I’m 17 years old, fresh out of high school and in my freshman year of college, when I receive my first formal teaching gig. The offer is to teach the most advanced tap dancers of a local private dance school in New Jersey. These dancers are teenagers who are used to competing and presenting their dances at an annual recital. In addition to teaching technique, I am required to create two pieces – one for competition and one for the recital. I freak out. Who was I to be teaching? My teachers had always been years older than I was in age, and had magnitudes more experience than me. They all taught from a position of authority. It wasn’t just theory, or experimentation. They really knew what they were talking about and sharing with me. Here I was, 17, and would be teaching 13-16 year-olds. How was this even right?
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