This giveaway is now closed to new entries.
Check the Spring Fever main page to enter those still open.
Welcome to DAY FOUR of the Spring Fever Giveaway 2011!
Today’s giveaway is sponsored by Dance in a Box.
Dance in a Box provides tools for teachers to aid in teaching hip hop and rhythm to kids age 3-12, including interactive choreography kits and learning music.
Dance in a Box creator Tricia Gomez, is considered a pioneer in the pre-school and elementary hip hop field. Her unique hip hop teaching methods have landed her on the Dr. Phil Show and as the Head Judge of the TV show Dance Revolution. Her philosophy on teaching kids hip hop has made her the subject of countless articles in dance and fitness magazines across the US and Canada. She’s appeared at the Dance Teacher Summit in NYC, has danced for the Los Angeles Laker Girls, Disneyland, Universal Studios, and choreographed for Saved By the Bell, the Laker Girls, and other dance teams. She’s also guested right here at Dance Advantage with her post, Presenting Hip-Hop in a Positive Light.
In 2003, Tricia was diagnosed with Lupus and needed a way to transfer her unique knowledge of teaching youth hip hop to teachers who were willing but unfamiliar with teaching the dance form to young kids. She developed a flashcard system that allowed teachers to mix-and-match the different dance step cards to quickly create routines. Each step has a name and a technique, making it easier for a teacher to explain to their students and easier for students to remember the steps. The first kit created was Hip Hop In a Box. Due to its popularity, Tricia created 1-2-3 Dance, a new 50 card choreography kit, as well as a series of music downloads to supplement teaching rhythm and counting.
With Dance in a Box it’s easy to add structure to your youth hip hop classes and open up new revenue streams by adding hip hop for 3-5 year olds. These products make training new-to-hip-hop teachers a breeze. “In my experience,” says Tricia, “it is easier to train teachers who currently teach very young kids to add hip hop to their teaching repertoire than it is to teach an experienced hip hop teacher who is used to teaching older kids to work and handle the young ones.” In this way, thanks to Dance in a Box, studio owners may find youth hip hop teachers where normally they wouldn’t think to look.
The Giveaway
Tricia would like to give awa
y her new kit, 1-2-3 Dance to TWO Dance Advantage readers.
Retailing at just $35, 1-2-3 Dance is an interactive hip hop choreography kit containing 50 mix-and-match hip hop step cards and access to a secret website where you’ll find over 250 instructional video clips, 5 downloadable songs and the popular Rhythm Lesson Video, which helps you explain to your students how dance relates to music for each age group, as well as how to structure developmentally appropriate routines for each age group.
How To Enter:
STUDIO DIRECTORS, leave a comment at this post, answering the following question: What criteria do you use when hiring a hip hop teacher for your young kids?
TEACHERS, leave a comment at this post, answering this question: What is your biggest challenge in teaching hip hop to young students?
If you’re both a studio owner and hip hop teacher, feel free to answer both or take your pick!!
This giveaway is open to those in those in the United States and will close Monday, March 28 at Midnight EDT.
Winners will be drawn and contacted one week from today. I hope you win!
Check back tomorrow for another giveaway.
Once contacted via the email used to comment, winners have only 48 hours to respond and claim their prize. Each giveaway is treated as a separate contest. Subscriber PLUS members are given daily opportunities to earn additional entries on each giveaway. PLEASE READ our giveaway policy before entering.
Nichelle Suzanne is a writer specializing in dance and online content. She is also a dance instructor with over 20 years experience teaching in dance studios, community programs, and colleges. She began Dance Advantage in 2008, equipped with a passion for movement education and an intuitive sense that a blog could bring dancers together. As a Houston-based dance writer, Nichelle covers dance performance for Dance Source Houston, Arts+Culture Texas, and other publications. She is a leader in social media within the dance community and has presented on blogging for dance organizations, including Dance/USA. Nichelle provides web consulting and writing services for dancers, dance schools and studios, and those beyond the dance world. Read Nichelle’s posts.
I look for a qualified dancer who understands that teaching kids requires patience, discipline, love and most of all fun!
I find getting students to relax in their movement is the most challenging for beginner hip hop dancers.
I stresss the importance of wholesome moves and family friendly music. I want the kids to be able to perform their hip hop routines in front of any audience and not feel ashamed!
I look for someone who is full of energy and enthusiasm, well-trained, and who truly enjoys working with children and dance.
We haven’t really offered hip hop before this year; teacher is great! but I would definately look for someone who understood how to teach young ones, who understood our philosphy on music and moves, and who could actually dance hip hop style. Got the freebie fever which is much more fun that the actual fever I had yesterday! Tattling about this on facebook.
I would love to win this box set. It gets difficult coming up with new fun moves that young kids can pick up. It’d be awesome to learn new hip hop moves for all different age groups!
I’ve got Freebie Fever! And I tattled about it on Facebook (Kristy Countryman).
The teaching of any dance form, hip hop included, to young students requires passion for the art form, a knowledge of how young bodies move, using music that has no cuss words or suggestive lyrics and teaching the children the history of the art form.
I look for someone with patience yet who has the ability to inspire and motivate children. Your very motivating to find someone else with an antoimmune disease. I have MS.
I find getting the students to relax and let go challenging. Finding the right teacher with patience and passion for teaching the younger students is so worth the extra effort.
The attention span of 3-5 yr holds are not very large. When you try to teach them something and They can’t figure it out, they tend to give up easily and do their own thing
The biggest challenge with teaching hip hop to young students is trying to keep a straight face! I’m more of a “jump like a dog on a trampoline” than a “keep on krumping” kind of choreographer! I must have freebie fever to write what I just wrote!
Would love to win this one! After teaching 30+ years of ballet and creative movement, with a little of jazz, tap, and modern, I sure need more info on hip-hop. Then, I could hire myself! Really do need this to continue my quest of learning and doing all dance things!
After a detailed interveiw I go over what we expect with teaching and music. Then I get them to teach a class.
I was greatful to have someone walk in that was very talented but never taught kids before. So being eager to learn, I was able to mold him into a great teacher and role model.
When hiring a hip-hop instructor I like to find someone who is very comfortable with their style. I believe each teacher should bring their own individuality to the class along with lots of confidence.
I find the challenge with young hip-hop students to be getting them to hit the movements sharply. They seem to remember the moves just fine and even get the rhythm after some practice but lack of arm strength and unfamiliarity with their own bodies in that style proves to be a bit of a struggle.
What a great tool! I would love to win this!!!:)
I think that you must be up to date and and have the right attitude for the class you are teaching are a must to teach any kind of class. Let the kids enjoy and learn what you have to offer and always do your homework. Come to class knowing your students and your material…And most of all let your love for the craft speak thru you!!!
The biggest challenge is finding the right steps that are easy enough for them to do yet look cool enough for them to feel they are doing hip hop and not just basic jazz dance.
I am a parent. My daughter loves hip hop. For me the biggest concerns I have are the movements and the music. Recently she attended a hip hop convention. The music was carefully edited for the convention. When we get home my daughter wanted me to download some of the songs. Well, when I downloaded the entire songs some of them were not appropriate for an 11 year old. Much to my chagrine,one that had gotten stuck in my own head from the convention turned out to be about a prostitute who took any type of currency. I like to think of myself as open minded, however I do not think it is appropriate for younger children to be listening to songs with lyrics about prostitutes or drugs or to be dancing to music that has cuss words. I watch the teachers who teach my children to assure that they are careful about what music they use for hip hop classes. I am also watchful for moves that can best be described by someone like me who is not a dancer as “stripper moves”. Some people think young girls acting “sexy” is cute. I am not one of those people. So far I have been blessed that the teachers in the studios where my children take dance are very careful to have the music, moves and the costumes age appropriate. I have never felt the need to be embarressed to have my mother in law watch my children dance.
In french please translate with google: En Guyane Française les parents n’osent pas inscrire les garçons au cours de danse. Les adolescents s’y sont mis grâce à la dance Hip Hop. En tant que professeur de danse je pense ouvrir une classe de hip hop pour les tous petits dès la rentrée prochaine…Its Marvelous
Francine of French Guiana
Hiphop is a challenge for our studio because we carefully screen all music for content and lyrics, along with having age appropriate costumes and dance moves. It would be great to add new moves to our repetoire, plus cards are great for playing different games and things with the students!!
Finding hip hop music that is not just ‘clean’ but also has a positive message is challenging. Thank goodness for The Figureheads! Be sure to check out their funky AND inspiring music… love them!
I agree that it’s a little harder to find appropriate music, but I had trouble (for a while) finding a great hip hop teacher who was DEPENDABLE!!! My luck has changed, fortunately. (I’ve got the freebee fever.)
I think the hardest part of my job is keeping all the kids focused. I let them get rid of some energy by allowing them to do a 5 – 10 second happy dance of whatever they like when they do the combination well. They absolutely love it. Sometimes I find it doesn’t matter though. With 10+ 7-12 year olds in one room with one teacher, they’re just going to get crazy.
The most challenging thing about teaching hip hop to young children is finding appropriate movements that they can achieve at their level of development. Also finding appropriate hip hop music for younger age children.
As a studio owner I look for a teacher that not only is up to date on choreography but has an understanding on what type of music to play and also how to have control of the class. Most importantly they need to know how to make the class fun!
Shared on FB. Fun in a box!
I find that my younger students are excited to learn new moves and explore the world of dance through Hip Hop. My biggest challenge is giving them techniques to control thier bodies and hit exact shapes and poses. I think flash cards could really be a wonderful assistant to me, while adding fun to the classes!
Thanks!
another genius idea that every teacher and studio owner should know about! 🙂 I have freebie fever!
The toughest issue that I see with teaching hip-hop to tots or younger children is detaching the negative or inappropriate connotations. (Thank you, music videos.) I just heard of Dance in a Box for the first time two days ago; what are the odds of hearing about them again within the week? What a great success story.
PS – My freebie fever is still going strong, so I’ve tattled on this giveaway on facebook.
I have trouble keeping the movements age appropriate. Some students have a different perspective of what hip-hop is… I have trouble keeping the suggestive dance movements out of the class room… I was shocked at what some of my younger students thought was hip-hop…