Dance Tips – How to Get the Most out of your Dance Class Experience

Whether you’re brand new to learning choreography, or you’ve been doing it for years, we always want to make sure that you’re getting the best possible experience in every class you take with us. 

Here are 5 of our biggest tips to help you make the most of your time in the studio with us:

1.  Leave your day at the door

It seems like life just keeps getting more crazy and hectic these days, amirite? Sometimes it can be hard to separate the bad day we had at work from the rest of the day. But we encourage you to compartmentalize and leave the stress from the rest of the day at the door and shift gears to focus on what you actually want to get out of the class that day before the start of class. Try resetting your focus while driving in the car on your way to the studio or even during the stretch at the beginning of the class. Be sure to take some time to set an intention for what you want to get out of the class, and you can always com back to that intention throughout the class if you find yourself getting distracted by lingering thoughts from a situation from earlier in the day.

2. Put yourself in position to learn

(This one is especially for our new/first time dancers!) If you are new to learning choreography, make sure you get to the studio a little early so you can grab a spot on the floor where you can actually see the instructor without possible obstruction. We know, you may think that you want to “hide” in the back left corner so we can’t see you…. We’re sorry, but you can’t hide from the learning process! And the more we can see you, the better we can help you with what you specifically need. So be sure to not only be in a position where you can clearly see the instructor but also in a spot that you can see yourself in the mirror. Moreover, do NOT dance right next to the wall. It’s going to make you naturally cut off your movement. Lastly, if you’re in a spot that you feel you can’t see yourself or the instructor, or you keep running into the wall, the MOVE! Try out a different spot. There are no “assigned spots” in our classes, so feel free to move around to make sure you are able to see everything and move freely.

3. Do not take yourself too seriously

Of course, we know that you want to do well in class. We want you to do well too! But sometimes, we can place so much pressure on ourselves to get the routine down perfectly that sometimes we can get in our own way of simply dancing and enjoying the music! So when you take a choreography class, remember it’s not about being perfect. It’s about getting just a little bit better with each class. We don’t expect you to be at a professional level, so you shouldn’t expect that of yourself either, unless you’re training several hours a day, every day. So keep your focus on lock, but know it’s okay to mess up. We want you to mess up! Cause that’s how you learn and grow. And remember, dance is supposed to be FUN!
 

4. Take accountability for your movement ASAP

Have you ever gone through an entire class where by the end of it you realize that you’ve been staring at the instructor the entire time and that you wouldn’t be able to dance the routine without the instructor doing it with you? Yup, I think we’ve all been there. But in order for you to feel confident in the routine by the end of the class, you’ve got to take accountability for your movement during the learning process. How do you do that? You start looking at yourself in the mirror after the instructor’s gone through the movement a couple times. Trust us, it’s going to feel awkward at first. But that’s okay. The sooner that you make mistakes, the sooner that your body will be able to figure out how to correct them. And once you start taking accountability for the movement, you’ll be able to actually start putting your own flavor into it to really make it your own and have fun with it.
 

5. Do not wait until the end of class to dance “full out”

You should absolutely be dancing through your entire body throughout the entirety of the class. Yes, that includes while you’re learning the movement for the first time! The more you FULLY put your body through the dance, the better. Cause we garuntee you the first time you switch up to doing it full out, it’s gunna feel foreign, and you will most likely mess up or at least look spazzy. And that’s ok! Again, that is why you want to work through all that as soon as possible so you can get to a more comfortable and confident place with the routine quicker.   
 

Remember, these are YOUR CLASSES. They are what YOU make of them. 

We hope these tips are helpful for you as you enter into your next class, whether if be with Musicality Central, or at another studio. 

But we want to hear from you! Do you have any other tips that help you make sure you have a great experience in each dance class? Let us know in the comments below!

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