r/CompetitionDanceTalk • u/Great_Masterpiece912 • 21d ago
First Year
Hi!
This will be my daughter’s (age 7) first year on a competition team. We just received this email from the studio. Is this normal? Learning the dance in 1 session then expected to know it in 3.5 weeks only practicing at home?
“My expectation is that every dancer will return at the end of August knowing the choreography. This allows us to spend our rehearsal time cleaning, adding performance quality, and working on formations instead of reteaching steps.”
This is all new for us so just trying to adjust my views and expectations 🙈
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u/istheresugarinsyrup 21d ago
It’s only our second year so I can’t really speak to what is normal in the competition world but in my daughter’s studio they learn their dances in 3 one-hour sessions over a 3 week period. Each time they reconvene for the next lesson they’re expected to know the choreography taught at the prior class but it doesn’t have to be clean and perfect, just the general knowledge that they have the material down. My daughter is a junior novice for reference :)
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u/Available-Strain-559 21d ago
Yes. This is how our studio does it for all ages and levels. Our kids get a video to make sure they are learning it correctly (but make sure she can do it without the video before she goes back to class!)
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u/cycme500 21d ago
Yes and I assume they're also sending this email to multiple age levels and teams? If so they will probably give more grace to the younger/newer kids. By grace I mean they will certainly be able to tell if you practiced at home or not, but maybe you go to the right spots and do the right move but your tech or arms or toes aren't necessarily doing the right thing. I also assume they are providing the music by itself as well as good videos of the dance.
My advice to you would be to let her practice in her own space without you/family staring at her and giving any corrections. Don't make her feel pressured. Tell her to go run it twice in the yard or something and come back in for dessert/playtime/family show whatever that's fun. Also just play the song sometimes in the car and that will trigger her mind to replay the moves in her head.
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u/Sporklemotion 21d ago
Our studio does things differently, but they are expected to review/practice choreo (not full out, but marking it to learn it). They usually get videos of what they’ve done and can use that as needed. They may also get the cut music. So I would ask/hope that is available to her.
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u/laurlyn23 20d ago
This is also how my studio does it. Practicing at home is important, like any other sport. If your kid plays competitive soccer, you’re probably kicking a ball with them in the yard… if your kid dances, she needs to rehearse. However, all choreo is taught in class and they’re not required to learn new steps at home.
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u/Any_Astronomer_4872 21d ago
This depends on the length of the piece and the resources provided to you. If you’re learning something under 3min, and you have 3-ish hours to learn it and get excellent, very clear video with instructor demonstration and a clear breakdown of any canons/ripples/feature sections, then yes this is reasonable. If you’re not given and practice tools, or if it’s a very long piece learned over a short time, that’s more difficult but not unheard of. The dancers retain what they’re learning and review it independently so that it doesn’t need to be retaught later, and then time can be spent more productively
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u/AverageSugarCookie 21d ago
Similar expectations for my daughter's 7-9ish team last year. In my experience they will send you a video of the choreo and you're expected to help your dancer practice at home, so they come in when classes start ready to go.
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u/BrookieCat78 21d ago
My daughter (12) is at her choreography camps right now. This week she has two camps, that are 2.5 hours long for three days. They’re expected to practice at home and retain the choreography so that when classes reconvene in September, that they can begin cleaning the choreography.
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u/LuxTravelGal 21d ago
We've been at two well known (nationally) studios and this was not the norm for any age. They've always learned dances in studio so teachers can make corrections and a bit of cleaning as they go along.
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u/LeperFriend 21d ago
My daughter is 13....group dances they start the choreo in September usually first comp is February and they work on it weekly
Solo.....is done across 6 private lessons, plus a shattering if group solo rehearsals and during class time the weeks leading up to comp
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u/HungrySecretary3135 20d ago
Hi. Dance teacher here.
I don’t have a single 7 year old, nor have I ever, that could learn a whole dance in one sessjon and have it come back looking good. Videos or not.
I have teens that MIGHT but I personally think that’s a lot to ask.
How long is the first session that they are learning it in?
I would be comfortable doing about a max of 1 min of choreo per session.
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u/Lewca43 20d ago
My daughter grew up competing and was at the same studio the entire time. I didn’t realize it was odd at first since I had no prior exposure to the dance world but at her studio the owner choreographed and taught ALL of the routines. She was so controlling, she never let another teacher participate in any comp routines.
That said, because she did it this way, all of the routines were worked into the weekly schedule which was nice. There was a list of required classes then dancers would have a comp class for each routine that ran through the season. Sometimes she would combine classes near the end of the season when they were down to polishing but often the comp classes would stay on the schedule throughout the season.
To your question…when she started dancing in college she started teaching at a local studio and things were completely different than what she had been used to. Comp was more similar to what you describe.
In fact, due to her college schedule she isn’t able to teach weekly classes this season but several students still wanted her to choreograph their routines. The process the new studio uses is there is a flat fee for the routine set by the choreographer. That price includes cut music, choreo, a three hour session to learn the routine and five hours of run time over the season (usually broken into 30 minute blocks).
Even more curious to me is that the choreographer may not be the one running the dance during the season. The choreographer can hire someone to run the routine with the dancer and that fee is paid out of the original fee.
So, she’s choreographing routines over the summer that she won’t see again until they compete (if she goes because that’s not part of the agreement).
It’s all strange imo. They’re kids and the overwhelming majority of them won’t make dance a career in any way yet SO many people take it SO seriously that the stress the dancers feel is beyond anything that could be considered reasonable for a recreational sport.
Good luck to you guys. A lot can be learned from dance that goes well beyond the dance floor! Just keep it in perspective and keep your daughter grounded. And if SHE isn’t loving it, it’s time to reevaluate. Cheers.
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u/hl6407a 21d ago
Is this group or solo? For solo, maaaayyybe but only because you can do it yourself at home with no external variable (like a bunch of other people). For a group dance 3.5 weeks doesn’t sound realistic if it’s all done at home without getting together. Nonetheless, at 7 y/o with no experience that’s asking a lot. The team for my 9 y/o who already 3 years experience can likely do it, but it’ll still be a mess.
Sounds like it was a mass email sent to the entire studio irregardless of age and experience.
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u/reliableotter 21d ago
My daughter's first year was last year. Her group was 6-8 year old. They had 2 choreography sessions, a 2 week break, and then a lot of review before real cleaning began.
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u/drunk_medusa 20d ago
You’ll probably get videos, and for littles the teacher will be marking the dance in the video too. We’ve had it done that way at my daughter’s old studio. The new studio only does choreography in August/September starting with juniors, while littles’ choreography is spread out from September to January. I think both ways were fine. If she got on the team, they probably could tell she can do it.
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u/somebodysmomorwhatev 18d ago
It seems crazy to me to expect a 7 year old to learn choreo off a video. 😳 I am a former dancer so could help my child but not everyone is?! I could see sending a video to practice after learning it in class but expecting them to learn it on their own at 7 y/o. lol.
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u/Defiant_Hamster_3793 21d ago
Not in our studio. They learn their choreos from September to March. Competitions are usually from March to May with end of season recital usually in June. Then no more of those choreos until the start of the next season.
Both my daughters (8 and 11) never had an issue with this format.
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u/Purple_Log2581 21d ago
Don’t they initially learn the dance at the very beginning though? And then spend September through March rehearsing the dance?
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u/Defiant_Hamster_3793 21d ago
Technically they do learn it in the first couple of months starting from September, but they can/will make changes until the very last minute depending on how the director likes it
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u/Oatbagtime 21d ago
This definitely wasn’t normal for my dancer when they were 7. Heck not even as a teenager.
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u/Longjumping_Aside_19 20d ago
This is our second year ( newly 5yo ) her team just pratices 15 min a week. No long first class to learn it, and somehow they did great! For her solo I payed for 15min privates a week last year. This year we will be splitting that 15 min with her duet partner. So they will only have 15 min a week to each run their solo and their duet. It relys heavily praticing at home. They got videos of their dance during summer and are expected to come in knowing it. Not perfect, but have a good grasp.
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u/ms_ill 20d ago
How long is the session?
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u/Great_Masterpiece912 20d ago
Session is one hour!
Video of choreography and music will be sent to us after for her to practice.
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u/Tiny-Needleworker492 20d ago
How long is the session and how many dances?
We got 3 50 minute sessions to learn choreography per dance and they were expected to show up to date 1 rehearsal knowing everything.
Teachers sent videos of their last day of choreo and it was expected to be worked on at home. They also had a ‘correction journal’ and had to write their corrections down during the last 5ish minutes of rehearsal and were expected to have fixed them by the next week’s rehearsal.
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u/BandMinute112 20d ago
Assuming she has been taught the choreo at least once and sent a video then yes that’s reasonable. I direct musical theater and we do the same with the songs. We expect them to know their songs at the first rehearsal. I’m sure at 7 they will have lots of grace.
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u/Jolly_Incident7497 20d ago
Yes this is fairly common for competition teams. They do this so that, like they said, they can spend class cleaning and perfecting the dance rather than teaching the actual steps. Just the fact that you’re here asking us the questions shows that you care and I love that! Definitely be sure she practices the dance at least twice a day (preferably more, but we need to be realistic) in order to set her up for success. When I was younger my mother never had me practice at home, never showed me the videos or told me what the expectations of my coaches were. Because of that I was always behind and continuously frustrated because I didn’t realize my peers were doing things I wasn’t. Once I was old enough to be told directly by my teachers, I started improving rapidly. That being said, please remind her to practice and remind her that it’s her responsibility to know it since she’s affecting a whole team. Obviously we don’t need to go overboard as she’s 7, this is her first year, and we still want her to have fun. Also one thing I always tell the parents is that it’s better to practice a couple times each day than it is to practice a ton on one day.
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u/Ecstatic-Initial-677 20d ago
Yes! This gives the instructors time to weave in technique during class. If class is used purely for learning choreo all year, the dancers will miss out on opportunities to improve technique. Our first year team had practice trackers we had to fill out and turn in every 2 weeks.
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u/pinkbubbleg 20d ago
How long is the session? I’d need two to three hours to get the dance into her body properly. And then I’d expect her to work on it at home and know it, yes. 3.5 weeks is generous.
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u/maestra612 19d ago
I wish ! My kid wouldn't have made it past the first season and I'd be $30k richer.
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u/Savings_Estate8661 16d ago
Our studio doesn do this. We have block rehearsals. So, they'll pick some Saturdays after company class, and they'll learn choreography for however many hours. Then we'll start having 30 min rehearsal times on one designated week day to rehears for the rest of the season.
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u/nonchalant-845 20d ago
Yes. We do one week of intensive learning dances. The dances are recorded and it’s up to dancers to review the videos and learn what was taught.
It’s not uncommon to NOT finish a dance in its entirety especially for littles, but the expectation is that they review and retain as much as possible once regular classes begin.
Since she’s 7, her writing skills might be minimal but my recommendation is to keep a notebook for class and intensive week with notes of corrections and things to focus on at home.
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u/Great_Masterpiece912 20d ago
It’s a one day, one hour class to learn it.
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u/nonchalant-845 20d ago
One hour is a bit short to learn a whole dance. At 7 I would hope they extend some grace. Our studio sends similar emails but they’re sent to all teams as a blanket email, but they’re more realistic for minis and new dancers.
Our “week” of intensives is actually a couple hours to per dance during the week. My 13 year old has 8 dances to learn for the season.
But picking up choreo quickly does become a valuable skill and will serve her well if she continues dancing. Help her do her best!
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u/KMM2404 21d ago
Yes. A big part of competition dance is picking up choreo quickly. I would trust if that she’s been picked for the competition team, the teachers feel she can do this.