Harpenden acting, dance and singing: a teachers perspective!

Jigsaw Performing Arts Schools – A teacher’s perspective on the acting, dance and singing classes coming to Jigsaw Harpenden!

Harpenden is in for a treat with the opening of Jigsaw Harpenden on Sunday mornings in January 2025. Offering acting, singing and dance classes to children aged 3-18! This blog post is here to get you excited for all that is to come your way in the new year and to give you an insight of Jigsaw Performing Arts from a teacher’s perspective!

Teaching at Jigsaw is always full of joy and fun! We care so much about each individual student in our classes and always strive for them to reach their fullest potential through encouragement, nurturing and lots of positive energy. It is vital to us as teachers that we create a safe learning environment where the students feel a part of a team, and essentially a Jigsaw family as this will enable our students to express themselves and always feel as though Jigsaw is a safe, happy and wonderful place to belong. Jigsaw is not only a place to belong for the students, but also for the staff!

What do I like about teaching performing arts?

Performing arts classes for children aged 3 – 6, are always super high energy confidence building classes full of the biggest smiley faces! I love watching confidence blossom in these classes, seeing a child, who may have initially joined Jigsaw feeling quite shy to suddenly coming into class beaming with confidence and ready to dance, sing and act their little hearts out. These classes are absolutely brilliant for developing a child’s gross motor skills due to dance. Through learning technique and with repetition, and practise a child can improve their balance, co-ordination and also their rhythm and musicality. It is also a great way for children to develop their social and communication skills which will support them alongside their early years journey at school.

What do I like about teaching dance?

I love the creativity behind the choreography of a dance. I love creating a piece of art and inspiring the students to come up with their own ideas, giving them the opportunity to share their input. Dance teaches students discipline and shows them that working together as a team can create something quite visually amazing.

What do I like about teaching singing?

I feel that singing is a brilliant way to express yourself through music. There is always a story behind a song, and I feel that singing brings that story to life and can be expressed in many different ways. There are so many aspects to singing other than just memorising the lyrics to the song. Some things include, performance, dynamics, harmonies, vocal placement; all of which are super exciting to teach as it shows the children that singing, and music has so many layers.

What sets Jigsaw apart from other Theatre Schools?

Jigsaw’s ethos and focus on giving every student an equal opportunity is spectacular. We have mixed abilities at Jigsaw Performing Arts, and we work to get the best out of every child, giving everyone their own personal experience of performing arts and allowing the students to move and progress at a pace that feels comfortable for them, whilst still challenging them and pushing them towards their goals in acting, singing and dance.

Jigsaw is a wonderful place to teach, and all the students absolutely love it!