As dancers we spend a great deal of time in front of the mirror.  Often times as dance teachers we are giving directions to our students by looking at our their reflection.  They are watching us in the mirror for how to move, where to go next and what type of emotion is necessary.  We lead by reflection.  That was never more clear to me than at our studio’s Halloween party.  Four of my students dressed up as me!  My first reaction was “Wow!  What an honor”.  My next reaction was “Wow, they are really watching me”.  The girls came dressed in brightly colored t-shirts and black leggings. They took every moment that they could to shout out the benefits of the iliopsoas muscle and each girl carried a sparkly notebook that they proceeded to dance with it as I often do as I  read my choreography while I teach it! Later that night I started to think about what could have been if I didn’t dress and act the way I do.  Years ago I remember watching a teacher at a dance competition surrounded by her students.  The teacher was slouched over with a sour look on her face and all of her dancers looked exactly like her.  I became very aware of the fact that our students are not just looking to us for how to hold themselves in dance class; they are looking to us for how to carry themselves in life.  Not long after the Halloween party, another student of mine told me, as she watched me drink out of a green Publix water bottle, that when she was younger she thought if she drank water out of a water bottle like mine that she would become a great dancer.  Here it was again, my actions being reflected back to me.  This was obviously a message I needed to hear.  As I move through this incredible life I get to live, I realize that my students are not just watching me for how to execute a degage or a grand battement, they are watching me to see what to wear, how to hold themselves and how to treat those around them.  As teachers, they are listening to the words we use and the context in which we use them.  It is an honor to be a dance teacher.  It is an honor to love other people’s children as if they were your own.  And it is a huge responsibility to present to these children a positive and energetic example of how to make their way through this life.  When I look at my students I am proud; not just of how they dance but of how they love and share.  I am proud of their smiles and of the friendships they have cultivated.  I am excited about the good that they will do in this world and I pray that even if it is a very small part of who they are, there is some of me that I see in their reflections.

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