Levels & Placement
TIPDI is structured like a weekend-long dance conservatory for adults — it's intense, but totally fun and non-intimidating. In order to cover the amount of material we want, with the level of focus that we love, we ask that our participants have some understanding of how to move prior to joining us. All of the details are below. Come dance with us!
QUALIFICATIONS
We require a good, solid background in ONE of the dance forms that we offer, or a closely related dance. One dance is fine — we will teach you all the rest!
Ideally, you have danced at least once or twice a week, for the last two years, in either Salsa, West Coast Swing, or Argentine Tango. Or you have taken Ballet, Modern, or Ethnic dance classes at least twice a week for the last two years.
We do not expect anyone to have experience in all six dance forms (though it is crazy awesome if you do!). We simply ask that you have a reasonable degree of fluency in at least one of them.
**If you have danced for fewer than two years, but have trained intensively during that time — or if you have at least 2 years experience in a different movement form — TIPDI may be right for you, too! Please see "Is TIPDI for Me & My Dance Background?" where we address this in charmingly excruciating detail.
Or contact us directly at info@tipdi.com, to discuss if TIPDI can help further your dance goals. We're friendly and we'll be happy to answer all your questions!
We require a good, solid background in ONE of the dance forms that we offer, or a closely related dance. One dance is fine — we will teach you all the rest!
Ideally, you have danced at least once or twice a week, for the last two years, in either Salsa, West Coast Swing, or Argentine Tango. Or you have taken Ballet, Modern, or Ethnic dance classes at least twice a week for the last two years.
We do not expect anyone to have experience in all six dance forms (though it is crazy awesome if you do!). We simply ask that you have a reasonable degree of fluency in at least one of them.
**If you have danced for fewer than two years, but have trained intensively during that time — or if you have at least 2 years experience in a different movement form — TIPDI may be right for you, too! Please see "Is TIPDI for Me & My Dance Background?" where we address this in charmingly excruciating detail.
Or contact us directly at info@tipdi.com, to discuss if TIPDI can help further your dance goals. We're friendly and we'll be happy to answer all your questions!
LEVELS
Our goal is to raise you to the next level in your primary form… while also rapidly advancing your learning of the other dance forms by using your previous training as a springboard. Dancers will be grouped based on their common strengths or weaknesses, rather than on some arbitrary scaling system. We expect to have three levels for each dance form. You will probably be in a higher level in your primary dance, and a lower level in all the other dances, just like everyone else at TIPDI.
We will place you in various groups very tentatively, based on information you provide on your registration form. After you arrive, our instructors may move you around, based on what they see the first day of classes (or in your video or audition for Expert/Professional level). Please understand, they may move you based on the particular things they intend to work on in the different classes, not on the basis of your overall skills.
• Fast Track. There are no absolute beginner dancers at TIPDI, and consequently, there are no absolute beginner classes! Instead, your classes in your non-primary dance form(s) are "Accelerated Beginner for people who already can dance, but don't happen to know this particular dance." This is where nearly all of us will find ourselves for most of our classes, except in our primary dance form.
• Advanced. Our Advanced group in each dance form consists of participants with a solid fluency. You have danced for 3–5 years and probably more. You are looking to rapidly advance your overall expertise, and you appreciate that better technique = better dancing. You will love TIPDI.
• Expert/Professional. Our Expert/Professional group in each dance form is very advanced. You must submit a 1–minute video of your dancing, or must take part in a placement audition on Thursday night with our teachers, to be considered for this level. (Video: For partner dancers, video must be social dancing, not anything choreographed. For non-partner dancers, video must be Center work.) You will love TIPDI.
Yes, TIPDI is going to have a rockin' bunch of fun and excellent people for you to mingle with! And here's the best part: everyone around you will also be totally inexperienced at most of what we do! So come plunge into new dance adventures with us!
Our goal is to raise you to the next level in your primary form… while also rapidly advancing your learning of the other dance forms by using your previous training as a springboard. Dancers will be grouped based on their common strengths or weaknesses, rather than on some arbitrary scaling system. We expect to have three levels for each dance form. You will probably be in a higher level in your primary dance, and a lower level in all the other dances, just like everyone else at TIPDI.
We will place you in various groups very tentatively, based on information you provide on your registration form. After you arrive, our instructors may move you around, based on what they see the first day of classes (or in your video or audition for Expert/Professional level). Please understand, they may move you based on the particular things they intend to work on in the different classes, not on the basis of your overall skills.
• Fast Track. There are no absolute beginner dancers at TIPDI, and consequently, there are no absolute beginner classes! Instead, your classes in your non-primary dance form(s) are "Accelerated Beginner for people who already can dance, but don't happen to know this particular dance." This is where nearly all of us will find ourselves for most of our classes, except in our primary dance form.
• Advanced. Our Advanced group in each dance form consists of participants with a solid fluency. You have danced for 3–5 years and probably more. You are looking to rapidly advance your overall expertise, and you appreciate that better technique = better dancing. You will love TIPDI.
• Expert/Professional. Our Expert/Professional group in each dance form is very advanced. You must submit a 1–minute video of your dancing, or must take part in a placement audition on Thursday night with our teachers, to be considered for this level. (Video: For partner dancers, video must be social dancing, not anything choreographed. For non-partner dancers, video must be Center work.) You will love TIPDI.
Yes, TIPDI is going to have a rockin' bunch of fun and excellent people for you to mingle with! And here's the best part: everyone around you will also be totally inexperienced at most of what we do! So come plunge into new dance adventures with us!