KAUAI, HAWAII - The scenery of Hawaii had competition from January 20-24th in 2016. With the Arthur Murray Hularama in town, the sights and sounds of dance progress made for an incredible atmosphere.
For Arthur Murray Hayward, they left with a large trophy-shaped token of that progress.
The final award, on the final night at the Hularama, went to Arthur Murray Hayward: 1st Place Top Studio. Although Arthur Murray Hayward won the award, it was a combined effort by the students participating, the staff in attendance, and the remainder of the team that helped support "Team Hularama" for this trip.
This Dance-O-Rama®, the collective Arthur Murray Live teams in participated utilized an approach referred to as: Team Teaching. This is nothing new or revolutionary, but this concept can be filed in the category of "Great Idea but not frequently used". Team Teaching involves students learning from, and dancing with, a variety of teachers. This results in fewer bad habits, a more well rounded approach to learning style and technique, and a departure from the normal comfort zone.
Learning to dance, socially or for competition, requires the ability to adapt to your partner and environment. That's tough to do if you're limiting yourself to one teacher.
The feedback from the students trying this method validated the risk in trying it. With the Hularama as the testing ground, there were students from a variety of studios dancing with a variety of teachers. This created a wider audience vested in each student's performance, and can easily explain how this collection of studios came back with even stronger bonds to each other.
It had been nine years since Arthur Murray Hayward won the top studio award. Many of the staff on the winning team in 2007 have moved into new schools, with new roles, and responsibilities. In 2007, there wasn't a Livermore, Walnut Creek, Fremont, San Francisco, or Millbrae location. ArthurMurrayLive.com hadn't launched yet, and Hayward was the only school in the East Bay.
So this win, for this team, was extra special.