Celebrating the end of the season with dance activities
The end of the dance season is a perfect time to introduce some playful dance activities and games into your dance classes. As you wrap up another season of dance classes, you might be looking for fun, playful activities to help you celebrate the end of the year. Planning some special dance activities to do during the last few weeks of class is a great way to help fight the exhaustion and burnout that can sometimes affect our students (and ourselves!) this time of year. End of the year dance class activities can also help students review the dance concepts and skills that they’ve learned during the season, and apply them in new ways. And of course, fun end of the year dance class activities help reward students for their hard work all season, and get them excited to return to their dance classes for the next session! In this blog post, I’ll share some of my favorite dance class games to incorporate into your end-of-the-year dance classes.
A note on play as an educational tool in the dance studio
These end of the year dance class activities are all based in the philosophy that play can be an important educational tool in the dance studio. Research indicates that students of all ages learn through play, and play can help children can develop important social, cognitive, and emotional skills. Using play as an educational tool can help students gain self-confidence, engage in new experiences, and meet new physical and mental challenges. Incorporating play in the dance studio with students of all ages can have many benefits, from helping students learn new skills and refine their technique to helping them cope with stress and anxiety. Read more about the play in the dance studio in this blog post: Your Ultimate Guide to Play in the Dance Studio.
My favorite end of the year dance class activities
Dance Games to Get Ready for Recital
Sometimes, the end of the dance season can be stressful as we work to get students ready for their recital or spring concert. Make the process of learning, cleaning, and rehearsing choreography more enjoyable with the ideas in this blog post: 5 Tips for Creating and Cleaning Choreography for Dance Students. Make rehearsals even more fun with the Choreography Cleaning Bingo Game!
Dance Games to Review
Play can help students of all ages and skill levels deepen their understanding of dance concepts and apply their skills in new way. Often, dance teachers treat dance games as a “time-filler” or reward for good behavior, but it can be so much more. These dance games can help students review what they’ve learned during the dance season, while having fun!
- Rainbow Suite – The primary objectives of this dance game are to help students learn how to apply technique in new ways, create and execute transition steps, and engage in the process of making original movements. Find Rainbow Suite and more spring-themed dance games here: Simply Splendid Springtime Dance Games
- Describe a Dance – The primary objective of this team-building dance game is to help students develop communication, imagination, analysis, and cooperation skills. To use this game to help students review what they have learned, direct them to describe a dance movement that they learned throughout the year. Find Describe a Dance and more team-building dance games here: My Favorite Team-Building Dance Games for Dance Classes
- The Game of (Spatial) Relationships – While this game was originally designed to celebrate Valentine’s Day, it can also be used as an end of year dance activity. To use this game to help students review what they have learned during the season, provide them with a list of dance concepts and skills they were taught throughout the year. Direct the students to use the concepts and skills on the list as they make their relationship duet according to the directions of the game. Find this and more dance games here: Three Sweet Valentine’s Day Activities for your Dance Class
Dance Games to Celebrate the Season
In addition to being an important educational tool, play can also help relieve stress and cultivate joy – both of which are critical at this busy, hectic time of year! These dance games are a perfect way to fight off exhaustion and burnout, while channeling some of their excitement about the upcoming summer season! Find 3 summer-themed dance games here: 3 Fantastically Fun Dance Games for Summer, or get set for the entire year with Dance Games Bundle.
Dance Activities to Support Your Students’ Emotional Health
Dance can be therapeutic, providing an outlet for self-expression and emotional release. Planning end of the year dance activities that support your students’ emotional health is an ideal way to help them process all that they’ve learned, experienced, and felt throughout the season. This can be especially important for competition students, pre-professional students, and those who have experienced trauma such as injury or loss.
- 5 Dance Activities to Support Your Students’ Emotional Health – In this blog post, you’ll find easy-to-use dance activities that will allow your students to communicate their feelings through movement. Find the activities here: 5 Dance Activities to Support Your Students’ Emotional Health
- The Holistic Collection of Dance Activities for Creative Rest – Help your dance students embrace the transformative power of creative rest with these dance activities that support physical, mental, emotional, and creative rejuvenation. Find the activities here: The Holistic Collection of Dance Activities for Creative Rest (Curious about what “creative rest” means and how to incorporate it into your dance classes and personal practice? Check out this blog post: Embracing Creative Rest in the Dance Studio)
Activities to Introduce Dance History
Introducing students to dance history should be an important component of any dance curriculum. However, it can be hard to find the time to fit meaningful dance history lessons into our weekly classes. The creative and fun dance history lessons in this blog post make perfect the end of the year dance class activities. They help provide context for what our students are learning, while letting them express their own creativity. Find them here: 3 Simple Dance History Lessons for Your Online (or In-Person) Classes
Dance Improvisation Activities
Dance improvisation is another great end of the year dance activity. Through improvisation, students learn how to apply their technique in new ways, express themselves, and develop their artistry and performance quality. If improvisation is new to your students, try introducing it to them using the strategies and activities in this blog post: Dance Improvisation Tips & Activities. If your students are more experienced improvisers, try weaving dance improvisation activities into your technique classes with these activities: 4 Creative Ways to Use Dance Improvisation in Technique Class, or find unique and challenging dance improvisation prompts here: The Holistic Collection of Dance Improvisation Prompts and Activities.
Student Choreography Activities
Allowing students to create their own choreography is an important way that we can help them develop creativity and leadership skills. Student choreography projects are an ideal end of the year dance activity. Students apply what they’ve learned in class about dance technique and artistry by choreographing their own dances. When they then have a chance to teach those dances to other students, they learn to communicate their ideas effectively. Collaborative choreography created by a group of students working together can help students learn to listen, cooperate, and compromise.
- The #ChoreographyAdventures are unique choreography prompts that are ideal for student work. Find the ever-growing list of choreography prompts here: #ChoreographyAdventures.
Activities to help your students get excited for next season
One of the best ways to wrap up an exciting dance season is by preparing for the next one! You can spend a class introducing a new skill that they will learn next year, or show them a video of students in the next level performing their recital dance. Share a list of conditioning exercises that students can practice over the summer to prepare for the new season, and spend some class time learning how to safely do each one.
- Goal-setting can be another great way to help students get excited for the next dance season. What do your students hope to accomplish as they continue their dance training, and what are the steps they can take to reach those goals? Find some tips for goal-setting in this blog post: 5 Surefire Ways to Crush Your Dance Goals this Year. Get done-for-you goal-setting worksheets that are perfect for use in class with your students here: The Holistic Guide to Goal-Setting for Dance Students.
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