Online Dance Classes for Kids: YouDance Review

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Have you been looking for online dance classes for kids? As a homeschool mom, I know that physical education and fine arts can be two of the hardest classes to include in your homeschool. But you’ll see from today’s YouDance.com review that it’s not as hard as you think!

Disclosure: I received access to YouDance in order to honestly review it here, and I was compensated for my time for researching and writing the review.

What is YouDance.com?

YouDance.com is an online dance platform for kids, but actually can be used by all ages. The site contains several different sections:

Dance Courses
Follow-Alongs
Choreography Classes

Courtney, the founder of YouDance.com, is a homeschooling mom of three. She created YouDance.com to be a wholesome and safe place for kids to learn to dance. There are no ads and no way to click for your kids to click into something you don’t want them having access to. It’s also a place where she says families can be strengthened, spend time together, and build confidence and self-esteem, as well as getting stronger, healthier, and learning new skills!

Courtney teaches a dance style called clogging. She has other dance instructors who teach other styles such as ballet, hip hop, jazz, and contemporary.

When you choose a Dance Course such as Ballet Beginner, you’ll be led through step-by-step videos by teachers who know how to teach! The lessons are short and sweet and you can go through as many as you want in a day. Repeat them or use them for further practice to master the skill before going onto the next lesson.

The Follow-Alongs have the teacher doing a particular dance to a song. These are great after you’ve already mastered some of the basics because you are simply following along with them. The dance move is named on the screen, but you aren’t being taught the dance in these videos.

The Choreography Classes allow you to simply watch one video from start to finish to learn each move of a dance all the way through to the completed dance!

As you can see, there is a lot here, and it’s for all dance levels, beginners through advanced.

How We Used the Online Dance Classes

My nine-year-old daughter did the Beginner Ballet class and I completed the Hip Hop Basics class.

The beginner ballet was taught by Rachel. The class description is: “In this beginning course you will continue to learn the fundamental steps in ballet. Having this understanding will help build upon concepts you learned in the previous level and prepare you to move away from the barre for support.”

My daughter has a Kindle Fire tablet, and I got her set up to use her tablet in our basement dance room for her class. She’d pull up the class on her own, set the tablet on a music stand, and follow through the lesson. I love that she was able to do it independently and is learning real ballet from a pro–without us having to leave home to go to a studio!

I’m very proud of the progress she’s made in learning how to do Grand Pliés, Dégagés & Piqués, Frappés & Grand Battements, Chaînés, Tombé & Sous-Sous, Waltz, Sautés, and Glissade & Pas de Chat!

My Experience with Hip Hop Basics

I decided to try out the Hip Hop Basics class with Jevohn since I’ve never learned any of this dance style before. I really liked the way he taught. He spoke deliberately and slowly for a true beginner like me, but moved quickly enough that it didn’t get boring. It’s nice that if a certain move is tricky, you can simply keep repeating the video or the click the “practice” button to keep reviewing it over and over until you have it mastered.

I learned these moves: groove, walk in place, slide home, double step, turning slide, tap, slide pumps, pump & tap, high knees, knee punches, rock, scoot. And, I even learned two dances!

It was fun to do this in my office each morning instead of my regular exercise routine. I simply set my laptop on my desk and hit play!

Our YouDance Review Video

What You’ll Love About the Online Dance Classes for Kids

As you go through lessons and videos YouDance gives you points! It keeps a running tally of your total points. This can really be a motivator for a lot of kids because it feels like a game!

The site also keeps track of where you left off, so even through there is A LOT there, it’s easy to find where to go when you head back in.

You can get a Subscription to YouDance.com for only $25/month or a discounted rate at $180/year. It will automatically start with a free trial so you can make sure it’s right for you!

Click here for the Free Trial!

My Final Thoughts in this YouDance Review

So far, I’ve used the online dance classes for kids as independent learning for physical education. But, I think next year we’ll also use it during our Morning Basket Time when we all meet together as a family to start the day. It’s something that we can easily pull up on the smart T.V. and do together as a morning warm-up before our academic time!