My approach

Through my teaching, I aim to help break down our preconceptions of physical limitations and encourage the discovery of our potential breadth and power of expression. We allow the goal of sensitization to illuminate “dark” or “blind” spots of our physicality, inciting different or new enthusiasm to move, leading to a more full-bodied power and coordination. Supporting the individual’s sense of self-ownership, self-leadership and agency go hand-in-hand with building skill (and potentially virtuosity). As my own beloved teachers believed, we are humans first, dancers second. We can approach our work with rigor and care at the same time. This framing best sets us up for happiness, health, resilience, longevity and sustainability in our relationship to this art form. 

My approach is trauma-aware, grounded in established human development and motor learning principles, informed by my studies in mental health counseling, and my formal and informal pedagogical studies and mentorship under Donna Krasnow, Andra and Ernesta Corvino, Irene Dowd and Roni Mahler. Additionally, it is shaped by my experience (over two decades-worth) working as a mostly solo dance artist, responsible for much of my own training, trouble-shooting, guidance/leadership, and navigation within my own body as well as within the external systems in which I have worked (collaborative teams, companies, institutions, communities and the industry as a whole).

Specialties

Techniques and forms:

  • modern (Limón) technique

  • ballet (including pointe work)

  • creative dance

  • improvisation

  • composition/choreography

  • conditioning (I am a certified C-I Training™ instructor)

  • Argentine tango

Age range:

Age 3 and up

Locations:

  • NYC/Brooklyn (almost always)

  • Zoom/remote

  • New Jersey (often)

  • Toronto and surrounding regions including Mississauga/Milton/Guelph (often)

  • elsewhere, upon invitation and pending availability (sporadically)

Private Coaching

Via isolated or ongoing sessions, I enjoy working with dancers towards a variety of goals and contexts including:

  • audition preparation (fine-tuning technique and/or creating and rehearsing audition solos)

  • new to dance (or a particular technique or dancing in a new school etc) and wanting support in mounting the learning curve

  • overcoming specific and perhaps persistent technical hurdles

  • returning to dance after injury or time off

  • filling in technical gaps - no teacher or institution offers everything. If I can be a useful resource to supplement what is missing or lacking in a dancer’s regular training, I’m happy to help.

  • demystifying and re-patterning - sometimes the original information we are given is incorrect, inaccurate or incomplete, and it is useful to have support and guidance in finding and integrating the new information or new approach.

  • working with psychological/emotional hurdles or barriers. Dance can be a tough field and industry, haunted by intergenerational trauma (teachers, choreographers and directors passing their burdens onto their students and dancers), or just poor pedagogy. It is my great joy to help dancers connect or reconnect to the pleasure, excitement, curiosity and satisfaction that dance can offer.

  • mentoring choreographers - this includes choreographers of all ages. It is my observation that children around age six or seven, begin to conceive of images and ideas of their own and that this could be an ideal age for choreographic exploration to begin. I believe that if there were more opportunities to turn our dance imaginings into reality from a younger age, the innovation within our art form (and therefore the relevance and sustainability of it) would exponentially increase.

Rates: $90/hour (contact me directly for sliding scale) + studio rental ($0-$20/hour typically, depending on what is available)

Courses & Residencies

I currently teach with Together in Dance in elementary schools in NYC and with New Jersey Dance Theatre Ensemble until the end of this season.

Open classes

No open (drop in) classes currently scheduled.

TEACHING HISTORY and PRESENT

BELINDA MCGUIRE has taught and choreographed as a guest artist for Harvard, École de Danse Contemporaine de Montréal, The Juilliard School, The Limón Institute, Marymount Manhattan College, Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, State University of New York at Purchase, Canada’s National Ballet School, New Jersey Dance Theater Ensemble, Brooklyn Ballet, and Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre, among others. Specializing in Limón technique, but also adept at teaching classes in improvisation, ballet and creative dance (ie. for really young ones!), she has extensive experience teaching a range of ages (3 years and up) and experience (via open community class, public school outreach programs, pre-professional conservatory programs, professional open class). The most satisfying scenario is when teaching, performance and creation can happen in tandem. From Belinda’s point of view, as teacher, performer, creator, these are just three approaches to the same goal, and by leveraging and coordinating their implementation, more is yielded and illuminated, and the impression is longer-lasting.

 

“She is a gracious and witty dance educator. She possesses a profound awareness of the body/mindconnection and offers wonderful imagery to enrich and deepen students’ embodiments. Her class proved to have a lasting effect as some students still talk about her imagistic references.”

Jennifer L. Conley, Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance, Doctoral Candidate, Temple University Martha Graham Regisseur

 

“She is positive, hugely inspired and possesses extraordinary energy beyond the professional standard. She has incredible musicality, and a powerfully strong and expressive body. She is unique by every standard and driven with her desire to dance and create dance. Beyond that she has served as a role model for all of our dancers in our pre-professional training programs with her ability indance, her voracious appetite to move and generosity in sharing her knowledge with others.”

Nancy Turano, Artistic Director, New Jersey Dance Theatre Ensemble & Faculty, Alvin Ailey School & Ailey Fordham BFA Program

REMOTE TEACHING