Knowing what to teach and when to teach it helps you deliver in the classroom

By Brian Foley

Teachers, how often do you walk into your dance class with the thought, “What am I going to teach today?” Dance teachers have many responsibilities, but one of the most important is accountability. And being accountable means developing and implementing quality class plans.

The strategies and formulas we use in our class plans help us fulfill our needs as teachers. But more important, they allow us to address the needs of our students in a well-thought-out, progressive curriculum that anticipates their development as dancers and allows for their growth.

Too much too soon
Often, because of our students’ participation in dance competitions or showcase performances, we feel forced to teach steps and tricks that are beyond their technical abilities. We show our students “what to do” and then spend hours of class time watching them struggle as we challenge their lack of technique and physical understanding of the movement. We push our students to improve, to acquire the required skill levels, without taking time to communicate the “how to do,” often creating bad habits instead of good technique. We forget (or ignore) the fact that we must teach an understanding of the technique and muscle memory requirements.

We must constantly remind ourselves that achieving technical excellence in our students does not happen overnight. Technique needs to be taught slowly and with confidence, communicating the “how to” information in such a way that our students understand the physical feeling and muscle memory logistics of each important position or dance move. Teaching in a way that reinforces learning through repetition in every dance class means thinking in terms of a never-ending time line—one that includes the “how to do” technique and steps and pays attention to age appropriateness.

Parental pressure
One of the biggest challenges for dance teachers is communicating to (and then reminding and convincing) our students’ parents that quality training for their children includes technique, repetition, reinforcement, and age-appropriate steps and style moves, all supported with motivating choreography.

Often, when schools participate in competitions, winning becomes the parents’ priority. They compare their children’s competition results with those of other studios. Even in observing daily or weekly classes, they compare their children’s achievements to what other students can do. Instead of focusing on what their children have accomplished, parents question our motives for teaching while challenging our ability to teach.

Part of our role as teachers is educating parents about the importance of quality training. With a class plan in hand, you can sit down with every child’s parents and show them the projected arc of their children’s learning and what they can reasonably expect. Explaining why you follow a dance syllabus will help them understand the strategies and training standards you teach to in delivering age-appropriate, quality dance education to their children.

School owners should implement overall class plans and training-standard requirements. However, if class plan formulation is left up to the individual teachers (as it is in most studio operations), they should prepare the plans early enough to share them with assistant teachers and studio owners.

Though we strive to help our students achieve at the highest level possible, it takes time to get results. Many parents don’t realize that professional dance teachers teach for the future, not for today.

Remember: Plan the work, work the plan, and teach until the teaching is done!

Sample Class Plan

This outline is based on the structure of one 60-minute dance class, held once a week over the course of 36 weeks (therefore, 36 hours of training).

All technique and dance steps taught should be age appropriate, taking into consideration the physical growth, amount of previous training, and the mental focus and discipline of the students.

Barre/center warm-up:
First 20 minutes of each class (12 hours of the 36-week dance season)

• encourages mental discipline and focus
• provides training for correct placement, alignment, and posture
• reinforces stretch/flexibility and muscle strength
• promotes development of muscle memory through repetition

Across the floor:
Second 20 minutes of each class (12 hours of the 36-week dance season)

• allows practice of new steps and dance vocabulary
• enforces use of space
• enforces style dynamics and change of body directions
• trains students in traveling step techniques
• allows for repetition of steps and movements

Combinations:
Third 20 minutes of each class (12 hours of the 36-week dance season)

• allows time to “train the brain” to think and react faster
• prepares students for routine choreography
• teaches the students to dance together, for each other, not just with each other
• enforces style needs and musicality for choreography

Week-by-week breakdown
Weeks 1–12: Show and teach what to do.

Weeks 13–24: Review material from the first 12 weeks, reinforcing the “how to do” process.

Weeks 25–28: Review steps and technique; teach new steps. The goals for these weeks are to have fun, teach new and challenging material, and teach students to be more aware of each other. This segment also serves as a transition period leading into learning the recital dance.

Weeks 29–36: Routine/recital/performance. This is when you can deviate from the structure of the plan.

A recital dance routine (at the recreational level) typically consists of eight combinations. If you follow the plan and teach usable combinations during the first 24 weeks of classes, detailing and working them to make them routine worthy, you will have at least 12 usable combinations to choose from. (A dance combination is usually 8 bars in length; it should not take more than 8 hours to choreograph and clean a routine.)

The last 8 weeks: This is a special time in your dancers’ training. Because there is not much time for technical training, it’s important to continue with the 20-minute barre/warm-up portion of class in order to reinforce technique and placement throughout the dance season.

2-classes-per-week structure
When students take two classes per week, you have some flexibility in the class structure.

Barre
First 20 minutes

Work on root movement and body alignment and strength for steps in dance routine.

Traveling steps
Second 20 minutes

Work on style, flair, and root step technique necessary for the choreography.

Routine
Third 20 minutes

Work on choreography, cleaning, and pattern requirements for the routine.

Tips
If you do not follow through with your class plan, you are being inconsistent with muscle-memory training, which requires repetition of movement and constant technical reinforcement.

If your studio competes or conducts dance exams, you must add extra classes and make them a part of your master plan. You must also develop mini plans for this content within your master plan.

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