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Hey everyone, this is Maia. I'm sure you're wondering, where is our opening music? Why is this not the typical introduction? I just wanted to give a little caveat on today's episode. So way back when I started the podcast many months ago, I recorded this episode, and I've been sitting on it for a while and honestly almost just scrapped it.
Because as I started to record more episodes, A, my sound quality got better. And when I went back and listened to this one, I just like the sound quality is not as great as what I've been recording more recently. B, I feel like when I recorded this episode, the intentions there, there's definitely good value from it and things that I've learned from teaching classes with mixed ages.
But there's some things that I maybe didn't communicate in the most organized way or the way that I would if I could go back and do it again. So for the longest time I've been sitting on this episode wondering if I should just scrap it and re-record with my thoughts more organized or approach it in a different way. But I'm getting to the end of my first season, and I think there's value in sharing my thoughts with you in this way.
And if I have additional ways that I think I can help in the future, I can always share an additional episode in a future season to kind of let you know what I've learned since then. So if there's a lesson to be gleaned from that situation, I guess that just like everything with teaching dance, it's a learning and growing process, and I think we can get better and better. But that doesn't mean that the work that we've done in the past is null and void and worth nothing.
And hopefully there are also some lessons to be gleaned from today's episode about teaching mixed ages within the same class. Here we go.
Welcome back to the Casual Dance Teachers podcast, everyone.
This is Maia with an episode about teaching classes with mixed age levels in the class. Let's talk about it.
Hey, everyone. Thanks for joining me again today. As I mentioned today, I will be talking about teaching a class where you have mixed age levels in the same class. I've mentioned before that I teach in a rural area, and I think anyone that's in a more rural or recreational studio might experience having mixed age levels within the same class because you don't have a huge population of students to fill many, many levels of technique within the same style of dance.
I'll start by saying that what I'm primarily going to talk about today is how to handle an older student or a couple older students in a class that's primarily younger students, because this is where I find that you might have some kind of pushback or could potentially run into issues. And this is really just a result of society and the fact that kids tend to go to school with students that are the same age as them in their class. So classes in the traditional school setting, again, are just arranged by age.
They're really not arranged by the student's cognitive or educational level. So when you bring them into the dance classroom and they have a larger age range than they see in their school classroom, you might see the ego start to creep up, or they feel like it's a blow to their status or their seniority to be in a class with younger students. So that's what I'm primarily going to focus on is how do you make sure that that doesn't become an issue in your classroom? Nine times out of 10 in mixed age classrooms for myself, I find that I can pretty much just ignore it, treat it as a non-issue and everyone gets along and everyone dances together and it's fine.
You might find that older students, of course, will become peers or already be peers from school and will stick together and younger students will stick together and they won't cross over too much. But I really don't have a lot of behavioral or classroom management issues that creep up as a result of having mixed ages. So definitely don't worry about putting students of different ages in the same class.
If you feel that they're at the same level, as far as their dance technique and skills, primarily you will have to address this. Of course, if you are addressed directly about it. So you can probably guess if you haven't dealt with this already, that the people that are addressing me most commonly about their student being quote unquote, the wrong age for the class are not the students themselves, but the parents.
And that's fine because the student might have privately had a conversation with the parent, but not felt comfortable broaching the subject with me. But sometimes I do feel like the student might not have an issue at all, but the parent again, feels those societal influences and those feelings that it's a blow to the students self-esteem to be in a class with younger students. And so a parent will address me and say, why is my student in this class? Now I feel very fortunate to teach at a studio currently where we place students by their technical level.
So we really don't take age into consideration when placing students in their classes. We take their skills as a dancer into consideration. And it's so easy when you're having a private conversation with a parent or with a student that's questioning you about that to cite the reasons why the student belongs in that class.
Of course, you want to frame this up as a positive thing. So if you're talking about an older student, that's in a class with younger students, and she might feel uncomfortable because of her age. You can say this year is a great opportunity, not only for you to work on your dance technique and get a lot stronger with the skills that you need to work on in order to advance to the next level, but you can also be a leader and a mentor and a great example to these younger students.
So it's a really wonderful opportunity all around. If you have a younger student who's feeling a little uncomfortable or alienated by being in a class with older students, you could frame it up as this year is a really great opportunity for you to challenge yourself and push yourself. And if you don't hit all of the goals that we've set at the beginning of the year, you will have another go at it by taking the same level for another year if we feel like that's the best fit for you at the end of this season.
So again, you always want to come at it as a positive thing. Of course, you never want to say like, well, this student is really behind and that's why she has to be in this class or anything like that. And generally it's not going to be right.
It's not a negative thing to be in a class that is the appropriate level for you. That's always a good thing. So of course, for you yourself, you need to know and be confident that that student is in the correct level for their skills, not for their age, not because they want to be with their friends in a class.
Those are not the considerations we need to be focusing on. It needs to be because that is the level of dance that she needs to be in. And as long as you're confident in that, you shouldn't have any trouble justifying or having very straightforward and honest conversations with anyone that might question you about it.
Now within the classroom, of course, you want to structure the class in a way that no one is going to feel uncomfortable or alienated. So again, while you don't want to draw a lot of attention to any outliers like significantly older or younger students in the class, there are a couple ways that you can structure the class to make sure that everyone feels honored and everyone feels respected for their age and ability. My philosophy is always to teach to the highest level in the room.
So whether that means technical level or cognitive level, I'm always going to teach so that no student feels bored or like the class is too slow. So that means that some students in the class might be more challenged than others, but I want to actually challenge all students. So I'm not teaching down to the bottom level of the class.
Keep in mind that your highest level in the class might not necessarily be the oldest dancer, but you'll see some divide probably when you have an older dancer simply in the pace that they want the class to go, whether they are really technically ready for that or not. They probably want to learn the steps that they see their peers doing, whether it's their actual peers that might be in higher level dance classes. And that's why they joined or whether it's dancers on say TikTok or on the internet that they've seen or TV shows, the older the student is, the more likely they are going to want to push through the basics and get to more advanced steps.
It's probably no surprise that the biggest discrepancies here are going to be found, not in teen classes where say you have a 15 and an 18 year old, there's not usually a huge difference between the way that those two students learn. But if you have a five and an eight year old, that's a big difference. And it is possible that those students will be in a class together.
And you do need to handle the way that you teach them a little bit differently, even though you're doing the same class. So when I say that I teach to the highest level in the class, one thing that I need to be aware of, if I do have say a couple eight year olds and a couple five year olds in a class is that the eight year olds might feel a little bit uncomfortable or like the class is a little bit too kiddy or baby. If I use nursery rhymes or kids songs, if I had a class of four and five year olds or five and six year olds, I would probably use some of the more kids style songs and they would be really well received.
And even for an eight year old or up, these simple songs can be really reinforcing and really help with certain dance steps. But I find that eight year olds are not going to respond to well, especially if they're already in a class with younger dancers, they might feel like it's kind of a drag or they're being treated like a baby. So in that kind of mixed level class, I will be asking those younger dancers to step up to the plate and really learn their musicality.
And I'll use more traditional ballet music or use more traditional music for whatever that style of dance is. If I have just one or a couple of dancers who are older, who are feeling like they really want to be in the next level up, they're really pushing for that and wanting that, but they're just not quite ready yet. I will still find small ways to adjust the class for them so that I'm giving them the opportunity to show how they're progressing and to show me that they belong in the next level up.
For example, if I'm doing a step and I can see that they're getting a little frustrated, that they feel like they want to go on to a new step, even though they still need to work on some technical things, I might still give them a little bit of a trickier variation. For example, change the arms for them to make them more complex or do a beaded or a double version of a step. And just let them try it.
This will give them the challenge that they're really craving without changing the steps or the material for them. I might also give them a leadership role in the class. For example, being a line leader, going across the room, or maybe breaking the class into a couple of smaller groups and assigning each of the older dancers in the class as a group captain for a certain combination or a certain phrase within the dance that they're working on.
Again, everyone will be doing the exact same combination and the same phrase, but I'll say something like, okay, these are the group captains. And what that means is the group captain will count in the group. So you all start together.
If again, you have a group that's primarily young students with a couple of older ones in there, you might also want to give them some kind of homework or some kind of in-class work that the other students aren't capable of. For example, in some classes, I do have students that can write and other students that aren't really able to write complex words very well. So I might divide the class into two groups and have one group perform a combination while the other group watches.
Everyone gets a chance to perform. Everyone gets a chance to watch, but certain students that are older, and I feel like might enjoy being challenged more. I will ask them to actually write down their thoughts, their critiques, things that they thought went well or corrections that they can apply to themselves while the other students, I will ask to just think about them and share verbally.
So let me change gears here for a second and talk about if you have one or a couple of younger dancers in a class of older students. I have to admit that I actually experienced this personally when I was in middle school, I moved and changed studios, of course, and the director of my new studio, thankfully placed me in the level that she thought was appropriate for me with older students. But I actually did experience some alienation and a little bit of light bullying, nothing really serious, but students that weren't very happy that there was a younger student in their class.
They had been in a class together for many years, and I was the new kid and coming in and kind of, again, challenging their seniority and what they were comfortable with. I personally just cared about dance. I really didn't care about being friends with those girls.
So luckily, I didn't take it too personally. I was just way too obsessed with dance to really care. But at the same time, I want to be sensitive to any student that might be faced with any kind of challenges in the classroom.
I definitely don't want to set up my classroom to be a place where anyone's uncomfortable or experiencing drama or anything like that, right? We want it to be a very safe and healthy environment for everyone. So it is important to monitor and check on all your dancers, no matter what age they are, no matter what the group dynamic is. What I find with younger dancers, again, I'm not typically being challenged about whether or not they belong in the class or why they're in a class with older students, because a lot of times there is that ego and that pride that's associated with it.
They and their parents are very proud that they are at that level, which I agree with. That's great. That is something to be proud of.
But what you might find, especially if older students are challenging them in any way, is that younger dancers might need some extra help. They might not be moving through that class as confidently as the older students, but they might not have the voice to advocate for themselves. So I do think it's important if you have a younger dancer or dancers to touch base with them periodically.
And again, not singling anybody out like, oh, you're the oldest in the room, you're going to do this, or you're younger. So I'm going to ask you this again to make sure, we're not drawing attention to the age difference. We're just taking a moment here and there to find ways to honor and respect the students for the age that they are.
So one of the things that I'm guilty of is that I will just ask the class openly, okay, do we got it? Okay. Are we good to move on? That type of open-ended question. I'm sure we all do that.
Younger dancers generally are going to nod and say, okay, and not advocate for if they need more help because they're a little more timid. They don't want to come across like they're the youngest that also needs the most help. They don't want anyone to be upset with them for being behind.
So they won't speak up in those open questions. So you don't necessarily have to just ask the younger dancer. You could ask each dancer individually or randomly ask certain students, or you could just ask the youngest dancers in the room personally, make eye contact, look at them and say, are you comfortable with that material? Or do you want to do it again? Or you could say, do you have a question about what we just did? Anything like that, just giving them eye contact, giving them the opportunity to look you in the eye directly and voice any concerns or anything that they need extra help with so that they don't get lost in the crowd.
Generally, just to reiterate, as long as you foster a positive attitude and a positive feeling in the classroom, and you don't single anybody out too much, again, you can find little ways here and there to try to appeal to them and appeal to their age level, but not singling anybody out or drawing a lot of attention. You really shouldn't have too many problems with this, but I'm really curious to hear if any of you, A, have ever had issues with this in the past and how you dealt with it, or B, have come up with other steps that you implement in the classroom that have helped you avoid any issues with these mixed ages in a single class. As always, hop on the Casual Dance Teachers Network on Facebook, and that's where we can keep chatting about this and share our own experiences.
In addition, thank you so much to my newest partner, Dance News Daily. If you're not familiar with Dance News Daily already, you can probably figure out from the name that this is an amazing source to get daily dance news. DanceNewsDaily.com is the website with tons of up-to-date dance news from all different genres, and it's from all over the world.
There's articles about new works being created, classes, the latest literature on dance. It's so amazing, but my favorite feature is the daily email. So on the website, DanceNewsDaily.com, you can sign up for free, and you can get a daily email that has links to all these different articles from different news sources telling you what's new in the dance world today.
Obviously, with the podcast, it's really helpful for me to stay up to date on what's new in the dance world, but as a teacher, I think it's also so important to steer my dancers towards getting news and reading about what's going on in the dance world, and it can be really overwhelming, and they might go to sources that I'd rather they not get their information from. Like, I don't want them just going on TikTok to get the latest in the dance world. So to have it all in an email that you can encourage your students to subscribe to, but that you can also just open real quick every morning, scan through, grab what's relevant to you, share it with your students, and it can be like a headline of the week type of tradition that you start with your dance classes, and just a really great learning opportunity for everyone.
So be sure to check out DanceNewsDaily.com and subscribe to the Dance News Daily email. I also again want to say thank you to GB Mystical for writing my fabulous theme music, to all of you for your support, and as always, I want to leave you with a motivational quote, and I thought this one was really appropriate from C.S. Lewis. You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.