We are so lucky here at Dance Sensations to have an amazing group of experienced, dedicated and passionate dance teachers, cheer coaches and administrators. One of the things that we love most about our team is how keen they are to keep learning and improving themselves so that our students are always receiving the best in their dance classes and their entire DS experience. Our year at Dance Sensations always begins with our staff retreat – which is a 1 or 2 day event where we undergo training and work on the year ahead. From there, our staff continue to learn throughout the year, depending on their different interests and strengths. This can include dance workshops, cheer workshops, acrobatics training, admin and business seminars, Courses with TAFE and other RTO’s and many more!
Today’s blog is the first in a series looking at the many different types of professional development our Dance Sensations staff undertake.
IASF Cheer Coach Credentials
A couple of weeks ago, Miss Astrid along with 2 of our DanceStep assistants Lydia and Isabel went and did their International All-Star Federation (IASF) Cheer Coach Credentialing. Miss Astrid did her Level 3 Cheer & Tumbling while Isabel completed her Level 1 & 2 Cheer & Tumbling and Lydia completed her Level 1.
These credentials mean that Miss Astrid is fully qualified to coach and enter cheer teams in Levels 1-3 across all age groups, with Lydia and Isabel qualified for Levels 1-2. Miss Astrid is also a certified Acrobatic Arts Instructor…but more about that on another blog
In our cheerleading classes at Dance Sensations, we follow the syllabus and levels as prescribed by the IASF. Our Competition Cheer Teams learn the skills and techniques as set out by the IASF and incorporate these into a 2:30 routine. The routines are really technical and are marked by a panel of judges who score our athletes and their routine based on a complex scoring rubric. The training that Astrid, Lydia and Isabel received allows them to better understand how to safely teach athletes skills they need. It also teaches them how to best combine these skills into an effective and high scoring routine based on the scoring rubric.
Benefits for all cheer students
But it’s not only the competition Cheer classes that benefit from the awesome training that these coaches receive. All of our recreational Cheerleading classes here at Dance Sensations are also based on the same skills and techniques from the IASF syllabus. But as these classes are based more on the enjoyment of all things cheer, the coaches can be a little bit more flexible in choosing appropriate levels for their class. This consistency in the syllabus and skills however makes it super easy for our students to ‘graduate’ out of our recreational cheer classes to our comp cheer classes if they wish to.
Miss Astrid, Lydia and Isabel are looking forward to putting their new knowledge into practice with the DS Students. We hope you enjoyed learning about some of the training our DS team undertake and are looking forward to learning more about what your amazing teachers do to make sure the students at Dance Sensations get the most current and up to date instruction in their classes
