How to

How to effectively teach a two year old dance class. This year I am a junior faculty member at my studio which means I am the top of the substitute list for all ages and I get to help teach classes. My favorite class to sub for is for sure the little kids. The most common question I get is what do you do with two year olds for half an hour? Well quite a lot actually. At the beginning of the year we were all given a CD full of kid friendly music. It is honestly some of the most annoy songs I have ever heard and the most catchy ones too. I often find myself singing them in my head when I am bored. With the little ones "Shake Your Sillies Out" is a big hit because they just get to jump around and do what they want then we dance to "Wake Up Toes" and basically you sit on the floor and pointe and flex your feet, its super challenging for some of them. Then we all go sit in a line at the side of the room and watch as our friends go across the room because we all take turns walking on our tippie toes or kicking across the floor. We also do lots of stretches, my favorite being butterfly because we go around and say what color our butterfly is and where we want to fly to. You also have to have a lot of patience and some of them are quite the chatter box and they will get mad at you if you don't listen to them. There is a tuesday class that I have taught a lot and they are my babies and every week they always have something new to tell me so they are the highlight of my week. They may be 2 but they are able to do a whole lot more than people think, you just have to be larger than life and act like everything you do is the most exciting thing you have ever done in your entire life.