National Teachers Association Newest Featured ArticlesHappier New Year 2021January 12, 2021Please stay safe and healthy during this unique time in history.A time when we realize how dancing is important to our lives, with a majority of facilities closed around the world. NTA training and testing activities are pretty much on hold as well, but we are busy imagining alternative ways of continuing our mission. Take care... Special Kind of PeopleJune 19, 2020Dancers know that they are a special kind of people. It is evident by the way they dance, by the way they care for others, and by the way they share their dancingwith others. Some people might debate whether folks are specialbecause they dance or dance because they are special. Dancing has always been a part of human socialization. Dancing has changed the lives of many who participate, and dancers have made life better for those they reach out to. For many, dancing has filled a need – for dance, for socialability, for exerecise, for sharing and caring. The challendge to learn and improve is irrestible. Dancing is an activity to be enjoyed by all ages. (Anonymous)... Learning to LearnApril 14, 2020Condensed from an article by W. Westfiel Perfecting your dancing skills is made hard or easy by your talent for learning. If you are a good learner, it‘s a snap; whereas if you are a poor or slow learner, it can be a struggle. Dancing itself is simple, but learning to learn is tricky since we all excel at making things more difficult than they really are. Learning to learn take time, patience, and attention, but the pleasure of easy learning makes dancing that much more fun. Learning to learn is also a far more important triumph than learning to dance. Our will is the key to learning, unlocking the prison of our homemade identity. “I‘m not the type that learns from books.” “I learn by imitation.” ” I need things explaned in detail, I need to understand what I am doing.” “I can‘t …” All of these are declarations of identity. Defining and confirming, they express a willfulness to remain as is, stagnant, paralyzed, and safe. The learning logjam forms early in life as we assume the identities assigned to us in order to survive. “I‘m Tom. I‘m five years old. I‘m clumsy and irresponsible.” The doctors and lawyers are handicapped by their situation to detail. They formulate lists, categories, and structures in such orderly fashion that it is often very difficult for them to dance. These people have to let go of what they perceive as their tested and trusted ways of doing things. Will yourself to change. Be someone else, a better learner, and a better dancer. Leave your habits and history behind, and realize you can be other than what you think you are. Be a chameleon, shelving your present identity and its set of rules to try on a new color. Isn‘t that why we dress western! The idea of change is a threat. Fear rules the mind. Fear of failure. Fear of being laughed at. Allow yourself some errors. Concentrate. Concentration is focusing on what is happening right now. Let go of things that aren‘t happening right this minute. Push the fear away. Practice is t he opposite of drudgery. Find time to practice. Make it enjoyable. You‘ll see short term results. If you practice you will always improve. You may never be a great dancer but you will be the best dancer you are able to be. Above all be patient.... HAPPY NEW YEAR 2020January 27, 2020By Patrice Chollet NTA will attain 40 years of experience in this new year. 40 years which have witnessed outstanding changes in music and line dancing, and yet NTA is leading the way still and acts as our personal coach to developing our technique and esthetics while dancing. Thanks to all the people who care for NTA and make it thrive, starting with Kelly, our President, whose contribution to our craft is second to none, Karin from the business office, our directors from many zones and countries who are volunteering to promote the NTA spirit and image and/or train dancers all year long. Thanks to all dancers and instructors who have placed their trust in our training programs and appreciate all our efforts. We love to reach out to each and every one, through face to face conversations, or by way of interactions on the NTA FB page (www.facebook.com/NTADance/) or the NTA website (www.ntadance.com). I am very happy to announce that, starting soon, we are going to publish and make widely available on the website selected articles from recent newsletters and the NTA archive so that people realize the wealth of information that is being produced on a continuous basis. If you have ideas on how to make our communication tools better, do not hesitate to contact me (patrice.nta@gmail.com). I‘ll be thrilled to hear from you. Thanks for your continued support. Have a nice year of happy dancing everywhere!... SEASON’S GREETINGSNovember 28, 2019From NTA Its HERE, finally the 2019 NTA Terminology Book. Get yours today!! We are happy to announce the revised terminology Booklet is completed. If you liked the old one you will love the new revised version. It has 80 pages of old and new terms with several pages of basic music information and some charts on the 8 basic couple dances which includes rhythm calls, counts and timings and weight changes. We have a Facebook Page! https://www.facebook.com/NTADance/ If you would like to submit photos of events, or other, please email them over to Karin. Please visit the page and Like it, so you can get new alerts when items are posted. Please make sure to inform us of any address/email changes, so we can update the database. You can do so by emailing Karin directly. Also, if you did not receive your membership cards or website access email (for new members) please contact: Karin at karin.kilgus@gmail.com. Happy Dancin’ NTA... The Hemispheres of the BrainNovember 27, 2019I have been dancing since a very young age and teaching many forms of dance since my teens. I also participated in several sports as an instructor…I found this material in an old snow skiing manual. I thought it was interesting enough that you might enjoy it also. It pertains to issues that are in all forms of dance and sports. George Prince says in an article of ―Training Magazine‖: ―I believe that we all come into this world able to use both hemispheres of the brain comfortably and effortlessly. Because of the ease of operation that nature engineered and intended, we learn and grow in childhood at phenomenal rates. We learn with such incredible skill that, without anyone telling us directly, we somehow become hemisphere, being in charge of the operation, becomes expert at shutting down right hemisphere action. By the time we become older, rate of learning slows down condiserably; by age 15 or so, we effectively shut down and are behaving like ‗normal grown up.‘ This is to say that we are usiing somewhere between 5-20% of our potential. Maslov‘s model indicates that we perform somewhere between 40 and 50% of our full potential. Though figures of how persons make use of their potential don‘t always agree, they all agree that we at any given time perform at less than our potential. The frightening realization for athletes is that movement is entirely a function of right brain hemisphere and that portion of our cortex harboring the automated performance reflexes. Yet instucitonal practices largely ignore this knovledge and are addressing the left brain hemisphere when training movement!‖ Left Hemisphere (Controls right side of the body) Right Hemisphere (Controls left side of the body ) Translations Holistic Grasping Logical/Analytical/Srmantic/Precise Sound/Music Reading/Writing/Counting Wholesness -Connectedness Precision Hologrpahic/Perception/ Recoginition/Like and Dislike/ Non Linearity Right/Wrong Yes/No Black/White Ambiguity – Assocation Temporal Ordering Many Meanings/Spontaneity/ Simultaneity Sequence Intuition... News FlashJan, Feb, Mar NewsletterYour 2021 January, February, March Newsletter is now online in the Members Area! Enjoy!!...
