How should you incentivize your dancers?

Dance classes can be an extremely rewarding extra-curricular recreational activity. However, in many classes it is evident that many dancers do not have the energy or the discipline to focus as much as they need to in order to truly accomplish their goals. Many parents and students are paying for dance classes with an end goal in mind for their children and themselves. Some intend to make a high school or college team, some intend to simply improve on their skills from last year, some wish to win competitions. Therefore, giving these students an average dance education will not suffice. As influencers and educators, we should should set ourselves apart with a higher standard. So the question is, how can we motivate the more... uninterested of our students.

Research has demonstrated that offering rewards to children can improve their concentration, performance, and behavior in a classroom setting. Teachers can reward their students with positive reinforcement. It encourages appropriate behavior and naturally corrects inappropriate behavior. When applying this to a dance classroom setting, there are several methods that one can use in order to implement a rewards system.

The reward system I would like to focus on is offering a reward every time a student accomplishes a new skill. The instructor would have a treats in a designated basket and construct a chart with their student's names on. Every time a student accomplishes a new skill, a sticker would be added to their name on the chart. Once they have accomplished a designated amount of skills in a time frame, or have enough stickers on the chart, they can get a treat form the basket. According to ongoing research beginning in 2005, this method has demonstrated consistently positive results.
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