Words from the publisher

By Rhee Gold

A parable for dance teachers:

Maureen opened a school many years ago, instilling in hundreds of children the passion for dance. She was making a comfortable living, raising her children, and her school was growing. Then one day Sandy, a lead faculty member and one of Maureen’s former students, became upset with one of her boss’ new policies. Without hesitation, Sandy and her parents opened a school up the street from Maureen, enrolling the majority of the students Sandy had taught at Maureen’s school.

Maureen was devastated. She had given her student a gift, and now that student was using it to harm the teacher/mentor who inspired her. You can’t blame Maureen for being upset, but for a while an obsessive rivalry existed between the two schools. Never a kind word was said about the other, and the students took sides, which carried over into their public school and personal lives. The situation was a mess for a long time.

Maureen hung in there and after a couple of years things settled down and both businesses were doing fine. However, the resentment was still alive and well, just simmering on a back burner. Meanwhile, Sandy married and had three children she adored. Soon she wanted to spend more time with her family, so she started to train teachers who had grown up in her school to take over the bulk of the teaching. All went well for a few years and then one of Sandy’s teachers, Bethany, who had started dancing at Maureen’s school, became upset over a new policy. Then—you guessed it—she went up the street and opened her own school. And she talked three of Sandy’s teachers into jumping ship with her.

Now Sandy was the devastated one, because she had to rebuild her business or close her doors. At that moment Sandy wished she could call Maureen, just to have someone to speak with about her situation. But of course that was impossible because she had done the same thing to Maureen that was happening to her. Too bad.

Meanwhile, all was going well for Bethany and her staff in their first year of business. But before the end of the year, two of the teachers she had pulled from Sandy’s school got upset with Bethany’s policies, so they went up the street and opened their own school. And you know the rest of the story.

When someone asked Bethany why she would open a school near Sandy when she knew it would hurt her former employer’s business, she said, “I thought that was the way it is done. That’s what my teacher did to her teacher.” Yes, Sandy, Bethany, and the others got the passion and learned how to be good teachers from their mentors, but no one ever taught them about ethics in the dance community.

Dance teachers set an example in so many ways, and often in ways that have nothing to do with steps or technique. Be sure you are setting the right example both inside and outside of your classroom.

By the way, the real benefactor in all of this was Maureen. She continued to run her school with much success and it became known as the place to go to avoid the “dance school wars” that everyone in that community had become accustomed to. It’s interesting how things play out!

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