How to break the ice in your burlesque class

I’ve written a little bit in previous blog posts about how we can make our class a better environment for our students.

I definitely think that one of the biggest challenges (and opportunities) as a burlesque instructor, is to make the class a great space for the students.

But as adults we all come in with so many different experiences and different ways of engaging.

Some people come in ready to go, full of questions and are happy to rock up to other students and introduce themselves.

For a lot of us. this isn’t as easy.

And I think one of the jobs we can do as teachers to help our students is to make sure we break the ice for them.

I often have a few ‘go tos’ to help facilitate introductions and encourage students to get to know each other. I don’t generally do games. But I do often facilitate questions or conversations like:

• Doing a first day of school style name check on the first class - don’t assume that everyone knows everyone

• Using email or social media to check in between classes or to prepare students for the next class - rather than dropping too many questions on students

• Doing an expectations check. Ask your students what they want to get out of their class. There will be common themes that they can connect with (and it will help you prepare!)

• Ask who their celebrity best friend would be (and why?) - it’s always is super interesting. And less personal than a celebrity crush!

• Sandwich or salad fillings. Pretty innocuous question, but you can get a few laughs out of it and it’s not super anxiety triggering for most people.

• Maybe break people into small groups (if time permits) and get the students to share something that perhaps people wouldn’t assume or know about them. Get them to report back

• Breaking students into small groups and get them to choreograph a few counts of 8 using some basic moves they have just learnt (maybe a grind, a figure of 8 and a walk and a pose). Use a familiar-ish song with clear counts and beats so that it’s less intimidating.

I also recommend something to solidify your group at the end of a workshop or class series. This could be reflecting on

• What they have learnt or a move they won’t forget

• Something unexpected they have enjoyed in their class

You could also facilitate an online discussion or reflection in a group chat. Pre COVID where sharing physical items like pens and paper were a bit more normal, I would often get students to write their name on a piece of paper and get everyone to leave a comment or memory so they could have a lovely take home item. You can definitely do something similar via an online chat. Even though I think a lot of us like the physical item, it is a nice way of being a bit more enviro conscious and COVID safe.

What ideas do you use? Do you use specific questions or techniques?

There are some extensive icebreaker questions for a range of settings here if you need some extra tips.