The start of a new dance season is one of my favorite things in the world. The energy is electric and the possibilities feel endless. I love the potential that a fresh start holds: the potential for my students to meet their individual goals, for my class to come together as a community, and for myself to establish good habits that can preserve my work-like balance and reduce burnout later in the year.
To make the most of this special time and the possibilities it holds, we must be intentional in the way we begin the new dance season. For the first six weeks of the season, we should work on getting to know our dance students, creating community through team-building and team bonding, establishing strong class routines, and supporting our dance students’ overall wellbeing – as well as our own!
As a dance teacher of over two decades who has worked with a variety of age groups, skill levels, dance styles, and school settings, I have seen the lasting impact that a great start to a new dance season can have. In this blog post, I’ll share 8 of my favorite ways to make the most of back-to-dance season, including ideas to help you get to know your dance students, establish good routines, and create community.
Why the first six weeks of dance class matter
The Holistic Approach to Dance Education is inspired, in part, by my experiences as a middle school dance teacher in a school that practiced Responsive Classroom. In Responsive Classroom, the first six weeks of school are considered crucial. Teachers who adopt Responsive Classroom follow specific steps to ensure that their students start the year in a way that sets them up for engaged and productive learning.
As described on the Responsive Classroom website, “The early weeks of each new school year offer teachers distinct opportunities and challenges. It is during this time—when expectations and routines are established, rules generated, and goals articulated—that the foundation is laid for a productive and cooperative year of learning.”
In The Holistic Dance Teacher Approach, dance teachers apply a similar mindset during the first six weeks in the studio to help set their students up for success throughout the year. We use the first six weeks of class to set our students and ourselves up for a successful year.
In the first six weeks of a new dance class, The Holistic Approach to Dance Education encourages dance teachers to focus on:
- Establishing expectations and explaining consequences
- Getting to know our students
- Creating class community
- Evaluating our students’ abilities, needs, and goals
- Adapting our lesson plans accordingly
The tips in this blog post will help you make the most of the first six weeks of a new dance season, so that you can set yourself and your dance students up for success all year long. You can learn more about The Holistic Approach to Dance Education in my free guide, and find a complete guide to the first six weeks of a new dance season and other helpful resources in The Holistic Dance Teacher Back to Dance Resource Kit for Dance Teachers.
8 easy ways to make the most of back-to-dance season
Get to know your dance students
I believe it is essential to take time at the beginning of the dance season to learn about your students and make connections with them. Creating a personal connection with students is a hallmark of The Holistic Approach to Dance Education and one way that we honor the individual in dance. It allows you to teach them more effectively and support their learning in meaningful ways throughout the year. When you get to know your students, you can:
- Develop effective teaching and assessment strategies that help dancers reach their individual goals
- Create a curriculum that is diverse in content and responsive to students’ unique backgrounds, dance experiences, and needs
- Foster a class community that celebrates shared interests and tradition, while honoring each student’s unique experiences and perspectives
- Use music, references, and imagery that dancers can relate to, so that you can keep them engaged in the learning experience
Even if you’ve taught the same group of dance students for many years, it is important to take the time to reconnect with them every year. Their interests, needs, and goals will change year after year, as will the social dynamics they face in and out of the dance studio.
The Holistic Dance Teacher Back to Dance Resource Kit for Dance Teachers includes a collection of Get to Know Your Student Surveys that will make it easy to get to know your dance students at the start of a new dance season, or any time you want to foster stronger connections with them.
Create a strong dance class community
Dance brings people together in a shared physical and creative experience – something that is incredibly important in today’s digital and disconnected world. In The Holistic Dance Teacher Approach, we believe in celebrating the community that is created when we dance together. We believe that fostering community in our dance classes, companies, and teams help dancers feel safe to take risks, make bold choices, and push themselves to grow as dancers, artists, and individuals. This kind of community doesn’t happen overnight, of course. As dance teachers, we can foster community in our dance classes by including team-building exercises and team bonding activities at the start of the dance season.
The Holistic Dance Teacher Collection of Team-Building and Team Bonding Dance Games & Activities includes 10 unique and fun dance games that will help your dance students develop the skills they need to work together as a team, develop strong, healthy relationships, and foster a more positive class culture.
Support your dance students’ overall wellbeing
Most dance teachers know that we teach much more than just steps and technique! Dance training can help students develop a healthy overall wellbeing, including physical, social, emotional, and life skills that will serve them well throughout their lives. Among these are responsibility, persistence, resiliency, accountability, communication skills, and empathy. Building these wellbeing skills into your curriculum and weekly lesson plans will ensure that your students are getting the most out of their dance training.
At the beginning of the dance season, we can help dance students develop wellbeing skills by covering important topics like consent and safety, self-care, persistence and resilience, and goal setting. The Holistic Dance Teacher Back to Dance Resource Kit for Dance Teachers includes a comprehensive guide to the first six weeks of classes, outlining important wellbeing topics to cover and offering strategies for including these topics in your dance classes.
Make time for play
Research has proven that students of all ages learn through play, and that holds true in the dance studio! In The Holistic Dance Teacher Approach, we believe that dance students can learn dance technique, artistry, and overall wellbeing through dance games and playful activities like gamification and improvisation. Perhaps most importantly, play can help keep dance students engaged and having fun in the learning process. When we use dance games and playful activities in the beginning of the dance season, we can help dance students develop a love of dance as they learn skills that will benefit them throughout the year.
Play can also be used at the beginning of the dance season to help you get to know your dance students and foster connections with them. You can find some of my favorite get to know you dance games in this blog post: My Favorite Get To Know Your Games for Dance Classes
Help your dance students set goals for the season
Goal-setting can be a transformative process that will keep dance students engaged and motivated in their dance training throughout the entire season. At the beginning of the season, it is important to help dance students develop clear and specific goals for dance technique, artistry, and their overall well-being that they can work toward throughout the year. The Holistic Guide to Goal-Setting for Dancers will help you easily build goal-setting into your back-to-dance lesson plans. The guide includes a comprehensive goal-setting process as well as tools like worksheets, planners, and tracking sheets to help your dance students set goals and develop a plan to achieve them.
Set your own goals, too!
Goal-setting can also be a powerful tool for dance teachers and choreographers! It can be easy to let our own personal development start to stagnate as we focus on helping our dance students grow and reach their goals. At the beginning of the dance season, it is important for dance teacher to reflect on their own goals for their career, creativity, and personal life. This will help keep you motivated and help prevent burnout later in the season. This blog post features tips on setting and achieving goals that are applicable for your students and yourself!
Commit to caring for yourself
Teaching dance is a profession like no other. Our passion for the art of dance and our dedication to our dance students can easily start to overwhelm our lives outside the studio. Of course, it important to be committed to your craft and your dance community. But it is equally important to avoid the kind of stress that can lead to burnout. At the beginning of the dance season, dance teachers should commit to building meaningful self-care into their teaching practice. This doesn’t have to be complicated or costly, however! Dance teachers can practice self-care by making simple adjustments to how we prepare to teach, facilitate our classes, and recover from long teaching nights. Some ideas can be found in this blog post: 12 Simple But Meaningful Self-Care Practices for Dance Teachers
Ignite your creativity
As dance teacher, our creativity is often stretched to the limits. We are constantly being asked to create: lesson plans, teaching strategies, class combos and activities, choreography, social media posts, and so much more. At the beginning of the dance season, it can be helpful to ignite your creativity and give yourself a creative boost! The Holistic Dance Teacher Resource Collection includes helpful tools that can inspire your creativity in a variety of ways:
- For lesson planning inspiration, check out The Holistic Dance Teacher Dance Lesson Planning Guide and Workbook
- For choreographic inspiration, check out The Holistic Dance Teacher Choreography Planner and Choreography Inspiration Kit
- For movement inspiration, check out The Holistic Dance Teacher Collection of Dance Improvisation Prompts & Activities
- For the days you aren’t feeling inspired, I also offer a variety of “back-up plans” for your classes like dance worksheets and dance games
Get all the dance teacher resources you need to get to know your dance students and create a strong class community with The Holistic Dance Teacher Back to Dance Resource Kit for Dance Teachers.
Let’s connect!
- What are some of your best tips for back to dance season? I’d love to learn from you …share your thoughts and ideas in the comments!
- Visit my Resource Shop for tools that support a holistic – and playful! – teaching and creative practice.
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