If you’ve ever watched a class full of young dancers, you already know one thing for certain:
They don’t all walk through the studio door ready to focus.
One child may be completely engaged and ready to dance. Another may be thinking about the snack they left in the car. Someone needs to use the restroom. Someone else is fascinated by the mirror. And there’s almost always one little dancer who suddenly has a VERY important story they need to tell you right in the middle of class.
After nearly four decades of teaching children, I’ve learned something important:
Before we can teach the steps, we have to create the structure that allows children to learn them.
Structure doesn’t mean creating a rigid classroom where children are expected to stand silently and follow directions perfectly. Especially with young children, that simply isn’t realistic.
Good structure creates security, consistency, clear expectations, and room for FUN.
When children know what to expect, they can spend less energy figuring out what’s happening around them and more energy learning, moving, creating, and dancing.
Structure Begins Before the Music Starts
One thing I love to do at the beginning of class is tell my students what I have planned for them.
It might sound something like:
“Today we’re going to warm up, work on some skills center floor, practice across the floor work, learn part of our dance, and if we get everything accomplished, we’re going to finish with something fun!”
Now they know where we’re going.
They know what I expect from them.
And that little bit of fun waiting at the end can give everyone something to work toward together.
Young dancers don’t need to know every detail of the lesson plan, but they can benefit tremendously from understanding the rhythm of their class.
Sometimes They Need to SEE the Structure, Too
That’s where a simple visual schedule can be incredibly helpful.
A teacher can show dancers the different parts of class—Welcome, Warm-Up, Center Floor, Across the Floor, Combo Work, and Dismissal—and help them visually follow along as class progresses.
Instead of repeatedly hearing:
“Are we done yet?”
or
“What are we doing next?”
a child can begin to recognize:
“Oh! We finished Warm-Up. Center Floor is next!”
That predictability can be especially helpful for our youngest dancers who are still learning how a dance class works.
⭐ Free Printable: Class Structure Cards
To make this idea easy to use, I created a set of Starbound Performers Class Structure Cards that teachers can use in their own classrooms.
You can print the entire page and display it as a visual class schedule, or cut the six sections apart and use them as individual cards.
As you move through class, try pointing to the next card, turning completed cards over, removing them from the board, or even allowing a student to help identify what comes next.
Sometimes a simple visual reminder can turn “What are we doing next?” into “I know what comes next!”
[DOWNLOAD THE FREE CLASS STRUCTURE CARDS]
Print them. Cut them apart. Laminate them if you'd like. Then make them work for your classroom!
Five Ways to Create Structure in the Dance Classroom
Whether I’m teaching ballet, jazz, tumbling, musical theatre, or some of our youngest performers, there are a few types of structure that I believe can make a tremendous difference.
1. Create a Consistent Beginning
Have a recognizable way that class begins.
Maybe dancers come in and sit in assigned spots. Maybe they begin in a circle. Maybe there’s a specific warm-up song or activity.
The exact routine can change depending on the age and type of class.
What matters is that students begin recognizing:
“When we do this, class has started.”
That transition is especially important for younger dancers.
2. Tell Them What to Expect
Children often do better when they know what’s coming.
Give them a simple overview at the beginning of class.
“First we’re going to stretch. Then we’re going across the floor. After that, we’ll work on our dance.”
You can even add:
“If we work really hard and get through everything, we’ll have time for our fun activity at the end!”
Suddenly the teacher and students are working toward the same goal.
3. Make Expectations Clear
Sometimes we expect children to automatically understand what “good behavior” looks like in a dance classroom.
But have we actually taught them?
Young dancers may need to learn where to put their water bottle, when to get a drink, where to stand while the teacher is talking, what “find your spot” means, when it's okay to talk, and what to do while another group is dancing.
These are classroom skills just like pliés, tendus, jazz squares, and cartwheels are dance skills.
We have to teach them before we can expect them.
4. Build Transitions Into Your Teaching
Sometimes the most challenging part of a young dancer’s class isn’t the activity.
It’s moving from one activity to another.
The transition from warm-up to center floor, center floor to across the floor, or skill work to choreography can quickly become the moment when everyone loses focus.
Create cues your dancers recognize.
It might be a familiar phrase, a clap, a musical cue, a countdown, or your visual structure cards.
The goal is to help children understand:
“We finished that. Now we’re doing this.”
Those little transitions can make a huge difference.
5. Leave Room for FUN
In fact, I believe good structure creates more room for joy.
When students know what is expected and a class flows smoothly, teachers have more opportunities to be creative, laugh, play games, celebrate accomplishments, and let children simply enjoy moving.
And sometimes we all need a reward for making it through the plan.
Which brings me to something very important...
🍫 Don't Forget the Chocolate Break
If you listened to this episode of Starbound Unscripted, you already know where I stand on this.
Sometimes the teacher needs a reset, too!
Maybe yours is a peaceful moment in your car.
Maybe it’s five quiet minutes.
Mine?
Sometimes it’s chocolate.
Teaching young children requires tremendous energy. You’re watching technique, keeping everyone safe, managing different personalities, remembering choreography, changing music, encouraging the child who is struggling, redirecting the child who is distracted, and somehow trying to make the entire experience feel FUN.
Teachers, give yourselves a little grace.
Take your metaphorical—or very literal—chocolate break.
Then come back ready to love those kids and teach them again.
Parents, You're Part of the Structure Too
There is another important piece of this conversation that we can’t leave out.
Parents play an enormous role in helping young dancers be successful in class.
A teacher can create a wonderful classroom environment, but children also need to arrive prepared to participate.
Before class, parents can help by making sure their dancer has:
- Used the restroom before class.
- Had a snack or meal appropriate for the time of day.
- A labeled water bottle nearby.
- The correct in-class wear and shoes.
- Hair prepared for class.
- Enough time to transition into the classroom without feeling rushed.
These may sound like little things.
They aren't.
Think about how difficult it is for us as adults to concentrate when we’re hungry, thirsty, uncomfortable, rushed, or need to use the restroom.
Now imagine being four.
Preparing a child for class gives them the best opportunity to walk through that studio door ready to succeed.
Focus Is a Skill, Too
This may be one of the most important things I want parents and teachers to remember:
Focus is something children learn.
We wouldn’t expect a young dancer to walk into their first ballet class knowing how to do a perfect plié.
So why would we expect them to walk in already knowing how to stand in line, wait their turn, remember a sequence of directions, control their impulses, transition between activities, and remain focused throughout an entire class?
Those skills develop over time.
And just like dance technique, they develop through repetition.
We teach.
We remind.
We redirect.
We practice.
And then one day, the child who once struggled to stay on their spot remembers where to stand without being asked.
The child who constantly interrupted begins waiting for the right moment to speak.
The dancer who couldn't remember three movements in a row suddenly remembers eight.
That growth matters.
Structure Isn't About Control
When people hear the word structure, they sometimes picture strict rules and a classroom where children aren't allowed to be children.
That isn't what I'm talking about at all.
The goal isn't control.
The goal is creating an environment where children feel secure enough to learn.
When dancers know what is expected, when routines feel familiar, and when teachers consistently follow through, children don't have to spend as much energy figuring out the environment around them.
They can spend that energy learning.
They can take chances.
They can make mistakes.
They can laugh.
They can create.
They can dance.
And that is why sometimes, before we teach the steps, we have to teach the structure.
Because when we do, we're not simply creating better dance classes.
We're helping young people develop skills that reach far beyond the studio:
Listening. Responsibility. Patience. Confidence. Teamwork. Self-control. And the ability to keep trying when something doesn't come easily the first time.
Those lessons will stay with them long after the music stops.
🎙️ Want to Hear the Conversation?
This blog post was inspired by Episode 30 of Starbound Unscripted:
Structure Before Steps: Helping Young Dancers Learn to Focus
Click the episode title above to listen for more stories, teaching ideas, classroom encouragement—and, of course, a little conversation about chocolate.
At Starbound Performers, we believe teaching performing arts is about so much more than teaching steps.
It's about helping children grow.
Where Every Performer is a Star!
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