10 Tips on teaching belly dance
Generally speaking, teaching belly dance is not very different from teaching other types of dance. Below I list just a few tips for belly dance teachers.
1. Warm up and cool down - provide warm up at the beginning of each session and cool down at the end. Warming up, at the beginning of a dance class, not only is important to avoid injuries, but also prepares the students mentally. By warming up your students will start leaving their daily worries behind and get in the mood for dancing. For a belly dance class, you can include dance movements that remind of belly dance moves, such as hip circles o stretching the hips from side to side. Cooling down and stretching at the end of the dance class is equally important to avoid injuries.
2. Organise the space wisely – the way you use space in a dance class reflects the
mood you want to give to your class. For example, you may want your students to stand in a circle
for an inclusive atmosphere while warming up, or improvising some belly dance moves. For choreographies,
it is better for the students to stand in rows in 
front of you. However, if there are many students, every now and then make the rows that are in front go to the back and vice versa, so that everybody can see you.
3. If you are teaching a travelling step, you may want to make the students move diagonally from one corner of the room to another, in small groups of, for example 4, at a time so that everyone has enough space to move properly.
4. Give structure to your belly dance class. For example: start with warming up, then move on to do some revision of old moves, then introduce new movements, then do some practice (drills, choreography or improvisation) and then cool down.
5. Use different types of stimuli for explaining new belly dance moves. Many educators agree that people learn mainly through three different types of stimuli: visual, audio and kinaesthetic (through movement and body perception). Every person has one or more favourite channel of learning and, by using all stimuli, you will be able to reach more people. For example, you can show the movement, explain it out loud or, if a student is mainly kinaesthetic, she can touch the part of your body that is moving.
6. Listen to your students and pay attention to their expressions.
7. Project your voice properly, especially in big classes, so that every student can hear you.
8. Even if you love dancing, during a class do not forget that your main aim is to teach. So, if you are teaching, do not just starting dancing away without caring if the students are following, but pay attention to them and explain clearly what they are supposed to do.
9. Teach a piece of choreography. Even though the beauty of belly dancing is ultimately being able to improvise, learning a piece of choreography will help your students understand how to put the movements together in a sequence that looks nice.
10. Be aware that every student may learn at different speeds, so make sure you give them more than one options (more difficult and easier) for movements you want them to perform. In this way, the ones who learn quicker will not get bored, while the others will not struggle.
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