Simplifying Your To-Do List in Ballet Class

We've all been there. You're evaluating your ballet teaching and the list of things you want to improve keeps getting longer and longer and longer . . . . Or maybe you just got back from a competition and the judges' comments seem generous the way the desert is generous with sand. And you don't know what to do.

Make a chart.

I'm serious. There's undoubtedly a program already on your computer or google drive just waiting to help you. When you hear or see a correction for the first time, create it as a category. The next time it comes up (and it probably won't be phrased the same way), that's another data point.

You're only going to make one chart---not one for every class you teach. The purpose is to clarify what you want to work on, not to beat yourself up. At the end of your reviewing and tallying up how often each category gets noticed, you have the computer program create a cute pie or bar graph for you.

And then you just look for the biggest piece of pie (or the tallest bar). That's what you're going to work on in your teaching this year. More accurately, that's the only thing you're adding to your established curriculum. The other things on the chart? Not on your priority list. You are a human, not a goddess, and we have limits and lives outside of the studio.

You're just doing that one thing. You can do one thing.

But keep the chart. Because it feels really good to be doing this same self-evaluation exercise a year from now and realizing that you most definitely did do the one thing. Your students will be great at it because you didn't overwhelm them (or you) with demands. And once you get next year's chart, you only need to do that new one thing. You can let last year's thing go. By focusing your attention so clearly on one thing this year, you increase your effectiveness in teaching it. And then refining that thing becomes part of your teaching habits so it can drop off your list of things to keep at the front of your mind.

We just do one thing at a time. Well, we do one thing at a time really, really well.