Every acro student wants the big tricks. They want to perform something impressive and wow the crowd onstage, and as teachers, we want that for them too.
But the big tricks only happen when the foundations underneath them are solid. That takes patience and persistence from everyone involved: teachers, students and parents.
Acro Is Progressive
Every acro trick belongs to a family. Each one is built on the trick that comes before it, and leads to the trick that comes after it:
- A cartwheel progresses to a side aerial, which progresses to a front aerial.
- A bridge kick-over progresses to a back walkover, which progresses to a back handspring.
When you know what comes before and after every trick, you know exactly what your students need to master next, and you can see the gaps before they become problems.
Skipping the Basics Leaves Holes
Gloss over a foundational trick, and the gap will show up later in a student’s training. Often years later.
I once met a talented acrobat with many exceptional tricks. But she had never learned a backward roll as a Junior. Even with all the strength and power she needed, she was never able to land a back tuck during her peak training years. One missing piece of her foundation kept her from a high-level trick down the road.
Rushing Raises the Risk of Injury
In acro, muscle memory is everything. Students build correct muscle memory through lots of drills, and by only performing tricks that are safe and manageable for their age and level. Then, when they move into tumbling, you can trust that their technique will hold up in the air. Skipping that work at the Junior levels is a recipe for injury once students start to tumble.
It isn’t only sudden injuries we want to prevent. Chronic injuries come from repeating a trick with poor technique, over and over. A student who was rushed past bridge recovers into walkovers, for example, may start to feel lower back pain later on, because they never learned to roll properly through the spine.
Group Classes by Ability First, Then Age
Once students move past the beginner level, every acro class will have a range of abilities. That’s normal. The goal is to keep that range as narrow as you can.
At the ADTA, we encourage teachers to group students by ability first, as close to the same level as possible, and then by age. A quick skills assessment before you build your schedule shows you exactly where each student belongs.
When placement is based on what students can actually do, they understand it, respect it, and progress safely from there.
The Goal: Strong Dancers for Life
We want our students to reach their goals. Most of all, we want them to be safe, to work through the progressions of every trick, and to grow into mature dancers and adults with healthy, functional bodies.
Teach the basics well, and the big tricks will come.
