A big change is coming to QuickSteps and we’re excited about it! As of Sunday the 11th August we will be offering Intermediate 2 exams for anyone wanting to join advanced level group classes.
Why Intermediate 2 Exams and Why Now?
1. Group Class Material
As with any level of dance it is important that teachers are able to teach the correct material, leveraging on the ‘assumed knowledge’ from the level proceeding it. When all members attending advanced level classes are checked and examined the classes can be more challenging in its content and will not need to be ‘watered down’ to accommodate members that don’t know the appropriate material.
2. Group Class Management
Teachers at QuickSteps are hired because they LOVE people and thrive on making people happy. The flip side of that is that they can really struggle to say ‘no’. It’s very emotionally difficult for our teachers to speak up and prevent members attending advanced groups that they are not ready for. By using exams as a yardstick and selection criteria we take the judgement away from the teachers and it is a simple, clear assessment of who should and shouldn’t be attending advanced groups.
3. Feedback
An exam gives you feedback from an outside perspective. A fresh set of eyes can discover areas of improvement that someone, like your teacher, who dances with you week-in week-out, has simply missed.
Feedback can also be provided in a different way, or using different explanations and words, which might resonate better with you. Just like when you have an exchange lesson.
Who Will Mark My Exam?
Your exam will be marked by one of the senior teachers at the studio. Teachers go through extra training on how we mark exams at QuickSteps, to ensure all exams are marked consistently throughout the studio.
How Can I Prepare For my Exam?
Practise, drills, warm ups… this is a whole blog in itself! Head here to start training for your exam!
What Will Happen During My Exam?
- Most members like to have a lesson right before their exam to freestyle through everything with their teacher and this is certainly a good idea. It works as a wonderful warm up!
- Your examiner will welcome you to your exam and confirm with you the level you are dancing today. They will wish you luck and then your teacher will start the music playing for the first dance on the list. Generally you will dance the dances in order of the syllabus but if you would like to change the order you certainly can. Some people like to dance their most confident dance first to get off to a good start, whilst others like to dance their ‘devil’ dance first to get it out of the way! 🙂
- Your teacher will freestyle through each step in each dance with you continuously without stopping until the examiner says ‘thank you’, meaning you can move on to the next style. The examiner may ask you to do a step again, this doesn’t mean it was wrong, it can just mean that they were writing something at the time and missed something, so don’t panic!
I’d love to do my exam! What do I do next?
Let your teacher know so that they can assess where you are at with your Intermediate 2 syllabus and put together a plan and a timeline. They will plan out how long it will take to cover and polish all of the material and get back to you. From there you book in the exam and start practising!
Check out this blog for more detailed information on how to prepare for your next dance exam.
Good luck and, as always, enjoy the process! 🙂
