As part of my attempts to mingle within the newfound bellydance community in East Anglia, I went along to a hafla in a nearby town, run by another teacher. It was a wonderful opportunity to see what other dancers are up to, and also to talk to people who share my enthusiasm for this beautiful artform.

The teacher was really, really lovely and instantly made me want to hug her by coming up to me and saying that I must be a teacher because I walk like a dancer. Flattery really does get you everywhere. But what was most interesting was taking part in a mini workshop after the performances, just to see how other people teach.

She has a completely different teaching style to mine: far more bubbly and extravagent. While I do laugh and joke, trying to put my learners at ease, I tend to be more restrained and delicate, particularly when talking about certain movements or body parts. I think, more than anything, these differences represent our various specialities: while I favour the slow, graceful, almost ballet-like Lebanese dances, she tend to dance Cabaret style (ie how most of the Bellydance Superstars dance) which is much more brazen and sexy, mostly because it's American.

So while I try to steer clear of the sexy side of bellydance, emphasising instead sensuality and feminity, she completely embraced it, telling us to fling our backsides out, "like you want to be spanked," and, "think naughty thoughts... imagine you're rubbing up against a lovely, manly thigh". I describe certain moves in terms of 'ribs' and 'chest', trying to keep things tactful; she said yah-boo-sucks to all that and told us let our boobs wobble all over the place. And of course, both teaching styles have their qualities, and are perhaps suited to different people - teachers as well as learners. I certainly had good fun trying things her way, though I can't say I'll be telling my own class to, "imagine you've dipped your tits in paint and you're trying to smear it on a fence," any time soon as they'd probably be rather shocked...

Even as a teacher, I'm learning all the time, be it from workshops like these, the summer school I'm attending in August, or my own research. Sometimes, inspiration comes from the most unlikely of sources, including my own pupils. During one class, I was having real difficulty explaining how to do a vertical rib circle; no matter how much I broke it down or how slowly we did it, they just couldn't get it. That is, until one bright spark piped up, "Wait, I think I've got it... Just imagine you're wearing a bra with tassles on it and you want to make them fly round." Instantly, everyone could execute a damn near perfect vertical rib circle, all because of that brilliant image, which appealed to a very natural action, yet I had over-complicated it by breaking it down.

I like to think I'm growing as a teacher; I'm certain that both my teaching and dancing have improved since last year already, even without taking any classes myself. But I also know there's a lot to learn. One of the hardest things is learning not to be selfish as a teacher. At the last hafla, I did a couple of solos - partly to give my students a break, partly to give them a demonstration of more advanced dancing, partly because I'm a natural show-off. And they were extremely difficult to choreograph because I had to make them quite impressive to give them something to aspire to (and to justify my class fees!) while not being so complicated that they showed up my students (who were beginners) or made them feel inadequate in comparison. I've had the same problem this year; I already have a tabla solo choreographed, but I had to tone it down several notches because, though I want to show off everything I can do, a hafla my students are also dancing at is not the time nor place to do it.

My latest difficulty has been teaching styles I don't like or, to some extent, agree with. Mostly I go for the usual safe options: modern and classical Egyptian, Turkish, tribal (that's actual tribal, not American Tribal - I'm just not gothy enough to teach that), Lebanese, Bollywood, Flamenco fusion etc. But I've made myself teach them a bit of Cabaret too this year because, while running my hands through my hair and pouting like a glamour model while I do suggestive pelvic rolls isn't really my thing (or at least, not on stage!), it is a valid and popular form of bellydance and it's right that I introduce my students to it in as unbiased a way as possible. I'm still deciding whether I can bear to stoop to the levels (literally as well as metaphorically) of teaching them floor-work, which is widely used in American belly-dance but which always makes me wince because, well, it just ain't classy. We shall see.