When I was growing up there were so many dance films around ‘Fame’, ‘Flashdance’ and ‘Footloose’ to name a few, these days we have ‘Strictly’, ‘The Greatest Dancer’ and ‘The Next Step’. Which is great, fabulous even… but I do think they imply that dancing is about learning & replicating steps and for anyone training to become a professional performer this is certainly a significant part of preparation for the job, but from an educational point of view it is a very small part of the equation.

When I see children copying movement sequences, I find myself thinking ‘what are they learning?’ Now there are some very skilled teachers out there that will be able to highlight the physical skills and explain the compositional elements of this way of delivering – but working through a creative process will still enable the children to develop these qualities whilst capitalising on their compositional and analytical skills; promote discussion; be more inclusive; allow for differentiation and inspire those that do not naturally gravitate towards the subject.

And it’s so much easier for the teacher to guide through questionings rather than shouting 5,6,7 and!… So, hand it over to them… tell them ‘It’s Your Move’.