Dancer Success and Growth Mindset

Resources for Dance Teachers

Growth Mindset is one of the most powerful resources for dance teachers available today and is integral if you are looking to prime your dancers for success. How do dancer success and growth mindset relate, what kind of resources for dance teachers are available and while we are at it, what actually  is Growth Mindset Here is a concrete and possibly familiar example to help explain.  Lets imagine two dancers, Dancer A and Dancer B. Both dancers are at the top of their class in their respective schools.  They are perceived as successful by their team mates.   Both attend the same competition, where the standard is quite high. Neither dancer does as well as they might have liked.  They come away from the competition having seen dancers that can turn better than they can, that are more flexible than they are, who are better at acrobatics and stage craft, who are stronger and who use their legs and feet well.  How do these dancers react? Dancer A is dancing with a Fixed Mindset:  She comes away thinking….”I’m never going to that comp again, I’ll just stick to the smaller easier competitions where I do well.  I’m not as flexible as those other girls and they are natural turners and their school is an acro school.  The judge didn’t like me anyway.  I hated that competition, it was badly run.  I don’t know why my teacher wanted me to go there anyway.

Dancer B on the other hand is operating with a growth mindset.  She comes away with a totally different message.  She is totally inspired, not having seen anything like these dancers before.  She believes that if she keeps working hard, she could be like that too. On the way home she starts drawing up a stretching plan, writes down her new goals and works out ways to achieve them.  She cannot wait to get back to the studio to start working harder than ever.  She is already planning to attend the same competition next year to see how she has improved. This is how dancer success and growth mindset relate.

Obviously as dance teachers, we want Dancer B.  Dancer B is going to be the one in class that is always giving 110%, who is not threatened by the success of others but rather is inspired, the one who believes they can can improve and will keep working until they get to where they want to be.  The embrace their failures, and work out what they can learn form them.  

So how do we train our dancers to be like dancer B?  It might seem like a huge task but actually it isn’t as hard as you might think.

The Growth Mindset for Dancers Kit II provides all the tools and resources for dance teachers that you need to train Dancer B.

Unit 1 covers Corrections is is particularly helpful in helping dancers understand what corrections are, why they are given and how to apply them.  This unit helps dancers understand that they and their teacher are a TEAM, working towards a common goal.

Unit 2 covers Praise – the way we praise our students is KEY in the development of a growth mindset and in helping students let go of the idea that their ability is fixed – praise the process, not the person.  Included in the praise unit are growth mindset praise cards for you to use with your students.

Unit 3 covers Persistance – Persistence is an integral component of growth mindset.  Beautiful hand drawn graphics help scaffold the process of goal setting.  Encourage your students to join the Banana split club with these beautiful illustrations and reward certificates.

Unit 4 covers Success – success is to alway that which we see.  Again, custom designed graphics are used with worksheets and posters to show students that the success they perceive is only part of the equation and encourages them to dig deeper and explore the power behind that success.

Unit 5 encourages self reflection – it helps dancers put all the pieces of the puzzle together, and reflect about what they are good at now and what they would like to aim for in the future.