Hi everyone! I just gotta get this out, to vent some frustration... and I know we all have had at least one student like this at some point...

In my 9-12yr old beginner ballet I have students who are true newbies and also girls who take extra ballet for technique. Challenging at times, but mostly pretty fun class to teach.

Tonight, I swear I thought I was going to blow a gasket. One student, who struggles with a variety of coordination issues which have become almost problematic in class. Amazingly, she seems socially well adjusted and aside from issues listed below, she seems like a normal 10yr old. No Einstein, but also not a Forrest Gump either.

She watches me demonstrate, in the mirror, not the actual me standing in front of her demonstrating. This, forces her poor brain into a strange directional translation of what we are doing. (Usually reverse direction when turning, and opposite leg/feet)

In addition to this, she is the student who believes throwing her body as fast as possible across the room (despite me stopping, explaining&correcting) basically, she just doesn't listen.

And to top it all off, at the advanced age of ten... she does not understand left from right. And she more than nervously (defiantly would fit better) laughs when I remind her which side is which.

I have never met, or even seen her parents aside from dumping her into my class repeatedly late. My SO isn't terribly familiar with the student or family so we both were a bit shocked that after the fall semester this girl still seems so utterly lost. I know every kid can't dance, and many more will not continue to dance. She falls into both categories.

But I seriously want to bang my head into the mirror and/or wish I kept a flask in my bag every time I watch this girl. It is painful to watch, and the other students are getting weary of being plowed down or knocked over by ms chaos.

I will never tell a parent that I think their kid is hopeless...and I don't want to discourage her (or her family) by suggesting she try something (anything)other than ballet just to be personally rid of her. Especially since they are paid in full for the year. Believe me, I get the whole "try if for a year, and then we'll do something different" mentality. I encourage trying new things, especially art. But my god! I my patience is running thin. Any creative fresh ideas for helping a kid who doesn't want to listen and/or try very hard? Since she is 10 going on 11 I worry if I don't try to resolve the L/R issue, no one else will.

Thanks for letting me vent, and any potential advice. I encourage sharing your experiences... As teachers I think it is important to shed light on the real non dance related problems we deal with every day.

Yes, there are a lot of people who struggle with the right/left problem. There was a post on here a few months ago and several teachers posted that they always had trouble with right and left.

I was thinking perhaps she would do better in a jazz or hip hop dance class? (since she likes to move "big") Does the dance studio offer something like that?

Never let me draw you a map. I draw my maps like I draw my stage.

******Upstage******
****
Stage**** Stage
Right**** Left
****
*****Downstage*****

So, all my maps, north is at the bottom which is thoroughly confusing to anyone other than me. But that's how my brain visualizes them. I know my right from my left but it took a goodly amount of time for me to do it and even at 32 I'm not completely certain when I flippantly say left or right if I'm actually correct. I've said turn right while pointing left. /shrug It's just how I'm hardwired, not for lack of trying.

Could she maybe be dyslexic? I know I've told my kids to watch me, not the mirror, the mirror isn't teaching class. With that age, I also specify "use the outside leg." If I say, "right foot front, 5th position," there's someone who have to say, "Jane, other right foot." And then they switch. Fair warning, don't have her holds hands in a circle and circle to the right. I had a little girl fight me every class that I was wrong. I finally had to start ubiquitously say, "circle with your right foot, let your right foot lead around the circle," before she got it. Because even though we were traveling right, the circle when viewed across the way appears to be going left. So save yourself that heartache - no circles for recital! Find other descriptive words instead of right and left. Which way do we chaine? Turn to the right, turn towards the window, face the window before you finish your turn. If right and left don't work, landmarks might.

I still don't get right and left. I just filled out a form at my new masseuse's office and when I was done, realized that I had completely turned my body around with the descriptions of past injuries. I am a...umm...30something.

When you demonstrate, are you turned toward the dancers, or towards the mirror. For some who are dyslexic in their bodies, it's easier to pick up movement when you turn your back to them to demonstrate. If that's what you're already doing, try doing it the other way.

I have a student who is similar to this, and I was looking at her one day just wondering what in the world she was doing with her arms in a simple port de bras exercise. It looked like she was lifting weights! I asked her to feel lighter with her arms, her response was 'but we do this to work on strength!' I took a personal moment, and then we discussed how this particular exercises was to learn how to be graceful and soft and not to basically do what she was doing. It's not that she wasn't listening, she just translated what I was saying into something completely different than the rest of the class.

This student is definitely in the plow them all down category. Last year I had her go down a level, this year when it wasn't any better, we sat down with mom and set up five goals for her to accomplish. After each class, she comes up to me and we talk about how she did. She's very eager, and it's worked great, I don't have to worry about her running into people anymore. She's still the weakest dancer in the class, but I don't fear for the other dancers anymore.

Point being, some kids just think and learn in a completely different way than us (their teachers) and their peers. Some don't learn visually, sometimes I wonder if they don't learn kinesthetically! I really enjoy those kids because they are such a challenge, and when they finally get it I feel like doing a victory lap.

I would also say, if you're schooled in the Bartenieff Movement Fundamentals and Laban Movement scales, it might be worth it to work one on one with this student to see if she has skipped something in her development.

It is actually not that uncommon. 10% of adult don't have the ability to naturally tell left from right. Most learn little tricks in early adulthood Or their late teen years to remind them which is which. But they don't just know.

I write, with an erasable marker, RIGHT and LEFT in the corners of my mirror and I've been known to tie a ribbon on their right wrist or put a sticker on their right foot! Sometimes I tell them " it's not like you've got 15 arms or legs people! you've got 2! Learn them. Go through your day thinking: the driver of the bus is on the left, I get out of the bus on the right, my home room is on the left, the bathroom is on the right, etc.!!!! It's just something everyone needs to learn. I had a former student tell me , she pictures herself in the studio looking at the mirror when she is trying to remember 'right and left'!!

I also tie a ribbon to their R leg or have them wear a leg warmer on just their R leg, and a hair elastic on their right wrist if they're having difficulty. That visual cue is often enough even for the hopeless. I have a nephew who break dances but is severely dyslexic and dysgraphic- he reads and writes backward- and this trick helps him as well. He uses a bandana and a sweat band to be cool.

On a side note- kids like this are my favorite to teach. While I understand your frustration I personally believe its more the process than the result. I tell my parents all of the time that the hours of work their child does in class is far more valuable and important than what they are able to showcase on stage. Very few dancers are going to "do something" with their training but that doesn't mean that they shouldn't dance for the love and self expression that dance offers.

have you tried putting slap braclet's on her right wrist and ankle?

I agree with J1ll about the leg warmer comment. I too teach beginner ballet age 7-9 and have two girls who are left handed and will do EVERYTHING starting off on their left feet! It drives me mad! Your girl will eventually "get it" but until then I would try the leg warmer on one ankle only and see how it goes. Good luck!

my favourite little trick to teach my dancers is by looking at the hands (palms down). Make and "L" with your Peter Pointer and thumb. The hand that makes the true "L" is your left...sometimes that also helps them "feel" the left. Hope that helps!

I have a girl that dances with me, that can't tell left from right either. I learned that she's OK if I give her landmarks. So now, instead of "Turn left", I go "Turn to the window!", and she's usually OK.

She's also really prone to slipping onto the wrong foot (sometimes I've really had to stop and watch her to figure out what the heck...), which makes the right/left dilema even worse. :/

Yes, some sort of of marking on the right hand, can help.

It reminds me that I started teaching my kids left from right, and my granddaughter, from day one, literally, because I did not want them to have a hard time with this when they were older.

Drill, drill, drill, as much as you can in class, but the suggestion of a bracelet or ribbon, may help. You can even say, "Your bracelet side."

I am slightly dyslexic so the best way I have been able to help my students and myself sometimes is what stargaze said. I still us the hand making and L trick. It has been the best thing I have used. Also most of my students do better if I am face the mirror and my back is to them. I hope that helps Maybe you should hold her back after class and talk with her. Sometimes a few words can make a world of differents Good Luck
SB