120-140 BPM Class
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Playlist Length
0 days, 2 hours, 32 minutes
Playlist Followers
1306
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Playlist Last Updated
November 6, 2015
Mood
Mixed Mood
Track Popularity Rating
Deep
Style
Quiet
Average Release Decade
2000s
Main Genre:
Jazz
Reddit Info
Reddit Post
I've done a lot of work with kids in theater, though not in the context of swing dancing. I think a lot of the things you're thinking about in terms of content are great, and a lot of things that others have said on here as well. But in terms of kid-specific tips or advice for teaching dance, I'd add: * With kids way more than adults, overexplaining and overanalyzing is death. Just do the thing over and over again, and if you have to stop to give them pointers, make the stops as short as possible. * Once you lose them, it's easy for them to stay gone, particularly if you don't do a reset at any point. What I mean by "lose them" is the point where you've got even a couple of pockets of kids not paying attention, or talking amongst themselves rather than participating. That shit spreads. When I was running classes at a theater camp, one of the best resets we had was either moving to a new location (inside --> outside, classroom --> stage, etc.), which may not be an option for you, or shifting their formation. "Ok, so for this exercise, I need you all to stand behind me so that you can see what my feet are doing. Now, for this next part, let's make a big circle. Now I'm going to put on a song and I want you all to try it and make sure you move around the floor." Making it seem like there's something "new" happening every 10-15 minutes can keep them engaged, or bring back kids whose attention has wandered. * I would definitely put in something goofy if you can. Something like a boogie stomp (rock step stomp, shake shake shake) where they can channel their weird a bit. It'll help them loosen up a bit, and can act as a focal point for kids who are on the cusp of troublemaking - instead of acting out, they'll just get extra weird for that one 8 count. I've done this before (accidentally) while teaching the Shim Sham - I mentioned that the Shorty George is named after a dancer who was really short, and challenged the kids to get as low to the ground as possible during that move. I swear half of them ended up crawling on the floor, but they thought it was the best thing ever. * I don't know if this is your plan, but I would let the kids choose whatever role they want. I taught at a birthday party (?) for a bunch of ~15 year olds a couple years ago, and we let them pick their role at the beginning of class. Some of the parents were super weird about the fact that some of the boys were following and some of the girls were leading, but the kids were super into it, and I think the class went better because of it. * If you're going to be teaching by yourself, definitely use the opportunity to pull different kids for demos! If you're teaching with a partner, I'd probably slot in some time for a demo somewhere in the class as well. * A playlist I really like for beginners is [this one](https://open.spotify.com/user/1178148491/playlist/0Zca6aM5swjxPLq70cUxlH?si=SDN3JBRKSFODRairxQPbSg). The recordings are mostly high quality, and everything is 120-140, which is nice. Like everyone else on here, I recommend actually buying music (particularly from living artists), but this playlist has been a really good resource for me in building my beginner-friendly collection.
Upvotes
5
Subreddit
SwingDancing
Reddit Username
whoskey
Reddit Timestamp
7/30/18 19:37
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