Dance Sport Trust
Dance Sport Trust Resources & Guides
The Dance Sport Trust exists to gather, translate and share thoughtful guidance for the Dance Sport community, especially in the areas where dance, sport, performance, development and wellbeing overlap.
This growing library brings together articles, tools, and guidance designed for dancers, families, teachers, coaches, and adjudicators.
The information shared here offers perspective and practical support within the context of Dance Sport. It does not replace professional medical or therapeutic advice.
Supporting
Your Dancing Child
Parental support for Dance Sport Families
Dance Sport sits at the intersection of physical training and artistic performance. Yet unlike many sports or performing arts, it does not sit within a single national framework that provides clear guidance on child development, wellbeing, and safeguarding.
As a result, families often find themselves drawing information from several different fields. Advice about physical training may come from sport science, emotional wellbeing from psychology, and performance experience from the arts. While each of these areas offers valuable insight, it can be difficult to see how they connect within the specific environment of competitive dance.
This guide was created to help bring those strands together.
Supporting Your Dancing Child offers calm, accessible information to help families better understand the physical, emotional, and developmental experiences children may encounter as they grow within Dance Sport. It draws on recognised knowledge from child development, youth sport, safeguarding practice, and performing-arts education, and presents that understanding in a way that is relevant to dance training and competition environments.
The guide does not replace teachers, coaches, or professional support services. It simply aims to provide clarity and reassurance so that parents can feel more confident navigating their child’s journey.
We hope it serves as a helpful reference for families, educators, and organisations who share a commitment to healthy, balanced participation in Dance Sport.
Practical Worksheet Resources
These worksheets can be used alongside the Supporting Your Dancing Child guide or independently to support regular wellbeing conversations and healthy routines.
View and Download the FREE Full Practical Worksheets Pack (PDF)
Weekly Wellbeing Check-In
A simple weekly tool that helps children notice patterns in their energy, mood, and enjoyment of training.
Competition Day Planner
A structured planner designed to help families keep competition days calm, predictable, and well-supported.
Rest and Balance Tracker
A weekly tracker that helps families monitor training load, rest, sleep, and overall balance during busy periods.
Digital Footprint Review
A reflective worksheet designed to help young dancers think about their online presence, social media habits, and how digital content makes them feel.
Communication Prompts Sheet
A set of simple prompts designed to support everyday conversations between parents and children around training, emotions, and performance experiences.
Supporting Dance Teachers
& Studio Owners
Why it matters.
Dance teachers often wear many hats - mentor, administrator, organiser, accountant, marketing manager, communicator - whilst having the very important role and responsibility of a trusted significant other.
While this variety is part of what makes teaching rewarding, it can also create significant cognitive, emotional, and physical demands.
Sustaining a healthy teaching career requires more than technical knowledge of dance. It also involves systems, boundaries, support networks, and attention to personal wellbeing. When teachers are supported and resourced, the studio environment becomes healthier for everyone.
Every studio and every teacher is different, but here are some approaches that may be helpful when juggling the various roles that come with the job.
View & Download the FREE Resource:
Juggling the Many Hats - Practical Ideas for Studio Teachers & Owners
Articles and Insights Library
Explore our growing collection of articles and discussions in the Articles and Insights Library.
Here you will find articles exploring wellbeing across the Dance Sport environment, from training and competition to the wider cultural context in which dancers learn and perform.
The Trust will continue developing additional materials over time, including guidance for teachers, coaches and competition environments, as well as resources exploring development, digital media and healthy participation in performance settings.
A Note on Guidance
The information on this site is offered for general information, guidance and signposting within the Dance Sport community.
It is not a substitute for professional, medical, psychological or emergency support. If you are worried about your own wellbeing, your mental health, or someone else’s safety, please contact a qualified professional or an appropriate support service.
Full disclaimer available in the footer.
Supporting The Work Of Dance Sport Trust
The resources provided by the Dance Sport Trust are developed independently and made available to the community to support healthy participation in Dance Sport.
If you would like to support the continued development of these resources, you can do so through a voluntary donation.