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Posts: 1704
Joined: Jan. 29 2012
From: Seattle, Washington, USA
Dance teacher prohibits recording
I've been taking a few private flamenco dance lessons over the past months. I'm pretty sure I am completely hopeless, but I am trying anyway.
After the next-to-last lesson, I felt like I forgot everything new in the lesson by the time I got home, so last time I brought a camera so I could video record my teacher doing what I am supposed to do. But my teacher would not let me record her. She said I would have to pay her more for that. I am already paying $75/hour. I felt bad about this. I teach guitar playing and all of my students are encouraged to make a video of me playing new material at the end of each lesson.
Has anyone else encountered this? Is this normal for dance teachers?
Yes it’s normal....in these situations many students get away with recording just THEMSELVES while she is teaching the class. That might fly if you ask her and help you retain at least what you are learning, even though you might miss out on details.
All dance teachers i have encountered here in the Netherlands let the students record them.
According to a dancer from Cádiz, who has had many teachers, in Andalucía only rarely teachers will not allow you to record them, but they tell in advance. She never heard of any teacher allowing it only when you pay more for it.
Posts: 1704
Joined: Jan. 29 2012
From: Seattle, Washington, USA
RE: Dance teacher prohibits recording (in reply to Flamencito)
Thanks for that, Flamencito. My teacher is probably around 60 years old. Apparently she is doing what was the way when she studied, I guess. It does feel ungenerous. But probably the thing for me to do is practice more anyway.
Think everyone hit the nail on the head. The only time I’d heard of it was with an older female Spanish dancer that was just here temporarily. All the younger teachers out here don’t seem to care, I’ve heard of some saying “just don’t get my face.”.
We were filming classes pretty regularly last year. Was really helpful for remembering/improving what was being improvised in class. For 75 bucks per hour I'd for sure want some means to avoid forgetting stuff in with the deal.
I studied cello with a famous teacher who charged a little more than that per hour. She had her own video camera and blank DVDs in her studio and made a recording of the important points of the lesson with her playing the cello to demonstrate. She was in her mid 70s and certainly not a digital native. So if you ask me I think it' wrong to charge that much for lessons and not provide two or three minutes of demo at the end for you recorded on your phone. My cello teacher would review the lesson and play the music we were working on and say a few things about procedure for how to practice the lesson.
I also studied with cellists who did not make videos, but we worked on things that did not need to be remembered in a certain order. My first teacher in 1978 did not make videos, obvy, nor the second. Then I did not study seriously for many years and went back in, the first teacher I worked with was the video user, the two others not. Irene the video method teacher was essentially choreographing some kinds of position shifting and bow stuff I had bad habits with, so she did not want me to work without doing e x a c t l y what she wanted. And she made me do it r e a l l y slow. In about 7 or 8 lessons I had small but well earned breakthroughs because she was meticulous. With the other two I got more informal stuff like some extended techniques in bowing and improvisation for cello and help with making chords. So that was an idea similar to learning "the tonos" patterns on guitar, but for an instrument tuned in fifths. It did not need a video, it was a process of applying three of four chord shapes to the fingerboard.
If it were me, I'd moonlight on your non video teacher and find someone who will let you make videos and see if that makes sense. Just take a month break and have lessons with other teachers. 75 bucks is a lot of money these days. All the teachers I know let students make videos of parts of lessons. Usually stuff like a footwork passage demonstrated at full speed and then broken out out into parts really slow, that way the student can remember in detail. In my opinion, asking 75 and then asking for more on top of that to make a lesson video is out of line.
Maybe you can get one of those tiny spy cameras that fit into a shirt button. Just make sure you're not humming the mission impossible theme while filming. That might tip her off. I've known teachers who did not let students take video but the "you can film if you pay more" is a first for me. I'd be curious to know what her rationale is.
Just out of curiosity, since prices seem to vary a lot between countries, these 75 dollars, are they group classes or 1 on 1? (on a side note, if they are group classes, you might be able to work around it by asking one of the more advanced students if you can film them? Just a thought)
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RE: Dance teacher prohibits recording (in reply to Piwin)
It’s a pity that we haven’t heard from a dance teacher. Surely the contract between teacher and student should be made in a spirit of mutual trust and honesty. Use of a spy camera would be a breach of that trust. And, given the tendency for some people today to take advantage of musicians (e.g. by selling or circulating unauthorised transcriptions or recordings) the teacher has every right, if they so decide, to include a ‘no videorecording’ clause in the contract they make with the student. They may fear that the video will be shared on YouTube or other websites or perhaps used in another teaching enterprise. Those are New School risks!
RE: Dance teacher prohibits recording (in reply to payaso)
I was hoping that with my advice to not hum the mission impossible music while filming that it was clear I was just kidding.
quote:
They may fear that the video will be shared on YouTube or other websites or perhaps used in another teaching enterprise
See, that I understand. But if that's the teacher's fear, then the policy would be "no recording", not "only record if you pay more". Here it just sounds like a way to get more money, like those videogames with pay walls inside.
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"Anything you do can be fixed. What you cannot fix is the perfection of a blank page. What you cannot fix is that pristine, unsullied whiteness of a screen or a page with nothing on it—because there’s nothing there to fix."
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