How to Start the Semester Strong as a New Professor

The first semester teaching in a university dance program brings new challenges: syllabi to write, office hours to hold, students with questions that extend beyond technique. For educators used to a private studio setting, stepping into higher education builds on familiar skills while introducing new facets to how dance is taught, discussed, and contextualized.

“When you’re teaching in higher ed, you, as the professor, are responsible for shaping the culture you want to create,” says adjunct professor Francesca Dominguez. Professors are expected to teach movement, and also to support students in their academic and creative development. “Beyond teaching technique, your job now includes cultivating artists who can articulate learning outcomes,” says adjunct professor Maddie Kurtz Marcadis.

To help first-time faculty members start the semester strong, three professors share their best practices for creating a syllabus, grading effectively, and designing meaningful assignments.

Starting Strong

When Alicia Graf Mack was the director of the dance division at The Juilliard School, she “held a beautiful first-day meeting with me and another new dance faculty member who was joining that same semester,” says Dominguez, who has taught Countertechnique at Juilliard, Barnard College, Marymount Manhattan College, and Hunter College. In that meeting, Graf Mack gave an overview of the school’s values and priorities, including community-based practices like being mindful of pronoun usage.­ Dominguez­ also found it helpful to speak with colleagues who had previously taught her students. “Each cohort has a dynamic,” she says. “One group might want to be pushed and challenged with new physical material, while another may be ‘feelers’ and want to talk about the sensation and experience.”

Many schools provide professors with a syllabus, assignments, and learning outcomes before the semester begins. “I don’t think I’ve ever started from scratch,” says Marcadis, who has taught at schools including the University of Tampa, University of South Florida, and Florida State University. If these are not provided, she recommends asking the department head or past professors for syllabi to learn established strategies. “There’s almost always standardized syllabus language for the university and the department,” she adds. Marcadis also advises asking for clarity on rubrics, office hours, benefits, required meetings, and pay.

Novice Nervousness

Starting a new semester in higher education can be nerve-inducing, especially for early-career teachers. When she feels intimidated, Dominguez focuses on being clear, present, kind, and humorous, all of which she considers central to her teaching practice. She emphasizes the importance of building trust over time and staying flexible with lesson plans. “Stop and make sure you’re teaching the class in front of you, not the class in your head,” says Dominguez. “What does this group need? How do I need to shift to keep their attention or to motivate and excite them?”

For Marcadis, starting the semester with a clear and formal tone helps create a focused learning environment. She reads through the syllabus aloud and outlines expectations, an approach that she’s found to be especially helpful in general education classes, where students may be less familiar with dance etiquette.

Assignments and Grading

Because performance in many college dance classes can’t be evaluated by right and wrong answers, it’s important to design assignments and grading guidelines that are both clear and achievable. For Nancy Dobbs Owen, an assistant professor at Southern Utah University who has also taught at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, grading is centered around the effort students demonstrate. “They’re graded not on their skill level, but on their retention and professionalism, on the way they approach the work,” she says.

Dominguez has found that holding one-on-one evaluations around midterms helps students understand their current grade, raise any concerns, and feel more comfortable approaching­ her throughout the semester. Her midterm rubrics also include work ethic, as well as categories such as clarity of spatial pathways, group awareness and use of focus, and the ability to apply tools and feedback. “I’m very much a process-based grader, but it has to be really clearly defined for it to work,” she says. “It’s important to explain why we’re doing­ the exercise and how each thing connects to skill building or performance practice.” Marcadis uses specific language about what the highest number of points looks like for each rubric category: for example, in a beginning jazz class, what neutral spine looks like for dynamic alignment.

“The most successful [assignment] I’ve implemented into my classes is a weekly journal,” says Dobbs Owen, who gives students prompts to help them reflect on what went well in class, what didn’t, and what corrections were helpful. Another favorite assignment is having students adapt a variation or combination to reflect their individual style or reshape it to be more culturally sensitive. Students complete the project by creating short films of their piece, which Dobbs Owen says increases their skill set and “helps them take ownership of the art form that some feel they’re not good at.” This type of approach can build technique while also helping a broader range of college students gain confidence and a connection to their work.

Clarifying Expectations

While a course syllabus will have requirements set by the school or department—such as course objectives, calendar, and grading rubrics—Francesca Dominguez, Maddie Kurtz Marcadis, and Nancy Dobbs Owen have also found it helpful to include:

• Dress code. Dobbs Owen shares links for dancewear, including undergarments.
• Lateness, absence, and observation policies
• Description of what active participation looks like (i.e., not being on a phone in class)
• Communication expectations. Marcadis’ go-to: “You can contact me anytime, but I will not respond after business hours. Please allow 48 hours for a response on the weekends.”
• Consent practices. In Dobbs Owen’s syllabi: “My class is consent-based. You will never be touched without being asked. You can always say no. You don’t have to do so publicly.”
• Policy about the use of AI in writing