Lessons from Google, Applied to Dance and Life Skills

How ideas from How Google Works inspired our recent lessons in creativity, adaptability, and learning from mistakes.

What can a technology company teach us about dance—and everyday life?

More than you might expect.

How Google Works, by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg, explores how people create, experiment, and develop ideas. Its discussions of constraints, experimentation, and learning from unsuccessful attempts inspired connections to our recent lessons at The Secret Dance Technique.

Whether we’re helping children explore movement or welcoming adults into a beginner class, dance gives us opportunities to practice how we approach unfamiliar challenges. Here’s how we’ve been applying these ideas.

1. Constraints can give creativity a starting point

“Create anything you want” sounds freeing. It can also leave you wondering where to begin.

Add a specific challenge, however, and suddenly there’s something to explore. It also allows us to think differently, versus going back to familiar patterns.

In our recent dance lessons, we’ve created movement within rules: include a turn, take on a character, or express a particular emotion.

The question becomes: What can I create with these constraints?

A familiar step might look different when performed by a mysterious character. A required turn might inspire a new transition. The rule gives us a starting point while leaving room for individual choices.

The life skill connection: We rarely have unlimited time, resources, or options. Children encounter assignment requirements and rules in group activities. Adults work with budgets, deadlines, and competing responsibilities.

Through these movement challenges, we practice looking at what is available and asking, “What could work? What new possibilities can we create?"

2. Unexpected moments give us choices

In our recent “happy accident” activities, we explored what happens when movement doesn’t go as planned.

We talked about choreographer George Balanchine, who incorporated unexpected rehearsal events into his ballet Serenade, including a dancer’s fall and another dancer’s late arrival. Moments that could have been dismissed became part of the choreography.

We also looked beyond dance to the development of the microwave oven. Engineer Percy Spencer noticed that a candy bar in his pocket had melted while he was working near a magnetron. His curiosity led to experiments with heating food and helped set the development of microwave cooking in motion.

Both examples gave us something to consider: an unexpected result can be worth investigating.

At the end of class, we put that idea into practice through a challenge game. I deliberately changed movements as we danced, and students had to keep going and find a way forward.

Alongside “Did I do the step correctly?” we introduced another question:

“What can I do from here?”

An unplanned movement might become a transition. A dancer might find the next familiar step and rejoin the routine. An unexpected result might even suggest an idea worth keeping.

In one class, we liked a mistake so much that we included it in the dance!

Technique still matters, but creative exploration gives us room to consider different responses rather than automatically dismissing everything unplanned.

The life skill connection: A changed plan can be frustrating—a group project takes a different direction, an appointment is cancelled, or a presentation doesn’t unfold as expected.

Dance offers a manageable setting to practice noticing a change, considering our options, and choosing a next step. We can acknowledge that something went wrong while still looking for a useful response.

3. Learning from an attempt takes reflection

Trying again is valuable. It becomes more purposeful when we use what happened to adjust our approach.

If a dance transition feels awkward, could we change the timing?

If a sequence is difficult to remember, could we divide it into smaller sections?

If a movement doesn’t express the feeling we intended, could we change its speed, size, or energy?

The process is simple: try, notice, adjust.

An unsuccessful attempt doesn’t automatically teach us something. We need to pause long enough to identify what happened and what we might do differently.

The life skill connection: A child might change how they practice a difficult task. An adult might revise a presentation after feedback or reconsider an approach that isn’t producing results.

In both cases, reflection gives the next attempt a direction.

Try it yourself: one sequence, one new rule

Choose three simple, comfortable movements and put them together. Try this on your own, with your child, or with a friend.

Then introduce one rule:

• Keep your feet in one place.

• Perform the sequence as a particular character.

• Change the emotion while keeping the same movements.

After trying it, ask:

• What did the rule make me change?

• Did anything unexpected give me a new idea?

• What would I adjust next time?

Change one thing and try again.

The purpose is to explore your choices and notice how your approach develops.

Bringing the lesson beyond dance

Making the connection to everyday life explicit gives us something to draw on later. With children, we might ask: “Remember when the movement changed? How did you find a way to continue? When else might we need to adapt?”

Adults can ask themselves a similar question: “What information did this attempt give me, and what can I try next?”

At The Secret Dance Technique, we use movement to explore these questions alongside dance technique. A choreography challenge becomes an opportunity to make decisions, experiment, reflect, and respond to change.

The steps give us something to practice. The choices we make along the way give us something to reflect on—and apply beyond class.

Life Skills. Fun. Dance.

Dance is the secret tool—helping kids grow beyond the dance floor.

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