Teaching Belly Dance

by Sara Shrapnell, Pleasant Gehman (Preface)

Are you ready to teach belly dance? Are you looking for ways to change up your teaching techniques? Are you keen to find a fresh approach to bring to your existing classes? This is the book! Sara Shrapnell will help you set up, plan, teach and enjoy your belly dance classes. From exciting games to make learning fun for your students, to understanding the individual needs, desires, and hopes that each dancer brings to class, Sara will help you hone the learning experience to achieve their goals. This book touches on every major aspect of the teaching process including: Tips for finding the perfect teaching venue Promoting yourself as your teacher Planning interesting semesters Methods for developing comprehensive lesson plans Understanding your students aims and goals Providing useful praise and critique Teaching to a variety of learning styles Organizing your own events and troupe Picking music that connects to the learner Also includes a glossary, handouts, and sample waivers. Sara Shrapnell has taught belly dance for more than a decade, presenting thousands of belly dance classes, both in the UK and US. She teaches privates, groups, workshops, and provides coaching for dancers and teachers worldwide. www.LetsBellyDanceUSA.com"

238 pages, Paperback

First published February 27, 2014

About the author

Sara Shrapnell is a belly dance writer, teacher and performer. Originally from the UK but now teaching in the Bay Area of San Francisco, she is the writer of two major belly dance books:
“Teaching Belly Dance”, the book about setting up, planning, teaching and enjoying belly dance classes.
“Becoming a Belly Dancer: From student to stage”, the stagecraft handbook for belly dancers.
She has taught over 4,000 belly dance lessons. She continues to teach, both in person and via the internet, classes and workshops for dancers all around the world.

Reviews

[AJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a must-have if you are considering teaching belly dance classes or workshops. Sara provides pages and pages and pages of advice on every aspect of teaching belly dance, from finding a studio to organizing a student showcase performance night! She covers not just how to teach, but how to handle the business side of things as well. All of the advice is presented in a clear, friendly voice that is easy to understand and fun to read. Someday, when I'm ready to teach, I look forward to using this as a handbook to make sure I do it right!

For a full-length review of this book please visit my belly dance blog.

[Juniper · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will be returning to this many times as a valuable reference, the material is well organized and applicable to both new and experienced dance teachers.

[Candice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Over the years I have read a lot of books about Belly Dance, and have always had high hopes but have never quite been fulfilled, with the exception of a few titles. When I started reading this book, Teaching Belly Dance, I was optimistic but also secretly skeptical. So what an incredibly pleasant surprise it was then to find a thorough resource and well written book covering so many of the important aspects of being a Middle Eastern Dance Teacher!

The foreword by Princess Farhana sets the tone of the book as an easy to use manual for both newer and experienced teachers, and I agree wholeheartedly.

One of the most important questions are addressed up front: "Are you ready to teach belly dance?” It asks further questions that delve deeper into the reasons motivating someone considering becoming a teacher and also the possible requirements and obstacles he/she would have to face, to determine if they are up for the challenge.

The advice provided covers everything from dealing with difficult student situations and personalities, to what to wear while teaching. As Shrapnell so succinctly states “...this is not a book about new moves.” - and while it does give some great templates for teaching basic moves as well as warmup routine suggestions, the majority of the content focuses on the subjects that are more difficult to learn about, such as term planning, different teaching styles, promoting your classes, teaching improvisation, putting on student shows, and more.

The only room for improvement that I can find is a minor reorganisation of the topics into main and subcategories. But other than that I only wish the book was longer! Some topics are so pertinent that I would love to read more about them, so here’s hoping for a second volume.

In summation, Teaching Belly Dance is a comprehensive guide for both new and experienced teachers and I can’t recommend this book highly enough.