Teacher trouble

now playing: Pleasurekraft - Tarantula (Original Mix)

One of my contemporary teachers said once that it is her (the teacher's) responsibility what a beginner learns but an advanced dancer is responsible for his/her own learning just as much as, or probably more than, the teacher is. Skill and knowledge enable you to develop your art, recognize what's good and what's not and ask the right questions to improve your learning. A beginner can't do those things.

But how about someone who is self-learned? There are kids who say that youtube is their teacher and kids that simply cannot afford to take classes. And, well, aren't the og's self-learned?

Learning from the internet is difficult for many reasons. First reason: youtube is full of crap.

The Dancin' Kim series is just so hilarious that it's hard to believe anyone would take it for real. But who knows, maybe there are some dancers taking their first steps and thinking that a tutorial in the internet must be a good thing to start with. Same thing with the second clip - anyone who knows anything about dancing sees that this guy has no idea what he's talking about. He cannot do a windmill or anything else he is teaching in those other clips.

But this is a real problem. In the beginning, like my teacher said, it is the teacher's responsibility to ensure that the students are learning things right. These "teachers" do the exact opposite. The only reason to watch these videos is the fun part, the malicious delight.

The second reason why learning from the internet is difficult is that a new dancer doesn't know where the good stuff is. They don't know any names. Third reason is that they might learn moves, not dancing. They probably learn nothing about history or other aspects of dance. Fourth, they don't know where to go with these new moves and what to do with them. Ok maybe to the club to show off. But they still don't have contact with the other (real and professional) dancers. Fifth, they might think that with these few moves they're ready. They have it all. No one told them that developing their own style is the next step. I could keep on listing these reasons.

now playing: Talib Kweli - Stay Around

Let's not be this black and white, though. I know there are also dancers who have been able to gain considerable skills all on their own. Many times they have a really unique style and they are very devoted. They might do things that others wouldn't dare to try. They might create something totally new.

But I know some of these dancers. And unfortunately very often they don't know a thing about different styles. They mix up house steps with hip-hop and popping moves but can't really dance, for example, house to a house track. And some of them aren't even willing to learn the basics of different styles. As a result, we have self-learned teachers filling youtube with the kind of tutorials we just saw. I'd say that is some kind of a teacher trouble.

Luckily dancers are aware. The windmill clip had many comments saying that no one should learn from it, one user had suggested viewers to look up for Storm's footwork fundamentals and many had disliked the video. That's exactly what sould be done.