Conversation between an over enthusiastic parent and a classical dance teacher:
Parent: Is this Miss XYZ?
Teacher: Yes…may I know who this is?
Parent: I heard that you teach dance to young kids (Name??). My daughter is just 5 years old but has won a lot of dance competitions till now (a child prodigy in the making!!). I wanted to enroll her in a “good” dance academy. You see it is very necessary to train them at a young age in good hands. Btw…what all do you teach in your classes?
(Phew! She surely said all that at one go. A few lines more and she could have started teaching herself)
Teacher (after a small pause): Ok.Good to hear about your daughter. We have various kinds of dances taught at our academy. You will have to bring her prior to the admission so that we can say how good she is and accordingly start with the course. We also have….
Parent (jumps right in between): Ohh you do not have to worry about that at all. My Tina is just too good. The other day she went for an inter-school dance competition and the judge there was simply bowled over. She even said that Tina had all the makings of a “great” dancer. Do you start the classes immediately and if so how many days a week are the classes conducted and when? What are the fees that you charge for beginners? Is there any option….
Teacher (tries hard to speak): Mrs….uhhh…madam…could you please tell me your name and also the age of your daughter? You see, we have….
Parent (resumes her speed and breath): Is there any option to directly join the higher levels if the child is better than her peers? You see my Tina has far better grasping power and moves than most of her friends….so it would be wrong if she is kept at a junior level.
Teacher (exasperated by now): Madam (asking her name is useless by now)….any student joining the academy has to pass through all the introductory levels to create a firm base slowly but steadily. The promotion to the next level solely depends on the expertise that your daughter shows. We have exams for each level to determine the knowledge of the student both theoretically and practically….hence…
Parent: Ohh you don’t worry teacher she will take care of all that. Btw…the most important part is how often do you send your students to all the TV dance shows? Which all shows do you have collaboration with? What kind of Western/Bollywood dances do you teach for these shows? Any “special” training….
Teacher (Irritated): Madam…am to sorry to interrupt, but before we move on I need to clarify few stuff. Firstly, our academy teaches only Indian classical dances. We neither teach any Western/Bollywood dances nor do we train/send students especially for any of the reality shows. We don’t have any collaboration with any of those shows. However the student is free to personally attend them and….
Parent (Shell-shocked): What??? You do not teach Western? You do not send them to reality shows? You teach just classical dance and nothing else? This is too limited….I mean how do you expect my Tina to win those competitions learning classical dances for years together. We heard a lot about you but if you do not send to reality shows, it will limit my Tina’s talent a lot. Btw…could you tell me who takes the Western dance classes? Also…
Teacher (totally frustrated by now): Listen Madam, I think you have got the wrong info. However, let me clarify a few misconceptions for you….learning classical dance will not harm you daughter, infact it will expand her dancing abilities. It will take time to master classical art as compared to western/bollywood dances; but it will make her versatile to other dance forms as well. If it is her dance you are concerned about then classical would be the best option, however if it is just about winning all those frivolous dance shows, you are most welcome to seek elsewhere. You Tina will only benefit by learning classical dance and….
Parent: Thank you Teacher. We will see what to do regarding the class. Thanks for the info.
Hangs up before the teacher could even finish off her sentence leaving the teacher totally frustrated with the whole experience. No this single call did not blow off her fuse…it is the growing trend that disturbed her. Every week, she would get a couple of similar calls and all of them ended with an abrupt “Thank you Teacher”. Brushing it off as yet another mis-guided parent experience, she heads off to her class….
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When I thought of this topic, I had loads of factual stuff to describe the comparison. But then the conversation above sounded a much stronger option than blabbering loads of jargins and opinions.It may sound similar to most of you in regards to the current scenario in our society. I have myself heard such conversations and it leaves me totally perturbed as to how people have developed this “Fast-food” attitude to other art forms as well.
At the cost of sounding “Miss Preachy”, I still feel it is our responsibility and duty to introduce our Gen-Next to our culture and history. As much as they should be in line with the modernism around them, so should be they deeply rooted to their culture. I am not averse to the reality shows; they surely help kids to become more confident right from a young age. However, things go messy when parents focus more on winning them rather than give their kids a solid foundation. Teach them the basics, they will automatically learn new languages 
Hope that this post helps making even a tiny difference to the current scenario….
Ciao,
A.M
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