What suggestions do you have for making practices useful for multiple levels?

Chicago Balboa Underground has a weekly multilevel practice that has been running for years. Here are some things that have made it successful.

1 Mix of guided and open practice

Advanced dancers often have a set goal for practice and enjoy an open practice format. However, novice dancers have no idea how to practice and do best with structure. Our practice in Chicago is half open and half guided practice.

2. Start with Reviewing the Base Move

Whenever experienced dancers want to work on more advanced movements, spend the first half of practice reviewing the base move. For example, if the group wants to work on behind the back toss outs start with regular toss outs first. Have an advanced dancer demo the base move (ex, toss out). Have students rotate and try the move with various partners. Discuss what different partners did to make the move successful. Make sure to include technique discusssion for both leads and follows. Have everyone practice the base move again to try some of these technique tips. This gives advanced dancers a chance to work on their technique and provides lots of practice for novice dancers. In the second part of the practice, work together to figure out the more complicated move (ex. behind the back toss out). Newer dancers can continue to work on the base move in the rotation if needed. They also get a chance to be exposed to the complex move and can see where the base move will take them. This benefits both novice and advanced dancers.

3. Use drills, excercises, and concept exploration activities

Bring back drills and excercises from workshops to practice. These are often more approachable for mixed level groups and benefit from the increased dance and discussion time of a practice.

4. Guide experienced dancers through first teaching experiences.

Practice is a great, informal way to guide experienced dancers throught their first teaching experience and build leadership skills. Experienced dancers take turns modeling moves and I provide prompts to help them break down the move for newer dancers. Many of our local teachers have grown out of our weekly practice.