You are asked a question on Instagram:
I am a dancer. I am 31 years old. I work as a coach with children and in the course of my work I came to the conclusion that the main principle for me is not to harm or break the child. Also, the sport of dancing itself is not about dancing, but about what I can teach children for their future life. This is the way I think.
My question is: how can I guide and help them to be able to find themselves in the future? How can I make sure I don’t break or kill the uniqueness with which they come to me? How should I define my task with each child? How should I understand what each child needs me for if they have come to me?
Different types of children come; those who are incredibly talented dancers and those who shouldn’t train at all. Nevertheless, we met each other for a reason, although, perhaps I am mistaken about this. Please help me figure this out. With great respect, Yegor.
Answer: Here is my answer. First, everyone who comes to you is led to you. The upper force leads them; there are no accidents in the world. Therefore, you should value each child, not only because he is especially suited to dancing, but due to the fact that he was led to you.
Your next step is very important. Maybe he will leave you now and will not return again; however, the coming to you and leaving you will also play a certain, possibly big, role in his life.
You are already becoming a participant in his destiny. Therefore, you must make his imagination of you, of dancing, and of your art remain positive, even though it is fleeting. This is the first thing.
Second, try to give him the impression that dancing forms a person, that a person wants to express himself through dancing.
Dancing is, one might say, the oldest, most stable, and natural expression of oneself. Primitive peoples danced around the fire with each other. Doves whirl with each other and so on. It’s all in the dance. It is not through speech which was created later, but dancing.
That is, dance is an internal expression of the soul’s impulses and aspirations. Therefore, it is a very serious language from within nature, very deep, and the most natural.
Ballet can express any aspirations, desires, and feelings including empathy. There’s no need to say anything. If it’s a real action, then literally any movement of one’s little finger or turn of one’s head means everything!
Dance is a whole science. We know that there is a science of facial expressions and movements. All of this is connected with the nature of man, with one’s place of residence, and so on. This is a very deep conversation that is very far from us today. Today we are blocked from all of this.
Dance is an expression of the soul. This can astonish a person, infect, tie to oneself, drag away, or subdue.
Question: It’s beautiful! Have you ever learned how to dance?
Answer: No. I just understand it. I have some kind of inner yearning that people do not wield it, including me.
A lot can be said about this because there is no layering from all kinds of schools or periods of history. It is actually the language of the soul.
Question: Yegor also asks: “How can one preserve the uniqueness of each child who comes?”
Answer: To do this, you need to be a very serious teacher and only take a couple of students and no more, as the ancient sages did. They did not run huge schools. There were those like Rabbi Akiva’s, of course, but usually there were two or three people whom a sage taught and that was all.
Dance is actually a language. I’m not talking about modern ballet. I’m talking about what can be expressed through movement.
Question: That is, by teaching dance, one can actually raise a sage?
Answer: Of course! This is not dancing; one teaches the language of communication with other people. Besides communication, we do not need anything, in principle. This is the correction of the world. So, in fact, dance, as the science of Kabbalah teaches, is simply a high level thing.
This rapprochement is sensory, without words, and even without music. It is an expression that is not superficial, although both words and music can complement it. When it’s expressed correctly, the body movement is sufficient. We see that dancing is everything to animals. One animal sees another and they understand each other and interact.
Question: What should be the goal of a teacher who teaches this language of communication, dance?
Answer: Language is also very specific. It is impossible to impose a language on a person because every language is limited; it is violence. One makes him express himself exactly in this way. In movement and dance, if a person completely relaxes, then one can express oneself, and the rest will understand him precisely because he expresses himself and that is all.
Question: Meaning, the task of the teacher, in general, is for the learner to be in the dance?
Answer: Of course. Precisely to free himself from any external constraints.
Question: How is it? This is impossible to teach!
Answer: You teach only how you can free yourself from your inner limitations. Then, you can already sing your own way and express yourself. There is nothing here! The others just have to cancel themselves as much as possible, enter you and your understanding of some inner experience, and then they will understand your dance.
Without music, without words, without anything—just movements.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 1/25/21
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