Edit: THANK YOU to all of you who understood what I was asking and gave polite and genuine responses along with your experiences in learning with and without counting the music. I will let my kiddo know that if she is having any issues with her teachers not using counts, she needs to ask for help.

It was never my intention to stomp into the studio and demand to talk to the teacher or owner. The owner is the one that answers the emails. Some of you need to get your leotard out of its twist. This is a small town dance studio that teaches all kinds of dance. Not a major ballet academy in a huge metropolis. Goodness.

Again, thank you to those who could see where I was coming from and answered with kindness. I see now that some of my poor mood last night leaked into my post. I appreciate your feedback!

Original post:

My 14 yo daughter started classes this fall. They just had their Christmas show, and as I was trying to help her rehearse, I asked about the counts. She told me they don’t teach the counts, just the movements in order to do along with the music. I am so confused. How do you not teach dance to the counts of the music? I understand if it were much younger dancers, but teenagers should be learning this, right? I did dance for two years in high school that was taught by the dance team teacher, so I thought this is how all dance is choreographed and taught. I also did tap and ballet when I was in elementary school, and while my memory is fuzzy that far back, I want to say they were counting out the music to us as they taught the moves.

What is crazy is that this isn’t the first school that’s done this. She was in another one several years ago (she was 8-9) that also wasn’t teaching them to count the music. Has there been a shift in how dance is taught?

I also wondered if my daughter is just not understanding, but she did dance last year in school that was taught by the middle school dance team teacher and she says they learned to count the music in there and then how to choreograph their own dance.

I am just completely flabbergasted at this, so I’m reaching out to this community before talking to the owner of the studio to find out why they aren’t teaching this. Oh, and the owner was supposedly a Rockette for 8 years, adding to my complete confusion on this. Thank you for any insight you all might be able to give me.