Teaching career

[Extension]

Hello, dear Forum,

 

Plenty of useful information, experienced and knowlegeable commentators, pleasure to read.

At the moment I'm looking for suggestions as to wheather and how I can push my teaching carreer up.

I was trained as a ballet dancer in Belarus, then continued in Moscow. Had a little stage experience, then quit (working elswhere), coming back regularly for classes for adults and former dancers.

Here in the UK I have been giving a helping hand with freestyle ballet classes but in order to become a professional I learnt I had to learn the syllabi of one of the recognized dance societies.

I was introduced to ISTD and I didn't particularly like it. I was also told that probably RAD was more difficult (unfortunately, the schools around me are all ISTD). There's another option UKA. I understand I'll have to invest quite a bit of money and time in my teaching carreer and I'm happy to pay, but for good quality stuff that is close to what I have been doing.

 

I know that there's modern dance with ISTD (which I learnt and would be intrested in mastering) and that's a plus. 

 

I'm trying to find some part-time work to support my studies (including some free style, not purely ballet classes for adults, for example). For this purpose I'll have to have a dance teacher insurance. Which is the best way to get it?

 

Summing up all above said:

1) Will RAD ballet syllabus be better than ISTD (youtube videos suggest that probably will) but I'd like to know other opinios, thank you Or may be I should look at IST an another angle.

2) Which is the best way to get insured

3) Any alternatives in Modern (just in case)

 

Just a quick question to professional teachers. As I said I have been helping (assisting) with classes. The teacher who runs classes does it in a lovely manner, trying to bring to the attention of kids technical issues and being entertaining at the same time, but, the way kids look, is far from decent. If this was my work, I definitely wouldn't be satisfied. Sometimes I'm told that I'm waisting time by asking them, for example, to repeat a tendu combination (so the feet remember where exactly they are going). But it seems to me that Examiners are not really that looking for good technique or am I wrong? I understand that kids probably get away with alot of thing as they are cute as they are, but what about higher Grades and Inters and Adv pupils?

 

Thank you for your helpful advice

[Nicola H]

there are a number of  awarding / examining bodies  in dance  , I'm no expert but  from what i've seen 

RAD - well known brand  but  mainly/ solely ballet  awards 
IDTA  - Another  well known brand 
ISTD - another well known brand 
) above two  often offered for other genres  by schools  who do RAD Ballet,  even though they offer their own  ballet awards)

BATD  
BBO 

as well as the aforementioned  UKA. although from a brief look at their  website, ballet appears to be a very small part of their offer  vs  other  genres.

plus any i've missed 

 

plus some places  seem to offer 'foreign ' awarding bodies ( seen some offering the  American awarding bodies , but i also have a feeling that they may have  in the 'little America'  of East Anglia with  it;s concentration of US military and contractors supportign the USAFE  bases. )

with regard to the   class  stuff, i suspect it;s a difference in teaching style and  probably a difference in the  way  you weretaught vs the  way the  other teacher was taught, plus for the younger students  a balance to be struck  between keeping it fun and technical perfection.  

 

Edited May 18, 2017 by mph

[Pas de Quatre]

If you are Russian trained, then you would feel very at home with ARBTA - Association of Russian Ballet and Theatre Arts.  Their members include "local" schools and some high profile Russian schools, e.g. Russian Imperial Ballet School, Natalie Kremen Ballet School, Bristol Russian Ballet School.  I would suggest you check out their websites.

[drdance]

RAD is recognised internationally, for ballet. It is seen as one of the most trustworthy, in my opinion, for training both teachers and students. 

 

Check whether the examining board you are interested is accredited to CDET or the UK QCA - this will tell you whether the standards are rigourous enough for the qualifications to be recognised within a national framework of qualifications. 

 

Ultimately, you can be a good teacher and train/register/teach with any of the societies/boards, but a bad teacher will struggle to qualify with some of them.

[Legseleven]

A Russian friend of mine felt that NATD ballet was close to how she had been trained as a youngster. Although I would have to agree that RAD ballet is widely recognised as a top ballet syllabus (and yes, their exams do require technical excellence along with musicality and expressiveness) and is known all over the world. Cecchetti ballet (part of the ISTD but different from ISTD Imperial ballet) is also an international syllabus (but I hear that their syllabus isn't updated regularly? I have no idea whether that is the case but have been told by more than one ballet teacher, both of whom initially trained as Cecchetti dancers but chose to teach - and in one case also to examine - RAD).

 

As mph said, many dance schools which offer RAD ballet also teach ISTD or IDTA tap/modern/jazz - I'm not sure why unless the RAD ballet syllabus is preferred, as it would surely be easier to teach all dance styles with the same examining body. 

 

I do know that RAD teacher training isn't quick or easy - but at least that shows that RAD teachers are very well equipped to teach to high standards. 

 

[hfbrew]

Yes, RAD teacher training is about teaching classical Ballet. And quite rightly is neither quick or easy. Knowing the syllabus is only a small part. For example when teaching in front of the practical teaching supervisor the candidate has produce free classes appropriate to the age and abilities of the students in the class. And again this is just a small part of the work required.

 

[Jan McNulty]

Hello Extension and welcome to the Forum!

[sarahw]

I think BBO, while being a relatively small grouping, is a stringent syllabus.

[Extension]

I would like to thank everyone for their suggestions, they were really helpful! 

 

Would also like to find someone who would be interested in practicing modern dance (Graham, Cunningham technique or any other) in Aberdeen, Scotland?

I would like to organize some sort of club of modern dance.

 

[Picturesinthefirelight]

In the U.K. we call those styles contemporary dance. 

 

What we call Modern is theatre/jazz style

[drdance]

The ISTD modern theatre syllabus does include elements of Graham, Cunningham and Limon styles (just not called that)

[balletbean]

Just another thought related to teaching, have you be had a DBS check done? New name for a Police Check. All adults coming into contact with children require this certificate along with the necessary insurance. 

 

If you haven't applied yet, double check at the time of submission then your certificate can be valid for any school rather than a designated establishment and for an additional fee the DBS check is rolled over annually. Very important for freelance teachers. Forms can be picked up from any Police Station or Town Hall from what I gather. 

 

These checks can take a while to be processed so ensure you give yourself time. 

[BlueLou]

This may be a quirk of where I live, but I think there is a gap in the market for non-syllabus dance, especially for teenagers. It seems that there are a lot of 12/13 year olds who give up because they don’t want to do grades and exams any more, but they would still love to dance. If I was advising a local friend who wanted to start up a dance business I would say to run classes like jazz, contemporary, commercial, ballet and tap for ages 11-15 and 16+. I might even be tempted to join in myself  

 

[Nicola H]

14 hours ago, balletbean said:

Just another thought related to teaching, have you be had a DBS check done? New name for a Police Check. All adults coming into contact with children require this certificate along with the necessary insurance. 

 

If you haven't applied yet, double check at the time of submission then your certificate can be valid for any school rather than a designated establishment and for an additional fee the DBS check is rolled over annually. Very important for freelance teachers. Forms can be picked up from any Police Station or Town Hall from what I gather. 

 

These checks can take a while to be processed so ensure you give yourself time. 

DBS  checks   and  the higher levles of disclosure Scotland checks requirea sponsoring   organisation  who arrange  your original check, this can then be made portable.  

the  form  /  access to the online portal  is arranged  through the sponsoring organisation , you cannot obtain  the forms  in an other way. 

[Nicola H]

2 hours ago, BlueLou said:

This may be a quirk of where I live, but I think there is a gap in the market for non-syllabus dance, especially for teenagers. It seems that there are a lot of 12/13 year olds who give up because they don’t want to do grades and exams any more, but they would still love to dance. If I was advising a local friend who wanted to start up a dance business I would say to run classes like jazz, contemporary, commercial, ballet and tap for ages 11-15 and 16+. I might even be tempted to join in myself  

 

 but how big a market is that ?  especially given that  16 or 17  year olds may be able to attend 'adult'  classes anyway ... 
 

but arguably a free work /  'company' class  for  teens  could be an option  for those  YP as well as providing another  hour a week for those who are still taking  grades  and/or  doing the  vocational; / majors  awards as well ... 

[Extension]

I've got my Disclosure form, as I've been assisting with kids. I also passed ISTD Inter which I was told is an entry requirement for further teaching qualifications. I hope if I decide to go RAD this can be used as well. If no then I'll probably go ISTD.

[Kate_N]

3 hours ago, BlueLou said:

but I think there is a gap in the market for non-syllabus dance, especially for teenagers. It seems that there are a lot of 12/13 year olds who give up because they don’t want to do grades and exams any more, but they would still love to dance.

 

 

Yes, I agree - there are also many, many gaps in the market for adult dancers, to get high-quality serious dance training, outside of the metropolitan centres of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham & London.

[Legseleven]

You can access RAD teacher training with ISTD Intermediate.

[Extension]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts shared!

[balletbean]

9 hours ago, mph said:

DBS  checks   and  the higher levles of disclosure Scotland checks requirea sponsoring   organisation  who arrange  your original check, this can then be made portable.  

the  form  /  access to the online portal  is arranged  through the sponsoring organisation , you cannot obtain  the forms  in an other way. 

How does that work if you are self-employed/freelance, like so many dance teachers. Working at multiple studios/schools? Thank you

 

[Picturesinthefirelight]

It's a big difficulty. For those who don't work for a school or similar then often it can be tricky. Music teacher can get a DBS via the Musicians Union or dance teachers can get one via an examining body. 

[Mummy twinkle toes]

Ideally you need to hold an enhanced portable dbs. This is £12 extra but creates an online link for different organisations to run checks on you. It gets regularly updated. Individuals can apply for a basic disclosure from dbs central and that includes self employed. Organisations and licensing bodies are the only ones that can apply for enhanced. The information and links are on Gov.co.uk

Edited May 27, 2017 by Mummy twinkle toes
More info

[taximom]

9 hours ago, Picturesinthefirelight said:

It's a big difficulty. For those who don't work for a school or similar then often it can be tricky. Music teacher can get a DBS via the Musicians Union or dance teachers can get one via an examining body. 

Volunteer centres sometimes offer this.

heather

aka Taximom

[BlueLou]

On 25 May 2017 at 20:19, balletbean said:

Just another thought related to teaching, have you be had a DBS check done? New name for a Police Check. All adults coming into contact with children require this certificate along with the necessary insurance. 

 

Do you actually have to have one? I thought it was ‘good for business’ to show that you had been police checked, but not actually a legal requirement.

[Nicola H]

26 minutes ago, BlueLou said:

Do you actually have to have one? I thought it was ‘good for business’ to show that you had been police checked, but not actually a legal requirement.

 substantial unsupervised access to children  in a contact heavy  environment  ...  it'd be the barring lists  stuff that would be an issue, 

However DBS  is only part of effective safeguarding practice not a panacea ( or pass / fail  if you aren;t on a barred list)

[BlueLou]

19 minutes ago, mph said:

 substantial unsupervised access to children  in a contact heavy  environment  ...  it'd be the barring lists  stuff that would be an issue, 

However DBS  is only part of effective safeguarding practice not a panacea ( or pass / fail  if you aren;t on a barred list)

So if you have ‘substantial access to children in a contact heavy environment’ you are legally obliged to be DBS checked? I am just curious because I know that private tutors in other areas (e.g. music or maths) do not legally require a DBS, although most do get it. Obviously that isn’t a ‘contact heavy’ situation, but it is often one-to-one.

[Nicola H]

44 minutes ago, BlueLou said:

So if you have ‘substantial access to children in a contact heavy environment’ you are legally obliged to be DBS checked? I am just curious because I know that private tutors in other areas (e.g. music or maths) do not legally require a DBS, although most do get it. Obviously that isn’t a ‘contact heavy’ situation, but it is often one-to-one.

how do you know they aren;t on the barring lists  ?  

presumably these arrangements are private 

it;s one ofthe areas the law skirted around  with regard to  how disclosure schemes operate  ...  (  ditto with  certain cqc / ofsted  type stuff being out of scope in 'private' arrangements)

[BlueLou]

20 minutes ago, mph said:

how do you know they aren;t on the barring lists  ?  

presumably these arrangements are private 

it;s one ofthe areas the law skirted around  with regard to  how disclosure schemes operate  ...  (  ditto with  certain cqc / ofsted  type stuff being out of scope in 'private' arrangements)

It is the responsibility of the parent to ask to see a private tutor’s DBS and references, and then take a view on whether they want them to work with their child. I think it’s a bit of a loophole when it comes to private arrangements. I would have thought the same loophole would apply to dance classes not affiliated to an organisation (like RAD or ISTD). 

[Moomin]

Maybe you could contact a range of teachers and ask if you could observe some of their classes? I wouldn't judge a syllabus by one particular teacher. A good teacher is a good teacher whatever method they teach imo and different people will prefer different syllabi. You'll hear most about RAD because that is most prevalent in this country, and the people who teach it will quite rightly believe in their method. Ditto the other syllabi. A good teacher will be aware of and incorporate different methods in to their own technique. and a number of teachers will have qualifications for more than one body. If you are Russian trained I think you may have a unique selling point that you could use to your advantage as it's more unusual here. There are loads of rad schools, might be better to offer something different?

[Moomin]

Also, some of these are 'styles' of ballet and some are syllabi. So Russian and cecchetti (which English ballet originated from) are styles of ballet to me rather than  being solely a syllabus. the ones that are not teaching a specific style may update the syllabus more often. That can be a good/ bad thing depending on how you look at it. I find dancers who have learnt a specific style identifiable but I couldn't say I would look at for example, an istd imperial dancer and know that. Again depends on personal opinion whether this is good/bad

[balletbean]

On 5/27/2017 at 10:12, BlueLou said:

So if you have ‘substantial access to children in a contact heavy environment’ you are legally obliged to be DBS checked? I am just curious because I know that private tutors in other areas (e.g. music or maths) do not legally require a DBS, although most do get it. Obviously that isn’t a ‘contact heavy’ situation, but it is often one-to-one.

Hi, Maybe with Maths and Music there isn't the need for children to change their clothing or for physical contact unlike a dance teacher. My eldest DD is currently completing her DDI and every teacher/Principal she has spoken to for employment has requested her DBS check certificate BEFORE she is even allowed to take a class, that would be supervised by a regular teacher.  It does seem the norm nowadays. My concern is that any check is actually out of date from the moment the certificate is issued and only highlights any individuals that have convictions. 

[Picturesinthefirelight]

The law does not state that anyone working with children has to have a DBS. What it does is to put the onus on the employer to check the suitability of anyone who will be undergoing "regulated activity" (this is defined in the DBS Guide) with children. So a school, dance school, workshop provider etc are liable if the checks are not carried out. Furthermore the Dept for Education have issued guidelines to all schools & colleges which have to be adhered to. 

 

So a dance teacher running private classes by law does not need a DBS, but it may be a condition of a teachers regulatory body (ISTD/RAD etc) that they have one. 

 

Similarly a piano teacher working from home does not but if that same teacher were to offer peripatetic lessons in a school then the school would insist. 

 

Academic private tutors who work via an agency may be required also. 

 

Hence why most teachers try & obtain one as it increases their employability. 

[Picturesinthefirelight]

1 hour ago, balletbean said:

 My concern is that any check is actually out of date from the moment the certificate is issued and only highlights any individuals that have convictions. 

 

There is now provision for the check to become portable for an annual fee if £12 I think. This means that employers can log online to check the status & any convictions since the original check was undertaken are highlighted.