High School Dance Classes
Hunter Valley Grammar School Staff Give Jivemecrazy a Huge Recommendation
Jivemecrazy teaches a culturally relevant dance style, to modern popular music, which generates a high level of student engagement and enthusiasm.
Classes are taught professionally by reliable and experienced instructors
fulfilling NSW PDHPE curriculum outcomes for years 7-10.
The course is designed to stimulate personal development, body confidence and coordination, requiring couple interdependence with initiation and response.
The course culminates with an in-school competition day facilitating assessment for couples and individuals.
Make your dance component for years 9 and 10 a highlight that students look forward to.
Save yourself time, achieve a better result and enjoy the opportunity to assess your students or participate with them. Engage your students in a skill for life.
“Brillant. Great way with students. Enthusiastic and professional. Kids have been buzzing and always look forward to this program. Love everything about the whole package.” Hunter Valley Grammar School – PDHPE Teacher
…from the Board of Studies PDHPE syllabus
“The aim of the PDHPE Years 7–10 Syllabus is to develop students’ capacity to enhance personal health and wellbeing, enjoy an active lifestyle, maximise movement potential and advocate lifelong health and physical activity. ”
“PDHPE programs best capitalise on this when they are focused on contexts that are meaningful and relevant to young people and delivered through student-centred learning approaches.”
We would love to come, demonstarte the dance style and talk further with you about all the benefits of hiring Jivemecrazy to handle your dancing curriculum.
A costing indication can be found on our website and custom packages can be arranged.
Courses are limited so act now to avoid disappointment.
Serving Newcastle, Port Stephens and the Hunter Valley region.
“Students experienced an engaging, fun and thoroughly enjoyable dance program that achieved so much more than just meeting syllabus outcomes” Peter Barnes PDHPE teacher Medowie CCS
“The JiveMeCrazy program is extremely well organised and professional. The staff are motivated and enthusiastic and present the dance content in a way that is appealing to the students.” Hunter Valley Grammar School – PDHPE Teacher
More Details
Course Length
The ideal course includes 8 or more periods of instruction before the competition. Much less than this leaves students under-prepared to dance the competition and leaves them a little too uncertain to use Modern Jive voluntarily in social settings. These 8 or more periods can be included as 4 or more double periods which has proven to be equally effective. Long breaks between classes diminish retention. One week is best. Online resources and DVDs are available to help keen students learn fast and retain what they have learned.
How the course begins
We like to have a modern song playing as the students arrive. the rhythm sets a mood of anticipation and fun. we will call the students into a circle and dance a for a few minutes to that song to show the students just what Modern Jive looks like and to give them a standard to aim for. Finally we will demonstrate the moves that the students will be learning in the immediate lesson.
Once the music has stopped we make a formal introduction of ourselves, briefly underscore the benefits of learning to dance and state our expectations about respecting each other. Dancing with someone gives you a rare power to encourage or discourage them, and we want each person, each lesson, to move forward in confidence and to have fun. This requires that each person understand their responsibility to every partner they dance with.
Next, the students will be formed into lines of couples. We explain that the classes are rotational and that every young man will dance with every young woman in the room. Usually the boys will maintain their position in the room and the girls will progress “around” the room. The lines of couples are from front to back, allowing every couple to be oriented to the instructors.
The class then begins with basic hand holds, footwork and the idea of stepping on the beat. The first class will involve very simple moves that help the students to get a sense of satisfaction and confidence about the remainder of the course. Each move is taught in stages. First we step through the concepts and movements that pertain to the men as instructed by the male instructor. Next, the female instructor teaches the ladies. The move is steadily accelerated until we can dance it through to music, which usually happens 8 times. The instructors watch and provide feedback on that move, we dance again to implement the feedback and then progress to the next move.
When the second move is complete, the two moves are linked and danced together, forming a sequence or mini-routine. Then the process is repeated.
This system has been devised and refined over many years to maximise the student’s learning speed and accuracy. Usually by the end of the first class, the clowns in the group are feeling a sense of challenge and becoming a little less disruptive.
Workshopping
During a double period, the regular pattern of classes is broken somewhere near the middle. The format is changed and the room forms a circle of couples. In this format we use some exercises to teach the concepts of lead and follow using hand pressure, rhythmic accuracy, posture, eye contact and facial expression. These lessons are explained in the context of competing in the dance competition at the completion of the course.
Revision
Each lesson, time is spent revising the material from the previous week. This i usually done with the music on and with a swift interchange between couples and moves. If any particular move is too vague in the student’s minds, time may be spent to slow it down and consolidate until proficiency is achieved for a large majority.
Staff roles
After the initial introduction and formation of class patterns, the staff are not required to assist in the instruction in any way. Some schools have their staff actually join the lesson as a student, others use the time to watch and assess their students.
Competition
The dance competition serves as a goal to work toward and a final time of assessment by the teachers. Usually about 5 periods are allocated to the competition day. Students are judged on an individual basis in the “Dance With A Stranger” section of the competition, and as a couple in the couples section.
The DWAS section rotates the couples within each heat and assesses the men and women separately, while in the couples section, students dance only with their partner. Four judges are used for each heat. Heats, repechages, semis and finals are all danced with a growing standard and excitement.
On many occasions, other classes from the school are brought in to observe the competition for a time. This serves to establish anticipation about the course for the upcoming years.
Couples are usually selected by the students themselves in the weeks leading up to the competition allowing the dancers to practice together. If the numbers are uneven between the sexes, some students will have two partners to compete with. Teachers may need to assist in this process to ensure that no-one is left out.
While popular students usually couple up early, it is almost always other couples that shine and end up taking out the placing. Being a great athlete, a football player or netball player, does not automatically correlate with the skills required to dance well with a partner and so dancing serves as a social leveler in many cases. It is exciting to see some of the unexpected students excel and enjoy dancing and grow in confidence because of it.
Costume
Throughout the course, students need no special clothing or shoes. As the competition approaches, some students begin to wear the shoes they intend to complete in. On the cmpetition day, students may be encouraged to “dress up” with their partner. They often choose to identify with their partner in an amount of colour co-ordination or fashion style. Students do not need fine clothes for this. Modern Jive lends itself to street wear as much as to evening wear.
We prefer this out-of-uniform policy for the day as it helps students to feel serious about the competition and it causes them to appear and behave like men and women instead of boys and girls. “The clothes make the man.” Often times the style of clothing chosen will reflect that chosen by the instructors during the course.
School policies on modestly will need to be reiterated leading up to the competition and tips about footwear will also be given by the instructors.
Winners
First second and third places are awarded for both sections of the competition, a brief presentation awards prizes supplied by Jivemecrazy and in some cases the winning couple are awarded a perpetual trophy supplied by the school.
* This information describes a typical course and can be modified as your staff see fit.