An Interview of Ballet Dancer Turned Teacher!

I know as a first time dance teacher I didn’t know where to begin with creating lesson plans. I had taken 1,000s of classes but had never had to command a room and teach one all on my own. Below I have interviewed a ballet trained dancer turned teacher on a few fool proof tips to making a high quality class that will evolve and grow with your dancers throughout the season!

How do you begin to create an initial class lesson plan?

“First I look at the age and skill level I am teaching, if a class is combined with different skill levels I tend to cater it to the higher skill level. This pushes the lower skill level to rise to the challenge. After I decide on the difficulty level I start splitting up the class up into sections. For example, if I teach a ballet class half of the time is spent at barre and the other half is spent in the center. I start by picking one thing that I want my students to work on, for example, last month I picked turnout. I make about ten to fifteen combinations at barre and center.”

How long generally does creating a lesson plan take?

“It takes me about an hour to complete making all the combinations”

How do you decide what music to use for class?

“After I create the combinations and playlist that goes along with it I test out the class. To do that I  either do the combos full out or mark through them with the music to make sure that they all make sense.”

What do you think are the most important aspects of creating a successful lesson plan?

Try out your combos before bringing them to class and pick out something (ex. a specific skill or strength) to work on before planning!

I hope this short interview helped answer some of your questions about creating a lesson plan as a dance teacher! As always please leave any questions or additions below!