Halloween Activities for Your Dance Classes

Halloween week in the studio is the perfect time to shake things up. A themed class gives your students a creative reset mid-semester and brings fresh, fun energy while keeping your classes structured and productive.

Here are some Halloween-inspired dance activities you can easily adapt for different ages and levels:

1. Potion Creation (Choreography/Composition Activity)

Have dancers imagine they’re movement "alchemists" by creating their own dance potions!

Write dance "ingredients" on slips of paper. For example: a jump, sharp accent, turn, pause, movement in slow motion, ripple through the body, move on the floor, etc...there's so many options you could come up with!

Each dancer (or you could assign small groups), draws 3-5 cards and must include them within a short choreography phrase (3-4 counts of 8). To make it even more creative, they can come up with the effect of their potion to theme their phrase. 

Let them pick their own spooky music. Each dancer or group then shares with the class at the end. 

age/level recommendation: 12+, elem/inter/adv

2. Haunted House Improv

This activity blends storytelling, character work, and movement exploration. 

If you're able, dim the lights, and play some dark cinematic/spooky music. 

Prompt your dancers they are going to improvise through a haunted house. Prompts you can use to guide your dancers through this include:

• Moving on a creeky, dusty, wooden floor
• Move as though you’re being pulled by an invisible force/string
• Move imagining the air is heavy as fog continues to roll in
• Play with moving as a human, and then as a ghost/spirit

age/level: teen/inter-advanced

3. Monster Moves

For your little ones, this improvisation dance activity is great for imagination and play!

Call out different halloween characters and have your students embody each through their movement through pompts:

• Witches: fly, melt, or mix potions

• Ghosts: float, disappear, reappear

• Zombies: move in slow motion, sleepwalk

• Spiders: crawl, creep, spin webs

You can ask them what their favorite character was and why after!

age/level: 4-7 

4. Halloween Combo

Choreograph a combo to a Halloween-inspired piece of music and teach it to your dancers. I'm doing this in my inter/adv contemporary class. There are a bunch of tracks to look through on my October/Halloween Contemporary playlist!

age/level: 10+