18 Oct Why becoming a dance teacher isn’t actually about teaching…
I don’t teach steps. I don’t do choreography. But I am a dance teacher, an Ecstatic Awakening Dance teacher.
It’s been a life-changing experience. Training to become an Ecstatic Awakening Dance teacher made me realise that it isn’t really about learning to teach but rather learning to lead and inspire.
In fact, the teacher training course was more like a life training course! It’s taught me a lot and had an undeniable impact on every aspect of my life.
I learnt to make mistakes and be ok with it
Making mistakes is easy but embracing them is not. Becoming an Ecstatic Awakening Dance teacher helped me realise that being vulnerable and open to mistakes is an absolute requirement for transformation. And that lies at the very heart of Ecstatic Awakening Dance, dance that uses freeform movement to release pent-up emotions, still the mind and ultimately achieve a state of joy and ecstasy — a transformation and a powerful one at that.
Teaching Ecstatic Awakening Dance means creating a sacred space free from judgement where participants can let go of their inhibitions and let their emotions run free. Being able to hold this space means first going on your own journey to become comfortable with all the emotions within you, the good, the bad and the ugly. As a teacher, you’ll be faced with all of these emotions as participants go on their own journey, so you need to accept them in yourself.
That acceptance comes from learning to love yourself, from embracing the mistakes you may make as opportunities to learn. Now, this doesn’t mean I don’t still hear those negative voices of self-criticism and self-doubt but as an Ecstatic Awakening Dance teacher, I now have the skills to deal with them and move forward.
I learnt to feel comfortable in my own skin
Ecstatic Awakening DanceTM is all about letting the natural rhythms of your body take hold. There is no judgement in the sacred space we, as teachers, hold. In fact, the whole experience is carried out with the eyes closed. But you can still feel self-conscious even when you know no-one’s looking. Over the course of the 9-month teacher training course, I was able to truly come into my body and get out of my head. That meant finally letting go of physical hang-ups I’d carried with me for years.
I learnt to trust life and judge myself less
When I first started running my own Ecstatic Awakening Dance classes, my internal critic would pipe up: “everyone is hating this”, “they’re so bored”, “they don’t like the music you’ve selected”. The reality was that at the end of these classes, participants were overwhelmingly positive about their experience. I began to realise that their experience wasn’t really anything to do with me, I was simply holding the space for them to go on their own journey. I began to trust the process. I began to see the bigger picture. I realised I wasn’t running the show and finally began to trust life.
I learnt a lot of other stuff too
On top of these big life lessons, which I’ve genuinely carried with me into all aspects of my life, going on an Ecstatic Awakening Dance teacher training course also taught me a lot of practical stuff:
- How to run a transformational business
- How to market that business
- How to source and pick transformational music
- How to choose venues and sound systems
- How to find my niche market
- And the list goes on.
I’m not a guru. I don’t hold any secret to happiness or success. But I do know how to help others reconnect with themselves and achieve their own personal transformation. It’s a privilege to see that transformation unfold around me whenever I step into the role of sacred leadership during an Ecstatic Awakening Dance class. In short, it’s magic! And it’s the kind of magic anyone who’s willing and open can experience as an Ecstatic Awakening Dance teacher.
