If you have a lot of experience in ballroom dance, you may be considering a career in teaching dance to others.
This is a wonderful opportunity to share your passion for ballroom dance and your knowledge with others who are eager to learn.
You may wonder how to become a certified ballroom dance instructor, and this guide will tell you what you need to do.
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Start with Experience and Passion
Before you start as a ballroom dance instructor, you need to have experience in the dances you teach.
This requires a great deal of commitment and a passion for dance.
You need to have enough experience to do the dances flawlessly and effortlessly; also, you need enough passion to generate enthusiasm in your students.
Ballroom dance is an art you must practice all the time.
Once you begin teaching, you will be on the floor dancing and instructing for five to eight hours daily.
You must love dance enough to enjoy being on the dance floor every chance you get.
If you don’t, your students will sense it and not want to learn from you.
Get a Part-Time Ballroom Dance Teaching Job While You Learn
You should find a part-time job helping ballroom dance instructors or teaching small groups to gain experience teaching ballroom dance.
This will help you understand what it takes to be a full-time certified ballroom dance instructor.
You will gain valuable experience while you are learning, and you can teach the basics to beginners.
You have many different options.
You can ask a studio if they need any part-time help.
You can also put together your own offering for children in the community if you want to gain experience.
This is a great way to find out how much you enjoy teaching ballroom dance, and it is a valuable experience that will help you once you complete your certification.
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The National Dance Teachers Association of America
The NDTA is a non-profit organization that helps professional dance teachers in all fields.
They offer workshops for further education, and they provide the National Dance Council of America officially sanctioned Examination and Certification Process.
They share information, provide members with resources, and supervise certification exams.
They offer examinations with different degrees; you can earn your teaching certification at the Bronze, Silver, and Gold Levels in the following dance styles:
- American Smooth: Waltz, Tango, Foxtrot, Viennese Waltz, Peabody.
- American Rhythm: Cha Cha, Rhumba, Bolero, East Coast Swing.
- International Standard: Waltz, Tango, Viennese Waltz, Foxtrot, Quickstep.
- International Latin: Cha Cha, Samba, Rumba, Paso Doble, Jive.
- Americana: Samba, Merengue, Salsa, Hustle, West Coast Swing.
In addition, once you begin teaching, they offer medal testing for your students in all dance styles.
You will want to choose the style that will be your focus, practice, study, and get ready to take the certification exam.
The teacher certification exam is $75 and takes from 1.5 to 2 hours.
4. How to Prepare for Certification
The best way to prepare for your certification exam is to sign up for an intensive training course or take a standard course such as the American Style Bronze Teacher Training, where you will learn 17 different styles of ballroom dance in 16 months.
These training courses will teach you everything that you need to know to pass the certification exam, including technical, musical, and basic aspects of each dance.
In fact, if you do not have prior experience, you will begin with the Bronze Teacher Certification.
You can build on your experience and pass Silver and Gold levels after gaining more experience.
5. Important Tips for Becoming a Dance Instructor
As you can see, there are many different parts to becoming a certified ballroom dance instructor.
You need to have a passion for dance but also strong communication and teaching skills to impart your knowledge and understanding of dance to your students.
Take a look at the different aspects of being a ballroom dance instructor:
- Passion: It starts with a passion for dance.
You need to love dancing enough to want to spend most of your day doing it and sharing it with others.
- Commitment: You need to be committed to your career.
Your students will rely on you to be on time, enthusiastic, and available to them.
- Experience: You need to dance and take lessons to constantly improve your technique.
The best teachers recognize the need to continue learning.
They are open to expanding their knowledge and staying current in ballroom dance.
- Communication: You can be the best dancer in the world, but you must communicate the dances to your students.
You need a deeper understanding of the dance and how it works so that you can explain it to your students.
Teaching is partly showing, but it is also being able to articulate your moves.
- Positivity: You need to be positive and love teaching as much as you love to dance.
You should make your students feel welcome and ensure that they enjoy themselves as they learn the art of ballroom dancing.
Final Words
To become a certified ballroom dance instructor, you must go through the certification process.
You should understand the dances you will be certified to teach.
In addition to taking lessons and learning the dances, you will practice and sign up for a course that reviews everything that you need to know for the dances you will be tested in.
While you are learning, you can gain experience in teaching part-time.
You might find a studio that needs extra help, or you can organize your group within the community.
This is a great opportunity to make sure that you want to teach ballroom dance full time.
Once you are ready, take the Ballroom Dance Teacher Certification, and you will become a certified ballroom dance instructor.
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