Tuesday, April 07, 2009

What's In a Good Dance Curriculum

By Sarah Wilkiamson

A good dance curriculum is important when you are searching for the best dance school for your children. Young children have special needs and the school's curriculum should take this into consideration in the design and delivery of their dance curriculum. Some people believe that a dance lesson is just made up as the teacher goes along, but there is a definite science to what goes on.

It's important that the dance curriculum includes enough fun to keep everyone satisfied and interested. At the same time, there needs to be plenty of learning blended into the learning mix. You can't just sit kids down and expect them to listen as a teacher talks for hours on end. It just doesn't work like that.

At the same time, you can't just allow the children to run riot and not learn anything at all. They need just the right mix of discipline and good times to facilitate learning. Ballet is a very popular form of dance but can easily burn out a young mind if there is too much concentration on the technical side of things.

In order to prevent these situations there should be creative teachers and a flexible curriculum for every class. Variety is important as this will cut down frustration and boredom. Small students are especially prone to this, due to their short attention spans.

Appreciation of rhythm can be taught in a relaxed atmosphere, whereas dance steps and routines may take a little more concentration and skill away from distractions. Mixing forms of learning will help to keep children focused and headed in the right direction, but it needs to be according to a method, not just made up as the class goes along.

Assess your child's strong and weak points by scheduling a conference with their teacher and discussing their learning needs, teachers and parents make a strong team when they work together in a child's interests. Make sure the curriculum is suitable for your child and resolve any problems before they grow into something too big to handle.

Observe the classes before you make any decisions about a school. This way, you can assess whether the dance school curriculum will be right for your child's needs. Observation later on will then help you to see how your child is doing, as well as how they are reacting with the teacher. It's important to keep a close eye on your child's progression and not feel bad if there's a need to move them to a better structured school.

Every child learns at a different speed and in different ways and the dance school schedule should be flexible to accommodate this. Some dance schools will give more consideration to older students and then just let the younger students have a modified version of the curriculum. The better schools will tailor their curriculum to the various ages of their students. There are significant gains to be made by young students and for this reason they shouldn't just be treated with any less care than the more senior pupils. - 2361

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