Street dance classes (Friday class and Monday class)

On a Fridays I teach twelve 9-11 year olds street dance in Chipperfield in a dance studio. On Mondays I also teach seven 11-13 year olds street dance in Bovingdon. I love teaching both classes and we are both working towards some very exciting shows. Firstly I will talk about the Monday clas, then I will talk about the Friday class.

I have been teaching classes for 9 weeks now on a Monday and we have already done so much! At the moment we are working towards performing at the btec performing arts variety show. I have mixed a few soundtracks up for the routine and so far the dance is amazing. I choreographed the first 30 seconds and then I split the 7 into a group of 3 and a group of 4 and they had the chance to choreograph their own piece of dance for 15 seconds each. Then I have choreographed the last bit for them.

The girls are amazing, they have done street dancing before too so therefore I found it easier choreographing a dance that they will find exciting and not boring. I found it easier because I don't have to hold back on the challenging moves as they are capable of learning them. To make sure that I am not going to fast I go over the moves quite a few times before I let them dance it to music, that way it is in their head and they won't forget it hopefully. I've used two upbeat songs for the music, this is so that it is lively and will get the audience excited about the dance and ther girls find it up to date and gets them in the mood to dance.

I used different formations for the dance, this way it doesn't get boring, it gives more opportunities to do something different and imaginative in the dance and all the dancers have a chance to be at the front or middle. I am going to give the girls a questionnaire to do after the performance to see how they are finding the classes so I can see what I could improve about the classes for the next term. After the variety performance I also hope that they can perform on the Chipperfield common during half term for the Jubilee celebration party. I need to ask the owner of Blackwells in Chipperfield if this is possible too. I will video the performance and put it up on this blog and evaluate it too. I will also get some pictures of the rehearsal process. I will obviously ask the parents permission to do this.

For the Friday classes I have also taught the children many things do with street dance and it is going really well. As the children are younger than the other class that I do, I have to restrict what we do as the 8 year olds would find certain moves too difficult for them. So far I have noticed that I have to take things slowly with them as they take longer to learn a dance or a dance trick. There has been a issue that I've started to notice though however, I have noticed that the 11 year olds are more advanced that the younger ones and I'm finding that it is hard to teach them all the same thing as the older ones will find it too easy if i make the move suitable for the younger ones, but the younger ones, find it too hard if I make the move suitable for the older ones. Therefore I decided to create a questionnaire for them to fill in so that I can see what they think about the classes.

I have picked 4 feedbacks that I got from the questionnaire, each one is anonymous and I picked one for each age from 8-11.

1) How old are you?   8
2) Are you enjoying the street dance class?   yes, definately
3) Have you danced street dance style before?   yes
4) Would you like the classes to be easier or harder?    harder!
5) Is the pace of the teaching too fast, too slow or just right?   just right
6) Have you learnt more than two tricks from this class?     yes!
7) Have you learnt to be confident when dancing?    yeah!
8) Do you enjoy making up some of the dances we do?   (she ticked the box Yes, I like the amount of choreographing we do ourselves
9) Is there anything you would like to be included in the classes that aren't included already?  no!
10) If you could improve one thing about the classes, what would it be?  nothing i think it's already a brilliant street dance class

1) How old are you?  9
2) Are you enjoying the street dance class?  definately
3) Have you danced street dance style before?  yes
4) Would you like to classes to be easier or harder?  harder
5) Is the pace of the teaching too fast, too slow or just right?  too fast but only a bit
6) Have you learnt more than two tricks from this class?  yes
7) Have you learnt how to be confident when dancing?  yes
8) Do you enjoy making up some of the dances we do?  (this person ticked the box Yes, I'd like to get involved more)
9) Is there anything you would like to be included in the classes that aren't included already?  no
10) If you could improve one thing about the classes, what would it be?  to go over the moves and dances more

1) How old are you?  10
2) Are you enjoying the street dance class?  yes
3) Have you danced street dance style before?  no
4) Would you like to classes to be easier or harder?  a tiny bit harder
5) Is the pace of the teaching too fast, too slow or just right?  just right
6) Have you learnt more than two tricks from this class?  yes
7) Have you learnt how to be confident when dancing?  yes
8) Do you enjoy making up some of the dances we do?  (this person ticked Yes, I like the amount of choreographing we do ourselves)
9) Is there anything you would like to be included in the classes that aren't included already?  maybe
10) If you could improve one thing about the classes, what would it be?  maybe for the older people to go in a different class or group

1) How old are you?  11
2) Are you enjoying the street dance class?  yes
3) Have you danced street dance style before?  no
4) Would you like to classes to be easier or harder?  harder
5) Is the pace of the teaching too fast, too slow or just right?  just right
6) Have you learnt more than two tricks from this class?  yes
7) Have you learnt how to be confident when dancing?  yes
8) Do you enjoy making up some of the dances we do? (this person ticked Yes, I like the amount of choreographing we do ourselves)
9) Is there anything you would like to be included in the classes that aren't included already?  maybe
10) If you could improve one thing about the classes, what would it be?  maybe for the older people to go in another group

From all the questionnaires and especially these 4, I can see what needs to be improved for when we come back after Easter holidays. It is easy to see that the older people would like to be in a different group to the younger people. I could tell that this was an issue as I can see the younger students holding the older ones back a bit. Therefore to ensure that this issue is delt with, after half term I will do a second class on a Friday which will mean that the older students will be in a different class the younger ones, because not only is it about age, it's about ability and I can see that the older students are more advanced and I can see the real difference between the 8 year olds and the 11 year olds. I've spoken to the older students and I've told them the conclusion that I've come to and they are happy about this. This has also made me more confident that all the students will be happy about this and they won't worry about holding each other back.

I also noticed that from the questionnaire, that the students would like the classes to be harder, this will happen as I haven't finished choreographing their dance for the performance on the common. I will make it harder but will go over it slower so that they all understand. For when I devide the class up into two classes the level of difficulty will change for both. The older group will be harder and the younger group will only be a little harder, this is because I have see how they dance and not all of them manage to get the hard moves, it takes them 2-3 weeks to manage and by then it's time to move on, which is why it has been hard to teach the classes lately.

I have also had to make alternations to the soundtrack as although there isn't any swearing in them, I feel that an 8 year old would prefer to dance to a more upbeat and popular song rather than a song they haven't heard of and is not familiar with, this task will be fine as I don't find mixing soundtracks difficult.

I am looking forward to the near future and what these classes can do for me and my experience as a teacher, as well as the children's experience as a street dancer. I hope to give both classes more opportunities too so that they have something to look forward to, E.g performing at shows. I will make the improvements to my classes as soon as possible but for obvious reasons I can't change everything all at once, it will be a gradual process. I have learnt a lot from the questionnaires and it has helped me evaluate myself and my classes.