During my thirty years at Berkeley, I have learned a great deal about teaching, both in classes and in extracurricular activities co-sponsored with students: dance clubs, workshops, the Bicentennial Celebration, and Dance Showcases.

I brought to my profession, along with my training as a dancer, my enthusiasm for dance and music, a commitment to humor, and a belief in the power of dance to transform students into happier, more confident, more cultivated, more alive and sensitive people. My profession taught me to analyze movement, and I use this knowledge to help students learn quickly and easily. However, I know that to arrive at perfection, much repetition is needed; so I build a great deal of practice into each lesson. I have developed much patience and a treasury of compassion, because even the least gifted deserve to learn how to dance.

My focus as a teacher has always been to know my students and recognize their worth. I am in awe of our young people and want to help them to the best of my ability. I empathize with the obstacles that block their fullest development: uncertainty, shyness, frustration, confusion, and the stress of competition.

My classes are not required; therefore students enroll in them willingly. In the sixties and seventies, they came to study international folk dance. This generation comes to learn American-style social or ballroom dance. Students also embrace music and dance of past generations that currently are in revival, expressing their unique American spirit. As an interpreter of various folk dance styles from the Balkans, Central and Western Europe, and American ballroom, I talk about the historical and cultural context in which each dance developed to help students connect to the heritage of dance, to each other, and to their other cultural roots.

I wear another hat for my hatha yoga classes. In these classes my exuberant social-dance personality is transformed into a quieter, more serene identity. My students work carefully toward flexibility of the body, quieting of the mind, and letting go of stress through breathing and relaxation. Depending on the course then, my teaching methods vary and evolve, but the goal is the same: that of nurturing excellence.

I love what I teach and love transmitting it with as much humor as I can muster. I approach each course with urgency and passion, teaching as if this were the only opportunity that students will have to be together to dance with their classmates in Berkeley's special environment. As a teacher, I try to exemplify the qualities I seek to instill in my studentsßhealth, cheer, self-esteem, respect, compassion, and an awareness of the light in others.

Revised: 1993