The dancers of Frock give us some top tips for leading pro-class online…
Black and white photo of Nadenh and Amy, two members of the Frock cast, sitting cross-legged on the wooden floor of the dance studio, contracting their upper bodies with arms reaching forward and gaze directed to the floor. The focus is on Nadenh, Amy and other dancers in the background are blurred. Photo by Chris Parkes.
Some of the Frock team have been leading class as part of our online activities; there’s a lot they’ve learnt over the months in lockdown as they’ve adapted their teaching practice to the online realms of Facebook Live and Zoom! Here are some of their top tips for leading classes…
- Have a clear plan for your class that will fill up the time and try not to fit too much in.
- Know your plan and teach like you are confident with it (even if you don’t feel confident at all!)
- Limit yourself to how much talking you do. If you have more information to give, shorten the exercises.
- Don’t use left and right, find ways to describe movement to help with direction without saying left and right!
- Be really clear in what you say.
- Don’t be afraid to repeat (especially if you’re live), people drop in and out all the time and may have missed something, and it’s always good to reiterate what the exercise or movement is about.
- Keep the flow going as much as possible throughout the class to boost the energy up.
- Use key words as much as possible to limit talking when music is on and to encourage looking away from the screen.
ENERGY- I like to give lots of energy so the participants on the other end feel like we are together in class and we can feel positive together.
PACE & CONTENT- Keep the pace as you would in class and offer a full range of material – it can be tricky to pick up online; but I find the beauty of being online is the option to replay or rewind… so if you don’t get it the first time you can do it again but you still get a physical and challenging class.
A Teaching Checklist:
- Check your internet!
- Check the devices that you are going to use – Whether it is a Phone, iPad, Laptop or Desktop…
- Check the platform that you are going to use – Whether it be Facebook, Instagram, YouTube…
- Check the speakers you are using. It might be useful to have someone do a sound check where you go live privately, and they can tell you whether or not your music is loud enough and clear. The music you use for your teaching has to be license-free so that you don’t run into any copyright issues by playing music you don’t own. If you have any musician friends – how about commissioning them for a little bit of music for class?
- Prepare at least one section with open language that is accessible for everyone. Open Language is where you use words that don’t have a specific movement attached but are open to interpret for people to create their own movement.
- Gather some resources if you need them – images or videos with imagery and ideas are always helpful when teaching.
- Don’t forget to have water by your side – you are going to need it!
Check out our tips on participating in class below!
