Nine years ago, a municipal dance school in San Agustín del Guadalix, near Madrid in Spain, set out to improve dance students’ results and motivation by adopting the RAD teaching method. A wide-ranging study, overseen by Maria Angeles Ruiz Belda, has concluded that students have maintained their motivation and achieved a high standard of technical improvement over the nine years of the study. ‘We can say that at the moment we have the highest quality advanced level in all the years that we have been working in San Agustín del Guadalix,’ say the research team.
The municipal dance school in San Agustín del Guadalix is managed through a non-profit cultural association called Qelium. As well as teaching dance, it seeks to ‘transmit the love for dance and culture.’ They teach ballet, flamenco and modern dance, among other forms.
‘Often, the challenge for municipal and private schools is striking a balance between maintaining high academic standards and keeping students motivated,’ write the researchers, adding that ‘the lack of a shared teaching methodology and clearly defined goals often leads to more limited results.’ The school sought a programme that ‘could motivate the students, make them advance technically and enjoy learning to dance better, even if it was more demanding.’ This is why the school introduced the RAD system.
‘The school sought to motivate the students, make them advance technically and enjoy learning to dance’
It was especially significant for younger students. ‘It is not just about distracting them in class,’ the report explains. ‘It is important that we begin to build … in the direction of better training later on.’ The school’s two ballet teachers and their colleagues ‘agreed that the classes/exercises that are proposed in the RAD project for the work of the little ones (3-8 years old) are excellent… presenting many exercises for the classroom in the form of games, taking advantage of spontaneity and creativity at these ages and leading them to the acquisition of skills necessary later on.’
The school now holds RAD exams and mounts an annual show so that families can share in students’ progress. ‘The motivation of the students who decide to start their exams grows enormously,’ the report states, ‘and the involvement with dance improves in essential aspects such as attendance and the completion of homework. We see the improvement in all the aspects that we consider important a few months after starting the work: technical, expressive and musical level.’
Despite the effects of both the 2020 pandemic and a falling birth rate in the municipality, the report concludes, ‘the objectives we were looking for have been achieved and we hope to continue improving year after year.’
