A little background would help. Where are you teaching? What kinds of students? How many in a class? How long is the class series? How long will each class be?

If you teach what the students want to learn, that's a good place to start. For example, if most of your students are just wanting a fun night out with the girls, you would teach them differently than you would teach students who want to learn to perform in shows and restaurants.

Planning is VERY important! Make sure you plan exactly what you want to do - we usually started with warm-ups (of course!) and then I threw in some new moves to learn, and combining them with others. When it's close to showtime, we usually practice our choreography, and try to smooth out difficulties. Somewhere on tribe there was a post a while ago about fun ideas for classes, see if you can find it! It also helps alot to ask you students what they want to learn, and what they want to do in class - some special attention to difficult-to-accomplish moves is also worth it. You can also have a video-evening watching bellydance videos for new ideas / moves / choreography etc...good luck! As I say - plan ahead! And start with basics, then elaborate on those..

Yes, definitely start with a plan. You don't have a lot of time, so make sure that your goals are attainable in the time that you have. Gear the course content to the end goal, so if you want them to have a one minute choreography at the end, you might start with the basic moves in the first couple of classes, string them together for combinations in the next coule of classes, then put them all together in the last few classes. Of course allow time for a warm up and cool down that is geared to the fitness level of the class.

Keep it simple. People are easily overwhelmed. When you are overwhelmed, it's not fun anymore.

Good luck,
Taaj
thebellydancetrainer.com