Teacher as Performer

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Last night I attended a fantastic concert given by Zakir Hussain and Niladri Kumar. Later I tried to put a finger on what made the performance so electrifying. It wasn't just that these two are amazing virtuosi and very exciting to watch. It was their ability to connect to the audience and to each other that gave them the ability almost to stop time.  This is not always the case -  I have gone to see world famous jazz musicians whose performances left me cold. Sometimes it seemed the musicians were showing technical expertise but not connecting with the audience. Other times I sensed a negative, competitive edge among the players.

I can't count the number of times I've heard Maruyama Sensei talk about how important it is for an aikido teacher to be exciting, captivating, fascinating. A critique he sometimes makes of students' demonstrations and tests is that they're not interesting to watch. He chooses his ukes (attackers) not just by how strong, fast, flexible they are but how exciting they are for those who observe: do they look fierce, dangerous, frightening?

It is said that those who can't do, teach. This has not been my experience: I've had many great teachers who were also fantastic practitioners. However, great teachers also work on their teaching itself: honing and molding what they will say, how they will say it, what metaphors and examples they'll use, and, if the teaching has a physical component, how they will best convey this to their students. Most importantly, the greatest teachers understand that there's a performance component to what they do: they must engage with their students in order for learning to take place.

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