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School life6 minutes

Plan a dance project at your school in Stuttgart

By Bernhard De LucaUpdated

In short
  • For a dance project at your school in Stuttgart, first formulate an observable educational objective.
  • Adapt movement activities to the age, prior experience and support needs of your class.
  • The room needs clear paths for movement, a suitable floor and music that can be heard clearly.
  • Give the external instructor a written brief with the learning objective, schedule, responsibilities and rules for physical contact.

A school class doesn't come together as a well-rehearsed dance group of its own accord. Your project therefore needs to reach those who are reluctant to put themselves out there, learn more slowly, or have so far only watched from the sidelines.

What you need for planning

  • Grade level and number of participating children
  • Available teaching time, including room changes
  • Information about movement experience and support needs
  • Room layout showing usable space and obstacles
  • Budget for instruction, travel, and materials

The learning objective determines the movement task

A dance project for a school class in Stuttgart needs an objective you can recognize through the activity. “Encouraging teamwork” is too vague. More concrete would be: A small group develops a sequence of movements, incorporates everyone’s suggestions and starts together on an agreed signal. This also gives children with no dance experience a task they can take responsibility for.

Choose dance elements that fit the objective. Steps and clapping work well for rhythm; mirroring activities with alternating leadership work well for collaboration. To explore expression, you can change the tempo, size of movements and body tension. The article on expressing emotions through movement offers ideas without requiring anyone to share anything personal. For sound-based activities, the playful introduction to tap dance for children shows how children can come up with their own responses instead of simply copying steps.

A historical point of connection in Stuttgart is youth choreography: in 1961, a matinee by the Noverre Society with John Cranko gave rise to a format for young choreographers. You can build on this with a simple idea for your class: children create their own movements instead of only copying steps provided to them. Assess the agreed learning process, not how closely it resembles a stage performance. One visible improvement might be a group combining its different ideas into a sequence they can repeat together.

Young dancers dancing in the studio
A visible starting marker helps the group find a shared starting point again after each practice phase.

Seven steps to a project brief

  1. Write down an observable goal

    Complete the sentence: “By the end, the class can …”. Choose a main goal such as shared rhythm or coordinating their own ideas. Add a visible outcome, such as a repeatable sequence with a shared beginning and end.

  2. Record the class's starting point

    Note ages, group size, dance experience, and support needs without labeling children publicly. Younger children benefit from short, visual instructions; teenagers need clear tasks and room for creativity. Set a simplified version of the same task so everyone can work on the shared theme.

  3. Set Up the Movement Space Appropriately

    Mark out clear paths, work areas, and a quiet spot at the edge. Remove tripping hazards and secure speaker cables away from walkways. Hard concrete is not suitable for repeated jumps or floorwork, so plan standing activities without jumps there. Everyone must be able to move without colliding.

  4. Structure the process into learning phases

    Plan for arrival, physical preparation, exploration, small-group work, and a wrap-up. Factor changing clothes and moving between rooms into the available class time. For a short workshop, one movement task with variations is enough; multiple sessions allow for revision. Set an audible stop signal and a meeting point.

  5. Draft the brief for the instructor

    Describe the goal, age group, timeframe and space on one page. Ask for experience working with school groups, clear demonstrations and tasks at different difficulty levels. Agree in writing with the external instructor on the scope of services, fee, cancellation policy and responsibilities; note which school staff member will remain present.

  6. Set participation rules and choose music

    Plan activities without required physical contact or gender-assigned roles. Let people know before touching them, and allow them to decline. Choose music with a clear beat, age-appropriate lyrics, and a volume that still allows announcements to be heard. Include video recording in the schedule only if the required consent has been obtained.

  7. Align the wrap-up with the learning objective

    Plan a short workshop presentation within the class or a group review instead of a mandatory stage show. Then gather specific observations: Which cue worked well, and which agreement helped? Your finished plan connects each wrap-up question to the goal set at the beginning.

How an idea becomes a learning assignment

Like this

  • Identify criteria for collaboration
  • Offer movement variations for sitting and standing
  • Turn the music down for spoken instructions too
  • Give objective feedback on a specific movement

Not like this

  • Equate the most beautiful performance with the best participation
  • Expect everyone to make movements of the same size
  • Shout instructions over constantly loud music
  • Comment on body shapes or supposed talent

Your checklist through to completion

Before Commissioning

Planning

Before the first session

Preparation

After the project

Evaluation

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. No, a dance project can end with a group review and reflection. A public performance brings additional requirements for rehearsals, space and consent. If your goal is collaboration, an in-class studio presentation is often enough, where groups show which decisions they made together.

Dance for students and young people in Stuttgart

On udansa, you can find classes in Stuttgart as a starting point for your project, but a regular course is not the same as a school booking.

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Your class creates things together

On udansa, you can find student and youth dance in Stuttgart, as well as contacts to help you get started dancing. With your written project brief, you can describe exactly what kind of guidance your class needs.

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Your class creates things together

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