“At first I didn’t like it,” said Performing Arts Curriculum Coordinator Lynn Modell with laughter as she described her 27 years teaching dance at the school.

“I had just quit a dance company. I missed being part of that experience when you dance with people on a regular basis, rehearse and perform—You get really close. I didn’t see the potential for that kind of close relationship with my colleagues here. It’s just a different environment,” she said. “And then, by the end of the year, I loved it. I loved coming to school every day. I loved being part of a community. I liked the students.”

Modell taught dance at Beaver Country Day School for one year and at Boston University for six before working at the high school. Fourteen years into her time at the school, she was promoted to the performing arts curriculum coordinator, a position she said she enjoyed because, among other reasons, it has allowed her to interact and bond with staff in other departments.

Modell teaches Beginning Modern / Jazz, Advanced Modern / Jazz and Choreography. She has also taught Intermediate Modern / Jazz Dance.

Modell said she believes clarity is important in teaching.

“I usually say to students in the beginning of the year, ‘Here are the guidelines I need,’” she said. “I feel I need to operate my class to the best of my ability, and if people feel that they can’t adhere to those guidelines and expectations, then I suggest perhaps it’s not the best environment for them. I must say, one of the best things about being the teacher of an elective is I can say that.”

Yet, she said teaching electives, as opposed to academic classes, can have its drawbacks.

“Here’s an example,” she said. “Yesterday, a student said to me that she might not be coming to my class today because she was going to have to hang up posters for some event. I said, ‘What do you mean? I haven’t signed a field trip form,’ and she said to me, ‘Oh, the teacher said just do it during a block when you don’t have an academic class.’”

While thinking back on her time at the high school, Modell said how grateful she is to have been a faculty member here. Modell said she is leaving her work at the school to spend more time teaching and working with adults.

“I teach at the Brookline Senior Center. I do that once a week, and I really like that community as well. It’s kind of fun to be working with people at both ends of the spectrum. I hope to do more of that,” she said. “I’d like to work with people with dementia, and I’d like to teach adults that are not quite that old, middle-aged people who may have danced when they were young and then didn’t for many years.”