Strong teams are essential for success when competing, but building a foundation for a strong team doesn’t happen overnight. To get your dancers to work together at their best, you need to provide time to create strong relationships before you can strengthen their skills as dancers.
Break Into Groups
One of the easiest ways to get your teams to bond and form essential ties for working together is to break into small groups. Section your team off into groups of three or more and as everyone to share three things about themselves. The first thing should be their name. The second should be what inspires them as a dancer. The third should be a fun fact about them. This isn’t a lot of information, but these three details are major jumping off points for conversations and getting to know each other.
Jam, Retreat, Regroup
Many studios strengthen their teams and their dance communities overall by hosting and organizing events that bring their students together for dance activities that aren’t related to competing. Events like dance jams, parent jams, movie nights, parties, and even retreats outside of the studio are great ways to create an environment for your students to bond and work together.
Group Appreciation
A great way to generate trust in your dance teams is to have group appreciation sessions after major events and group activities like jams, retreats, and competitions. Gather everyone together in a circle and, one by one, everyone should share something they appreciate about a specific team member or the team as a whole. Even though this activity may be awkward at first, getting these appreciations out into the air will strengthen the team and help generate a sense of pride.
Finding tools and activities that help you create bonds and understanding between your dancers are extremely valuable. Not only will they work more effectively as a team and as a competitive force, but they will also be more likely to collaborate and get along as a dance community.
