Working With a Coach for the First Time? Here’s How to Make the Most of It
As a teenager, Kansas City Ballet apprentice Amira Hogan spent many hours working with private coaches, polishing her solos for competitions like Youth America Grand Prix. Although the focused, individualized instruction ultimately helped her perform her best, Hogan remembers going into her first few coaching sessions full of nerves: “There were many times early on when I left the session feeling overwhelmed, thinking: I just got so many corrections, but how can I apply them all? How can I show my coach that I’m trying my best and willing to learn more?”
Whether you’re preparing for a competition or not, private coaching can be an invaluable tool for improvement. But for students only used to taking group classes, the onrush of feedback can be a lot to handle. While it takes patience and a special mindset, the coaching process can and should be immensely fruitful instead of nerve-racking or intimidating.
Building Trust
It’s common to feel both anxious and excited about being the sole focus of your teacher’s eye, as Hogan was. Many students come into the studio thinking their coach expects a performance, which can cause unnecessary stress, says Malu Rivera-Peoples, director of Daly City, California’s Westlake School for the Performing Arts. “The first time you work with a student, they are usually very eager to please,” she says. “They think they have to do everything perfectly. So I try to get them to relax by emphasizing that this is a process, and everyone’s timeline for growth is different.”
Because trust between dancer and coach is essential, choosing someone you’re already familiar with, like a frequent teacher, can ease the transition into private sessions, says Fiona Fairrie, director of Fairrie Ballet Training. “Being comfortable with your coach is a huge element,” she explains, “because the coach wants to see that you’re hungry for information and trusts you to help them. If the dancer is defensive and has guards up, it’s going to be very difficult.”
Boston Ballet dancer Alexis Workowski, who developed close relationships with her competition coaches during her student years, strongly agrees. “You have to enjoy working with them and feel they are invested in you and are open to hearing your goals. So there’s room for growth and discussion.”
Handling Feedback
One of the biggest benefits of one-on-one coaching is the opportunity to finesse the details of your solos. But for some dancers, applying the vast amount of feedback you receive “under the microscope” can feel impossible, says Workowski. “In a group class, you have a little downtime in the back of the studio to pick up the corrections. But with a coach, there was a set of eyes on you at all times. I think I created a block in my head that everything had to be perfect.”
For Workowski, taking time on her own to process her coaches’ feedback helped her handle information overload. “If I had a bad rehearsal or was flooded with corrections, I’d get a notebook and write them all down, and then let it go for the rest of the night,” she says. “I’d try to not let myself think about it too much. The next day, I’d slowly go through each one of those corrections with my eyes closed, listening to the music, before my rehearsal.”
Leaving a private session with a sense of accomplishment takes a different mental and physical approach than group classes do, says Rivera-Peoples. In addition to being well-warmed-up (she recommends doing a full barre beforehand), have specific goals in mind to share with your coach. “What do you want to work on today? What do you feel needs more focus? I want to hear what [the dancer wants] to accomplish,” she says. “That’s the beauty of private coaching—you can spend time really helping them achieve their personal best.”
Rivera-Peoples stresses that coaches are often insistent because they see your potential. “Have confidence that I see something inside you that you can bring into this solo,” she says. “View your feedback and corrections as tools for growth rather than criticism or just being told you’re wrong, and try not to focus on doing it perfectly right now. If you have the mindset that every private [session] is a step forward, then we can settle into working together to build your own greatness.”
Taking the Long View
While private training can accelerate progress, it also requires patience. Fairrie sees some dancers—for example, someone who may be a perfectionist—get frustrated when they can’t immediately master their coach’s instructions. “At first when we work on a solo, they just do the steps. But if the aim is to make the finished product look as professional as possible, the beauty will be in the details. So when we start refining a solo and I say ‘No, it’s still not right,’ it really annoys them!”
During times like that, Hogan coped by keeping her eye on her ultimate objective. “I’d get down on myself, like ‘Why isn’t this working? Why can’t I get it right?’ But you have to realize that your coach is there for you, believes in you, and knows you can do it,” she says. “There are days when things don’t work the way you hoped, but it’s all progress leading to your end goal.”
Workowski took a similar approach, reminding herself to look beyond a single challenging day. “I love ballet because perfection is unattainable, so take a step back and congratulate yourself on the little victories along the way. When it becomes overwhelming and frustrating, I tell myself: ‘I accomplished this one thing today, and I’ll accomplish the rest in a week or a month, but it’s a slow process.’ ”
