Teachers
What is my opinion about the instructor/instructors?
(We are not looking for general flattery. Their competence and knowledge in the field? Ability to teach? Able to listen? General behaviour? Gender perspectives? Anything, good or bad.)
Comments
I am a graduate of circus school and theatre academy and have been privileged to work with great masters, can tell you that I have never seen anyone teaching better then Tom Stone did. It was not only about magic, but psychology of magician, psychology of a creating, of learning, of trusting your partners, of jumping in to unknown. I am so impressed! As a woman I felt safe and respected. To work with Leif Olberius was very refreshing and fun. And together Tom and Leif are working in to one direction and complement each other.
Very good. Both very humble, which I appreciate. But very knowledgeable and skilled. The way things were presented was succinct and easy to understand. Held a good tone during the workshop. Very good at giving feedback in the group exercises.
The only negative the way I see it was the way the gender incident was handled in the Facebook forum after the workshop. I do appreciate the willingness to make sure every participant feels safe and respected. Whenever I have been in the minority and was taken into the warmth of a group that is something that sticks with you in a very positive way for a long time. I also appreciate that complaints made are being taken seriously. What I think could be done differently is the Facebook post itself as I found the tone overly harsh and unprofessional. Clearing thing up in private first before posting publicly as well as a “presumption of positive intent until proven otherwise” would help create a safer environment.
I been to several lectures, courses and theater schools and I must say from that experience I think that the instructors / teachers here have well balanced humbleness and willing to take in everyone on a individual level that creates a safe feeling and willingness to try and explore
I appreciated both instructors.
Tom Stone: very knowledgeable and engaged in the subject matter. Tom is open, listens, and is very helpful. I also appreciate the value base you represent. E.g. being kind to yourself, being pro gender equality which for example showed in the very clear messaging around an incident: Just a few words from one participant to another that landed wrong was promptly acted upon and the matter was sorted. Very good! To give some constructive feedback: Sometime I think some more structure could be of value. I think there might have been some re-use of earlier material and in one or two occasions there was a small hickup in the flow, something that was potentially left out. That was at least the feeling. But in all: I loved every session.
Leif Olberius: very knowledgeable as well, both in theater and in magic. Just as with Tom, the foundation of values was pretty clear, you both stood together. There was a safe environment and challenging exercises. From an overall perspective, it was somewhat harder to match the Leif sessions into a red thread in the overall course. It doesn’t take away that everything was good one its own, but at least for me some of the (perhaps obvious) motivations and clear connections between exercise and practical use could be in place. E.g. the direction of energy (throwing stick exercise) – how does that relate to you while on stage, what is the application? Again: great exercise and important on its own just to break out of our shells, get to interact with each other etc. but how do I bring that exercise into practice on stage? It was touched upon, but perhaps not overly clear.Overall and as general flattery: both instructors are extremely good at what they do, they are both being considerate, friendly and easy going as individuals. The mix between the different content they brought to the course was really good!
Well, they are two of my favorite magicians. Super handsome, super knowledgeable and super good at teaching. Whenever I had a question, I could easily ask them without any fear.
Tom and Leif were great! They both know what they are talking about and balance each other out nicely. I felt Tom had a more traditional classroom approach to teaching concepts and skills. My college brain definitely appreciated this with the drawn out models, videos and examples. Leif had a more freeform approach to teaching the theatrical side. Theater style warms ups, games and activities. Both balanced each other out nicely.
The instructors are great. They are very knowledgeable about the art of magic. Very good thing that the course was very hands on. it is different to know and to try to do.
Competence and knowledge, invaluable and 10/10. They were also listening and always helping when needed. That is why I also maybe expected a little bit more of teaching, and maybe more applying to our own material, more straight feedback. I don’t know how would this work timewise. Maybe there could be just a couple less creative exercises, because there really were plenty. I bring this up because sometimes the exercises helped more on the creative side and got us out of our comfort zone, but the lessons we learned just before maybe got a little forgotten. Could there be more these kind of different exercises where we would have time to try the new learned skill, and only then apply it in groups? I liked for example Leif’s look think look action exercise with our own tricks, and Toms crossing the gaze tryouts. All in all instructors were both very nice and easy to approach.
It clearly shows that Tom and Leif know what they are talking about. They have been constructive and listened to us. They have been encouraging to take risks.
Leif was (what is the word) BRILLIANT!!!
I learnt more from this weeks training with Leif that I did in my entire theatre degree. The way things were explained, demonstrated and executed with an understanding from someone who has also applied these techniques to a magical performance was the most worthwhole thing in the entire course. And probably has helped me to clarify my own relationship between theatre and magic – which I have struggled with coming from a theatrical background originally.
As I was in further conjuring our lessons with Tom were much more shorter than what we are used too. However, the content was still good.
I LOVED the amodel completion exercises – my word these were just brilliant and again the best lesson explored by Tom by far the whole week.
Although I enjoyed the exercise with the trick that cannot be explained I did feel that this was the weakest class as it was completely separate from the rest of the weeks teachings – for me. And it felt like Wed entered magic convention territory rather than actual development.
I say this as a goal for the future. Having a women teaching would make this course sing.
I mean teaching is teaching but being a women, there is nothing better that seeing a woman performing (and doing it well) on stage. The same would be true having a woman teacher in the future. To learn from both men and women.
You were both willing to listen and help, but not so much that you made the work for us. Which is good. Very competent teachers.
I felt comfortable with and thoroughly enjoyed both instructors. I appreciated that they both demonstrated mastery of what they were teaching. Both were warm and treated students with respect. If presented with a question beyond their knowledge I noticed both instructors were comfortable admitting to get didn’t know the answer. Their candor and ability to let go of their own egos in these moments was reassuring. An understanding of education as a craft/science was evident. I believe the instructors are fully dedicated to creating course content that will most efficiently benefit the students. Attention to gender perspectives shows how deeply the course designers care about education and that they realize our potential as performers can’t be reached until we have a greater representation of female practitioners. This approach is heartening. I am only disappointed this course hasn’t existed earlier.
Fantastiska på alla områden. Jag vet faktiskt inte vad ni kan göra bättre
Teachers had a way of making everyone feel welcome and toss their doubts away. Some exercises can be very scary, but there is a good balance of the challenging aura but also the “safety net” aspect that made the whole course great.
Tom’s pedagogical techniques resonated with me tremendously. I greatly appreciated the content that was being delivered, but then the opportunity to apply the content was fantastic. Also, that no “tricks” were suggested as a basis for the application of techniques, this allowed us to truly integrate the lessons into our own work and our own experience. The lessons truly became “our own.” In short — very useful content and highly effective teaching method through student centered active learning.
Leif was excellent. I missed one day of lectures due to illness and I am very sad about this. I found that the session in which Leif provided director’s feedback to be very valuable. I think Leif’s portion of the course would be well served to provide more of these director’s feedback sessions — perhaps also with more discussion. I’m looking forward to learning more from Leif next year.
Very good course structure. Professional. Super skilled and good teachers.
They are good and I felt safe in their hands.
Most of the time great magicians aren’t great teachers but I really liked Toms and Leif’s style to teach! It was safe to try all the things. If I need to say something, there could be powerpoint presentations etc. so all the things will be more clear
Maybe some more examples sometimes, e.g. when talking about vectors.
No doubt regarding the teachers competence.
You sometimes see the obvious – how to make a routine better.
They were great! I really enjoyed everything they did. In the end I have only two slightly negative things to report:
1. The whole one-ahead/one-behind-topic could have been prepared a bit better. I understood it in general, but I think it could be improved for the next course.
2. I have not received a direct feedback from Tom or Leif. Their opinion matters to me and I would like to know what they think of me or my performances in the group exercises and especially on Thursday evening and my final performance.
I think both of the teachers were really great. I could see a deep understanding of magic and performing, yet also a great humbleness and generosity. It felt like you really wanted to lift us up, rather than show off with your superiority.
Ni båda är fantastiska. jag kan helt ärligt inte komma på något som jag vill ändra på.
I would have loved to see more magic from the both of you!
You were approchable and nice!
Both instructors were super nice, supportive. They are both very knowledgeable. I really could not imagine how they could done their job better. They didn’t just present their ideas, but also have listened to all your added opinions and reacted to our thoughts instantly.
Perfect