P.O.S.E.

Guide

What to expect at your first master class.

The nerves are normal. Almost everyone in that room felt them once. Here is exactly how the ninety minutes runs, so none of it is a surprise.

First, the thing you’re actually worried about

Most first-timers aren’t worried about the choreography. They’re worried about being the worst dancer in the room, in front of someone whose work they’ve watched on a music video.

Here is the honest answer: nobody is watching you. Everyone in a master class is concentrating on their own body, counting their own eights, and worrying about the same thing you are. The teacher is watching the room, not auditing individuals. And guest choreographers teach hundreds of these — they have seen every level walk through the door, and the ones they remember are the people who committed, not the people who nailed it.

How the time is actually spent

A P.O.S.E. drop runs 90 minutes. It varies by teacher and style, but the shape is almost always the same:

First 15–20 minWarm-up. Led by the teacher, in their style. This is also where you get a feel for how they move and how they talk.
Next 10 minAcross the floor or centre work. Not every teacher does this; jazz and contemporary usually will, hip hop often skips it.
Bulk of classLearning the combo. Eight counts at a time, built up and repeated. This is where most of the ninety minutes goes.
Last 15–20 minGroups. The room splits and dances the combo a few at a time while everyone else watches. Often filmed.

About the groups at the end

This is the part that scares people, so it’s worth being clear: going in groups is normal, it is not an audition, and nothing is riding on it. You will probably dance it two or three times. The room claps for everyone — that is not a politeness thing, it is genuinely how these rooms work.

If someone is filming, it’s usually for the teacher’s socials or for dancers who want their own footage. If you’d rather not be filmed, say so. Nobody will make it weird.

You will not learn the whole combo perfectly. That’s the point.

Master classes move faster than a weekly class, on purpose. You’re not there to polish a routine over eight weeks — you’re there to spend ninety minutes inside a professional’s brain and take away what you can. Picking up most of it, or catching the feel of the style rather than every detail, is a completely normal outcome for a first class.

Dancers who take a lot of these will tell you the skill you’re really building is pick-up speed — the ability to see something once and get it in your body. That transfers to auditions, to conventions, to every rehearsal you ever walk into. It only develops by being in fast rooms.

What a P.O.S.E. drop looks like specifically

Ours run at The ARC in Murrieta. Classes are capped at 24 dancers, so it’s a real room, not a hall with a hundred people where you can’t see the front. Drops are $35–$50— a one-time fee, no membership, no term commitment, and you don’t need to belong to a studio.

Levels are marked on every drop. BEG/INTassumes you’ve danced before but doesn’t assume much beyond that. INT/ADVmoves fast and assumes you can pick up choreography quickly. If you’re between the two, take the lower one first — an easier class you dance full-out beats a harder one you spend marking at the back.

Still nervous? Bring someone.

The single most common thing we hear from first-timers is that they wish they’d come sooner. The second most common is that they brought a friend and it made the whole thing easy. Both are allowed.

When you’re ready, read how to prepare for a master class for the practical side — what to wear, what to bring, when to show up — or see who’s teaching next.

Your first one is the hardest

And it's still just ninety minutes in a room with good music. Come find out.

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