Team Building Dance: How to Guide

This is our guide to team building dance workshops.

Team building dance workshops are activities where teams learn and perfect choreographed group dances together. These activities build trust and teach teammates how to work together and communicate nonverbally. Plus, these workshops are fun and encourage employees to exercise.

These workshops are similar to team building yoga and team workouts and can be part of employee wellness programs.

This guide includes:

• What are team building dances?
• How to host a team building dance workshop
• Good dance styles for groups

Let’s move!

What are team building dances?

Team building dances are exercises that challenge team members to learn and perform new moves in unison. You can host a team dance workshop to teach teams concepts such as flexibility, reading body language, following direction, and reacting to change.

How to host a team building dance workshop

1. Make space

You may not need a stage full of strobe lights or a room with floor to ceiling mirrors like the setting of a Madonna music video or an episode of FAME, but you do need to secure a large space where teammates can move and sweat. Emptied conference rooms work just fine for workshops, or you can relocate the team to a local dance studio.

2. Pick a dance

The most obvious choice for a team building dance is to choreograph a basic routine to a popular song. However, there are many kinds of dances that work well for groups. You may want to pick a particular style of dance for your team workshop.

Good dance styles for groups:

• Swing
• Salsa
• Line dancing
• Hip hop
• Cha-cha
• Waltz

For best results, these styles should be easy to learn, and should contain some social element. You do not necessarily need to pick a particular dance style for your workshop, but selecting a ballroom dance style to learn as a group can add an extra element of fun to your event.

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3. Find a professional

Some people can shimmy and step just like Beyonce after watching a YouTube video once. I am not one of these people, and I am convinced that these people might be aliens. My point is, most of us need help to learn dance moves.

Chances are, you are not a legendary choreographer, and your teammates are not Broadway extras. Your best bet is to hire a professional dancer to create and teach a routine for your team. Some studios even offer special corporate packages. You can research whether any dance businesses in your area already teach lessons to companies, or you can call and inquire whether the staff would be willing to accommodate your request.

4. Practice, practice, practice

During team building dance workshops, learning is the main event. When the day of your event arrives, you will gather your troops, watch the teacher, and rehearse until you nail your routine. I recommend limiting the workshop to a couple of hours. This activity will not be everybody’s cup of tea, which is precisely the point. Dancing forces your team to leave the comfort zone and practice a new skill together. Your team does not need to be audition-ready in a single afternoon. The point of the exercise is to have fun and help other teammates learn.

5. Take the stage

After a few near collisions, squashed toes, and dizzying spins, your team mastered the moves. To celebrate the accomplishment, you can coordinate a performance. You can either invite other employees to watch your group perform the dance, or you can record the performance on video. The latter allows you to rewatch the recital and makes the reward of the team building activity more long lasting. Plus, if your employees are comfortable with the idea, then you can reuse the video in marketing or training videos.

Final Thoughts

Your team might not be ready to go on tour with a big pop star by the end of your team building dance workshop, but your employees may walk away from the workshop with a sense of achievement, feeling of belonging, and stronger bonds with peers. Team dance workshops create shared experiences that help create a stronger company culture. Furthermore, dancing relieves tension and stress and encourages vulnerability, which helps to build trust and improve team interactions.

Next, check out this guide to virtual talent shows and this list of National Fun at Work Day ideas.