My first class teaching

From the sudden I had two people willing to start to Irish Dancing and my mission was to teach them. Also they were trying it for the first time and that involved getting them interested enough to come back (I think that scared me the most). I started searching in ID websites if anyone had same problem but I couldn't find anyone. Lots of people described their first  teaching experience but it was always with kids. I gave up and made a plan of my first class.

My class would consist of: 

1)Warm up. 

2)Streching.

3) Talking about ID, how did they know it, why did they want to take classes...

4) Showing them some excersices to strengthen arch and having a better point. Showing them basic position of feet, arms and posture.

5) Start dancing! The first step we went through was kick123 in place, then moving in a line, and then in a circle.

6) we practised with music and started with sidesteps.

7) streching.

And this is how it went:

1) I was thinking of doing 6 mins, it ended up that with 3 mins they were ready to go on.

2) streching went like 4 mins, i think it could have been better.

3) Of course the reference they had from ID was lord of the dance. They were excited about doing hardshoes someday but explained it wouln't be right away.

4) Their posture was great; the lady did ballet when younger and her daughter had a very good flexibility and was a very sporty person . So this part ended up quicker than I expected. 

5)We started with right foot, then left foot. This version was a little bit easier since we practised it without kicking our bottom, just kick,  jump, back 2,3. In no time we decided to make it in a line and then it got a little bit more complicated. There are no mirrors in this place yet so it was hard to show them the step and try to catch if they were doing it right. But hell they did it right after some minutes they were doing it pretty well. (it took me 3 classes to do a leap, their was simpler but i think they will learn it in no time). When we started practising in circles it was a little bit more difficult but after practising they did a great job. 

6) So then we tried doing the step in a line, but with music. I chose a slow reel (well a reel really can't be that slow)  and guess what, the second time  they did it it was good!!!

After that we practised sidestep, which of course it was pretty easy for them. Then we did the 2 steps together. Linking the steps was a little bit more difficult, since they had to think what to do and that leaded to a big pause between steps. 

7) When I saw my clock an hour went through like nothing, and it was time to finish the class by streching. I think we did 5 mins, I was a little bit hurry because I had to leave my both kids with my mom and that was hard for me. I think a little bit more of streching would have been good. At leas 10 mins, my body asked for it .

So. What can I say about the class? I loved it!! I danced more than I thought I would, and the students ended up pretty excited and wanting to go on with classes. So if you dance from the heart and you really love Irish Dancing don't be afraid because all of your goals can be reached!!!