We're often asked "How long should classes last?".  The answer is "it depends".  It depends on the age of the children, their ability and also, frankly, how much you are charging for the classes, because parents will usually use a "per hour" rate as a way to evaluate your competitiveness.  For kids aged up to 3, we recommend no more than 30 minutes for a class.  Even with the variety of music and styles in a typical Dancercise Kids class, 30 minutes is a long time for a younger child and you want to keep it short and sweet.  Children that are 4 and 5 years old can do a 45 minute class usually without too much problem.  And if you are teaching older kids, 6 and 7 year olds, you can stretch to an hour as long as you are prepared to keep it varied throughout.  Think about your competition too - figure out what they are charging per class, and use a "per minute" comparison to make sure you are competitive or that you can explain the difference.  So if they are charging $10 for a 45 minute class for a similar age group, you need to be competitive, so you might only charge $8 for a 30 minute class.  Our advice is - be prepared to be flexible and respond to the needs of parents, kids and the market;  but also stick to your guns if you feel you have the right length class, regardless of what the over-opinionated parent has to say!

As a teacher and therefore an important influence in the lives of the children you teach, you have a responsibility to reinforce some of the basics in life.  While it is often easier for us to focus on just the job to be done, we do all have an opportunity to use our time with the kids to help get across some important messages.  You can do this directly but many kids will switch off, so instead use the music and movement you are teaching to bring these topics to life.  The Dancercise Kids curriculum is specifically structured with monthly units all of which feature a theme related to good life lessons.  In our Fitness Fun Quarter we emphasize Nutrition, Healthy Habits and Muscles.  The songs we use, our muscle of the month and our sign language all reinforce those themes, so we make it easy for you, the instructor, to do your part in a broader education for the children in your care.

We totally understand that not everyone wants to buy and follow our curriculum for kids.  You're all talented instructors and you can develop your own lesson plans.  If that's you and you have the time to create your own choreography, then check out our music.  We have over 130 songs custom written for teaching dance to kids available on our website, and all of them can be downloaded individually for just $1.99 a song.

Dancercise Kids Music is a member of ASCAP - we support musicians' rights to be compensated for their endeavors.  Please don't copy music illegally.

We get inquiries from dance teachers and instructors all over the world on how our curriculum works.  It's not surprising that we get these questions - the reality is that most commercial curriculum for sale, according to our research, follows a consistent pattern of providing instruction on the standard steps you already teach, recommends that you license or acquire the same music that everyone has heard or used before and, essentially, provides a somewhat unoriginal and uninspiring approach to curriculum.  It also tends to be formal, limited to one type of dance, and reflects the style and interpretation of the author.

At Dancercise Kids, we took a completely different approach.  Bored with teaching the same old routines, we stepped back and looked at what kids ages 3 to 5 really need.  The reality is that the majority of kids that age do not harbor ambitions to be in the Bolshoi (although their parents may already have that idea!).  For young children, the most important thing in dance is that they learn the basics, they enjoy what they're doing and they decide whether they enjoy it enough to focus more intently on it in the future.  So what did we do?

We created an entire curriculum from scratch that involved writing and recording our own music.  Now, we have all heard music for pre-school dancers that is just dreadful - boring, poorly produced or just plain tuneless.  Not us! 

Dancercise Kids music was written, recorded and produced by professional musicians.  The lyrics are written by our Founder, Tessa Pfeifer, who has more than 20 years' experience teaching dance to young children and is an award-winning recording artist in her own right.  So the songs you get are original, contemporary and, most importantly, fun and entertaining for kids, parents and teachers.

Add to that, original curriculum that introduces all the basic moves and steps of jazz, tap and ballet, and then surrounds it with fitness for warm up, and creative movements, and you have a complete package.

So - in a nutshell - what do you get?  For one year of curriculum, you get 60 original songs, specially written for young children.  You get 4 quarters of material, each comprised of 3 units (designed for one unit presented each month, although you can do as you choose).  Each unit has 5 dances (one each of Fitness, Jazz, Tap, Ballet and Creative Movements), a tumbling move and a lesson with a muscle of the month on which to focus; we also make extensive use of sign language in the curriculum, helping kids develop fine motor skills while appreciating a different way to communicate. 

In any of the one year packages you will get:

• 2 CDs featuring the 60 songs
• 2 DVDs featuring video instruction for each and every dance and the tumbling component
• a 100+ page professionally printed and bound booklet containing full written choreography and lyrics, and detailed lists of sign language

This curriculum, at just $349 for a one year package, will cost you less than $6 per dance, and you can use it as often as you like for your own classes and lessons.  If you answer our simple survey, you can get a code that will discount this wonderful curriculum even further - to barely $5 per activity!

Over 25 teachers on four continents have made the decision to invest in a refreshing way to teach dance.  We hope you will take advantage of our offer to join them!

Our mission is to help children build strong minds and happy hearts.  So we make it easy to license our original and entertaining curriculum.  Tired of the same old routines and choreography?  This curriculum is packed with original songs and dances of all kinds, giving you and the kids something fresh to teach and learn every week!