Beginners Mind
Although I teach dance I am first and foremost a student. The saying “The more you know, the less you know” rings completely true to me when it comes to dance and this is precisely why I choose to continue my own personal dance training and take classes from other teachers and experts. For the last 13 years I have been teaching partner dance and I can’t stress to you enough about how much more there is still yet to learn! Granted I have accumulated quite a bit of experience and knowledge but understanding the intricacies and nuances of the connection, techniques, body movement, rhythms and so forth of social and ballroom dance one realizes with time that there is a never-ending plethora to uncover. What always seems to help is taking coaching lessons or classes from other teachers and experts in the field. However, simply signing up and taking the classes is not enough. I believe wholeheartedly that if you intentionally enter a class, even if it’s a class that might be “easy” you should do so with what in Zen Buddhism calls a “beginners mind.”
According to good ol’ Wikipedia a beginners mind “refers to having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, even when studying at an advanced level, just as a beginner would.” Recently I have been training in order to keep up my own personal dancing and what I know has helped me tremendously is walking into these classes with my “student hat” on and ready to go! Although I am very familiar with this particular style of dance and have even taught portions of this subject matter to students of my own, one might think that I wouldn’t necessarily “need” to take the class. I argue the opposite- I think it’s entirely necessary for me to take these classes in order to get better and understand my craft in deeper ways.
Dance, in all its forms is still an art form which means that although certain genres may have a constant beat and soul to it, there are still thousands of humans with completely different perspectives digesting and teaching that same material. And because of our own unique experiences in the world, what a salsa, bachata, or a ballroom class might look like to one teacher might be completely different from another. Having a beginners attitude allows me to be open to another persons view point on how they interpret the style of dance. It allows me to learn new ways to teach a certain pattern or technique. It gifts me the opportunity to understand the movement in brand new ways. It allows me to question what I’ve been doing and why. It allows me to better understand the material and be able to explain it in ways I had never thought of before. It allows me to connect dots and have breakthroughs! Using this attitude really allows me the opportunity to gain so much more out of the class than had I gone in with a mindset as though I had already known everything.
Practicing a beginners mind is a great tool when heading into a dance class, especially a group setting where there are people of all skill level. A beginners mind allows you to remain humble and understand that there is always more to learn. No matter how good you get or how long you’ve been taking lessons, I guarantee that you will take a class and have to repeat the same patterns and techniques over and over. You could take the class with a feeling of “boredom” or a sense of “i already know this” or you could actively open yourself up to the wonderful possibility of learning something you never knew existed. By intentionally practicing an open and eager attitude a class that you’ve taken over and over again could magically become a challenge, a breakthrough, or an entirely new class! Try it out and let me know!