Are zoom classes just not going well for you? I know some of the teachers have had major issues with internet, connectivity, logging in, etc. Here are a few ideas that may work for you instead!

1. Pre-recorded lessons + student combo recordings

This is a multi-step process that allows you to provide lessons for your dancers to follow, plus gives you a chance to still "teach."

Step 1 - record your class you want your students to do. (Alternatively, check out the Studio Membership to my online database, where students can do full barres in a follow-along format! With the studio membership, ALL your dancers get access!) Upload your recorded class to YouTube, Vimeo, or Google Drive, or some other hosting service.

Step 2 - Ask all students to do the class X number of times a week, and to record themselves on their phones doing 2-3 combos of their choice from the barre. 

Step 3 - Ask the students to send you these clips, plus their own self-correction notes. I find dancers who watch themselves dance are able to pick out their mistakes and they learn how to self-correct very well!

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Now if you have a large studio, obviously this is a huge amount of videos you have to watch. But if you have a smaller program, this can be a good option for you to be able to still provide corrections and accountability to your dancers, and they don't have to worry about their lesson being interrupted by internet streaming ability.

2. Ask students to create their own combos. 

There is even free ballet music out there to download! I always send my dancers to Jefferson Dalby's site as they can download exactly what songs they want.

As your students to create their own barre or center combinations. Have them upload their combos to a shared google drive folder, or to a private facebook page or forum page. These are relatively easy to set up! This gives the dancers both privacy and accountability, and (again) gives you the chance to send corrections.

3. Choreography project

Ask your students to choreograph a piece of some kind. I usually give them a starting place, such as "choreograph the lyrics of a poem" or "draw a shape on the ground" and then give them several other steps to then turn that into a dance. Whether they videotape and share the finished project or not doesn't matter - it may be just enough to rekindle and remind them of how much they love to dance!

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My choreography project download will be available online soon, and is totally free for members!

4. Non-dancing assignments

Many dancers are having a very hard time staying motivated, or even following digital pre-recorded classes. It's very hard to learn over video, and some people just aren't great at it. Encourage your dancers that this is okay. Remember, your Covid-19 self is totally different from your normal self! And that's okay - you can't judge yourself by your situation and feelings now, because you are not in a normal empowered situation. 

That being said, I've put together some assignments for my dancers to do that are not related to them actually dancing:

• Full-length ballets available on YouTube for free
• Writing assignments and homework sheets (available for free if you're a subscriber to my newsletter!)
• Coloring pages