The Casual Dance Teacher's Podcast

Maia
Welcome to the Casual Dance Teachers podcast. I'm your host, Maia, and today I am joined by Megan Williams for a very special episode. She's going to be talking about her experience teaching students of military families right on base, how that kind of compares and contrasts with the quote-unquote typical dance studio setting, and what we can learn from that. To give you a little bit of background about Megan, she holds her BFA in dance education from the University of Tennessee at Martin. She's attended intensives through Nashville Ballet, College Dance Collective in Memphis, Tennessee, and briefly at Steps on Broadway in New York City. She's danced for over 23 years and is going into her 11th year as a dance teacher.

And as I mentioned, she's now a contractor for Youth Instructional Sports and Fitness as the director of the Youth Instructional Dance Program, an on-base program for children of active duty and retired military families. So without further ado, welcome, Megan.

Megan
Hi, thanks for having me. I'm so excited.

Maia
Me too. I am so fascinated by this topic, and I do have a bunch of questions, but I'm going to start by asking you to just maybe give us a little bit of background about how you got to this position as the director of this particular program.

Megan
Sure thing. So I teach in particular on Fort Kentucky, and my husband and I, we actually live right adjacent from it in a place called Clarksville, Tennessee. He is originally from here.
I'm not, but when we got married, we moved here about eight years ago because he got a job opportunity and his family lives here. But I got a job offer from a local dance studio who also just accepted the contract for Youth Instructional Sports and Fitness. So at the time, I worked for this studio. For three years, and then COVID happened. And we all know how COVID shut down everything. And by that point, for just for different reasons, I decided it was time to move on. So I was calling up Youth Instructional Sports and Fitness because I had to go through the exiting interview process and I needed to turn in my badge because you have to have clearance to go onto any military base. So there's a process In which you have to go through to leave that contracting job. I was a subcontractor of sorts, because I was working for the contractor. But they said that they would like to keep me going with the program. And they're able to hire more than one contractor at a time. So they hired me as a new contractor. And naturally, the other contract with the other studio expired. And it was very much a risk. To take this contract during like, it was June 2020 when I took over this contract, and it officially started because I had to go through background checks and all of that rigmarole fingerprinting. They do a lot. It's a very rigorous process. So I technically took the contract and signed on June 2020. But it did not become active until September 2020. But I'm so glad I took it at the time. Because we have gone from a program that started out with just 12 kids, we couldn't even have a recital for the first year that I was there. And then just this past May, we have grown to 70 kids now participating in the recital. So in three years, it's been an amazing rate of growth. So it's a blessing to be able to have this job and this contract.

Maia
Yeah. And is that just growing by word of mouth among the families? Or are you doing other things to grow the program?

Megan
It's a bit different advertising for our program, because we're only able to advertise so much because we also have to go through the process of what is okay with the government.
So majority of the students we have right now, from what I have been told, are very much word of mouth. It has grown in three years. Because people keep talking about it. And I'm very fortunate in that sense.

Maia
And you're pretty much just a one-woman show at this point, right?

Megan
I am. Starting in August, I am going to have an additional teacher that has helped with me before. But it's been just me for the past three going into four years now.

Maia
Can you tell me what styles of dance that you teach?

Megan
I teach primarily ballet and tap with a couple of hip hop classes. And we teach ages three to 13.

Maia
Okay. And how are your classes broken up? You have 70 students. Can you give me a little bit of a breakdown? Like how many classes do you offer? How often do you see the students within a week? And are they taking ballet and tap, all of them? Or can they choose between the two? What's the breakdown look like?

Megan
Sure. Any of our classes are going to be ballet and tap combination. And then the hip hop classes are just hip hop. Okay. So, all of the classes apart from hip hop have to participate in both ballet and tap because it's good to have that differentiation. But how we have that broken up is we have it ages three to five first. That's how most of them start out. Then we go up to ages five to eight. And that's with beginner level classes.
The reason why three to five and five to eight is because most of the time, and this comes up a lot, I have younger sibling and older sibling that want to take class together. And younger sibling is three and older sibling is five. So, for that first semester, they can take class together and make it a little bit easier on mom. Then next semester, the older siblings probably kind of a little tired of the preschool curriculum I have. And I'll tell mom, hey, I want to recommend she moves up. And then we move on to age five to eight. Then we also have the older siblings that want to take class together. And that's what we have for the more advanced level for ballet tap. We have ages six to 10.
But that is for the students who have shown a level of commitment that they're going to be here for a little bit longer than a year. And they have a special interest in dance. And they're a little bit more disciplined than some of the other students. So, at this moment in time, those students are invitation only. They are what we call coach request only. So, only those students, they have to have personal permission from me to join that class. And then hip hop, what we're trying this year is a broader age range, ages five to 13. Because most of the time when an older student wants to give dance a try, hip hop's the easier one to start with.

Maia
Mm-hmm. Okay.
So, have you found a nice cohesion with that big of an age range in the hip hop class or is that a huge challenge?

Megan
It's a huge challenge to get everyone kind of on board and focused among the different ages. Good question. So, right now, what we've been doing, and this is going to change next semester because we're trying different levels. What we've been doing is everybody is in the class together, ages five to 13. Most of the time, the average age range will be about seven to eight years old, with the occasional five-year-old just turned five-year-old. And then it's a little rough, but I like to try to get everyone on board and focused among the different ages.
So, to about the median or the oldest age level in that class, and then the five-year-olds are pushed a little bit to catch up with that. Yes. What we're trying next semester is now that we're having the second teacher, we also have just gotten a second room. It's been one room this whole time. Okay. One room, one teacher. So, now that we are going to have a second teacher and a second room, we're able to add more to the schedule. So, that is allowing us to have an advanced level hip-hop class as well.

Maia
Nice. Awesome. So, have you had any students, they're 13, you don't offer classes after that that want to continue with it? And is it like a strict, no, we're done? Or what happens at that point?

Megan
So, it hasn't come up yet. Okay. Because the program's been still kind of in its infancy. We're just going into four years now. So, now we're really starting to establish, you know, how long students are going to be around for a while. Because most of them, they are around for two years, if I'm lucky. And we don't have students typically stick around that long, just because it's a very transitory program. But it is about to come up with, I have at least one student, because we teach to both active duty and retired military families. This one student in particular, just to use as an example, they live about 30 minutes outside of town.
They have a farm and they're well established in the city. They're not moving. They're not going anywhere. Dad is retired. And the student's about 10 years old. It's getting to the point where she has been with me for almost three years now, which is very much a blessing. But once this next year rolls by, I'm going to probably have a child. I'm going to have a child. I'm going to have a child. Talk with them, both the student and the parent, and recommend that they go to a higher level of education. Since we're so close to Nashville, probably what I would recommend is they go move on to try higher level classes at Nashville Ballet, because there are plenty of other places closer. But Nashville Ballet in particular, they're not competitive.
They are a professional studio, professional company. They're not competitive. They're; they would be strictly focused on the dancers, which is most of my clientele. Not a lot of students that I have that move on when they move or when they want to keep going. They're not interested in competitions. They're not interested in joining a team. They want to strictly stay recreational. So then I would recommend them to not a competitive studio, but something that is going to give them a higher level of education. And I would recommend them to go to a higher level of education than what I can provide for them. Could I teach at a higher level? Yes, I could. But it's all about providing a space for them. I want them to stick to a class environment.
I want them to be working with other students. I want them to stick with a bunch of other kids in the class because it's very good for their social skills. So at that point, I would recommend them to a higher level of learning. Yeah, that's awesome. I love that you provide that for them and you know, like, this is what my program is about. And I can also provide resources for where that next step is. I know a lot of teachers probably are going to be wondering, why would I ever willingly let that student go? Well, I think of my program as a stepping stone in a dance student's life. I've often had students start their dance education with me. They fall in love with dance and they continue dancing after they move to places like Germany, Hawaii, Washington, Texas, etc.
That's the main goal of my program. I want to instill a love of dance in young dancers so that they want to keep going long after they leave me. I want to start that journey with them. And I want them to learn beyond my four walls from many other teachers, just like I did, and blossom into amazing, well-rounded dancers. That's why I'm willing to let them go if I have to.

Maia
Yeah, that's so beautiful. I love that. And I imagine with it being military, you're seeing a lot of dancers come and go, right? And it's not just like the end of the year, they graduate and move on. But aren't dancers being taken out in the middle of a season sometimes?

Megan
Oh, yes. Students come and go very frequently in our program.
Sometimes I have students move at the end of the season. Some move in the middle of the season, like October or April. We're at the mercy of the military whenever they decide to move any of our military families. So a lot of the time, I have to figure out how I'm going to keep integrating this student I know is going to be moving in the middle of the season. Or most of the time, I don't like to think about if they're moving at the end of the season. I try not to work with those hard feelings until we've moved past our recital. Then we get to kind of have this emotional cathartic release and say a little bit goodbye. I've had had it happen before.

It's rare, but it does happen where, for example, I have one student who was with me for the very first recital we ever had. She moved to, I believe, Philadelphia. And then she came back last year after two years, and she's back in the dance program again. So it does happen. They do. They do come back, but it is very rare. Yeah.

Maia
So the fact that you even have recital with all of those factors is mind-blowing to me because I'm just such a structured person. The idea of starting to plan and then having something be upended is very stressful to me. So how do you keep the students engaged? Are you constantly having to re-space choreography? That's the biggest question that comes to mind.
And then if a student you know is leaving, but you're still trying to keep them engaged in your learning recital material, how are you going about that?

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Megan
That's a very good question. I don't actually have to do a great deal of re-spacing because, like I said, most of the time, families know pretty far in advance when they'll be moving. Like I know some that already know that they're going to move at the start of August or October.
They're usually very good at communicating with me when they'll be moving. And I also have some families that know they're not moving until this time next year. So, that's the best part about military is they usually will tell you far in advance when it comes to families. If they're single soldiers, they'll probably tell you in two weeks, oh, hey, by the way, you're moving to another state. You're getting reassigned. But with families, because it's such a process and so many moving pieces, they know months ahead of time. So I have the luxury of being, being able to plan ahead for a little bit. So I'm already able to figure out where I'm going to place them. That's so that's not going to disrupt anything once they do move.
So most of the time I have a system, at least with the youngest of them, like the three and four year olds, I have a system where students have an assigned piece of tape on stage and we do the dance on their assigned piece of tape. It's about the ages six and up. Those kids, I start challenging to move them off their spot for a few eight counts. Like they'll come together and hold hands in a circle and they'll do the movement in the circle together. And then they would go back to their assigned spots. So the youngest of them, they stay on their spot. The oldest, I move them around like moving chess pieces a little bit more just to create a little bit more of a challenge for them.
But when it comes to kids I know are going to be moving, before recital. In this case, the challenge is finding a balance where you can place the dancer that won't hurt spacing once they do move away, but still make them feel included so that I'm not sticking them in the corner and writing them off just because they're moving. So I do my best to keep the student included in the recital process, but I know I'm going to have them in a spot that is not going to disrupt anything. And I have to re-space once they're moving. The hardest part actually about when a student is moving in the middle of the season is when I have to be very careful about how much I talk about recital.
I can still teach them the choreography, but I can't dangle it too much in front of their face. As in talking about costumes, we're measuring for costumes. I'll still measure them so that they're not left out. I know in my mind, I'm not ordering them a costume. I'm not ordering them a costume. I'm not ordering them a costume. The parents know that, but I still keep them a part of the process as much as possible.

Maia
Nice. Yeah, I love that you clearly are so thoughtful about not just the dance technique and learning these steps, but it's about the student as a whole, like the social skills that they're learning and how they're feeling and how dance is helping them just with their lives in general. And that's really awesome.
And I also have another question related to that, especially when you mentioned that a lot of your students will be in the middle of the season, but they're will move all over the world. So I imagine that you have students coming to you from different cultures, sometimes different countries as well. And I'm curious how you deal with any cultural differences. Is there ever a language barrier or anything else that you have to deal with that maybe makes your program unique?

Megan
We do have a lot of students come from all over the world. I've had many students come from all over the U.S. I've had Native Hawaiian, I've had Latin American. I've had German. That was very interesting when I had some German students.

I've only had it happen a couple times before where there was sort of a language barrier. But what I found that really works is I focus on a few key words, especially with the youngest ones that haven't quite gotten a grasp on the English language yet. So, for example, in Spanish, the term for listening ears, because that's what I use as an attention getter, listening ears, the Spanish phrase for that is oídos atentos or open ears. That seems to really get their attention a lot. So the key words oídos atentos or eyes on teacher, maestro. I also try shifting the student towards being a visual learner, and it keeps the student from falling behind in class. I will place myself or them wherever they can see me best and fully so that they can really grasp the visual.

And sometimes I do, obviously I ask for permission, but sometimes I do actually have to physically like move their feet or show them where to hold their arms, like up arms in fifth, or I have to show them how to do a heel in their tap step. So having them transition into being visual learners and also key phrases works out very well. At least it has so far.

Maia
Wow. So is there anything else? I think those were kind of the main questions, as far as the differences, how you're managing working with these students who are kind of in sometimes different circumstances than your average student at a dance studio. Is there anything else that you want to share about your experience with this program that might be helpful to us?

Megan
So a lot of the time when I do have a student move away, I have to find a new dance home for them. And that's also part of this director position as well. I have to do some research into other dance studios across the country. I have one that is moving to Fort Worth very soon, and they want to find a good program that is no less than 30 minutes away. They don't want to do any competitions. They want to stick to recreational. And I have to find somewhere that's going to kind of have a military community as well, because it makes the transition that much easier. So my point in saying all this is any dance teachers out there that have military kids transitioning into their studio, or they're very close by to a studio, they're going to have to find a new dance studio.

And I have to find a new dance studio just love on them, because you're getting a piece of my heart sometimes. And they are sometimes having the hardest time at the beginning of a new dance season, or they're coming in in January. And a lot of times, they're very scared coming in. So just love on those kids. Just love on them and be patient with them. Because they're going through a lot already with their parents being military. They're coming into a brand new environment. And so I have to find a new dance sometimes. You'll be surprised the military kids are the best of them.

Maia
Oh, that's so sweet. I love it. So my very, very last question. So we can close with a quote.
Do you have a favorite dance quote that you would mind sharing with us?

Megan
I absolutely do. This one would be by Wayne Dyer. When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor. It's to enjoy each step along the way.

Maia
Beautiful. Thank you so much, Megan.

Megan
Oh, yes. Thank you. It was awesome being here today.

Maia
And this is Maia, just coming back one more time to say thank you so much to Megan for sharing all of her beautiful insights about her experience with her particular program. Thank you to GB Mystical for the theme music at the beginning of the episode. And if you'd like to weigh in, share anything that really inspired you that you learned from Megan or that you might try implementing into your own program, whether you teach for military families or not, I think there's a lot of great insight here for all of us. Please join us in the Casual Dance Teachers Network on Facebook and share in the comments, start a post. Let me and Megan know your thoughts on today's episode. Thank you so much.