25 dance goals for beginners, students and anyone who takes class

Dance goals for beginners

Beginner goals are about the beat, the basic steps and coming back next week.

• Take one class a week for a full term.
• Count the eights out loud through one whole song.
• Learn the basic step of your style well enough to do it without looking down.
• Learn 8 counts of choreography and dance them without watching the teacher.
• Dance through one full song at home without stopping.

Dance technique goals

Technique goals name one skill and what clean looks like. Turns, jumps and balance are shared ground with gymnastics goals.

• Land a clean double turn on both sides.
• Hold a balance on one leg for 10 seconds.
• Spot every turn across the floor for a whole class.
• Land every jump quietly for a whole class.
• Fix one correction from your teacher each week for a term.

Performance and choreography goals

Performance goals are about dancing for someone, which is a different skill from dancing in class. On ice the same goals appear as figure skating goals.

• Learn a full routine in 4 weeks.
• Perform in one showcase this year.
• Freestyle for 1 minute without stopping.
• Choreograph 32 counts of your own.
• Film yourself once a month and write down one thing to change.

Dance practice goals

Practice goals count time and classes. They are the ones you fully control.

• Practise 15 minutes a day for 30 days.
• Take 50 classes in a year.
• Dance 100 hours in a year. That is about 2 hours a week.
• Stretch after every class for a term.
• Run one combination 10 times a day for a week.

Social dance and new style goals

Some goals are about range: a second style, a new room, a partner you have never danced with.

• Go to a social dance night and dance 5 songs.
• Learn 10 moves in a partner dance and use each one in a song.
• Take a beginner course in a second style.
• Take a workshop with a guest teacher.
• Audition for a team or a company.

What is a good dance goal?

A good dance goal is specific enough to practise tomorrow. A review of 35 years of goal research found that specific, hard goals lead to higher performance than being told to do your best. "A clean double turn on both sides by the summer show" tells you what to work on. "Be a better dancer" does not.

Most of your goals should be about how you do the step. A review of 27 studies of goal setting in sport found that process goals, the ones about how you carry out a skill, had the largest effect on performance. In dance, your teacher's corrections are ready-made process goals.

Write the corrections down and look at them once a week. That is all a weekly review is, and it turns a class you enjoyed into a class you learned from.

How to track dance goals

Tick off each class and each practice the day it happens. A review of 138 studies found that people who monitored their progress reached their goals more often, and that recording it beat keeping it in your head.

Classes and practice days are a day count. Hours are an amount that adds up. Most creative challenge ideas use the same two shapes.

Skill in dance grows between shows, where nobody claps. A picture that fills up one class at a time shows the work that the stage hides.

Frequently asked questions

What are examples of dance goals?

Land a clean double turn on both sides. Learn a full routine in 4 weeks. Take 50 classes in a year. Practise 15 minutes a day for 30 days. Each one can be watched or counted.

What are good dance goals for beginners?

Take one class a week for a full term, and learn to count the eights through a whole song. Once you can hear the count, every new step has something to hang on.

How many dance goals should I set?

One technique goal, one practice count, and one performance goal for the year. More than that and you will not practise any of them enough to see change.