2013 Teaching Artist Training Review

The launch of the third cohort for the 2014-15 Teaching Artist Training Program is only a month away and we have just two spots left!  Visit www.taisandiego.org to download an application.

Below, read about the experiences of two students and one mentor from last year's cohort.

Ariana Siegel, TAI Student & Dance Mentee, 2013

“I've considered myself a dancer, dancemaker, and dance teacher – but never a "teaching artist." I applied to Young Audience's TAI to learn what teaching artistry meant and what it might mean to me. As a new San Diegan, the aspect of the TAI that I was most drawn to was its community. Multi-disciplinary artists, mentors, and moderators gathered to explore how we could teach with greater relevance: against the backdrop of budding national standards and emergent technologies, what is the role of arts in the classroom?

Ariana teaching in the Teaching Artist Training Practicum

The highlight of the program was the practicum. I observed how my mentor, a highly skilled and effective teaching artist, created the conditions for student discovery. Then, I had the opportunity to develop and teach my own curriculum. Together with my cohort – a deeply compassionate, caring, and curious bunch – I was encouraged to take risks and to continue along a sometimes precariously steep learning curve. What a fulfilling challenge!”

Kaylie Caires, TAI Student & Dance Mentee, 2013

“I had recently moved to San Diego and was looking for a way to get to know other artists and teachers in the area.  I decided to participate in the program because I was looking to find access to a community of support and to future work opportunities.  I had also come to a point where working in a teaching environment had become extremely stressful and taxing for me.  I did not know how to exist in a sustainable way as both an artist and a teacher. I was looking to explore this balance and to reeducate myself as to how to enjoy this shared role. 

Kaylie, on right, in class discussion

The first shift that I found was that I allowed myself to remove personal attachment to feedback. I learned to create space for critique as a way for me to question and investigate the work at hand. This became a very helpful insight into my presentation of self and interaction with others in all aspects of my life.  I also found confidence and a new ownership in the title of artist.  Identifying myself as a teaching artist granted me permission to value my own place in the school environment.   Before this experience I had thought that I was coming into the world of education with a disadvantage.  Yet I learned to see my path into teaching as a unique perspective that could perhaps inspire students to see that there are many ways of viewing and existing in life that are all valued.

One of the great gifts of the program overall was that it provided a space for teaching artists of many disciplines and generations, to work together and share perspectives.  I believe my greatest insight into teaching was revealed through my fellow colleagues/ participants in the program.  I’ve now learned to approach teaching as an ever-evolving process.  To be a teacher means being in a place of continuous learning. I don't have to be perfect; I can still be me.  This insight, has helped me approach the work from a much more honest place.”

Erika Malone, Dance Mentor, 2013

“This process was a dream come true for me!  One of my favorite things to do is to support people as they deepen a practice.  My intention in this process is to observe, reflect, inquire, encourage, and pull out the articulation that’s right there on the surface, while simultaneously embracing the unique style and perspective that each dance mentee brings to the table. 

Watching amazing dance artists embrace the profession of the teaching artist is a fairly transformational process on both sides!  As I worked with Ariana and Kaylie over the 4-month process, my own teaching practice went through shifts in response to our mutual questions and discoveries.  There are so many layers to uncover and discover as dancers (or any artists) learn how to share their art form with youth and what better way to do this than in community!?! 

Erika, in white, with graduating students

The cohort model of the Young Audiences Teaching Artist Training removes the layer of isolation that so many teaching artists can experience as they set out to bring art into schools.  Instead learning happens through dynamic dialogue, reflection gathered from many perspectives, and the alchemical process that happens when people gather together for a common purpose.  In the context of the YA Teaching Artist Training program that intention is to solidify and evolve the artist and the teacher within us, a powerful duet that can impact both youth and the field of teaching artistry.  As I witnessed the final presentations of Kaylie and Ariana and participated in their “graduation”, I was humbled and awed both by them and by the archetype of the teaching artist.  In my eyes, the teaching artist is a cultural icon…brave, gifted, and luminous!