If you’re a dance studio owner and you are asking this question, you’re on the right track. Ultimately, a good dance studio is one in which students have a positive and productive experience. This helps to ensure the best experience for your students, which will generate positive reviews and word of mouth.
Ultimately, the positive buzz in the community will lead to a thriving and growing business. Here are some important characteristics of a good dance studio:
Qualified and Experienced Dance Studio Instructors
The number one goal of dance studio students is to learn to dance. To help your students achieve their goals, it’s important to have qualified and experienced dance instructors who can provide students with high-quality instruction and guidance. The instructors should have a passion for dance and a commitment to helping their students succeed.
If you want your dance studio to go from good to great, recruit instructors with great personalities who fit the culture of the dance studio you want to create. For example, hire instructors with positive attitudes and a sense of humor if you want to create a fun environment. If you want to focus on winning competitions, hire competitive instructors with a winner’s spirit.
Safe and Well-maintained Facilities
While it may seem like common sense, another attribute of a good studio is that it should have safe, clean, and well-maintained facilities, including proper flooring and adequate lighting. The studio should also have sufficient space for dancing and a safe and secure changing area.
Additionally, if your students are younger, you’ll want to make sure there is a comfortable space for parents and guests to sit and wait while their children are in the studio.
Safe and Convenient Location
In addition to having safe indoor facilities, you’ll also want to ensure that your dance studio is in a safe and convenient location. Keep your target market in mind before choosing a location, and ask yourself if they and their parents would feel comfortable taking their children there. Also, ask yourself if the location would be convenient for them to drive to and find parking when you offer classes.
Finally, remember that if you have classes early in the morning or at night when it’s dark outside, you’ll want to ensure the parking lot is close to the entrance and well-lit.
Positive and Supportive Environment
The dance studio should create a positive and supportive environment where students feel comfortable, encouraged, and motivated to progress. We are, by nature, social creatures, so a good dance studio should foster a sense of community among its students and instructors. If you can cultivate friendships among the students, they’ll have more fun, be more engaged, and be more likely to continue coming back, as they’ll feel a sense of belonging.
Opportunities for Performance at a Good Dance Studio
Students go to dance studios to learn to dance, but the true thrill comes from mastering a skill and accomplishing a major achievement like performing in front of other people. Thus, it should give its students opportunities to showcase their skills and talent through regular performances and events. If your dance studio caters to children, this is important for parents, too, as they can see the progress their children make over time and how their confidence grows.
Affordable and Flexible Class Schedules
A good dance studio should offer affordable classes that fit within the schedules of its students. The schedule may include evening and weekend classes and drop-in options. To achieve this in your dance studio, it’s important to understand your target customer and then survey them to understand their schedules.
For example, if you cater to the children of working parents, you may need to do classes in the evening after the parents’ work days are done. However, if you cater to stay-at-home parents, then mid-day classes may be better.
Appropriate Class Sizes
Nobody wants to feel like they are just a number, but you also don’t want to be the only dancer in the studio. Thus, class sizes should be small enough to ensure that each student receives individual attention and support from the instructor but also big enough to create energy and have a community of which students can feel a part.
Strong Commitment to Student Growth and Development
In addition to everything listed above, a dance studio should strongly commit to helping its students grow and develop as dancers and individuals. For example, it should provide students with the resources, support, and guidance they need to reach their full potential inside and outside the studio, including developing a growth mindset, building confidence, working past failure, and having humility when they experience success.
The Bottom Line for a Good Dance Studio
A good dance studio is made up of many components. But ultimately, if you’re providing your students with the transformation they are looking for and doing it in a fun and uplifting way, you’re on the right track to creating a good dance studio that people will be coming to for years.
