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Thinking Out Loud
By Melissa Hoffman
Flexibility: The Key to Retaining Students
I am often asked why my school has so many high-school–age
dancers when many teachers say that they tend to lose students
once they hit age 13 or 14. The answer is simple: flexibility.
I have learned to know where I can be flexible with the
intensive dancers’ schedules and where I cannot.
One of the most common reasons why teenage dancers stop taking
dance classes is the time needed for school activities and
after-school jobs. Such activities are more important than
ever for students who plan to attend college. Colleges today
are looking for students who are well rounded, and that often
means participating in school activities. A flexible dance
schedule is crucial if they are to find other activities they
can participate in. Teenagers may also need to have part-time
jobs for gas money or college expenses. For this reason I
offer paid assisting jobs to most of my advanced intensive
dancers. Since they are making some money, they are less
likely to leave for an after-school job.
Knowing where to be flexible is the key. We require our
advanced dancers to participate in two ballet classes, one
jazz technique class, and a modern class each week; that’s six
hours. These requirements can be fulfilled in two days. I keep
this in mind when I’m working on a schedule. Though tap, acro,
and pointe are not required, many students choose to take
them; if they need to lighten their schedule I suggest
dropping one of these optional classes first.
Keeping the requirements in mind, the dancers and I can
compromise on scheduling when conflicts arise. For example,
many school activities are short lived, often about six weeks.
It would be a shame if someone were to drop out of dance
completely because of a short-term commitment. In such cases I
suggest that to fulfill their dance requirements they take a
ballet class, for example, on a different day, even perhaps at
a lower level, for the duration of their school activity. The
one area I cannot be as flexible in is choreography. Our
dancers have six hours in which to learn a routine, so missing
a rehearsal is not an option. However, I have learned to be
creative in working with outside schedules.
Sometimes students are given opportunities that they can’t
afford to pass up, even when it means having to drop out of
dance because of a rigid studio schedule. Our local high
school has more than 320 members in its band, including many
of our dancers. Next summer the band is traveling to the
Olympic Games in Beijing, China. What a chance of a lifetime!
Knowing this, I obtained the practice schedule and have been
able to work around it without much effort. But had I not made
the extra effort, I might have lost the dancers in this
group—after all, who would not want to participate in the
Olympics?
Another issue is accommodating dancers on the high school
dance team and cheer squad. To help resolve that potential
conflict, I chose to coach the dance team. I work the practice
schedule around the students’ studio schedules (mine and
others’), and I have not found the schedule to be
unreasonable. However, if at times a compromise cannot be
reached, I work with those dancers to help keep them active in
the studio.
Often the top dancers are also some of the brightest
teenagers. I believe it is important for school owners to keep
in mind that at times the homework load for high school
students can be intense, particularly during finals week.
Offer some flexibility on those rare occasions when a dancer
must leave early or miss class due to homework obligations.
In a day and age when there are so many outside pressures on
teenagers, and when getting good grades is simply not enough
to get into the college of their choice, I believe it is
important to work with students so that dance can continue to
be their passion and the studio offers them a place where they
don’t feel pressured. By making some compromises in
scheduling, without compromising their training, we can
retain and continue to nurture the teenage student. Although
some school owners may feel that it takes too much effort to
work with outside schedules, I believe that the dancers
benefit from it. Yes, they can continue dancing, but they also
learn an invaluable life lesson: how to compromise.
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