Dance schools just for fun

Hi all,

When dd was 4 her my friend gave her a term at a dance school for a present and dd loved it.

However, i had major issues with it as i found the parents were very competitive and the teacher (owner) was very bossy.

They also have term performances which cost an arm and a leg and need to get their hair done makeup and all dolled up.

I prefer not to introduce my dd to this.

So anyway, talking to the director these performances are part of the whole course so i cant just actually send her to learn to dance just for fun!!!

Unfortunately when i asked my friend she said that that was one of the better schools when she did her research and the other ones around the area didnt sound great.

So are there dance schools just for fun or are they all like this???

I am not sure if i should even bother looking again for one :(

Thanks in advance!

What type of dancing are you looking at? I know with ballroom dancing the kids can do the dance awards each term but they are not compulsory up to a certain point.

One thing to keep in mind though if she really loves it and decided to keep going for years she may get to a point she has to go back and do the lower level awards before being able to progress to higher ones.

My girls just started Ballet and Jazz. When Enrolling I was given the option of concerts or just lessons. So they are out there. They also use a company that you can hire their performance outfits which I thought was good.

Ballet tap and jazz

Yes thats something i would much prefer kazzo!!

An option to not do concerts

DD's school offers combination classes up to about age 7 or 8 (grade 2 or so in Vic), where they do jazz, tap and ballet. Then after that they can choose which they want to specialize in, or continue doing all three but then it's broken into three separate classes and becomes more technical and skill oriented.

There is only one concert at the end of the year and tbh I don't know if it is optional or not but it certainly wasn't expensive (costumes were rented so very affordable and no sewing required by mums, yay!) so we didn't think about not doing the concert.

But absolutely for the first three levels of the dance school (ages 3-7 or 8) the focus is on having fun dancing.

My DD did ballet/jazz and the concerts, performances, exams are all optional. They do encourage you to do the extras but don't enforce it. We only did the end of year concerts. The classes were geared towards the performances, but she still enjoyed it.

I would just ask around as not everyone is so competitive.

I think it definitely depends on the school. I started dance when I was 5 and it was just called "creative dance". There were end of year concerts but no extra cost to participate in them. All costumes and props were handmade by volunteers - when I was older my parents were best friends with the teacher/owner and her husband so a lot of stuff was made out in our shed, it was a lot of fun! But as for being in the concert, sometimes kids had other important things come up, and sometimes it causes anxiety and so they're not forced into it. When I was older I helped teach the younger students and did the concert with them, so they could remember steps and feel better about it. And it definitely made it fun!

About the teaching style, I noticed some schools can be pretty strict and I was surprised. When I was teaching it was all about the movement and the fun. But DD went to a 3rd birthday party at a dance studio 2 weeks ago, and I enquired about classes. They start at 2 years and even at that age they're expected to stand still and quiet, learn positions properly (this is ballet), and there's running and playing around. Parents can't even watch! If DD was older I might consider it, but I think the introduction to dance needs to be fun. If I were you I'd be looking elsewhere and not worrying about if that's considered one of the 'better' schools - it might be better when they're older and want to do exams, but you can always switch if/when they want to get more serious.

there's a school we took our girls to called 'glittery tapping wonderland' in melbourne. it was totally awesome and all about fun while learning the positions etc. for the little kids they offered ballet/tap and as you got older (ie school age) you could branch into jazz, hip hop etc. they also held adult classes in all of it so it was super fun!

Cassius that sounds like the classes i want dd to go to.

I want dance to be super fun and not strict!!!!

Dont think it helps when i was watching dance moms either (reality tv) as i dont want dd to lose her joy over dancing.

Have been looking at other dance schools now but usually they dont have a website and no trial lesson!

What area/state are you looking in? My girls do dancing and I love their dance school we are in Melbourne.

We do 'Kinderballet' with DD. It is a fairly large franchise. No uniforms, and the end of year concert is just the parents in a hall. No fancy production. They still learn the fundamentals of ballet from a proper teacher. DD loves it.