Team-Building Ideas for a Dance Team

Dance teams perform synchronized dance routines in competitions against other teams. They also perform at pep rallies and before sporting events. To succeed on a dance team, dancers not only have to be in top physical shape, but also must be able to work in seamless coordination with their team members. Team-building activities can help the team achieve true synergy.

  1. Team Motivation Ideas

    • It is important for members of a dance team to feel comfortable around one another, as well as positive about the activity in which they are all engaged. One way to encourage this is to have the dancers sit in a circle and give one of them a stuffed animal. She must say something she loves about the dance team before throwing the animal to another dancer. The activity continues until all dancers have spoken. A variation involves giving one dancer a ball of yarn. She holds one end of the yarn and says something positive about another dancer before throwing the ball to them. By the end of the activity, a web joining all the dancers has been created.

    Trust-Building Ideas

    • No successful dance team can function without an atmosphere of mutual trust. One trust-building activity involves blindfolding each team member, then lining them up and leading them through a "trust walk." The instructor whispers walking instructions to the person in front, who then whispers to the person behind them and so on. This forces the teammates to trust one another. The "trust lift," in which one member at a time keeps their back flat while their teammates lift and pass them, emphasizes the kind of physical trust necessary in dance.

    Creative Ideas

    • Dance is a physical expression of creativity, so a dance coach should include team-building activities that emphasize creative thinking. One creative activity involves dividing the dance team into smaller groups and asking each group to come up with a song about the dance team to the tune of any popular television show theme song. They also have to come up with accompanying dance movements. Another activity involves pinning cards with the names of famous people on the back of each dancer and having her ask questions of her teammates to find out which famous person she is.

    Teamwork Ideas

    • Any successful team, especially a dance team, must be able to combine their separate abilities and ideas to succeed at a task. One problem-solving activity that emphasizes teamwork asks the dancers to build a bridge out of newspapers and masking tape that can allow a box to pass under it, as well as being able to support the box. Another activity has an even-numbered group of dancers standing on a piece of wood, all facing the same direction. Their task is to reverse the order of the line without stepping off the piece of wood.