Our skype on the 2nd october at 11am london time for me in Pakistan was 3pm.
The skype session was really helpful all the questions as students of the MAPP module1, we all had and confusions in our heads were given a voice, i also felt that really helped us all to recognize we were not in isolation and many of us were going through the same feelings too.
My area of discussion teaching one on one and collective learning and environments that generate these kinds of ways of teaching and learning.
In my experience i as a student of dance initially in my childhood started with ballet and creative dance at school in London with a group of other students where dance class was compulsory.
My training like that continued till i started learning classical kathak dance twice a week in a center in london called the Bhartiya vidya bhavan in west kensington again in a group of other students in the south asian community.
I developed a seriousness for Kathak dance and started spending more and more time with my teacher out of class in private time where she would explain to me the importance of having an understanding of the cultural root i had been born into and that living in the west i would never be able to develop eastern mannerisms till i had a hands on experience of living in India or Pakistan.
I was introduced to the tradition of one on one training into the system well known in Pakistan as the Ustad Shahgird relationship.....Ustad the guru, the king and shahgird the student.
This word broken down shah the king and gird meaning always around, around who? the shah the guru, the king.
The student who surrendered his time and his life totally to the Guru.
A concept that i easily fitted into with out too much reflection or thought.
Looking back to the tradition of the one on one learning, a student was learning a way of life of a dancer, a commitment to daily practice and learning consistently and pushing oneself to reach levels of brilliance and excellence.
Cooking and assisting the teacher in chores of the household and other activities the Guru would be teaching techniques and knowledge that had been passed down to them from their guru's and this knowledge was protected and hidden and only taught unless they were deserving students.
To my experience this environment worked easily with in the country of it's birth, but when this system is implemented on foreign soil complications occur, the student with no awareness steps into the system and falter along the way ending in the teachers becoming disillusioned about teaching and instead of finding new ways to adapt their teaching methods of this specialized dance knowledge it goes with them to their graves.
In todays time and age where students even in countries like india and pakistan are more comfortable with collective learning, as this kind of environment requires less commitment giving the student more control over his life and choices, i have seen has impacted levels of excellence and that the dance standard has deteriorated.
More students are learning but less are becoming professional and that classical south asian dance now has acquired a status as a past-time or hobby.
I have also experienced this in my own teaching as well where when i teach in a larger group of students they tend to show less commitment and learn less, as compared to my students who are either learning one on one privately or a small group of three students in a class.
The skype session was really helpful all the questions as students of the MAPP module1, we all had and confusions in our heads were given a voice, i also felt that really helped us all to recognize we were not in isolation and many of us were going through the same feelings too.
My area of discussion teaching one on one and collective learning and environments that generate these kinds of ways of teaching and learning.
In my experience i as a student of dance initially in my childhood started with ballet and creative dance at school in London with a group of other students where dance class was compulsory.
My training like that continued till i started learning classical kathak dance twice a week in a center in london called the Bhartiya vidya bhavan in west kensington again in a group of other students in the south asian community.
I developed a seriousness for Kathak dance and started spending more and more time with my teacher out of class in private time where she would explain to me the importance of having an understanding of the cultural root i had been born into and that living in the west i would never be able to develop eastern mannerisms till i had a hands on experience of living in India or Pakistan.
I was introduced to the tradition of one on one training into the system well known in Pakistan as the Ustad Shahgird relationship.....Ustad the guru, the king and shahgird the student.
This word broken down shah the king and gird meaning always around, around who? the shah the guru, the king.
The student who surrendered his time and his life totally to the Guru.
A concept that i easily fitted into with out too much reflection or thought.
Looking back to the tradition of the one on one learning, a student was learning a way of life of a dancer, a commitment to daily practice and learning consistently and pushing oneself to reach levels of brilliance and excellence.
Cooking and assisting the teacher in chores of the household and other activities the Guru would be teaching techniques and knowledge that had been passed down to them from their guru's and this knowledge was protected and hidden and only taught unless they were deserving students.
To my experience this environment worked easily with in the country of it's birth, but when this system is implemented on foreign soil complications occur, the student with no awareness steps into the system and falter along the way ending in the teachers becoming disillusioned about teaching and instead of finding new ways to adapt their teaching methods of this specialized dance knowledge it goes with them to their graves.
In todays time and age where students even in countries like india and pakistan are more comfortable with collective learning, as this kind of environment requires less commitment giving the student more control over his life and choices, i have seen has impacted levels of excellence and that the dance standard has deteriorated.
More students are learning but less are becoming professional and that classical south asian dance now has acquired a status as a past-time or hobby.
I have also experienced this in my own teaching as well where when i teach in a larger group of students they tend to show less commitment and learn less, as compared to my students who are either learning one on one privately or a small group of three students in a class.
