We all know how should our dream lesson look like (or maybe not? ;), but how bad one looks like? When should the red light flash before your eyes and warn you? What is the difference between a good ballet (or any other dance) class from the bad one? When we go to the first class we rarely know what to expect, so it's easy to have a poor teacher and do not even know about it ... I went to many different classes with different teachers before, on some I learned more, on others nothing, even though they seemed interesting and I felt the free time was nicely spent. Therefore, I made some summary for you to avoid taking bad ballet lessons and waste your precious time :)
1. Pop instead of classical - if it happened once to break the conventional way, there's nothing to worry about. But if your teacher regularly plays Beyonce instead of Rachmaninoff that's a sign something is wrong. You are not in the ladies styling class, you are in ballet one, and you should learn to move in this style. Familiarity with the music is a part of the learning process and without it, it is hard to talk about the classical dance at all. This music will not only help you learn the movements, but also will make you aware of the tempo and sensitive to its nuances and thus you will dance in rhythm to the music rather than only perform moves out of context.
2. Giving remarks/advices - without them, you are not making any progress. If you feel ignored during class , change the teacher/studio or ask what you're doing wrong. Sometimes you have to get yourself noticed in such way to attract teachers attention.
3. Chillout approach - we all know that we are on the ballet class for adults but ... well still we want to make progress and move forward. You can not do that, if a teacher does not give you feedback and make sure your technique is correct and allows people eg. do jazz pirouettes instead of classical ones! If you feel that the atmosphere is so recreational, that you stand in one place, not making any progress at all, change the studio.
4. Lack of control - if people are talking in class, making other distractions and thus spoiling a lesson and the teacher does not remark them you are loosing time. A lot of time is wasted on chatting or complaining or jokes and it's fun and all, but you are paying money not to chat and chillout to develop some real skills. You pay for the time, so utilize it one hundred percent! If in the class there is much talking but no doing, immediately run away from there!
5. The teacher does not teach ballet / does not teach in accordance with the classical training - Well ... the first lesson can be hard to know whether a teacher is reliable. But you come to class because you want to learn the classical dance not eg. jazz. You should be cautious if someone teaches without a barre (?!), but with elements of jazz, or it looks like a mix of ballet with fitness. It's bad because you will learn bad habits that are worse to ged rid of than having none. In the end, Vaganowa invented the principles of classical dance for a reason, and they are taught in schools for many years ...
6. The teacher does not notice, that this lesson is for adults - two problems here: there are children in your class and teacher ignores all adults; or she is giving you too difficult combinations not adjusted to the group level. The latter applies to not only the moves but also excessive stretching, which can result in injury (!) Excessive turnout of feet made by force and everything "by force and quickly." is bad for your body. Quick results and rubber tendons are childrens attributes. Adults need to be given a little more time and be treated with care in order not to damage the joints and muscles. Your body is your temple take special care of it and it will reward you with many unexpectable surprises.
These are just a few examples of signs that immediately should make you consider changing teacher or studio. Maybe you know other examples of badly conducted lessons?
