Dance can be a very vulnerable art form. It requires being raw and true and as much as you can be, authentically yourself. I believe that dance, as a form of expression, is a beautiful story. It can tell of someone's past, shed light on the reality of their present, or emulate emotion about what's to come in their future.

For me, dance has been all of those things. It's been a way to escape the pressures of life, a way to process my thoughts and feelings, a way to heal, grow, and change. For some teachers, dance is a fun activity. They may assume that students are signed up simply for an extracurricular pastime and in many cases, this may be true. But regardless of what dance as a life influence becomes for the student, the teacher has an invaluable role to play. 

Teachers have more power than they know; power to encourage, lift up, and guide, or power to inflict fear, self-doubt, and embarrassment. Their words hold significant weight and their authority much reverence. My own dance experience from age 2, to where I am now, has not only taught me how influential dance is but how my knowledge inspires my teaching style. 

Above all else, I believe the foundation for a dancer should be solid confidence, a character trait that comes more naturally for some. Students should be encouraged and affirmed more than they're criticized and rebuked for making an error. From a very young age, dancers are forming ideas about themselves, deciding what they think they are capable of and putting up walls where they think their value and worth ends. These walls, these notions of "I don't deserve to be seen,” “I'm not talented enough for 'X,' or I am incapable of achieving 'Y,'" are defining beliefs that have the power to shape the rest of a dancer's career and life. 

Above all else, these dancers, myself included, are human. We are beautiful masterpieces of unique qualities. So for me, this is what is most important in the dance classroom. I hope to remind students that the voices in their heads are just that—voices. I want my words to lift them up and show them what dance has the power to do for them. I want to teach vulnerability because from this seed, a wonderful flower blooms—the purest form of a person's heart on display for humanity to be inspired by. What each student chooses to do with dance will be their choice. But regardless of how long they are at the studio, my hope is that they will grow as people, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.