Minute Masterclass Episode 210

Welcome to your one-minute masterclass. I’m Andrea Trench, founder of DiscoverDance and creator of the Foundations Course for Early Childhood Dance Educators and the DiscoverDance Experience Membership. Today, we’re moving to tip 2 for teaching choreography without teaching choreography, and today’s tip is to add obstacle courses to your classes. 

 If you’ve been around here awhile, you know we use obstacle courses in every early childhood dance class. It’s part of our classroom management plan. You can listen to Minute Masterclasses #168-181 for everything you need to know about our obstacle courses. Obstacle courses also play a significant role in memory development. When we set up a sequence for our youngest dancers to work through, they have to remember which station to go to next and what to do at each station. The trick is to not help them through the course. This is after you teach it, obviously, but you want to let them move through independently so they have to think and remember each station’s objective. By doing this week after week, since their toddler years, they will be able to remember and retain movement sequences easier as they grow through your program. If your dancers are consistently struggling to make it through the course on their own, this could be a sign that it’s not set up appropriately for their stage of development. I like to change up 1-2 stations at a time. There should always be familiar skills sprinkled with new skills. Of course, the older they are, the more you can change it up.

 For more information, to enroll in the Foundations Course, or to join the DiscoverDance Experience, visit DiscoverDance.com.