What are the elements that make a step class perfect? Your mileage may vary, but here is my recipe:
- music: 20%
- challenge: 20%
- duration: 10%
- trainer motivation: 20%
- innovation/fantasy: 20%
- other trainee feedback: 10%
Music must give you the right mood. I love dance music, mostly 80s and 90s disco. Once remixed and rearranged it’s perfect fuel.
Every session must have some elements of challenge. Be they new moves or combos, difficult changes and the like. The challenge has to be proportional. If the goal is to far the challenge easily turns into frustration.
The duration of the session has its importance, too. If it is too short (I heard of a 20′ step class) there is no time to master the choreography, if it is too long (over 60′ of continuous high impact) the strain prevents you to concentrate on the moves.
The trainer motivation plays an important part in the mix. An unmotivated trainer is likely to be unwilling to create interesting challenges and to propose an interesting choreography. Moreover he/she won’t be able to create the right mood in the class.
The session should present the right balance of new and old. Innovation is required both to stimulate and create interest in the choreography. Every trainer has his/her own style on which could create the continuity. Innovation and fantasy differs from challenge. A challenge could be having longer sequence of well known choreography, or playing them at a faster pace.
Last it is a bad feeling finding yourself in a class where other people are not committed to give their best.
Yesterday step class had been nearly perfect :-).