Dancing is an art that many people admire. However, not everyone can perfect the craft as expected. It takes passion, dedication, and planning to perfect the art of dancing. It can even be trickier for teachers, especially when it comes to dealing with children under the age of six or seven.
Here are tips for teaching tots to dance:
1. Add Layers to the Movements
Repetition is vital when it comes to teaching basic dance skills. A teacher should keep the practice interesting by layering instruction with imagery. If it is a port de bras exercise, a teacher can request children to assume that the wind is blowing their arms out.
2. Keep the Class Moving
One of the common mistakes that dancing teachers make is keeping young children for long in a single activity. Young children have a shorter span of attention, and that’s why it is essential to keep changing activities after at least every five minutes. A teacher or instructor should have plenty of activities in line to avoid boredom.
3. Participate and Model Behavior
A teacher can limit their demonstration or even participation in the actual dancing session when dealing with older children. But young children take all their cues from the teacher. For instance, if they are being asked to pretend that the wind is blowing their arms out, the teacher must also act similarly. Modeling behavior is critical for guiding children’s behavior.
4. Light Up the Room
When kids are enrolled in a dance class, they are there to have fun. Therefore, it is the teacher’s role to ensure that goal is achieved. This is possible by introducing fun activities and exercises that help light up the mood of every child. A teacher should be the most exciting thing in a dance class.
5. Offer Positive Feedback at Every Chance
Children like being appreciated. Be on the lookout for anything that a child performs well and let the whole class appreciate and learn from that. Doing so will encourage the child to engage more and cultivate the same behavior in other roles.
In general, teaching tots to dance can is not an easy task. A teacher needs to understand that young children can be impatient and have a shorter attention span.