How to Standardize Dance Terminology Across Your Studio Faculty
After more than 40 years of running a studio, I've learned that one of the most powerful gifts you can give your dancers has nothing to do with choreography. It's a shared language.
When every teacher on your faculty — ballet, jazz, tap, contemporary, and the Friday-night sub — calls the same step by the same name, something clicks. Dancers move from class to class without missing a beat. Concepts build on each other instead of starting over. Lesson planning gets easier. And to the parents watching, it looks exactly like what it is: a unified, professional, technical program.
Standardizing your terminology is one of the simplest, highest-impact systems you can put in place. Here's how to build it across your whole team.
Why One Shared Language Accelerates Everything
Picture a young dancer who learns a grand jeté in Tuesday ballet, then hears it called a “big leap” in Thursday contemporary. To her, those feel like two separate skills — so instead of deepening one, she's quietly starting over on two.
Now flip it. When that same step carries the same name in every room, every reference reinforces the last one. Her progress compounds. Multiply that across every class, every style, every week, and a single shared vocabulary becomes one of the biggest accelerators of student growth in your entire program — while making your studio look polished and aligned to the parents and judges who are paying attention.
The good news: getting there is easier than you'd think. It comes down to three steps.
Step 1: Audit Your Current Syllabus
You can't get everyone on the same page until you know which page you're on. Sit down with your department heads or key instructors and map out the terminology already in use across your classrooms.
Then choose your lanes. Will your ballet program follow Cecchetti, Vaganova, or RAD? Pick the methodology that fits your studio and commit to it studio-wide. Documenting your agreed-upon terms for each core class is the foundation everything else is built on — and it's a one-time investment that pays off every season after.
Step 2: Give Your Faculty a Centralized Resource
Once your terms are set, your team needs an easy way to reach them. For decades the answer was a massive three-ring binder of photocopied syllabus pages — heavy, hard to update, and stuffed in the back of a locker by week two.
Your teachers are on the move, so their resources should move with them. Instead of paper manuals, give your faculty a digital tool they can pull up in seconds. Have everyone bookmark Free Dance Teacher Terminology Vault on the studio iPad or their phones. When a newer instructor wants to confirm the spelling of a French ballet term, or your jazz teacher wants her leaps named the exact same way as the lyrical teacher's, the answer is right there — instant and standardized.
Step 3: Train Your Team (and Subs!) on the Standard
A shared vocabulary only works when everyone actually uses it. Take a few minutes at your next staff meeting to introduce your standards officially. Walk the team through the Vault and set the expectation: these are the terms we use in every class, from tiny tots to senior company.
This is also where onboarding gets effortless. Hire a new instructor mid-season or need a last-minute sub? Text them the link to the Terminology Vault and they walk in already speaking your studio's language — no scramble, no guesswork, and your dancers never skip a beat.
And to keep your team sharp and aligned year-round, nothing beats experiencing it together. Bringing your faculty to an event like the Dance Teacher Web Conference and Expo is one of the best ways to keep everyone current, learning from master teachers, and coming home speaking the exact same language.
A Shared Language Builds Stronger Dancers
Standardizing your terminology isn't about micromanaging your teachers — it's about empowering them to deliver the best education possible. When your whole faculty speaks one language, your students grow faster, your classes run smoother, and your studio's reputation for excellence climbs.
Ready to get your faculty on the same page? Search our Free Dance Teacher Terminology Vault today and start building a stronger, more unified curriculum!
