Teachers Training Week, June 29– July 6, 2013:

SwingSummit 2013 will have a FULL week exclusively for swing dance teachers!

Most great teachers we’ve met like it nerdy… in fact, the nerdier the better. Whether they’re working full-time in their local scene, teach for their local non-profit association or hold drop-in classes at a university, the passionate ones all share this desire to improve. We have created a camp where any dancer can become a better teacher.

At SwingSummit Teachers’ Week you’ll develop all the tools you need to create and deliver great dance classes:

Pedagogical tools – you’ll learn to:

  • use the “Abstraction Zoom” to switch between INSPIRING your students and building deeper UNDERSTANDING.
  • “Paint the Picture” to relate the new information with your students existing knowledge
  • use storytelling to keep complex ideas easy to remember
  • use “One Voice One Message” to talk less and let your students dance more, while still covering all the material you planned
  • use “Power Phrases” that will help you structure your teaching and reach every type of student
  • build up your classes (especially when the level is not homogeneous) in a way that makes everybody feel challenged at their individual level
  • build fun and challenging classes that keep your students coming back to your classes wanting to learn more
Crucial skills beyond teaching how to dance:

We will also tackle some of the most pressing questions and problems teachers experience in their day-to-day work. We’ll share our insight with you on how to:

  • guide people to the right level and have students happily stay in the class they really belong in
  • stay in control of your class and deal with difficult students (the “I have a question” guy / the “Monopolizer” / the “Secret Teacher”), etc.
  • keep “special students” happy, both the extremely fast learners and the not-so-fast learners.
  • Make sure you reach your own teaching goals with the help of objective self-feedback tools
The dance classes:

The dance classes at SwingSummit Teachers Week are based on the class contents we’ve created for the weekly classes in our local dance scenes in Heidelberg and Darmstadt (two independent cities). This structure is also used by other (SwingStep-affiliated) teachers from Tel Aviv in Israel, as well as influenced the teachers curriculum in Ghent and Amsterdam.

Our classes cover all the most important elements of swing dancing by teaching the students how dance to both slow and fast music, and exactly how to switch between 4-, 6-, 8-, and 10-count moves. Dance-nerdy as we are, we insist on good technique while also teaching them how to improvise and put in “goofy” elements.

At SwingSummit, you’ll experience our local course syllabus first hand and discover exactly what, when, and how we teach different elements of the dance. Naturally, since you are already an experienced dancer, we will increase the tempo, level of details as well as amount of material in the classes. This way, you’ll get the same “flow” feeling that our local students feel in our local classes. The dance classes will be split into two to three intermediate and advanced levels to keep you in your ideal learning zone and make the most of your week with us.

What you will take home from SwingSummit Teachers Week:

Creating your own concepts – learn how to break down the things you want to teach:

Albert Einstein said “Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.”. In dance teaching, this means taking a complex technique or move and breaking it down into smaller pieces to make it as simple as possible. However, Einstein also warned not to “over-simplify”. For your classes, this means recognizing the right level of simplicity, and instead of “dumbing down” an explanation breaking it down into a step-by-step procedure that will help you share your ideas to your students.

At SwingSummit, we’ll help you define what the core elements that YOU want your students to learn. We’ll discuss what techniques are most important to you and what moves can you use to teach these techniques most effectively. And, more importantly, how you can break these moves down into their fundamental movements in order to make your message as clear as possible.

We’ll help you define and refine these concepts, and give you the tools to integrate them into every class you teach.
Developing your course plan:

To make a lasting impact in your teaching, we have the goal of helping you develop a complete course plan that you can implement in your classes. You will get help with every aspect of your teaching:

  • What to start with?
  • Where to go next?
  • When is the right time to introduce specific moves that are very important for your community?
  • How can you integrate your new ideas into an already existing community and drive change smoothly without splitting the scene?

Pricing

Your final price for SwingSummit is composed of two parts:

  • Teachers Training and meals (all classes and full board of 3 meals per day) = 599 Euro per person per week.

SPECIAL NOTE: Because of the special nature of this workshop it’s priced higher than a regular workshop. However, we don’t want the price to be a limiting factor for you. If you need a discount to afford participating,  please send us an email at dance@swingstep.com so that we can figure out how to make this work for you.

  • Accommodation = between 80 and 270 Euro per person per week – depending on your choice of housing (check out “Location and accomodation details” for options).

Registration

As a teacher you have the power to create a Lindy Hop scene you love. Sign up for Teachers’ Week and get ready to make an impact on your Lindy Hop world.

REGISTRATION WILL OPEN ON Sun, 18 November 2012 at 15:00 Central Europe Time (follow this clock: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fullscreen.html?n=991)

Click here to get to the registration page: http://swingsummit.com/sign-up-for-swing-summit/

If you have any questions until then, feel free to write us at dance@swingstep.com or on Facebook (Ali Taghavi).

If you have trouble seeing the webform click here: https://aliandkatja.infusionsoft.com/app/form/swingsummit-2013-registration