Author: maldonm

Beginners, Classes, Current Classes, Intermediate, Irish Sean-nós Dance

Fridays 6:30pm Irish Set Dance | PCC

maldonm

overview

PCC Friday Set Dancing Cork and Kerry

Student guide  |  Fridays, September 25–October 16, 2026  |  6:30–8:20 PM

Over four Fridays, we will explore three sets from Cork and Kerry, then meet at the Third Friday Céilí to dance with live music. We will learn a few movements, put them into dances, and review familiar moves as they appear again. Come to enjoy the dancing. There is no need to study or practice between classes. Also each week if you would like to dance the set of the week to live music we will be dancing it at Steeplejack on Hawthornes Tuesdays at 6:30pm.

We will learn the figures that fit our time and our group. The lists below are references for anyone who wants to look back or explore further; you do not have to memorize them.

On each weekly page you will find video references and under the resource page you will find video and music playlists as well as more set dancing resouces.

Missing a class or forgetting a move is no problem. We will review as we dance. I have your back!

week 1

Week 1 — September 25 – Televara Set

County Kerry · We began with the polka step, moving in place and around the set, then practiced the swing, house around, and square the house. We found our places in the set and brought those movements into Televara. The set includes jigs, slides, and a reel.

Televara movement guide

The movements below listed in the order they appear in the dance. A move is listed when it first appears, so recurring moves are not repeated.

Figure 1  The Double Chain

week 2

Week 1 — October 2 – Televara Set

Figure 2  Advance and Half House

  • Slide towards each other and back, then half house

Figure 3  Frog in the Middle

  • Dance in and swing while the other dancers circle

Figure 5  Face the Hob

  • Couples house and square into a line
  • Cast off
  • Lead back up the middle and around to the next place

week 3

Week 3 — October 9 – Borlin Set

From County Cork

Instructions

This week we’ll build on the polka step and partner movements from our first class, introducing Borlin’s quarterhouse and bringing the skills into the set.

6:30–7:10 — Skills

6:30–6:40 · Warm-up and review

Find the rhythm with the polka step, dancing in place and traveling. Briefly revisit the swing, house around, square the house, and home positions as needed.

6:40–6:55 · Quarterhouse

Introducing the quarterhouse: jump kick. Practice slowly with a partner, then try it with music. Offer a gentler heel-drop option for the jump.

6:55–7:10 · Movements for the first figure

Practice the crossed-hand lead around and follows chain. Bring the movements into half sets or full sets, reviewing familiar skills where they occur.

7:10–8:20 — Dance the Borlin Valley Polka Set

Begin with Figure 1 — Follows Chain, walking through the movements and then dancing with music.

Continue one figure at a time as the group is ready:

  • Figure 2 — Two Squares
  • Figure 3 — Advance and Retire
  • Figure 4 — Four Squares, danced to slide music, if time allows.

The hornpipe figure is optional.

If there is time: Revisit a familiar figure from the Televara Set.

Dance reference: https://setdanceteacher.ie/borlin.htm

https://setdanceteacher.ie/BORLIN.HTM

week 4

Week 4 – Field Trip

Waverly United Church, 3300 SE Woodward, Porltand, Or. No expeirence needed.

7-10pm

Dance List

  • Claddagh
  • Borlin (polkas slides)
  • Merchant
  • Televera (Jigs)
  • Antrim Square

resources

Resources

Places to dance Sets in Portland

Beginners, Classes, Current Classes, Intermediate, Irish Sean-nós Dance

Wednesdays Sean-nós Dance | Beginners & Intermediates

maldonm

overview

Hello dancers,

For the next 8 Wednesday evenings

week 1

Week 1 — You Can Dance

1. Start Here: You Can Dance

The goal of this course is not to collect as many steps as possible.

The goal is to be able to dance.

Some of my favorite dancers have only a handful of steps. What makes their dancing compelling is not how many steps they know. It is how they use what they have, how they listen, and how they play with the music.

This week we begin with three pieces of vocabulary: 3 Shuffles, 2 Shuffles, and 4 Heels. 

Intermediates you will have grapevine step & triplets.

These are building blocks, not a routine you have to reproduce.

One movement is enough to begin. A handful of movements can make a lot of dancing.

And one step is enough to begin.

Intermedates

week 2

Week 2 — Practice Counts

Practice does not have to be long, formal, or happen on a dance floor. Thirty seconds counts. One small piece counts. Coming back to it counts.

This week, beginners learn Cross Step and revisit 3 Shuffles, 2 Shuffles, and 4 Heels. Intermediates learn a cross step with extra beats and build on Grapevine and triplets, exploring direction, both sides, and connections to familiar movements.

Our focus is on making the movements more comfortable and finding our way from one to another.

Learn a Little Chunk

I once found myself practicing a tiny piece of a dance step in the cheese aisle at the grocery store. It helped change the way I thought about practice.

You can practice while the kettle boils, while waiting for something, or during a little pause in your day. You don’t always need music or a whole step.

Read the cheese-aisle story.

This week we’ll use a word I say often: woodshed.

To woodshed something means to take out one small piece, slow it down, repeat it, listen to it, and then put it back into the larger movement.

Where Is Your Weight?

When something feels tangled, ask:

Where is my weight? Where does it need to be?

  • Step: If you step it alows you to change your weight from one foot to the other.
  • Tap: If you tap it alows you to make a sound while keeping your weight the same.

Notice which foot is available for the next movement. Sometimes changing a step to a tap—or a tap to a step—opens up a connection.

Make the weight change obvious at first. You can make it smaller as it becomes familiar.

The Transition Game

Choose two movements. Dance the first into the second, then reverse the order.

For beginners, try Cross Step and one movement from Week 1. Intermediates can try Grapevine and something already in their feet.

If the connection feels sticky, practice just the end of the first movement and the beginning of the second. Then put them back together and try with music.

These are experiments. You don’t have to memorize a particular sequence.

Home base and Keep Dancing

Choose one comfortable movement as your Home Base. This is the step that is easies for you and that you can come back between playing with these steps. My dance teacher Mick calles this is banner step.

Put on a jig. Begin with your home base step and bring in another movement when you’re ready.

If you get lost, return to home base. Listen. Choose again.

You don’t have to use everything you know every time you dance.

Your Practice Menu

Choose one thing that helps today:

  • Practice one small piece for 30 seconds.
  • Revisit Cross Step or Grapevine.
  • Connect two movements.
  • Check your weight at a sticky connection or change weight in a step.
  • Listen to your feet without music.
  • Put on a jig and dance.

This is a menu, not a checklist.

What felt more comfortable this week? Where could a tiny moment of practice fit into your day?

practice

Music

Practic Music – Google Drive Folder – download music

Videos

All The steps

resources

Resources

Classes, Current Classes

Tuesdays 10am Introduction to Irish Dance Traditions | PCC

maldonm

overview

week 1

Sean-nós Dance: Connemara Step

Connemara Step with Music

Set Dancing: Inis Oirr

Instructions

week 2

Steps: 3’s & 7’s and Jig step

Céilí Dance: Harvest Time Jig

  • Advance & Retire
  • Side Step to the right with 7’s
  • Right hand star and left hand back
  • side step to the left and back
  • left hand star and back
  • jig step on the right and tunr
  • jig step on the left and turn

Blog

Make This the Week You Begin

maldonm

When I attended my first céilí, I did not know what I was doing.

I went in the wrong direction. I couldn’t keep track of the patterns. I counted everything in threes and sevens. I even asked:

“If the music is in eights, why are we counting in threes and sevens?”

But I danced anyway.

That doesn’t mean I wasn’t nervous, anxious or scared. I was.

But I didn’t wait until I understood it all. I learned by joining in, listening to the music, making mistakes and coming back.

As an adult learner, I often think I need to know more before I begin. As a teacher, I know that you don’t need to know anything before you begin.

But the céilí wasn’t where my dancing began.

I began in a class.

The class felt less intimidating than the céilí. There was a teacher to explain what we were doing, time to repeat the movements and a smaller group where I could slowly get to know people.

The class gave me a way into the larger dancing community. It helped me feel more comfortable and gave me the confidence to keep showing up—even when I was nervous.

The teacher had my back.

Fall is my favorite time of year. It is the beginning of something new—and, since I was 15 years old, it has marked the beginning of the dancing season.

The monthly dances started up again, filled with wonderful music and energy. In fact, the céilí last Friday felt like the dances from years ago. A large part of that was the 20 or so Lewis & Clark students who joined us for a field trip.

As we all danced together, I thought back to my own early days. At 15, I thought the college students at the céilí were so much older than I was. I was excited to dance with them, but I was also shy and intimidated.

Dancing—and having a community where I could connect with people—helped me move through that shyness. Before long, I was out on the floor dancing with them.

Last Friday, one week away from turning 51, those Lewis & Clark students looked so young to me. I was excited to dance with them and hoped that someone on that floor might catch the dancing and music bug, just as I did all those years ago.

Fall also marks the beginning of the weekly class season, and this week kicks off the season. There is something for everyone—in person, online and in different Portland neighborhoods.

You don’t need to arrive at a beginning class already knowing how to dance.

You don’t need natural rhythm, special shoes or the confidence to get everything right.

You only need enough curiosity to begin.

Knowing comes later. Confidence comes later. First, you simply step onto the floor.

Fall 2026 classes begin this week, and you are invited to join us:

◈ Tuesday: Introduction to Irish Dance Traditions at PCC Rock Creek

◈ Wednesday: Online Beginning Sean-nós

◈ Wednesday: Online Intermediate Sean-nós

◈ Wednesday: In-Person Beginning Sean-nós

◈ Friday: Irish Set Dancing—Cork & Kerry at PCC Southeast

If you have been waiting until you feel more prepared, this is your invitation to come exactly as you are. We will begin at the beginning and build from there, one step at a time.

No one will be turned away from my classes for lack of funds.

When I was learning, I volunteered and was given many opportunities to dance and participate when I could not afford them. I am more than happy to offer that same opportunity to you.

If you want to dance but the cost is a barrier, please reach out to me. We will remove that barrier together.

Make this the week you begin your dance journey.

Come exactly as you are.

There is a place for you in the dance. We are ready to welcome you, take your hand and step onto the floor together.

This Week

◈ Tuesday, Sep 22, 2026 — Introduction to Irish Dance Traditions

PCC Rock Creek • 10:00–11:00 AM

Explore set dancing, céilí dances, kitchen dances, sean-nós and old-style step dancing. All levels are welcome.

Dances:

Old-style step dance

Céilí dances: Harvest, Siege of Carrick, Siege of Ennis or Haymakers

Kitchen dance: Two-Hand Hornpipe

Sean-nós: reels

Set dance: Claddagh Set

Details and registration

◈ Tuesday, Sep 22, 2026 — Tuesday Céilí at Steeplejack

Steeplejack Union on Hawthorne • 6:30–8:30 PM

Music by Emily Dineen & Preston Howard Wilde

Calling: Maldon Meehan & Phil Meehan

No partner or previous experience needed. All dances will be taught and called.

Dances: Corofin Plain, Inis Oírr, Ballyvourney and Cashel

If time: Connemara

Details and registration

◈ Wednesday, Sep 23, 2026 — Fall Sean-nós Classes Begin

Beginning Sean-nós Jigs — Online

4:00–5:00 PM Pacific

Intermediate Sean-nós Jigs — Online

6:00–7:00 PM Pacific

Beginning Sean-nós Jigs — In Person, Portland

7:00–8:00 PM Pacific

Details and registration

◈ Friday, Sep 25, 2026 — Irish Set Dancing: Cork & Kerry

PCC Southeast • 6:30–8:20 PM

Learn foundational dances and techniques from the Cork and Kerry traditions. All levels are welcome, and no partner is required.

Dances: Televara Set, Borlin Set and West Kerry Set

Details and registration

◈ Saturday, Sep 26, 2026 — Amber & Maldon’s 51st Birthday Céilí

Together, we are 102!

6:00–10:00 PM

Columbia Ecovillage Condominium

4647 NE Killingsworth Street, Portland

Bring a dish to share, instruments, dance shoes, games and yourself.

Street parking only. Please do not use the guest parking inside the complex.

Looking Ahead ◈

◈ Tuesday, Sep 29, 2026 — Tuesday Céilí at Steeplejack

6:30–8:30 PM

Music by Alison Baker with Theresa Baker

Dances: Ballyvourney, Moycullen, Kilfenora Plain and Clare Lancers

If time: Connemara

Details

◈

Until next Monday…

Keep listening.

Keep dancing.

Keep the music alive.

Maldon

Uncategorized

The Step I Taught Wrong

maldonm

In 2008, I was teaching a mixed-level sean-nós dance class at the Milwaukee Summer School.

I divided the class into two groups.

I taught the intermediate and advanced dancers a step to work on, then walked over to help the beginners.

A little while later, I looked across the room.

The intermediate and advanced dancers were all standing still.

Not dancing.

Just standing there.

I knew something had gone wrong.

I wandered back over and began answering questions. As we worked through the step together, I realized what had happened.

I had started by teaching the step correctly.

Then, somewhere in the middle, I had gone in a completely different direction.

The dancers had already spent so much time working on it that I didn’t want to say, “Sorry! Forget all of that. Let’s start again.”

So I didn’t.

Instead, I kept going.

I worked with the mistake and found a way to finish the step from there.

What emerged was a combination of Rónán Regan’s lovely Aer Arann step and the unexpected direction I had taken in the middle. My mistake created offbeat rhythms and shifted the beat in interesting ways.

It became a lovely step of its own.

We named it the Milwaukee Step.

The following year, I showed it to Rónán. By then, it had changed so much that the original step was difficult to recognize.

It was a little like a game of telephone—only played with our feet.

I still dance and teach both steps today.

Mistakes don’t always need to be erased.

The mistake wasn’t the end of the step.

It became the beginning of a new one.

The next time your feet go somewhere unexpected, pause before correcting them.

Listen to what happened.

There might be something interesting inside it.

◈ ◈ ◈

I’d love to hear from you.

Have you ever made a mistake that became something better than what you originally planned?

Simply hit reply.

◈ ◈ ◈

Watch Rónán dance the Aer Arann step—the original step that took an unexpected turn in Milwaukee.

Watch the video

◈ ◈ ◈

This Week

◈ Online

Guided Dance Session

Wednesday, September 9
6:00 PM PT • 7:00 PM MT • 8:00 PM CT • 9:00 PM ET

Join me on Zoom for a guided old-style step and sean-nós dance session. I’ll provide the playlist, and we’ll dance together.

You can dance your own steps or try material you have learned in class. This is a safe place to practice your steps with music.

Keep ’er lit and dance full-out, enjoy the tunes and see what comes out of your feet, or dance one step for the entire session. It is entirely up to you.

This is a chance to bring your steps up to dance speed, play with the music, and see what happens.

Dance Session Playlist

Class information, recordings, and practice resources

Join the Zoom session

◈ Open Studio

Monday • Wednesday • Friday
8:30 AM PT • 9:30 AM MT • 10:30 AM CT • 11:30 AM ET • 4:30 PM Ireland

Come practice, ask questions, or simply enjoy practicing alongside others.

Open Studio details

Join Open Studio on Zoom

◈ Around Portland

Tuesday Steeplejack Céilí

Tuesday, September 8
6:30 PM

Music: Django Amerson
Callers: Maldon, Phil, and perhaps more

Dance List

  • Two-Hand Polka
  • Ballyvourney
  • Caledonian
  • Moycullen
  • Clare Plain

◈ Around Oregon

Second Friday Céilí

Friday, September 11
Salem, Oregon

Second Friday Céilí details

See all classes and events

◈ Looking Ahead

Fall classes begin the week of September 21

  • Tuesday, September 22 — Introduction to Irish Dance Traditions, Portland
  • Wednesday, September 23 — Beginning and Intermediate Sean-nós Dance, online
  • Friday, September 25 — Irish Set Dancing Fundamentals: Cork and Kerry, in person
  • Saturday, September 26 — Maldon and Amber’s 51st Birthday Céilí

◈ ◈ ◈

Until next Monday…

Keep listening.

Keep dancing.

Keep the music alive.

— Maldon

Uncategorized

I’m a One-Step Gal

maldonm

I’m a One-Step Gal

One of my favorite things to do with my students is take a workshop alongside them.

I tell them all the time that I am not a quick learner. I wasn’t naturally good at dancing when I started, and new material still doesn’t come naturally to me.

That can sound like lip service until they see me learning in a workshop.

I love looking around the room and seeing my students understand the steps faster than I do. Meanwhile, I’m the one thinking, “Could we go a little slower, please?”

Maybe some of them are thinking the same thing. Maybe everyone in the room is thinking it. Or is it just me?

I am a one-step gal.

At a certain point, I become full. My brain and body have taken in as much new information as they can hold. Adding another step will not help. I need to stop, take what I have, and spend some time with it.

That doesn’t always happen during the workshop. It happens later, when I can slow the step down and woodshed it.

I find the smallest part I can repeat. I work on that piece until it begins to feel comfortable. Then I add the next piece. Little by little, I put the step back together and give it time to settle into my body.

If I don’t spend that time with the material, I don’t remember it. It doesn’t become something I continue to use in my dancing.

The workshop introduces me to the step.

The woodshedding is where I actually learn it.

When I meet up with my students again, I may be the person who remembers the material—not because I learned it most quickly, but because I stayed with it long enough to make it my own.

It is easy to look around a workshop and think:

“Everyone is learning this faster than I am. I must not be good at it.”

But how quickly you pick something up does not determine how well you can eventually learn it.

Some of us need time. We need repetition, play, and space to let the movement settle in our bodies.

The people you admire are not necessarily people who understood everything immediately or possessed some special “natural talent.” They may simply be people who stayed with the material long enough to make it their own.

You don’t have to learn quickly.

Give yourself time to learn deeply.

This week, choose one small piece of a step—not the entire step—and spend five minutes with it.

Slow it down. Repeat it. Let yourself play with it without worrying about how it looks or how fast it is.

Five minutes may not feel like much, but it is enough time to begin building a relationship with that movement.

You don’t need to keep up with anyone else. You don’t need to collect every step or understand everything immediately.

Bring your curiosity, choose one step, and give yourself permission to learn it in your own time.

I’d love to hear from you.

When you see someone learning faster than you, what do you tell yourself?

Simply hit reply.

◈ ◈ ◈

This Week

◈ Online

Guided Dance Session

Wednesday, September 2
6:00 PM PT • 7:00 PM MT • 8:00 PM CT • 9:00 PM ET

Join me on Zoom for a guided old-style step and sean-nós dance session. I’ll provide the playlist, and we’ll dance together.

You can dance your own steps or try material you have learned in class. This is a safe place to practice your steps with music.

Keep ’er lit and dance full-out, enjoy the tunes and see what comes out of your feet, or dance one step for the entire session. It is entirely up to you.

This is a chance to bring your steps up to dance speed, play with the music, and see what happens.

Dance Session Playlist

Class information, recordings, and practice resources

Join the Zoom session

◈ Open Studio

Monday • Wednesday • Friday
8:30 AM PT • 9:30 AM MT • 10:30 AM CT • 11:30 AM ET • 4:30 PM Ireland

Come practice, ask questions, or simply enjoy practicing alongside others.

Open Studio details

Join Open Studio on Zoom

◈ Around Portland

Tuesday Steeplejack Céilí

Tuesday, September 1
6:30 PM

Music: Bob Soper
Callers: Maldon, Phil, Alison, and perhaps more

Dance List

  • Stack of Barley
  • Sliabh Luachra
  • Inis Oírr
  • Clare Lancers
  • Antrim Square

See all classes and events

◈ Looking Ahead

Fall classes begin the week of September 21

◈ ◈ ◈

Until next Monday…

Keep listening.

Keep dancing.

Keep the music alive.

— Maldon

Classes, Irish Sean-nós Dance, Past Classes

September 2026 | Guided Dance Sessions

maldonm

overview

Hello dancers,

For the next three Wednesday evenings, I’ll be leading a guided Keep Her Lit dance session:

September 2, 9, and 16
6:00 PM Pacific

Zoom link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84235671611?pwd=XQ3CucBEyzT016HK0O4Ts7zKNGiJ2p.1

These three sessions will lead us into our new eight-week fall course, beginning September 23.

I’d like to approach these weeks the way I prepare for a performance. We’ll revisit tunes, tracks, and steps from our library of past material, while also relying on what comes naturally to our own bodies and feet.

I’ll do a bit of both—dancing set steps and simply improvising or freestyling with the tunes.

Practice as much as you like between sessions, or just show up and dance what you’re able to. Come ready to have fun, keep the tunes and steps lit, and be kind to yourself.

See you Wednesday!

Maldon

week 1

Week 1: Accapella Jigs, Accapella Reels, Sunday Set Jigs, Sunday Set Reels

Guided Dance Session

Wednesday, September 2
6:00 PM PT • 7:00 PM MT • 8:00 PM CT • 9:00 PM ET

Join me on Zoom for a guided old-style step and sean-nós dance session. I’ll provide the playlist, and we’ll dance together.

You can dance your own steps or try material you have learned in class. This is a safe place to practice your steps with music.

Keep ’er lit and dance full-out, enjoy the tunes and see what comes out of your feet, or dance one step for the entire session. It is entirely up to you.

This is a chance to bring your steps up to dance speed, play with the music, and see what happens.

Dance Session Playlist

Tonight’s Dance Plan

We’ll begin with these dances and steps, then see where the music and our feet take us.

1. Sean-nós Jigs – Elements

Choose from:

  • 3 shuffles
  • 2 shuffles
  • 1 shuffle
  • 4 heels
  • Step heel step
  • Run on – Chicken with shuffle
  • Step Drop or Step Lift
  • Tip step
  • Click
  • Side step

Sean-nós Jig Course

2. The Sunday Set as a Jig

Dance the Sunday Set steps to jig music. Notice what changes and what your feet naturally want to do with the different rhythm.

Choose from:

  • Stamp & Stamp
  • Madness
  • Shuffle step (Poric)
  • A Toe toe heel (Poric)
  • Boffin
  • Meave
  • Mick Advance & Retire
  • Clare Battering Step
  • Tricky
  • Hips
  • Willie Keane

The Sunday Set

3. Sean-nós Reels

Choose from:

  • 3 shuffles
  • 2 shuffles
  • 1 shuffle
  • 4 heels
  • Step heel step
  • Run on – Chicken with shuffle
  • Step Drop or Step Lift
  • Tip step
  • Click
  • Side step

Sean-nós Reel Course

Remember

You do not need to remember or dance everything on this list. Choose what feels familiar, repeat one step for an entire tune, improvise, or simply see what comes out of your feet.

We’ll start here and see what happens. Keep ’er lit!

Open dancing to the playlist if there is time.

Mix and match and pull from all the movement to dance to other tunes.

week 2

Week 2: Celbrating Paddy Keenan

I had planned to continue with our September playlist tonight, featuring some great musicians—including several who will be at the O’Flaherty Irish Music Retreat.

But today is a sad day. Paddy Keenan passed away.

Paddy was one of the musicians who started me on Irish music. When I was a teenager, I listened to hours and hours of The Bothy Band.

In the two weeks leading up to the Third Friday Céilí, my dad would bring out album after album to get us geared up. The closer we got to the céilí, the more music filled our house. Paddy was always in the mix.

Years later, I had the pleasure of producing a Portland concert with Paddy and Tommy O’Sullivan. Their album has been in my regular rotation since it was released in 2001.

Tonight, we will listen to Paddy, dance to his music, and enjoy the amazing body of work he shared with us. I will review our Keep ’er Lit steps so we have them in the mix, but mostly, tonight will be about listening and dancing. Try any steps that suit you.

Paddy was very generous with his words and his music. He will be greatly missed.

Steps: Connemara Reels, Connemara Jigs, Páraig Ó Haibicín’s Steps, Maybe: Maggie Pickie?

Mix and match last weeks steps and elements with this weeks steps and elements.

Wednesday, September 9
6:00 PM PT • 7:00 PM MT • 8:00 PM CT • 9:00 PM ET

4. Connemara Reels

Choose from:

  • Connemara step
  • Stamp and stamp
  • Heel and toe
  • Cross step
  • Circle step
  • Zigzag or heels step
  • Side step
  • Heel-toe-heel
  • Drum step

Connemara Reel Course

5. Páraig Ó Haibicín’s Steps

Choose from:

  • Timing step
  • Toe-toe-heel step
  • Kick-up step
  • Heels step

Páraig Ó Haibicín’s Steps

week 3

Week 3:

Blog

There Isn’t One Right Way to Learn

maldonm

Memory Monday ◈

There Isn’t One Right Way to Learn

For a long time, I thought I wasn’t smart.

Reading and spelling didn’t come easily to me.

When those things were being taught in school, I was sometimes taken out of the classroom. I believe the idea was that I would get extra help.

But it backfired.

The room I was sent to didn’t really teach me anything. I mostly sat there and did homework.

When I was 12, I moved from Mendocino to Portland. For the first time, I was in a larger school and had a stable living situation.

I worked incredibly hard.

I learned how to study. I learned how to do my homework. I learned how to work within the system I was in.

By tenth grade, I was getting mostly straight A’s.

But what people couldn’t see was how much work it took.

I would stay up all night finishing assignments, especially writing assignments.

Around that time, I started taking Latin.

My teacher was Mrs. Sullivan, the last Portland Public Schools teacher teaching Latin.

I was so excited to take her class. My mom had studied Latin. My dad had studied Latin. My grandparents had studied Latin. And I want to be like them. .

One day, Mrs. Sullivan asked me:

“Are you dyslexic?”

I said no.

She asked if I’d ever been tested.

I hadn’t.

She had noticed something important.

Not that I couldn’t learn.

She noticed the way I was learning.

I was tested, and sure enough, I was dyslexic.

After that, I was able to work with a tutor who specialized in dyslexia. I began learning strategies that actually suited the way my brain worked.

And I made progress.

But something else happened that changed the way I saw myself.

After my biology teacher, Mrs. Dumas, learned I was dyslexic, she came to me one day and told me that we were going to play a game in class in a few weeks.

She said she didn’t know why, but every student she’d taught who was dyslexic had been particularly good at this game.

I don’t remember all the details of how the game worked, but I remember the tree.

We divided into teams, and we had leaves representing different species—animals, reptiles, and other groups—that had to be placed on the tree in particular ways.

And somehow…

I just knew where they went.

I couldn’t have explained why.

I could see it.

And our team rocked.

I’ve thought about that experience many times since.

Because Mrs. Dumas did something important before we ever played the game.

She told me she thought I would be good at it.

I’d spent years believing that because reading and spelling were difficult for me, maybe I wasn’t smart.

And here was a teacher telling me that the way my brain worked might actually help me do something well.

She gave me the confidence to trust what I saw.

To trust that I might be right.

To trust that I was smart.

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I think about Mrs. Sullivan and Mrs. Dumas now when I teach dance.

One of my favorite parts of teaching isn’t figuring out whether someone can learn.

It’s figuring out how they learn.

Some dancers need to see the whole dance first.

Others need everything broken down into small pieces.

Some want words for each movement.

Some want numbers.

Some learn through sounds.

Some need to watch.

Some need to do it.

Often, it’s a combination.

I’m a kinesthetic and auditory learner.

I learn by doing, watching, and hearing.

Words and numbers aren’t my first language when it comes to dance.

It can take me hours to translate something I know in my body into words or counts.

But another dancer may need exactly those words or counts before the movement makes sense.

Neither way is wrong.

There isn’t one right way to learn to dance.

That’s something I want people to discover in my classes.

If something doesn’t make sense the first way I explain it, we can try another way.

And another.

Until we find the way that makes sense to you.

Because sometimes the problem isn’t that you can’t learn something.

You just haven’t been shown it in the way you learn yet.

◈ ◈ ◈

I’d love to hear from you.

How do you learn best?

◈ ◈ ◈

Until next Monday…

Keep listening.
Keep dancing.
Keep the music alive.

— Maldon