How to Teach Skips to Young Dancers (And When to Introduce It)

Have you ever tried teaching skips to a class of preschoolers? Some children seem to pick them up almost immediately, while others simply can't figure out how to put the movements together. You can demonstrate, explain, and practice over and over, but sometimes it seems like nothing you do is helping. Then one day, a student who has been struggling with skips for weeks suddenly gets it!

If you've experienced this, there's actually a developmental reason why skipping can be so difficult for young children. And it's one of the reasons I don't recommend introducing skips as a required traveling step until children are around five years old.

In the Little Dancer Program, we don't include skips in our toddler or preschool levels. Instead, we introduce them in our Early Elementary level for children ages 5–7. That's not because younger children can't learn to skip. Some certainly can! But skipping requires a level of coordination that many younger preschoolers are still developing, and there are plenty of other movements we can teach that will help prepare them.

So let's look at why skipping can be difficult, how we can prepare our younger students for it, and some of my favorite ways to help children learn to skip once they're ready.

Why Is Skipping So Difficult for Young Children?

Skipping may seem like a fairly simple movement to an adult, especially if you've been doing it since childhood. But think about what actually happens when we skip.

First, we step onto one foot. Then we hop on that same foot before stepping onto the opposite foot and repeating the movement. We have to alternate legs, maintain our balance, coordinate the step and hop into a continuous rhythm, and keep the movement traveling forward.

That's actually quite a lot of coordination!

Skipping is considered a fundamental locomotor skill, but it's generally more complex than movements such as walking, marching, and jumping with two feet. Most children develop these more basic movement patterns before they're able to combine them into a coordinated skip.

And while muscular strength and balance are important, skipping isn't simply a matter of having strong enough legs. Children also need to develop the motor coordination and timing required to organize the movements into a repeating pattern.

Motor development involves both physical abilities and the nervous system's increasing ability to organize and control movement. As children grow and gain experience practicing different movement skills, they become better able to combine those skills into more complicated patterns.

That's one reason you may see a child struggle with skipping for quite some time and then suddenly begin performing it successfully. She's gradually developing the coordination needed to put the movements together, and eventually the pattern begins to make sense.

Of course, practice matters, too. But it's important to understand that we can't necessarily speed up a child's developmental readiness simply by asking her to repeat a movement more often.

When Should Children Begin Learning to Skip?

In general, I recommend introducing skips around age five, although some children will be ready earlier and others may need additional time.

If you look at the progression of movement skills during early childhood, you'll see that children typically begin learning simpler locomotor movements before mastering more complicated combinations. Walking, running, jumping, marching, and eventually hopping and skipping all involve different levels of balance, coordination, and control.

For that reason, I don't include skips as a required skill in the toddler or preschool levels of the Little Dancer Program. Instead, we spend those early years introducing the movements that help prepare children for skipping later on.

By the time students reach our Early Elementary level, generally ages 5–7, many are developmentally ready to begin working on the coordination of skips. Some will already know how to skip, while others will need more practice with the individual movements before they're able to put them together.

And that's perfectly fine!

I think sometimes teachers feel pressure to introduce increasingly difficult movements because they want to challenge their students or demonstrate progress to parents. But teaching a more advanced movement before students are ready doesn't necessarily make the class more educational.

There are so many valuable movement concepts and skills we can teach preschoolers without expecting them to skip. And when we spend time developing those foundational skills, we're helping prepare them for the more complicated movements they'll learn as they grow.

What to Teach Preschoolers Before Introducing Skips

So if we're not teaching skips to our younger preschoolers, what should we teach instead?

Quite a lot, actually!

There are several movements I like to include in toddler and preschool dance classes that help children develop the balance, strength, coordination, and movement awareness they'll eventually need for skipping.

Marches

Marching is a wonderful movement for young children because it introduces alternating leg actions while traveling through space. Students learn to lift one leg, transfer their weight, and then repeat the movement with the opposite leg.

For very young children, I wouldn't worry about making their marches particularly technical. Simply encouraging them to lift one knee and then the other is a good starting point. As they grow older and develop greater coordination, you can begin asking for more control, clearer knee lifts, and eventually coordinated arm movements.

You can also use marches to introduce different tempos. Ask students to march slowly like soldiers, then quickly as they pretend to hurry off on an adventure. They can march through an imaginary forest, across a bridge, or along the runway as airplanes preparing for takeoff.

And because marching already involves alternating legs, it gives students experience with one of the movement patterns they'll eventually use when learning to skip.

Passé Walks

Passé walks are another favorite of mine, particularly in preschool ballet classes.

They're similar to marching, but we begin introducing a more specific position of the working leg. Students lift the working foot toward the supporting leg, then step forward and repeat the movement on the opposite side.

For younger preschoolers, I wouldn't expect a technically perfect passé position. Instead, we're introducing the general movement pattern and giving students opportunities to develop balance, coordination, and awareness of how their legs and feet move.

One image I like to use is asking students to pretend their toes are giving their knees a little kiss. As they lift each foot, they try to bring it toward the knee of the supporting leg.

You can also ask students to imagine they have paintbrushes on their feet and want to paint colorful dots on their knees. Let them choose which colors they're using! Some children will want pink or purple paint, while others may decide they're painting their knees every color of the rainbow.

As students become more coordinated, you can refine the placement of the working foot so they're not twisting the ankle or sickling the foot to reach the knee. For younger dancers, the image is simply a way to encourage lifting the leg and developing greater awareness of the movement.

Passé Walks on Demi-Pointe

For older preschoolers who are comfortable performing regular passé walks, you can begin introducing passé walks on demi-pointe.

This adds another element of balance and control because students are lifting onto the balls of their supporting feet as they travel. It also gives them opportunities to practice maintaining an upright posture and coordinating their movements with greater precision.

Of course, this is more challenging than walking on flat feet, so I wouldn't introduce it until students have developed sufficient balance and coordination. And I'd keep the exercise simple rather than expecting younger children to maintain a particularly high demi-pointe or a formal ballet position throughout the movement.

You can use the same imaginative ideas as regular passé walks, perhaps having students pretend they're tall flamingos or storks carefully walking through shallow water.

Jumps and Hops

Jumping with two feet is another important movement skill to develop during the preschool years.

Young children can practice bending their knees, pushing off the floor, and landing with control through activities such as bunny hops, frog jumps, or jumping over imaginary puddles. As they grow and develop greater balance and coordination, many will also begin experimenting with hopping on one foot.

Hopping on one foot is particularly relevant to skipping because every skip contains a hop. But don't feel that you need to rush younger preschoolers into single-leg hops before they're ready.

For our youngest students, I'd concentrate on two-footed jumps and other age-appropriate movement experiences. In the Early Elementary level, we can begin including more single-leg hopping activities as students demonstrate the balance and control needed to perform them safely.

These movements don't need to be particularly technical at first. Simply placing the hands on the hips and practicing a few hops on one foot can help students become familiar with the action before we add the coordination required for skipping.

How to Introduce Skips in Your Early Elementary Classes

Once students reach the Early Elementary level and begin showing the coordination needed for skips, I like to start with the simplest version of the movement possible.

At first, I'm not particularly concerned about whether students are lifting their working legs into beautiful passé positions or stretching their supporting legs completely in the air. I want them to understand the basic step-hop pattern and begin coordinating the movement from one foot to the other.

For some students, this will happen almost immediately. Others will need us to break the movement down into smaller parts.

Here are a few approaches I've found helpful.

Start With Step-Hop

One of the simplest ways to introduce skipping is to break it down into two actions: step and hop.

Have students begin by stepping onto one foot and then hopping on that same foot. Repeat the action on the other side, encouraging them to alternate legs as they travel across the room.

You might say, "Step, hop! Step, hop! Step, hop!" as you demonstrate and practice the movement together.

At first, don't worry too much about speed. Some students need time to think through which foot they're stepping onto and which foot they're hopping on. Let them practice slowly before encouraging them to develop a more continuous rhythm.

And don't be surprised if a student can perform the movements correctly when you break them down but becomes confused when trying to put them together. That coordination takes practice, and some children will need more time before the movement becomes comfortable.

Practice With a Partner

For students who are really struggling with the coordination of skips, one technique I've used is to hold their hand and skip across the floor with them.

As you travel together, say, "Step, hop! Step, hop!" to help establish the rhythm. The goal is to give the child an opportunity to experience the movement while receiving a little assistance with balance and timing.

You can even do this with all your students so no one feels singled out. Perhaps you're taking turns skipping across an imaginary bridge or traveling along a pathway through the forest.

Of course, you'll want to provide only as much assistance as the child needs and avoid pulling her through the movement. Sometimes the most helpful thing is simply moving beside her while she practices the rhythm at her own pace.

Use Hopscotch Activities

Hopscotch is another activity that can help students practice some of the coordination skills used in skipping.

Depending on the version you choose, children may alternate between landing on two feet and one foot, changing their balance and transferring their weight as they travel through a pattern.

While hopscotch isn't the same movement as skipping, it provides opportunities to practice balance, jumping, hopping, and organizing different movements into a sequence.

For younger children, I'd keep the patterns simple. You can use floor markers or hoops to create an easy pathway, then gradually introduce more complicated patterns as students become comfortable with the activity.

And because hopscotch feels like a game, students are often happy to repeat it several times!

Continue Using Marches and Passé Walks

Once you begin teaching skips, don't abandon the movements that helped prepare students for them.

Marches, passé walks, and passé walks on demi-pointe can continue to be useful exercises, particularly for children who are still struggling with the step-hop coordination.

You can also incorporate movements that involve coordinating the arms and legs, such as marching with natural opposite arm swings. These give children additional opportunities to explore how the two sides of the body work together during traveling movements.

I wouldn't suggest that cross-body movements automatically cause a child to learn skipping, but they do provide opportunities to practice coordination and alternating movement patterns.

And remember that some children may need to work on these foundational skills for quite a while before they're comfortable skipping. That's not a reason to rush them. Simply continue offering appropriate movement experiences and give them opportunities to practice.

Once Students Can Skip, Begin Working on Technique

Once students understand the basic coordination of skipping, we can gradually begin focusing more on how they're performing the movement.

This is where the ballet-specific aspects of skipping become important.

For example, students may be able to perform a coordinated skip but struggle to maintain a clear passé position or fully extend the supporting leg during the hop. Others may have difficulty maintaining their posture or keeping their hips level as they travel.

Rather than trying to correct everything at once, I would focus on one or two technical details at a time.

Encourage a Clear Passé Position

One of my favorite images for helping students lift the working foot toward the supporting knee is to ask them to imagine their toes giving their knees a little kiss.

You can also use the paintbrush image from passé walks. Students pretend they're painting a colorful dot near the knee of their supporting leg each time they skip.

As students become more technically proficient, you can refine this imagery to encourage a correctly aligned working foot rather than allowing the ankle to sickle in an effort to touch the knee.

For example, you might ask students to bring the inside of the working ankle toward the supporting leg rather than reaching across with their toes. The working foot may be positioned slightly lower at first, but this can help encourage better alignment as students develop greater control.

Work on the Supporting Leg

Another common challenge is getting students to stretch the supporting leg during the hop.

Once students have mastered the step-hop coordination, you can encourage them to jump a little higher while maintaining control and landing softly. The goal isn't simply to make the skip bigger, but to encourage a clearer push through the supporting foot and leg.

I also like using simple single-leg hopping exercises to help students develop the strength and coordination needed for this action.

For example, students can place their hands on their hips or shoulders and practice hopping on one foot. As they become more proficient, you can introduce a parallel passé position and gradually work toward greater technical precision.

Remember that correct alignment and controlled landings are more important than height, particularly while students are still developing strength and balance.

Maintain Proper Alignment

As with any ballet movement, we want to encourage students to maintain good posture and alignment while skipping.

One image you can use is asking students to imagine they have headlights on the front of their hips. As they travel across the floor, their headlights should continue shining forward rather than turning from side to side.

This can help students become more aware of their hip placement and discourage unnecessary twisting through the pelvis.

Of course, imagery is only one part of teaching technique. We'll still need to demonstrate correct movement, observe students carefully, and provide appropriate corrections as they develop.

Keep Skipping Fun!

Just because we're beginning to introduce more formal technique doesn't mean we need to abandon imagination.

In fact, I think skipping is a wonderful movement to incorporate into story-based dance activities, particularly with children ages 5–7.

Perhaps your students are Little Red Riding Hood carrying cookies and muffins to Grandmother's house. They might begin by marching through the forest, then skip happily along the pathway as they get closer to their destination.

Or maybe they're airplanes preparing for takeoff. They can march or perform passé walks as they travel along the runway, then begin skipping as their airplanes take flight.

You could even create an underwater adventure in which students pretend to be seahorses traveling through the ocean, alternating between slower movements and skipping along the sea floor.

The story gives students a reason to travel and repeat the movement while still allowing you to focus on the skills you're teaching.

And as students become more comfortable skipping, you can begin introducing different pathways, directions, and eventually more complicated variations.

What About Students Ages 7 and Older?

By the time students reach Ballet I, generally around age seven or older, many children who have had regular opportunities to practice locomotor movements will already know how to skip.

But that doesn't mean every student will!

You may have older beginners who haven't had much experience with skipping or students who are still working on the coordination. I would approach them with the same patience and progression used for younger students rather than assuming they should already know how to perform the movement.

Continue using marches, passé walks, step-hop exercises, and single-leg hopping activities as needed. Older students may be able to understand more detailed explanations and apply technical corrections, but they still need opportunities to develop the movement pattern.

For students who are already comfortable skipping, Ballet I gives us opportunities to focus on greater technical precision. We can work on clearer passé positions, stronger supporting legs, improved alignment, and coordination of the arms and legs.

We may also begin introducing variations such as skips with half turns when students have developed the necessary balance and control.

The important thing is to consider each student's current abilities rather than assuming that everyone of the same age should be working on exactly the same skills.

Be Patient and Trust the Progression

If there's one thing I'd encourage teachers to remember about skipping, it's that students don't all develop the coordination for this movement at the same time.

You may have a four-year-old who skips beautifully without ever receiving formal instruction. You may also have a six-year-old who is still struggling to put the step and hop together. Neither situation is particularly unusual.

And when a student is having difficulty, repeating the same correction over and over isn't necessarily going to help. Sometimes she needs to spend more time practicing the individual movements or developing the coordination needed to combine them.

That's why I prefer introducing marches, jumps, and passé walks in our younger Little Dancer levels and waiting until Early Elementary to formally introduce skips.

There are so many valuable things we can teach toddlers and preschoolers without rushing them into more complicated movements. We can develop their balance, coordination, musicality, and awareness of their bodies through activities that are appropriate for their ages while preparing them for the next stage of dance instruction.

Then, when they're developmentally ready, we can begin putting those skills together.

And there's something pretty wonderful about watching a child who has struggled with skipping finally figure it out. One day she's stepping, hopping, and stopping to think about which foot comes next. Then suddenly she's skipping across the room as though she's been doing it forever!

Sometimes the best thing we can do as teachers is give our students the appropriate preparation, plenty of opportunities to practice, and the time they need to develop.

They'll get there.