Dance teacher

You would teach people how to dance. You’d help your students pass dance exams and organise performances where they can showcase their skills.

You could work with people with different ages and abilities from school pupils to adults and pensioners.

As a private dancing teacher you would usually work for yourself and offer classes in a venue like a leisure centre or a church hall. You’d teach individuals and groups, some of whom may find it hard to learn and remember the steps.

You could also teach people who want to learn more about dance and movement so they can improve their health and wellbeing.

You could work in schools: in primary schools, dance is usually taught by the class teacher. In secondary schools dance teachers could also teach other related subjects like, drama, performing arts or physical education.

You might also work with professional dance students and train them to develop their skills and knowledge of dance, or work at a further education college or university.

You would:

• Show students how to warm up and move safely
• Demonstrate how to perform dance moves
• Design dance pieces and performances
• Keep records of students’ performance and progress
• Give students’ feedback
• Enter students for dance exams
• Design or choreograph dances routines for your pupils to perform
• Teach the theory of dance

You’d also need to maintain your own dance skills and techniques. You’d need to understand how to prevent injury and meet health and safety requirements.

You could teach one or more forms of dance, such as:

• Ballet
• Contemporary dance
• Tap
• Modern
• Social dancing like ballroom or line dancing

You may also need to know about anatomy and physiology, and subjects such as the history of dance or dance notation - the written system for recording dance movement.