It’s that time of year again! A time when we all get to shamelessly prank those we love. (They seriously have a day for everything. š) And as we all know, there’s no better group of people to prank than your charmingly gullible dance students. To help make your life easier this year, we’ve put together a list of April Fools’ Day prank ideas for you to try on your kiddos. They are PURE. GOLD. Get ready to laugh ’til you cry, ladies and gents!
1. Fake an important dress rehearsal.
Nothing can make a dancer panic more than thinking they’ve forgotten an important dress rehearsal. Believe meāI’ve been there! š© This April Fools’ Day, come to rehearsal and immediately start asking the students where their costumes are and why they aren’t in full makeup. Get extra mad at them about how unprepared they are. Then, just before you make them drop and give you 30 burpees, yell, “April Fools!”
2. Swap the formations in your competition routines.
Wanna really confuse your kiddos? Shake up the formations of your dances without telling them. Get a group of your dancers in on the prank, and change all the formations in one of your numbers without telling the rest of your class. Then, have your students run the piece and pretend like everything is totally normal. Watch as the rest of your students look around the classroom totally confused. If you’re a really good actor you could play it up for a good 10 minutes and gaslight your dancers into thinking the’ve totally lost their minds and forgotten their formations.
3. Send lots of well-behaved students to the office.
Tell a group of your students ahead of time that you’re going to pretend to get mad at them over something silly and then kick them out of class (be sure to tell them to wait just outside the door). Once rehearsal starts, begin kicking them out of class one at a time for things like breathing, not pointing their toes or looking at the floor. There are few things more terrifying than getting kicked out of dance classāyour students are gonna freak out!
4. Spring an impromptuāand ridiculousāaudition on your students.
Call up the most EXTRA friend you have (be sure your students don’t know them) and have them pretend to be a choreographer auditioning your dancers for a commercial. Tell your students that a choreographer is coming to the studio last-minute and is looking for performers with no inhibitions. Then have the “choreographer” proceed to teach your dancers the most ridiculous combo possible. Be dead serious as they are instructed to dance the entire combo in grand pliĆ© while bocking like a chicken and flailing their arms like they just got out of a straitjacket. It’s gonna be hysterical, so make sure you film the whole thing!
5. Fill their take-home Easter treat with veggies.
This year, April Fools’ Day and Easter fall on the same day, which means you have the added luxury of incorporating Easter candy into your prank. Use this tutorial to make a chocolate easter bunny full of broccoli. Hand the treat out after class and watch them all take a big and unexpected bite of greens!
WARNING: Messing with kids’ candy is extra wicked and may result in tearsājust ask Jimmy Kimmel.
