male or female teachers

[Fred]

Hi, was just wondering which do prefer, male or female teachers. Both my teachers are fermale so I do no really know what it is like to be taught by a male teacher. I had only 1 class by a male theacher but it was because he stood in for our teacher. Personally In genral I prefer female teachers to male teachers.

 

Freddie

[Guest piccolo]

This doesn't answer your question, but I prefer a good teacher. I've had both very good and very bad teachers of both sexes. One very bad male teacher I had was so into himself and his teaching notes (as opposed to the students) that he forgot to do plies. He finally remembered after we were done with rond de jambes! On the other hand, I learned the correct way to enveloppe from a la seconde from an excellent and strict! male teacher.

[Guest scuffite]

It's true that at the end, what matters is a good teacher and not just the sex of the teacher, but in my experience, the male teachers tend to explain the correlation between the muscles/bones and movement whereas the female teachers tend not to. For e.g., the male teacher will say to to lift your leg higher,you have to use this muscle (and he will sometimes go around hitting everyone's muscle so that we can identify it) whereas the female teacher will just say, higher legs girls, higher legs.

 

It could be that my experience is just very specific to my teachers and may not be true across the board.

[minty]

Sorry , scuffite, but my female teacher does explain about the muscles ...Actually, I've one male and one female teacher , and both are nice and good teacher ; I guess it depends more on their training, their carriers...For instance, my male teacher was first a flamenco dancer, and it shows when he demonstrates ..

I guess the main difference between them is that the man sometimes goes on and on soliloquing even though we don't listen, and is less well organised when it comes to form two separate groups for instanc"e (he doesn't seem to care if there are 5 in one group and 15 in the other ) ; as for the lady, she just 'looks the part more', she seems more fragile

sorry for these long explanations which I am afraid are not very clear ..

[2 Left Feet]

I agree, it's a matter of a good teacher regardless of sex. However, experience has show me that men always look for different things than the female teachers I've taken class from. They are usually little things like the way a man holds himself versus a woman. I don't mean posture per se. For example, one male teacher told me at barre once that men should stand and walk like princes. It was more of an attitiude than a correction. Male partnering teachers seem to spend more time trying to get the men to match the womans line (in my experience). When I've had male teachers I do get far more time on jumps like tour en l'air and such. My regular teacher does make the men do these from time to time, but it's irregular.

[silvergreydancer]

I've only had one male instructor. I had been studing for about a year and a half. I worked with him for about six lessons, but I worked my butt off! Our hour and a half class sometime went to two hrs. Strict and demanding and he always got your best ! I've also had some excellent female teachers but never got the level of improvement that this guy was able to wring out of me!

Edited May 23, 2004 by silvergreydancer

[Garyecht]

Like everyone else, I’d say that sex really isn’t that important when it comes to saying that someone is a good teacher. There are great male and female teachers and a great teacher is preferable to a less great teacher regardless of the sex of the teacher.

 

I’ve had 4 male teachers and more than I can count female teachers. Based on that sample (which of course isn’t large enough to generalize to anything really), I’d say that female teachers I’ve had tend to be more detail oriented than the male teachers. The male teachers seemed to have concentrated more on what I’ll call basic principles (they focus on a few things, generally simplifying things as much as the can), while female teachers seem to concentrate on many little things. I’ve also found that the males I’ve had tend to have what I’ll call a more organized class than the females, something that quite honestly I would think would go the other way (males organized? Impossible.)

 

Having said that, I will say that overall I do seem to prefer male teachers even though I’ve had several absolutely excellent female teachers. To me, a male person, a male teacher is something of a role model in what I think of as essentially a female world. Also male teachers give me a much better visual model than do female teachers, regardless of the ability of the teacher. I tend to like that.

[citibob]

In my absolute adult beginner's class, I teach my students how to bow to the pianist, not curtsey. I figure they'll learn how to curtsey soon enough, if they want.

[spankster]

I've never had any male teachers, but various female teachers. In my brief experience it seems like the younger teachers explain a lot more about anatomy, whereas the older teachers just give the line, "it takes time." Of course that is true as well ... I just find it can be very helpful to have a teacher describe the muscles being used in a very specific way. It has helped me anyway, it might depend on your learning style.

 

But on the other hand, the older teachers I've been around seem to spend less time coming up with the exercise. It helps us get more work time in the class when a teacher does not have to "create" an exercise right there on the spot.