Like, Ok. Want a totally fun way to engage the pre-teens and teens at your studio? Host a fun 80s dance party! We recently (re)watched Girls Just Want to Have Fun, and it is jam-packed with 80s inspo–from fashion to lingo to music to cool 80s dance moves! It totally inspired us, and we hope to inspire you, too!

Girls Just Wanna Have Totally 80s Dance Parties! (7)You’ll likely find that most teens today aren’t even aware of this gem of a movie, so you could host a fun themed class or, better yet, a weekend party where you could show the movie.

Start by inviting dancers to dress the part! You could create a Pinterest board with fun 80s dance styles channeling Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Footloose and Flashdance, but also include iconic 80s artists/icons like Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Michael Jackson, The Bangles, Whitney Houston, Cher, Boy George, Jane Fonda and more! Need even more fashion inspo? We love this fun metallic Natalie leotard available from Discount Dance…pair it with a shimmery head band, neon wrist bands, and some colorful leg warmers, and you could be stepping right off the pages of BOP Magazine!

Fer sure play only 80s music throughout your entire dance class! Teach a fun 80s combo or two incorporating some fab 80s dance moves…the moonwalk, the cabbage patch, the robot, the Kid n’ Play, the running man…the list goes on and on! You can have so much fun even just going across the floor!Girls Just Wanna Have Totally 80s Dance Parties! (2)

If you want to go all out, you could even create a fun splatter-paint backdrop for dancers to perform in front of and to use as photo ops! You can use any light-colored backdrop paper (white may be best) or even a plain bed sheet, then have lots of fun (outside, of course) splattering brightly colored paint all over it!

Since many studios will be gearing up for competitions soon, this fun 80s dance party would also be a great spirit day theme for your competition dancers!

No matter how you choose to incorporate this fun 80s theme, your dancers will have so much fun dressing in 80s style, learning all the classic 80s dance moves and, of course, dancing to totally tubular 80s music. We’re sure it’ll be totally radical!

Girls Just Wanna Have Totally 80s Dance Parties! (3)