THINGS EVERY DANCE TEACHER KNOWS

1. It is winter time and you will get sick.

2. There is a sweet satisfaction in disciplining “the bad kids”

3. The parents are your worst enemy and will insist that their perfect child can DO NO WRONG.

4. You’d rather have someone slice razor blades underneath your fingernails than try to edit that music together one more time without it sounding like shit.

5. The younger the kids are, the cuter they are, but the more exhausting they are.

6. What are real clothes? Are real clothes a thing that real people buy?

7. Christmas break is the most blissful time of the year. But then as soon as you’re back for January it’s… RECITAL TIME (dun dun dunnnn).

8. Kids say the DARNDEST things.

9. You’ve got that quieting clap technique (clap clap-clap clap clap… CLAP CLAP) down pat.

10. You repeat at least once per class “if your question doesn’t have to do with this dance it can wait until after class”.

11. You wear many hats. You are all at once a dance teacher, a parent, a sister, a guidance counselor, a friend, and a babysitter.

12. One perk though are the little gifts you get for holidays like Christmas and Valentine’s Day!

13. Come recital time in June you are creatively, mentally, and physically spent.

14. Summer classes are your creative peak because there are lower expectations, higher temperatures, and no school so the kids are at their clearest and most focused.

15. You can flip through five 600-page costume books and still not find EXACTLY what you’re looking for.

16. The half hour following the end of each dance night is devoted to venting to the other teachers and studio owners about how frustrating/disrespectful/lazy your classes were that day and you do not hold back.

17. When one child has to go potty, they all have to go potty.

18. Your vocabulary consists of phrases like “the dance year”, your “dance week”, and finding the best “dance outfit”.

19. You could potentially make this your full time job if you want to commit to being exhausted and broke every day of your life.

20. And you keep coming back because even after the most horrible day, a kid will do something adorable like shyly handing you a hand-made paper card with pink crayon writing claiming “ur the best teachr evr”.
*silent tears*