In this last post in our series about Core Values, we are talking about being a positive role model. This is something we don’t take lightly at Liberty Dance Center. We feel it’s an honor to be a part of your child’s life and take that very seriously.
Liberty Dance Center has been in business for 12 years now. The best part of that is that now nearly half of our teaching staff are former LDC dancers. What’s great is that they grew up with us and know our culture and values better than anyone! I have always had the belief that you “hire for personality and can train for skill.” While all of our teachers are beyond talented and skilled, the special sauce of our company is that we all have the same beliefs when it comes to our responsibility as teachers.
What exactly is a role model? Merriam-Webster defines it as: a person whose behavior in a particular role is imitated by others.
We discuss this regularly at our staff meetings, and it’s interjected throughout many of our internal messaging. We do MORE than just teach these kids to dance. They are watching us and in some cases, spending more time with us each week that they are their own parents. They are observing how hard we work. They see how we treat others. They notice when we do random acts of kindness or encourage others.
We know this and make sure that we are always leading by example. We are also human and so when we mess up, we use that as a teaching moment. At Liberty Dance Center, we aim to be as real as we can. The last thing we want is for them to think we are invincible or “perfect.” For us, a positive role model is someone that can take feedback, challenges themselves, and makes mistakes but learns from them. It’s someone that picks themselves up after a setback. And it’s someone that looks to find the good in the world.
We are also a Youth Protection Advocates in Dance certified studio. That means that we have gone through hours of intense training and education to learn how to be the best we can for our students and to learn how to keep them happy, healthy, and safe in dance. We also teach these lessons to our assistant teachers and let them know that they have many little eyes on them too. Our assistants are chosen because we feel they are positive role models. We always tell them that “you never know who you will run into around town.” We feel it helps make sure they stay on the right track as well.
At Liberty Dance Center, we understand our responsibility and are honored that we get the opportunity to work with so many kids in our community. I want to end this blog with a quote that is on our culture wall that sums this core value of being a positive role model up perfectly. It’s from my mentor, Misty Lown. “We don’t teach kids to make great dancers. We teach dance to make great kids.”
