Once your dancers have learned how to skip, figure 8 Skips are a great way to practice this skill with your students.  This is a great activity for 4-6 year old dancers and even 7 year old dancers continue to enjoy it.

Keep in mind that this pattern is tricky!  It may take a few tries before your dancers become confident with the pattern.

Preparation:  Place three mats in the center of the room and line the dancers up in sets of 3 facing the mats.  Have students repeat the pattern:  "in front, behind, in front, behind."  If you have a white board, draw the pattern for the dancers to see, saying "in front, behind" as you draw the lines.  Each dancer will skip in front of one dancer, behind the next, in front of that dancer, and behind the original dancer before returning to their mat.

Dancer 1                   Dancer 3                   Dancer 2

Exercise:

Dancers skip to the mats and stop facing forward.

Dancer 1 (on the outisde - closest to the mirror in the video) skips in front of dancer 3, behind dancer 2, in front of dancer 2, behind dancer 3 and back to her starting spot.

Dancer 2 (on the opposite end - closest to the windows in the video) skips in front of dancer 3, behind dancer 1, in front of dancer 1, behind dancer 3 and back to her starting spot.

Dancer 3 (in the center) skips in front of dancer 1, behind dancer 1, crosses over her own spot, in front of dancer 2, behind dancer 2 and back to her starting spot.

All the dancers skip forward to the opposite end of the floor.