iiiiiiiii have a job!
I am officially a dance teacher. ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
I met with Maryann (MY NEW BOSS.*flail*), that dance instructor who randomly called me up and recruited me a month ago, tonight for an interview thing. I had no idea how long it'd take - I ended up talking to her for an hour just about dance and whatever and what her studio is built on. she wants it to feel like a family instead of a studio, she's very laid back, we have no dress code and neither do the dancers, AND AND THIS IS MY FAVORITE - the kids? get to have a say in what they do. They get to help choose their song, they get to help shape the dance (within reason and within what WE, the instructors, think is good for their age and development as dancers), and they get to pick their costumes. I never had that as a kid. She was saying that she cares about competition but that the first and most important thing is that her dancers have fun on stage. She lets anyone do a solo if they want to do one because she says it's a good opportunity to iron out bad habits. I told her my history of dance, basically, and we know a lot of the same people and she knows the studios/owners in the area. OH she was saying how a lot of dance studio owners have ego issues in that they have to control everything but she's cool with letting that go and letting other people help out lol. She also "team teaches", meaning she likes to have two authority figures in the classroom because one will usually morph into being the srs business butt-kicker and keeping things on track while one will usually morph into being the fun cheerleader and the ones the kids go to when they are scared or have a problem. I honestly don't know which one of those I'll end up being - probably the one opposite of whatever the other instructor is? I really am BOTH of those people at times, so I'd probably step up to what the room needs at that moment.
I worry though that Maryann and I are TOO similar. Like she was saying she worked really well with Mette because when they would teach, Mette would notice feet because as a dancer, Mette is obsessed with feet. I know that. Maryann said that she personally is obsessed with arms. So she said they worked well together because they balanced each other out. I, as a dancer, am obsessed with hands and heads/faces. So between Maryann and me, there won't be any lower body detail/critique. And she said that Mette did a majority of the choreography for her groups, and then Maryann would come in and spruce it up, change parts that didn't work, and just improve it. And I know that I'm better at doing that too - I don't like making up choreography, I like fixing it or saying "omg hey this would be so much cooler". So I'm worried I won't end up being much help to her because we're more the same.
She asked me what I wanted for compensation. I fucking hate that question. I told her that I'm not going to get hung up on money because I'd rather have a job that I love *gestures around studio* than a boring office job that pays more. I told her I've always been lucky in terms of compensation with my jobs, I looked up at the ceiling and said, "I don't know, 10, 11?" And she said she'd start me at $12/hr because she wants me to be paid fairly. She said I could consider myself hired and that she'd send me out paperwork "~for the government~ *rolls eyes*". OH OH lol and then she said she paid one of her instructors last year to sit at a competition all day and take notes and be her spy. "So of course you'd be on the clock for something like that, yeah." LOL. She got pissed because they lost by 1/10 of a point. We talked about the benefits of competition and how it's a really good for some kids and we talked about when it's good to push some and when it's good to step back and idk, it sounds like she knows her shit and that we'll agree on a lot of that stuff.
I don't know. I am just very excited. And it feels good to have not only a job (LOL I HAVEN'T HAD A STABLE, SOLID, CONSISTENT JOB IN FOREVER), but a job that I LIKE. It is such a colorful job, I want to start right now.
I met with Maryann (MY NEW BOSS.*flail*), that dance instructor who randomly called me up and recruited me a month ago, tonight for an interview thing. I had no idea how long it'd take - I ended up talking to her for an hour just about dance and whatever and what her studio is built on. she wants it to feel like a family instead of a studio, she's very laid back, we have no dress code and neither do the dancers, AND AND THIS IS MY FAVORITE - the kids? get to have a say in what they do. They get to help choose their song, they get to help shape the dance (within reason and within what WE, the instructors, think is good for their age and development as dancers), and they get to pick their costumes. I never had that as a kid. She was saying that she cares about competition but that the first and most important thing is that her dancers have fun on stage. She lets anyone do a solo if they want to do one because she says it's a good opportunity to iron out bad habits. I told her my history of dance, basically, and we know a lot of the same people and she knows the studios/owners in the area. OH she was saying how a lot of dance studio owners have ego issues in that they have to control everything but she's cool with letting that go and letting other people help out lol. She also "team teaches", meaning she likes to have two authority figures in the classroom because one will usually morph into being the srs business butt-kicker and keeping things on track while one will usually morph into being the fun cheerleader and the ones the kids go to when they are scared or have a problem. I honestly don't know which one of those I'll end up being - probably the one opposite of whatever the other instructor is? I really am BOTH of those people at times, so I'd probably step up to what the room needs at that moment.
I worry though that Maryann and I are TOO similar. Like she was saying she worked really well with Mette because when they would teach, Mette would notice feet because as a dancer, Mette is obsessed with feet. I know that. Maryann said that she personally is obsessed with arms. So she said they worked well together because they balanced each other out. I, as a dancer, am obsessed with hands and heads/faces. So between Maryann and me, there won't be any lower body detail/critique. And she said that Mette did a majority of the choreography for her groups, and then Maryann would come in and spruce it up, change parts that didn't work, and just improve it. And I know that I'm better at doing that too - I don't like making up choreography, I like fixing it or saying "omg hey this would be so much cooler". So I'm worried I won't end up being much help to her because we're more the same.
She asked me what I wanted for compensation. I fucking hate that question. I told her that I'm not going to get hung up on money because I'd rather have a job that I love *gestures around studio* than a boring office job that pays more. I told her I've always been lucky in terms of compensation with my jobs, I looked up at the ceiling and said, "I don't know, 10, 11?" And she said she'd start me at $12/hr because she wants me to be paid fairly. She said I could consider myself hired and that she'd send me out paperwork "~for the government~ *rolls eyes*". OH OH lol and then she said she paid one of her instructors last year to sit at a competition all day and take notes and be her spy. "So of course you'd be on the clock for something like that, yeah." LOL. She got pissed because they lost by 1/10 of a point. We talked about the benefits of competition and how it's a really good for some kids and we talked about when it's good to push some and when it's good to step back and idk, it sounds like she knows her shit and that we'll agree on a lot of that stuff.
I don't know. I am just very excited. And it feels good to have not only a job (LOL I HAVEN'T HAD A STABLE, SOLID, CONSISTENT JOB IN FOREVER), but a job that I LIKE. It is such a colorful job, I want to start right now.