How to prepare your students for dance exams

We all know that dancers need to take exams to improve at their craft. If they have an exam to work on, it makes them work harder and therefore they improve. Without a goal to work towards, nothing gets better and the mindset to work hard doesn’t exist.

As teachers, it can be quite stressful around test time. Students want him to do well, and parents are pressuring him to make sure their children do well. Unfortunately, you as a teacher can only teach the work to the best of your ability and it is up to the students to work hard and act together for the final test. As the old saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink.

As dance teachers, half the battle is technical. If you teach the technique correctly from the beginning, it will make your life much easier in the long run. Make sure your students can execute each step with proper form and technique, before putting the steps together into sequences and sequences in dances. Each step should be broken down from the top, done slowly, and corrected little by little. Some steps will require additional exercises to get the right look and feel.

Once the dancer has mastered the basic steps, they can join and dance. Even then, you will still have to correct arm lines, musicality, footwork, and head position, but it is mainly the finishing touches that will lead to better performance during exams.

Many teachers make the mistake of dancing with their students all year long. This encourages students to imitate the teacher and not get used to doing the dance on their own and thinking for themselves. It’s okay at first while they’re still learning, but then sit back and watch. It’s amazing what you see when you sit and look, and sometimes it can also be quite shocking how little they actually know.

As soon as they know their job, you will have to sit back and watch them at work, as there will always be technical failures to nip in the bud, because if they commit the same foul for too long, the foul will become a habit.

Make sure each student has a chance to stand in front, because once again the girls in the back tend to end up copying the girls in the front, and then they will never be able to do the exercises themselves. Usually I alternate, and in each class a different person stands in front and behind the bar, and then the middle dancers on the bar will be the ones in front in the center.

Last but not least, remember to show your students what to do and how to behave between exercises. They need to know how to rush into the exam room and greet the examiner, and then how to drop off their accessories and get to the bar. Also how to run neatly to the center.

Taking a dance test is also about discipline and self-control, and can help the dancer in many other areas of his life.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *