Choosing Dance Lessons that are best for Your Child

1. Setting Dance Goals

In order to design the best learning strategy for your child it is important to start with figuring out what you want him/her to achieve from taking dance lessons.

Let’s explore two different options. In 10 years from now, do you want your child to comfortably dance Salsa at prom dance? Or you want your child to be a National champion? Different approaches would be required to achieve those two goals. There are two primary tools that will allow achieving both results: group classes and private lessons.

2. Group Dance Classes

Children group dance classes are designed to learn the basic steps of major dances. Group dance classes mostly focus on:

• Steps
• Directions
• Timing

Group class setting allows your child to inexpensively learn dance moves and drill them so that they can be executed well. In addition, group dance classes are a good opportunity for your child to see that dancing is something that other kids do too. Children become more motivated when they see their peers doing similar things. Moreover, group dance classes allow your child to dance with different partners. This way he/she can experience the differences of lead/follow from different people. Group dance classes are also a good place to look for a suitable dance partner, in case your child wants to take dancing to a higher level.

3. Private Dance Lessons

The purpose of private dance lessons is to perfect those steps that your child learned in group classes. The devil is in details and if two people dance the same steps, the one with better technique is going to win. In private lessons we focus on little details that will take your child’s dancing to the next level.  In addition, the private dance lesson setting allows the instructor to focus on specific needs of each child thus facilitating the learning progress. Your child can take private dance lessons either by him/herself or with a partner.

4. So what is the difference?

The difference between group classes and private lessons is not in price. It is not whether you are alone or surrounded by people. The true difference is in the level of instruction. In group classes instruction is broad and shallow whereas in private it is narrow and deep. Comparing with education system it is like Associate of Arts and Master of Arts.

Private dance lessons are more flexible in scheduling. Therefore, if group classes do not fit your busy schedule, private dance lessons may be a good option since we can arrange them at a time when you can bring your child.

Young children have shorter attention span than adults. In addition, they get distracted more easily. These two factors make learning in a group dance class a little more difficult. During private dance lessons there will be no other kids around to distract your child from learning.

5. What to choose.

Both group and private dance lessons are good for your child. We highly recommend him/her to attend group dance classes first. Especially if your child does not have much dance experience, group dance classes are more beneficial since they provide a lot of practice time with the basics. Just by taking group classes your child will become a better dancer. However, by also taking private lessons your child will become even better dancer and much faster.

The timing and frequency of when and how many private lessons to take is quite personal. We want your child to get the most out of private dance lessons, thus we do not recommend piling them up. Higher level instruction received in private lessons needs to be internalized and executed first before we move on to something different.

The best solution for improving your child’s dancing is a combination of group dance classes and private dance lessons. Thus, whenever possible we want to talk to you to see what goals you have in mind, what you would like your child to achieve. Based on those objectives and available resources we can devise a realistic and better suitable combination of group/private lessons so that you child can improve as best as he or she can.