reflecting on dance students their mindset and stress factors affecting them

Been reflecting on my recent class teaching kathak. My students are from grade 3 to grade 5 and i end up teaching 8 classes of 40 minutes in a day covering close to 200 students in a day...
At times i question this approach to teaching, so little time and such an ancient art form has to be taught, an art form that is 2000 years old, with a very complexed foundation steeped in complicated rhythmic time cycles, different patterns of technique and complex facial expressions with highly demanding footwork.
Where and how do we really!!! meaning all the teachers of kathak in my junior school actually get to reach the depths of inculcating this art form kathak into their beings.
 I always felt and with experience saw that when my students arrived in grade 5  they actually just  started to pick up the time cycle on automatic and in more of a reflex action.
Their bodies i felt with befriending and constant repetitive movement opened the door to de-stressing and absorbing the flow bringing unconscious benefits to their minds and hearts.
The students  always seem to be under stress and it showed in  the way they moved their bodies and responded on questions about dance.
 I had grown up in London and had returned to Pakistan a muslim country in 1983. Here dance was looked upon as un Islamic, dance was prohibited and considered a corrupt act for women.
Martial law had taken over form democracy in 1977 and the dictator had  severly cracked down on the performing arts and performers too, especially women, fear had been instilled and any one who even ventured to challenge the status quo would either be jailed or punished publicly.
I reflected on my own responses to a society that feared dance in this manner and thought could this have impacted these young minds from their homes and their parents. After talking to many parents in Parent Teachers meetings, i came to realize that yes! many parents were still affected by that time and its  impact so widespread that even today they held that fear and with all this constant disgrace for 10 years of the islamic military rule many people in our society had developed prejudices
Could this be the subconscious impact from the home environment and and the overall stress of collective thought patterns in our society.
I became curious and observed my surroundings the discussions, parents, home time and morning time of students.
Many young students in my grade 3 had parents that had not given them a full wholesome meal as breakfast, i felt that they were not nourished enough to deal with a whole day in school that had such heavy physical demands on the students body and mind where some of their days were full with sports dance and singing.
The other aspect i discovered was that our society lacked joy overall as people, we were not a joyous society because of the false teachings that were being instilled through religion.
Society was made to believe that God is not loving and if girls laugh or speak too loud they were considered bad or had bad reputations. The clergyman was successful in making us  believe that being happy is a sin and to please God was to be serious, unhappy, and no joy.
This impacted the approach to dance that i had that dance was freedom of expression, dance was liberating such a contrast to  what society had been conditioned to feel and believe.
I am beginning to understand more and more the deeper impact of this on students or people who learn dance in Pakistan.Things have changed considerably and since the dictatorship ended in 1988 i still at times see its impact on dance today.
I look at my role and the changes i have brought about being a woman, dancing without fear and the beauty i have depicted and spoken about on many forums, its importance and its liberating nature to the human being and in my own personal experience as well.
I see young woman inspired and pushing boundaries, i observe a change that is sometimes difficult to see but its there slowly making itself know.
The clergy man is still there but with lesser impact as more and more people step into living more with their own truths and aspire to challenge observe and change what does not work for them as individuals any more.
I continue to work and speak on as many platforms and teach in as many schools as possible to placing a brick of change, laying a foundation for the next generation to finally break through into their own unique selfs of expression of joy dance happiness and freedom.

my own learning and challenges in teaching

It is always a difficult task to give forward to the youth of today where dance is concerned, the exposure due to social media and you-tube has put pressure on the demand of learning fast and to say with regret the student misses out the whole process of continuous practice, reflection,  and depth.
 on a daily basis i am confronted by my students with "teach me those Bollywood steps"!!!
silenced by not knowing how to respond, I have found my own reaction interesting, my spontaneous mode switches on and the dance of words flow. My response is " the steps are beautiful, and girls our class is a class where you can establish a consistent and strong base to graduate to those levels of performance.
Convincing my students in my junior school, where i teach Pakistani classical kathak dance at times has been very exhausting and at times extremely engaging.
I decided to start a discussion with a string of questions, the outcome being an enhancement of their dance history knowledge and how it got into the films of Bollywood that they so desire to learn.
I found by throwing questions to them that my students would open up and an safe space of sharing would present itself with the students explaining about what they felt about classical kathak saying how they found it tedious, slow and demanding.   
with this space presented to me, I questioned my students about what would they like to do in the class to counter  all they felt in learning such a demanding and ancient art-form. The responses were interesting and exciting it gave me a deeper insight to which i developed a spontaneous 10 mins every other class for my students to find joy and newness in their dance experience, i saw their bodies open and expand the results were amazing, i felt that became more active and a sense of trust and deeper communication manifested.  The other result in this was that they became more accepting to learning classical kathak dance and with a lot more ease and comfort.
I still keep reflecting on new methods and ideas to keep the class new and spontaneous which has enhanced my own learning by reading up on child development and learning helpful methods and tools. I am still in the process and each new student and their responses have been the inspiring force to push me out of my comfort zone and explore innovative child play from my inner intuitive self.