response to how they were parented. Current trends in parenting is very much about building a protective bubble around children so that they become confident and avoid any damaging trauma. A positive state is essential, but not at the expense of learning the skills of persistence and resilience, missing in many of today's students.
Incomplete Development
The culmination of so many factors, is that the students of today show up with incomplete brain wiring. The foundation of integrated reflexes and established patterns of total body organization are NOT there.
This makes layering on dance skills like building on an unstable house of cards. And it does not take advanced skills to have students fall apart a bit or even fully. It can happen in the first 5 minutes of class, making the rest of the class no longer a learning class for that student. They are able to participate (maybe), but they are not learning and remembering and applying information into a new context. Both student and teacher become frustrated.
Welcome to the World of Brain Integration
You have probably heard of the Flight and Fight Response. It is a physiological reaction that occurs without our conscious control in the case of an emergency. The design was to have us react without thinking in a life and death situation. And if a tiger jumps out that is a good thing.
In today's world, life and death is rare, but STRESS is common and treated the same way by the brain and body.
The Result of all these Stresses mentioned above?
Fight and Flight, and also Freeze and Fawn.
A new idea for you may be that this state requires your brain to choose a leader to respond/react. The unique pattern is what is called your "Dominance Pattern" and affects how you are able to learn, process and express.
Your Brain State = Your Learning State
In the Brain Gym world, we look at the brain as either being integrated or un-integrated. Integrated refers to both hemispheres working together for all processing. Un-Integrated means there is a Stress state happening that has caused the dominant brain hemisphere take the lead.
Depending on the degree, duration and type of the stress there will be a response that will be:
- Trying Really Hard, but not making any progress
OR
- Giving Up or Shutting Down with a lack of motivation and commitment
How it Looks in Class
One dancer has got it, one dancer is working on it and making visible progress.
And there can also be a student who is trying really hard, and perhaps always does, and yet, they are not making any measurable progress.
And then there is the student who can often be disruptive because they are unwilling to fully participate or even try. These are the students who can really take focus off the other students and be a source of frustration for all.
And for many teachers, you can have a class of all "I Give Up" students, causing you as the teacher to want to give up too!
What if today's class is nothing NEW...just rehearsing the dance?
Will this still matter? YES!!
Working on the dance without coordination or musicality...what's the point?
Working with more tension will make this become a habit and lead to injuries.
If you are Willing to Accept this...then NOW WHAT?
What are you to Do?
Take the time at the BEGINNING OF CLASS to address the Brain State.
Enjoy this video below which will give you a few EASY and EFFECTIVE things to do for supporting your students to achieve an Integrated Brain State before the "learning" activities of class begin.
Your Guide thru this New Landscape: Mariah-Jane Thies
Mariah-Jane has been a dance teacher for 37 years and counting. She has taught most genres, with a focus on ballet and modern. She also has the experience of running her own dance studio for 10 years. Mariah-Jane has done guest teaching and conference presentations worldwide including Australia, Canada, China, Finland, Germany, New Zealand and the USA.
Mariah-Jane is the Artistic Director of The Radiant Dance Teacher and has built a private Facebook Group and Youtube channel.
FB Group:
FB Radiant Dance Teacher Group
YouTube Channel:
Website:
Mariah-Jane became interested in this work in 1999 when introduced to the Brain Dance. In 2008 she discovered Brain Gym leading to certification in 2014 followed up in 2015 as a reflex integration consultant. She has been working tirelessly to bring these important ideas into the dance community with easy application to the teaching of dance in the studio. It is this work, that recently earned her the RAD Innovation in Dance Teacher Award.
Want to know where to go next with your Learning?
You can go deeper into the understanding of the Brain and our Brain Profile and the effect of stress on the brain.
OR
You can give your youngest students a great start, by using the fun and effective start to a class: The Brain Dance
Click on images to learn more.
Amazing Feature
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