I am going to completely BLOW YOUR MIND! Typically, dancers at Maxwell Dance Studio attend class an average of 1-2 hours a week. Even our team dancers only attend 3-4 hours a week. We like to keep your kids, kids! We believe it is important for them to go outside and play, run, ride bikes and use their imagination.
So, what is the best way you can help your dancer at home practice for dance class?
The best way is by not practicing dance at all.
Better yet, help strengthen their muscles. Have them go on family walks with you, or help carry the groceries in. Have fitness challenges, like which sibling can do the most push-ups, or who can run around the block the fastest.
Often, with dancers at MDS, they are brand new to dancing. They don’t know the anatomy of the body, or how your body should move when doing a pirouette, or an arabesque. They may not even know what those things are yet, and that is ok! You hired us to be the dance teacher, it is our job to teach your child how to do those things IN THE CLASSROOM. Not at home.
So instead of having your child practice at home and likely practice wrong, just help them build strength and endurance. While we do work on this in class, the short time we have them is not enough to build strength, flexibility and learn skills or a routine in short amount of time.
If dancers come to class already strong, or working on that strength at home, we can spend more of our time working on skills and the routine.
So there you have it! Work on strength at home, leave the dancing to the studio.
What do you think about this perspective? I would love to hear from you in the comments.
Love you all!
Ash