Once your junior dancers have a strong bridge with good technique, it's time to start adding variations to keep them engaged and challenge their bodies AND brains. Here are 3 fun bridge variations to play with in class: ✅ Circular Bridge ✅ Kneeling Bridge & Recover ✅ Monkey Puzzle Bridge ✅ Circular Bridge Creates beautiful movement that looks great on stage. Perform with or without the recover to standing depending on your dancers' level. 📌 Tip: Train both sides. Kneeling Bridge & Recover: This one doubles as a drill - it teaches your dancers to roll up through their spine one vertebra at a time without sinking into their low backs. Once they've got it, try it on one leg. Monkey Puzzle Bridge: A challenge for the body AND the brain. Tell your dancers where to place their hands and feet BEFORE they go upside down - it gets tricky once inverted. How it works: - Start by replacing the hand with the foot and twisting into a circular bridge - Pick up the opposite hand and foot to face the back - Continue the same motion — always opposite hand to leg, staying in a perfect square 📌 Tip: Train both directions. Start on their dominant side first. Bridge variations keep your dancers excited about a skill they already know - and give them a clear path to progress beyond the basics. Let me know which one you try first in your classes!

Welcome to Acro Dance School — the home for Acro Dance educators worldwide. This is a community-first space created for teachers who care deeply about their craft, about teaching with integrity, and about growing together. Acro Dance School exists to support Acro Dance teachers — many of whom have worked without a shared professional community — in becoming confident, connected educators who teach with clarity, structure, and intention. This is not just a place to access programs. It's a place to belong — and to grow. 🌍 What you’ll find here: • A global community of Acro Dance teachers • Conversations around teaching, safety, structure, and student progress • A space to ask real questions and share real experiences • Resources, programs, and courses all in one place 🤍 How this community supports your growth: This community thrives on participation. Here, you don’t have to figure things out on your own. Ask questions. Share what’s working in your classes. Celebrate wins. Work through challenges together. Learn from educators who value foundations, safety, and long-term progress. You don’t need to have everything figured out to belong here - that’s what this space is for. 👋 Start here Introduce yourself in the comments below in this thread: • Where are you teaching from? • How long have you been teaching Acro Dance? We’re so glad you’re here. Melissa Klassen - President The ADTA

Happy Wednesday, Teachers! I know this is a common challenge with Front Walkovers - students just can’t seem to stand up properly out of them... They pull their arms forward, tuck their chin forward, or stick their but out on the stand up. Here’s a video of one of my students doing my personal favourite drill for fixing this: It’s a kneeling bridge recover against the wall, and it works because it checks a lot of boxes: ✅ Forces correct body placement ✅ Reinforces control ✅ Teaches students to roll through their spine properly ✅ Prevents flinging the arms forward or sticking the but out How to do it: - Kneel facing the wall - Knees touching the wall - Arms reach up and gaze is - Initiate by reaching back with fingertips They bridge down (top to bottom), then recover (bottom to top). 📌 Tip: If they try to stick their but out, cue them to press their hip bones into the wall - that fixes it instantly. I recommend doing this 3–5 times per class with students working on Front Walkovers. And YES this translates into their Front Aerial landing ... it's a two for one:) Let me know if you try it in your classes!

It's the first week of September. Picture two Tuesday nights. 🌙 Registration for Teacher's Certification closes this Friday at 5:00 PM MDT, so let me stop talking about systems and just show you what one actually changes. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ 😮‍💨 THE FIRST ONE: You've got acro tomorrow, mixed levels, and you're on the couch with your laptop open trying to remember what you did last year. Scrolling. Looking for something that looks about right. You'll figure it out, you always do. But you'll walk in tomorrow with that same low hum (stress) you've had for years... the one that says "I hope this is enough"... ______________________________________________________________________________________________ ✨ THE SECOND ONE: You've got acro tomorrow too. Tomorrow's plan has been ready since August, because it's month one of your ADTA Teacher's Certification and you read ahead and have a plan to follow directly in class! ✅ You know what you're teaching. ✅ You know why it comes before the next thing. ✅ You know how to spot every piece of it. And if something goes sideways tomorrow, you're bringing it to your coaching call! (support, woo hoo! 🙌) You're not guessing anymore. You're running an actual program and SYSTEM! ______________________________________________________________________________________________ That's the whole difference. It was never talent, or years in, or how athletic you are. It's a system, and people beside you. 💛 _______________________________________________________________________________________________ 📅 Registration for ADTA Teacher's Certification inside The Acro Circle closes Friday at 5:00 PM MDT. We all meet on the welcome call this Monday the 10th, and your first Junior class with your coach is the next day, Tuesday the 11th. And here's the part I want you to actually hear. Join Friday, and you're on the welcome call Monday, in your first class Tuesday, and you're not billed until the 14th.

The replay came down last night. If you watched it, thank you... that was a really great room! Here's what I keep thinking about since the workshop... Nearly every question I got came down to the same thing wearing different clothes. Not "how do I teach a back walkover." More like "how do I know I'm not missing something." So I want to ask you straight, and I'd love an actual answer in the comments. If you could fix one thing in your teaching before September, what would it be? Maybe it's the mixed-level class that unravels at the same point every week. Maybe it's spotting something you've never felt confident spotting. Maybe it's that you've got no idea what should come next after the skill they just got. Tell me. And if what you'd fix is "all of it, I want a real system"... registration for Junior Certification inside The Acro Circle closes this Friday at 5:00 PM MDT. We meet on the welcome call Monday the 10th and your first Junior class with your coach is Tuesday the 11th. Free 7 days to look around first. 👉 theacrocircle.com Miss Melissa