Teacher Agreements

As a teacher at Burn Blue, you have the right to …

  • Ask to teach and be either
    • scheduled or
    • told very clearly why you weren’t and how to address these concerns in a timely manner
  • Get feedback about your class from the host and/or other Burn Blue teachers
  • Get into Burn Blue for free when giving feedback to a peer (See Feedback Program for more details)

As a teacher at Burn Blue, you agree to …

  • Take feedback about your class from the host and use it to improve
  • Have a well defined structure for your class
  • Effectively articulate your class structure to your students
  • Follow your structure and adjust it to your students
  • Understand and employ kinesthetic, audio, and visual teaching techniques
  • Do a demo showcasing your class material or promoting yourself during the night
  • Be available to dance with beginners throughout the night
  • Have a beginner be

Teaching the drop-in classes, you agree to…

provide both an Experienced drop-in lesson (8:00pm-8:45pm) and a Newcomer drop-in lesson (8:45pm-9:15pm). Guidelines follow:

Experienced Drop-in

Please introduce the class as follows:

  • Welcome people to Burn Blue.
  • State that this is the Experienced Dancer Drop-In and that participants need to be familiar with basic blues vocabulary: side passes, turns, walking with a partner, and basic rhythms.
  • Let the students know that this is the extra lesson for experienced dancers, and invite them to go to the door and pay now if you have not.

At end of class:

  • Invite all “experienced” dancers to help with the newcomer drop-in.

Newcomer Drop-in

The goals for this drop-in are: people feel like they can dance for the night, they have fun, they want to come back!

We want this to be consistent, so every time it must include these concepts. How you teach them is entirely up to you. These concepts are:

1. Weight shifts: both in place & one mini pattern. Examples include, but are not limited to: 2 steps forward, 2 steps back – box step – quick,quick slow, – side touches with some forward & back
2. Partnering (how to embrace & connect with a partner)
3. Etiquette (give a basic partner etiquette, then refer them to etiquette sheets on wall)
4. One Basic Turn

At the end of the lesson

  • Invite the new students to Blues Foundations and Beginners Practica. Let them know we have scholarships!

Rates

Rates for drop-in teachers are adjusted quarterly (see “FAQ” for details) currently :

  • current drop-in teacher rate is $60 per teacher, per evening (both Newcomer and Experienced drop-in lessons.)