About the Online Course
The course caters to all levels of dancers, from total beginners to intermediate and advanced ones. Seasoned house dancers have gained new perspective and valuable insights from this course, and it has helped many dance teachers become better at teaching.
I made sure to cover every essential aspect of the dance so that you don't need anything else outside of this course. I appreciate every part of every dancers' journey, especially the very beginning stages because I believe starting is the hardest part 🙂
I have already learned basics from your free tutorials, so what would I get from taking this course?
Excellent question! In my online course you'll learn how to freestyle and choreograph using *many* transitions that aren't included in my free tutorials. You'll get a much deeper understanding for the dance and also learn more about musicality, performing, conceptual approaches, finishing your rounds, and more. I also show you how to freestyle in other sub-styles, like floorwork, "loft" inspired freestyle, and what's known as New York's "jacking" style.
The course is completely beginner friendly - I go through everything from the base/ground up. But if you would like to get a taste of my teaching style before the course starts, you can check out my YouTube page for free tutorials. Just go to YouTube.com/jardysantiago. Also, if you sign up for my mailing list I will send you an "Everything You Need to Get Started" guide 🙂
New lessons are sent out weekly, but they're pre-recorded so you can watch them anytime after they've been made available. The course is taken at your own pace, and there's no strict time schedule. Even homework assignment submissions are flexible - you can turn them in any time for as long as you're enrolled, and still get feedback!
A couple of hours each week would be ideal, and how much you practice on top of that would be dependent on your schedule. But I will say: even 10-15 minutes a day of practice would do wonders. I like to do a little practice while I "wait" (e.g. for food to microwave or for a bus/train to arrive), or I use longer focused time for dance practice as a replacement for walking or jogging. In any case, this course is really designed to take at your own pace, even with the new lessons each week!
Each week's "lesson" consists of approximately 90-120 minutes of pre-recorded material, including a warm-up, several detailed breakdowns of new moves and transitions, combination drills, freestyle exercises, a cool down video, strengthening/conditioning exercises, and a homeowrk assignment which you can submit (and view other students' homework) in our Discord channel. You can do as much or as little as your time, energy, or lifestyle allow, and you can go at any pace you wish.
Teaching how to freestyle/improvise is the main focus of my course. I do this by teaching commonly used transitional movements within house dance. These transitions are what help you flow from move to move, which is typically the biggest challenge people have when learning how to freestyle.
The techniques I teach can easily be used to create choreography, so yes (though freestyle is still the main theme of the course). If you're the type that likes to follow along while dancing, the course is full of warm ups and combo drills that will keep you busy.
I provide weekly homework assignments, and a platform for you to share it on, so you can track your progress and even see how your fellow cohort is progressing.
Advanced concepts and movements are available in every module, but this online course is more focused on providing students with a deep and thorough understanding of the fundamentals and their contexts, and guiding students along a whole journey, rather than learning one-off impressive-looking moves and variations (which I offer for free on my YouTube chanel)
Yes, definitely! There are a lot of new methods and ideas I implemented to help you develop your freestyle way further than before. For example, integrated into the new Footwork Mastery module are several weeks focused completely on musicality and styling interspersed throughout the module to help exercise your creative mind within your freestyle. I’ve also revised some of the “kits” of the old FMSC and added new transitions that flow better.
About Payments and Account Info
Access to the online course is $89/month: when you sign up and check out through PayPal, you are automatically charged every month until you cancel your subscription. If PayPal doesn't work for you, contact me and I will find another way to process your payment.
Enrollment opens only twice a year for new students. In order to receive reminders or notifications about when the next enrollment period opens up, sign up for my mailing list. I start sending out reminders through the mailing list about a month or so before enrollment opens (as well as exclusive/secret free tips and tutorials that not even my youtube subscribers or instagram followers receive).
Just reach out to me and I will work on resolving any technical issue regarding payment, and I will make sure to get you registered even if the enrollment period has passed.
I do not offer the modules to be sold separately. I designed this one-year program as a step-by-step learning journey for students who are serious about learning house dance as a whole style. Each module builds on the knowledge and skills developed in the previous ones. Instead of separate courses, the five modules are connected parts of a bigger, structured experience.
Go to house-dance.com/profile to see all the modules you have access to. If you believe any are missing, please contact me and I will fix it as soon as possible.
Cancelling through the site may likely result in the loss of all your progress. The best way to cancel your subscription is to contact me, so that I can help preserve your progress in the event that you would ever like to return and continue from where you left off.
What happens if I enroll but drop out before the semester or program is over? Can I rejoin any time?
Anybody can drop out any time, but rejoining will be trickier because enrollment opens only twice a year and your cohort will be moving through the semester and year together. Ideally, you would finish a module before dropping out so that you can pick up from where you left off instead of losing progress. If you would like to rejoin in between enrollment periods, just contact me so that we can figure out a solution.