From my perspective, learning to dance is a very individual thing, and not all teachers are good matches for different learners. Last night at dinner, a friend asked me, "Why don't dancers flock to try the newest teacher or class they come across?" In her world of visual arts, painters and sculptors always seemed interested in seeing and trying the latest thing!
I imagine that both dancers and visual artists learn their craft by doing and practice . However, unlike painters and sculptors, dancers must learn to em-body their artistic expression. And most beginner dancers need to take at least 3 to 4 classes with a teacher to know if that teacher's methodology works for them, and what they hope to achieve. Each class is both a time and monetary investment, and there are so many factors that play into where and with whom to experiment, when exploring new studios and teachers.
Adjunct to the evolution of "sports medicine", learning physical movement has been observed to take place in four primary modalities: mimicry, mental visualization, physical manipulation, and experimentation. This is not to say that any of us learn exclusively one way, but we might lean in a certain direction, and use a combination of different modalities to make sense of how we learn to both control and "listen" to our bodies. 
Teaching a creative movement workshop in 2002
City Center, Young People's Dance Series. Photo: Martha Holmes
I was still a teenager when I found myself taking classes in dance education and teacher training for ballet curricula. Ironically, I was taking courses in dance pedagogy because I was still a minor living in the UK, and the reactive laws against "child labor" meant that as an immigrant, I needed to remain enrolled in educational courses, even though I had completed my advanced pre-professional training as a dancer.
A decade later, I would be training to teach and guide recreational kayaking to weekend warriors who likely had no experience with outdoor sports, much less on the moving surface of water. In both the cases of dance and of kayaking, I was personally quite accomplished. However, teaching was about helping dancers and clients realize their greatest potential, which meant honing my skills of observation and listening. For me there has never been a single solution to teaching a physical skill. And knowing in my own body what a movement skill feels like is only a measure for empathy with individuals struggling to grasp the concepts of "Tendu. Fondu. Pirouette." or "Catch. Power. Recover."
Practising whitewater drills in Colorado 2005.
Admittedly, I was a pretty quick learner when it came to physical skills both with respect to my own body and in interacting with the physical elements of the outdoors. And the methods that were used to teach me all the skills on which I have built careers in dance and kayaking, are only starting points from which I have developed my approach and methods for teaching movement disciplines.
I am pretty quick to identify challenges that a class or an individual might be struggling with, and one solution will typically not work for everyone. Time and age have given me confidence to not rely on just what I was taught, but to use everything I have learned to find new solutions as needed, whether I am teaching the most enthusiastic beginner or the most self-assured professional.
Over the next few months, professional dance projects are pre-empting my teaching open Taylor Technique classes on the weekends, however, I am maintaining my Adult Beginner Ballet classes on Tuesday evenings at Taylor Dance West, 307 W 38th Street, 9th floor, NYC.
If this location is convenient for you, you will also notice that we are now the Taylor Center for Dance Education, sometimes shortened to Taylor Dance Center.
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