Have Chosen the Wrong School

Mistake #4 - Have Chosen the Wrong School

What to do when you don't like what you see.

The sight of a child dancing joyfully to a song on the radio is enough for loving parents to sign up for a dance class. Many simply decide that they want their child to do what they did when they were young. Others follow a Facebook recommendation or choose to enrol their child into a free class, a more convenient or the cheapest class around. But, they do not quite get what they expected.

You have made a bad choice, if the dance school
• Is overly competitive
• Has a lot of sexualised music
• Uses costume choices that are not age appropriate
• Awkwardly overdresses children for concerts
• Pushes learners to excel in exams, or filters only the best students
• Teaches in a strict and repetitive manner

Choosing a school with a particular niche or speciality is often the best way to start. A school cannot cater to recreational students and train talented students to be professionals simultaneously.

In the unregulated dance industry, anyone with a correspondence course or a year at a performing arts school can start a school. Select a dance school where the director has tertiary training in dance, as well as some training in teaching or early childhood education. It is important to know how involved the director is, how they train, mentor and evaluate teachers’ progress.

Follow recommendations from friends or put call outs on social media, but it’s best to follow the social media pages of the businesses that you like the look of. Look for posts that appropriately highlight the diversity of the art form. Observe how the business responds to your comments. You will get a clearer picture of how open and approachable they are.

Big Steps Little Feet is a specialist school for young children. Our 5 phase process inspires children to fall in love with dance while still being themselves.

Our teaching philosophy is: Be kind, be honest, be silly. We teach with metaphor, with skill and with joy.

Our open door policy lets you reach out directly to us. Watch any class you want to. Be part of our amazing concerts. Simply put, we celebrate and value children.

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