If you have one or two free evenings at your studio during the week, hosting a family freestyle class can be the perfect way to show off your studio’s fun atmosphere and get your dancers’ parents more involved. A family freestyle class is a little different from other parties you might host at your studio, but it can be a rewarding experience for everyone involved. Let’s get this dance party started! Follow the steps below to start hosting your own family freestyle classes!
Determine What You Want to Provide
When you choose to host a family freestyle class/dance party, you know you are definitely going to be putting together music, dance moves, and a space to get grooving, but if you want to go a little farther, you’ll have to do a little extra planning.
If you want to take your family freestyle class to the next level, you can do something as simple as adding a small spread of snacks and drinks for your dancers and their families to enjoy when they aren’t dancing. Have a little fun with it! Set up your “Snack Barre” with your favorite dance-themed decorations (sparkly tablecloths are a must!). Once your table is decorated and presentation ready, cover it with dancer-friendly snacks like granola bars and veggie trays. You can also put out easy to share candies like M&Ms. Don’t forget to also put out punch or water for everyone to drink!
Pick a Song
The most important part of any dance party is the music! The easiest way to pick music for your family freestyle is to pick one or two songs. We know, that doesn’t seem like a lot, but we will explain why less is more in just a bit! Pick songs that your dancers will know, that have a good beat, and are appropriate for anyone that might attend your class. We suggest using some of your favorite radio pop hits! If you love to dance to it in the car, your dancers will probably love to dance to it in the studio!
Create a Move Set
You don’t want your dancers to walk away from this freestyle party without learning something! To ensure that they do, you will want to create a move set that everyone can learn (parents too!). Because you are likely to have dancers of all ages and inexperienced family members at your family freestyle it is best to prepare beginner level moves that are fairly simple to learn. We suggest at least three simple moves that everyone will learn. When you start off your family freestyle, you will want to introduce your dancers to the song(s) they will be dancing to, and then teach everyone your move set.
And, Break!
Once everyone knows the move set, have the dancers and their families break off to work together to create short one or two-minute freestyle routines using your move set and their own personal style. It’s up to you how long to give them to work on their routine, but fifteen minutes should be plenty. It is freestyle after all!
Dance!
When all of the routines are together and your dancers and their families are ready to bust a move, it’s time to dance! Get all of your dancers together in a circle and hit play! Have your dancers perform their short routines with their families in the center of the circle (with everyone else cheering of course!). When one group is done, a new one will switch in. All you have to do is restart/switch the song as needed. Having fewer songs will leave less variation between performances and means that you will have to change the song less often.
If you want your freestyle party to get even more free, prepare an extra playlist for everyone to dance to together after all of the short routines have been performed.
What are you waiting for? Gather your dancers and your dance parents. It’s time to have a little fun – and learn something! Let’s get freestyling!
