Hey all,

I just recently completed teaching an adult street tap and I am now working on a teen/adult hip-hop class.

I am wanting to know what the older students are thriving for right now, because things change constantly and even in different geographic areas it seems like there is no constant path that I can target for marketing?

Thanks!

DbG

I'm in Colorado out on the plains in a suburb of Denver. It's a toss up between Adult Jazz and Adult Tap, both of which have two adult classes offered via our community center programs currently. Adult Ballet, with only 1 class, was in the catalog for the first time this fall. Belly Dancing also has 2 classes. Hip-Hop has 1 class offered. Broadway Dancing (more like exercise than technique) also has 1.

However Country-Western and various types of Ballroom are maybe the most popular, though ballroom has shorter workshop-type sessions. So it is difficult to compare. I don't have any actual enrollment figures; however if a class isn't popular it gets dropped from the catalog.

If you are counting aerobic fitness programs, including dance-type aerobic sessions, then that's the most popular of all. That's in the parks and recreation catalog under the large "Fitness" section which also includes Yoga, Pilates and Martial Arts.

Our studios Ballroom classes are always pretty small. The Jazz class is pretty good size, the Jazz/Hip-Hop class (which is marketed as jazz/hip-hop but is really just hip-hop) is small. The tap classes are both large. I don't even think we HAVE an adult ballet class. I have many friends in closer to Detroit that teach clogging classes, and have large, loyal followings. In my area, I could never pull it off. My classes were fiercely loyal, but very small. :/

So for our area (about an hour outside of Detroit), I'd have to say Jazz.

I would have to say in my area the only class which has stood the test of time with people making it to class the most is Adult Ballet. One of my studios tried Adult Hip hop, but the class failed to attract any more than me and another lady each week. They tried Adult Tap, but again not enough students showed up weekly so it lasted only one year.

Some studios in the my area don't offer Adult ballet at all. I am fortunate to have been at two studios where it has been successful.

I think it has to do mostly with the economy. When it turns around, I think you will see more interest in all genres of dance especially ballet and hip hop.

It is a toss up at our studio between adult ballet, yoga, and hip hop. They all have about the same number of people.

I go to a well-know studio in NYC that happens to have an enormous (and very welcoming) program for adults. The range on offer is kind of amazing: all the usuals (ballet, tap, modern, jazz) as well as West African, Capoeira, Haitan, 2 kinds of yoga, body conditioning, Zumba, Middle Eastern, Samba, Belly Dance...and a whole bunch more than I can remember.

The most popular classes, without a doubt, are usually the "fitness" type classes- Yoga, Pilates, Zumba (high calorie-burning aerobics based on latin dance). However, they don't seem more to have the same kind of "fan base" that a lot of the others do. My ballet class is smaller (usually around 30 people) but two thirds of that is made up of people who come at least once (usually more) a week. I also notice the same people going to a West African class next door all the time.

I'm intriguied to see that Tap is so popular elsewhere. A couple months back I wanted to start beginner tap (with no experience) but found it hard to find a beginner class that wasn't during the working day. There was only 3 classes a week (all levels) at my studio.

At our studio its hip-hop and tap. The tap class has 10 people, which for an adult class here is a lot, and the hip-hop class always has about 8 people in it. Jazz comes after that with 6 people and ballet is actually the least popular, last year we only had 4.

It's tap at my studio. We had no adult ballet class due to lack of interest again, one medium sized adult jazz class, but so many adults signed up for tap, there had to be two classes for the first time in years.

I teach in a fitness studio and by far the most popular dance class is Zumba! It's easy to follow and the music is really catchy.

I voted" other" because I'm and abut Irish dancer and not a lot of Irish Dance schools actually offer adult lessons. I'm lucky enough to have found one that does.

Zumba seems to be catching on quickly! But in my city contemporary is in high demand atm as no-one around this area really teaches it. Its a great style as it combines quite a few styles eg. ballet, locking, jazz

Theresa wrote:

Our studios Ballroom classes are always pretty small. The Jazz class is pretty good size, the Jazz/Hip-Hop class (which is marketed as jazz/hip-hop but is really just hip-hop) is small. The tap classes are both large. I don't even think we HAVE an adult ballet class. I have many friends in closer to Detroit that teach clogging classes, and have large, loyal followings. In my area, I could never pull it off. My classes were fiercely loyal, but very small. :/

So for our area (about an hour outside of Detroit), I'd have to say Jazz.

Funny what a year and a half will do to a studio. Our tap classes massively outnumber the people in any of our other classes. As a matter of fact, I'd guess we don't have as many people in Jazz, Lyrical and Hip-Hop put together as we do in our tap classes!