Dancing the Everyday By Karl Schaffer, Erik Stern, and Scott Kim

If you haven't studied or taught dance, these tips will help you get started.

Here are some important things to know about dance, especially if you have not taught or studied dance before.

• Ordinary movement is dance.

  Students need not imitate trained dancers. Ballet and hip-hop moves are welcome, but not required. Ask students to create their own movements, based on their individual abilities, knowledge, and desires. Everyday movement like shaking hands is fine. Some students like to incorporate tumbling or soccer movements into their work.

• Welcome beginners.

  Welcome non-dancers by working in small groups before performing for larger groups. Using props, when appropriate, tends to make students less self-conscious since audience focus goes to the props first, rather than the performers’ bodies.

• Push, but gently.

  Do not place expectations on what movements students use. Encourage them to commit to their choices, and move with clarity and conviction. Get students to push their limits, engage their whole bodies, and explore ideas fully. Sometimes students feel tentative, and the uncertainty shows in their movement. Discerning between calm and tentativeness can be tricky. Trust yourself to know when to push and when to ease back. Watching students dance will tell you more about them.

• It’s different before an audience.

  When you dance for an audience, you cannot see what you are doing. You have to imagine how your movements look to others. It’s important to ask other people to review your work, and to develop your own eye for looking at dance. Mirrors and video can help you see yourself move.

• It’s noisy.

  It is unreasonable to assume students will do this work quietly. Allow periods of unruly energy, as long as students are able to focus afterwards. Set reasonable guidelines and reinforce them. The perennial friend of dance teachers is the word "freeze!" If you can make stillness or quietness a release of energy and something on which to focus, it can work to your advantage.

• It takes space.

  When you move your whole body, you need room. You can push desks to the sides of the room, or find an empty space like a gym or multipurpose room. You can also work outside, but concrete and grass surfaces can be difficult to work on. You will have to shout to be heard, and there may be many distractions.

• Learn the elements.

  Dancers often utilize physics terminology to describe the basic elements of dance. The elements of space, time, and energy are helpful to keep in mind when you look at the movements that students do. (For more on the elements, see the ARTSEDGE How-To, Dancing the Elements.) If students seem stuck or want direction, paying attention to these aspects of movement can help you find suggestions for improvement or further development.

People use and understand movement naturally. Pay attention to how it feels to do a particular movement, the mechanics of how it is achieved, and how it looks. Interest in and commitment to movement can go a long way towards learning about the art of movement.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Karl Schaffer and Erik Stern co-direct The Dr. Schaffer and Mr. Stern Dance Ensemble. Some of their work explores mathematical concepts through dance. Karl Schaffer teaches mathematics at DeAnza College in Cupertino, California. Erik Stern teaches dance at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. Scott Kim, the third author of this article, writes the puzzle column for Discover Magazine.