Chapters
“To dance is like talking in silence. It says a lot without speaking a word.” - Yuri Buenaventura
Rap and hip hop are the most popular genres on Spotify. Hip hop and rap are increasingly popular with the younger generations. We see similar trends with dance.
So how can you choose between all the different styles of dance? What style of dancing should you choose for your child?
Introductory Classes to Find Your Child’s Preference
It’s not always easy choosing which extracurricular activity your child should do. You need to find an activity that’s suitable for their age, a teacher, a school, or an association offering the activity.
So how can you do this when your child wants to learn how to dance?
Dancing is quite a varied discipline. With Zumba, salsa, hip hop, modern jazz, contemporary dance, etc. there are plenty of different styles.
So which one should you choose?
The golden rule is to let your child decide. No matter which activity they do, your child has to want to do it. Forcing a child to do something that they’re not interested in can make them frustrated and cause them to hate it. But there’s nothing to stop you from offering trial classes to help them to discover certain activities. This is the best way to find out what kind of dancing they like.
Choosing trial lessons is a great way to try out plenty of different dance styles. Spending a few months or even a whole year trying out different styles won’t be wasted time. Your child will discover what they like in terms of dancing and you can stick with the styles that they like. Be it breakdancing, salsa, or whatever, a few hours discovering a certain style might be all they need.
How old can they be?
Generally, dance classes are available for those old enough for primary school. This is the age that children start ballet so other styles of dancing tend to do the same. Before this age, children can enjoy an introduction to dance in their local dance studio or private lessons.
Find out more about children's dance lessons.
Introductions to Dance: Classes for Very Young Children
An introduction to dance course is great for very young children. These aren’t dance classes in the proper sense. Instead, children don’t learn dance routines off by heart.
The goal of these classes, as you may have guessed, is to introduce children to dancing by helping them understand how their body moves around a given space. They’ll do all sorts of dance exercises and learn how to move their body in time to music and express themselves.
These young dancers will improve their rhythm and balance. At this age, they must learn how to use their body and channel their energy. Different exercises can help them burn off this exercise, calm down, and work on their concentration. Children also need to learn to listen to their teacher and pay attention to their peers. It’s good for everything!
An introduction dance doesn’t just cover moving around. Children can learn about music in general. They’ll discover different musical instruments and listen to different styles of music. These foundations will help them develop their creativity and artistic senses.
Introductory classes will also teach them about performance. Similarly, they’ll learn how to express themselves through dance. They’ll build the foundations for becoming a professional dancer in the future.
Imitating their Idols with Modern Jazz
Modern jazz classes are hugely popular. In fact, since the 2000s, modern jazz classes have been the classes to follow if you want to dance like your pop idols. Students learn how to do dynamic routines to popular music, which is why many teenagers are fans of this style.
Of course, there are classes for those between 7 and 18 who want to learn more about rhythm and dance along to popular music. A lot of dancers choose this style to imitate their idols as it’s a great opportunity to learn new and creative routines.
Modern jazz classes are very open to improvisation and creativity. In small groups, dancers will choose songs to create routines to and show off their finished routines to the rest of the class. Beginners and intermediates will also learn steps that they can reuse in their routines.
Children taking these types of classes often move onto urban or hip hop dance classes, which are even more popular than modern jazz was in the 2000s. After all, the popularity of certain styles tends to follow the popular genres of music.
To see if your child would be interested in modern jazz or hip hop dance classes, you might want to try out free trial classes. It would be a shame not to make the most of these free classes.
Discover the benefits of children's dance classes.
Ballet Tutorials
When we think of kids dancing, we tend to think of them in a ballet class. After all, ballet classes are amongst the old dance classes around. Plenty of young boys and girls dream of becoming ballet dancers and performing on stage.
Ballet classes are available from the time they go to primary school. It can be difficult starting ballet by the time you reach 15 or 16 but some schools will offer classes for late starters. However, it’s far more common for students to learn ballet from a young age since it’s much easier for them to learn a lot of the moves when they’re young. The earlier they start their ballet classes, the easier they’ll find it when they get older.
Ballet is a demanding discipline that requires a lot of practice so don’t sign your child up to a ballet school unless they’re interested. Of course, you can always try out a free trial class or give ballet a go for a year. That said, if your child doesn’t feel comfortable with ballet, consider finding them a different discipline.
Discover where you can find children's dance lessons.
Choosing Original Dance Styles
Who said that there were only ballet or hip hop classes?
There are plenty of dance schools and dance associations offering far less common styles that you wouldn’t immediately think of. Your child may be interested in a number of these styles.
African Dance
There are plenty of dynamic dance styles that are great for energetic children. African dance involves big movements with your whole body. From your head to your toes, every part of you moves to the rhythm with African dance. It’s a chance for your child to enjoy percussion.
Capoeira
Much like African dance, a lot of children are interested in Capoeira, too. Straight from Brazil, Capoeira is both dancing and martial arts, which is great for developing balance and flexibility. Young dancers “face-off” against one another in percussive rhythmic combat in which they never actually strike each other. It’s really impressive!
Irish Dancing
You can probably guess where this type of dancing comes from. What you mightn’t guess, is that you need to be in really good shape to do the moves. Concentration is essential.
Tap
Tap dancing is still very popular. Tap’s popularity seems quite stable. It’s great for children because the dances are fun and catchy. Let them discover what they like.
Discover what children's dance lessons are like.
If you're looking for kids dance classes, look to your local dance company, dance school, or the tutors on Superprof for private dance lessons.
There are many talented and experienced dance tutors on Superprof offering face-to-face tutorials, online tutorials, or group tutorials. Each type of tutorials comes with its pros and cons so it's up to you to choose the one that's best for you, your preferred learning style, and your budget.
Face-to-face tutorials are the most cost-effective because you're the only student but they also tend to be the most costly per hour.
Online tutorials tend to be cheaper per hour than face-to-face tutorials as the tutor doesn't have to pay travel costs and can schedule more tutorials each week. This increased earning potential and fewer outgoings allow them to charge more competitive rates.
Group tutorials are usually the cheapest per person per hour as the cost of the tutor's time is shared amongst each of the students in attendance. Of course, this also means that tutors time has to be shared between each student so they won't be able to offer as much one-on-one time as in private tutorials.
Most of the tutors on Superprof offer free tutoring for the first hour so use this time to try out a few different tutors and see who's right for you.
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