Specialized Mentoring Programs

Our teacher really puts himself into it — even in blazing heat he came down and ran with us, always reminding us to watch out for tree roots and slippery ground. I already knew there was a lot to learn in this sport, and the stories he shared stayed with me; that he has represented Taiwan in competition amazed me. He teaches very well, and I would take his class again given the chance. He is serious and patient, always encouraging us and correcting our form.

Through my time on the dance team our teacher has been a constant presence. Beyond teaching technique, she has stood with us through every practice and every competition. There are inevitably times in rehearsal when things do not go well — when everyone is off form, or we keep falling short of what she is looking for, and the mood drops. But she never simply scolds us. She patiently shows us where the problem lies, then works through it with us.

Somewhere along the way I realised that what dance gives me is not only the thrill of being on stage. From one rehearsal after another to finishing a competition together, I learned how to talk to my teammates, and learned that even when I am exhausted I should still be thinking of the team. Thank you for staying with us and trusting us — you taught me more than how to dance; over that time I slowly became someone more responsible, more willing to give to the people around me.

When I heard the university had a modern dance team, I had no background in dance at all, so I only meant to sit in on rehearsals and follow along as best I could. Being taken onto the team was not something I expected, and I count it a piece of real luck.

I went from simply following the movements to trying to understand them — thinking about where the power comes from in the body, holding certain abstract images of motion in mind — and that understanding is what let me feel my own progress on solid ground. It comes from the many different ways our teacher finds to make a movement make sense: guiding us to imagine extension through space, explaining how the source of a movement connects to its extremities, showing how breath ties into the rhythm of the music. In this kind of teaching and this kind of environment, you learn far more than dance.