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TOCA TEACHER · Lesson 08 · Teaching

How to structure a dance class that actually creates progress

A good class tells a simple story. Prepare the body and the ear. Teach one concept, only one, and go deep instead of wide. Create enough successful repetitions. Apply it as a couple, with music, rotating partners. Finish with a simple self check.

Dawou Tarraxo, pioneer of Tarraxo. How to structure a dance class that actually creates progress

Repetition is king, but it is the quality of the repetition that builds the habit. Ten clean beat fifty messy.

Your job is not to fill the hour with movements. It is to make one thing land so deeply the student owns it forever.

A kizomba class needs a spine: warm up, one theme, application, homework.

Structure a class that creates progress, step by step

  1. A CLASS NEEDS MORE THAN A GOOD COMBINATION.
  2. Start with one clear outcome.
  3. Prepare the body and attention for that outcome.
  4. Teach the principle before adding complexity.
  5. Create enough successful repetitions.
  6. Apply it with music and a partner.
  7. Finish with a simple self-check.
What is the outcome of your next class?

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This lesson comes from the book

Page 220 of The teacher's guide by Dawou Tarraxo, the TOCA Method page this lesson comes from
The teacher's guide · page 220

The student’s book takes dancers from the first foundations to real feeling. The teacher’s guide gives instructors the structure to pass it on. Both in English, French and Spanish, on Amazon and Apple Books.

The student’s book The teacher’s guide

The method

T O C A

Two bodies. One connection.

TTouchThe connection with your partner. Feeling through contact, never through force.
OObservationListening to your partner’s body, energy and tempo.
CControlMastery of your own movement. Precision without tension.
AAwarenessFull presence: with yourself, your partner and the music.