I start technique classes around age six for most of my students. Here’s my basic format:
Warm-up (about 5 minutes): Consists of a cardio dance aerobic warm-up led by the teacher with a short stretch. In Jazz class we will also do isolations.
Center Technique (5-15 minutes): Consists of footwork exercises, barre work, practice on a specific movement for use in a later combination.
Across the Floor (5-10 minutes): Consists of kicks, turns, leaps, chasses, and any other skill that the class needs to work on.
Corner Time! (5 minutes): This is our “grand allegro” portion. We’ll usually do a sequence of several big jumps or leaps from one corner of the room to the other. We usually add cones to leap over for fun.
Combination (about 10 minutes): Consists of learning a combination that incorporates the skills previously worked on in class.
Stretch (about 5 minutes): Deeper stretching focusing on increasing flexibility.
Creative Time (about 5-15 minutes): Dance games or student-led choreography to increase my students’ creative capabilities.
Stations (about 5 minutes): This is our reward for focusing during class. If we have time at the end, we get to do stations! This consists of a circle with roughly ten exercises that the students spend about 30 seconds doing each exercise. The exercises often include: rolling down a wedge mat, practicing cartwheels or handstands on a mat, straddle jumps on a mini trampoline, balancing on one leg by a cone, practicing side leaps over a cone, pike stretch on a yoga mat, one foot hops over cones, pirouettes by a floor spot, and straddle stretch against the wall.
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