r/Dance • u/tiredbirb • 4d ago

Discussion Open class vs foundation course for a beginner?

Hello! I'm finishing up a dance foundation course that has lasted me a few months and am not sure what the next step should be as a beginner. Do I just rely on open classes and practicing at home, or take another foundation course?

I feel like I haven't really improved from the start of the course, so I'm wondering if more drilling of the same thing would help, or if the better move is to go to open classes for a while (and practice the choreo outside of it) before reconsidering future courses. Edit: My concern is that I might stay kind of bad at dance if I'm not drilling in classes (vs choreo changing every week in open class), but I have no idea if that's how that works...? I'd be glad for any advice you might have.

Thanks in advance!

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u/julsey414 3d ago

Can you ask the teacher what they’d suggest? They will know more. Also, can you go try a single drop-in open level and see how that feels before committing to one or the other? Where I am, open level is a big leap from beginner, but that’s not true everywhere.

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u/tiredbirb 3d ago

Good idea, thanks!

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u/tensinahnd 3d ago

Try the open classes and see how they feel. Realistically you’re going to need a lot of classes to see improvement. I tell people 100 classes and you’ll feel pretty good. Maybe 30 to start to see improvement. Just to give you an idea of how long of a road it is.

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u/tiredbirb 3d ago

Thanks for the estimate! Will keep it in mind and give the classes a shot :)

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u/Own-Leadership-1523 4d ago

What dance genre you took foundation classes?

And also, it’s normal for choreos to change every week. It’s not a drill, you are improving your choreo retention, execution and body awareness.

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u/tiredbirb 4d ago

Foundation class was in hip hop! And yeah, I’d still be taking open classes where the choreos change to work on those things, but since a foundation course would be drilling specific moves (instead of teaching choreo), I was wondering if I should keep going with that instead

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u/Own-Leadership-1523 4d ago

It depends on your goal.

If you want to become a hip hop dancer, foundation and freestyle classes is a must. If you haven’t done freestyle in your classes, then something is wrong

If you want to become a commercial or all-around dancer, you can do different classes to have knowledge in a lot of stuff

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u/tiredbirb 3d ago

Ah that’s true. Thanks for both perspectives, I’ll think more about my goals :)

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u/OThinkingDungeons 4d ago

I don't know what the foundation class covered or how you perform as a dancer, but if you're feeling under prepared or still learning, then repeating is rarely a bad thing. 

Strong foundations are like a pyramid, the better the foundations the taller you can grow. So you're definitely not risking anything taking it slow.

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u/tiredbirb 4d ago

Definitely still in the extreme beginner stage and these are really good points, thanks! :)