How 8Counts Is Helping Dance Families Bring Structure to Practice at Home

8Counts is building a structured, gamified way for children—particularly dancers around ages seven to thirteen—to practice dance at home. It combines guided practice, studio-assigned homework, on-device feedback, and a secure way for parents and coaches to communicate. The goal is not to replace dance teachers; it is to help dancers repeat and reinforce what they have learned so valuable studio time can go further.

It started with a very ordinary dance-parent problem

Josh says the idea did not arrive as one dramatic business epiphany. It showed up every Tuesday night.

Their daughter would come home from dance and say, “Watch me do this move.” Josh wanted to encourage her, but he did not necessarily know what he was looking at. Was the move correct? Was it safe? What exactly had the coach asked her to practice? How many repetitions were appropriate?

As he put it, “I think, great,” because he did not know whether the move was being done correctly or safely. He also did not want to become “the parent that starts becoming the at-home coach that doesn’t really actually have the experience to do so.”

That tension will be familiar to many families. A dancer may be motivated to practice, but the adults at home may not have the technical background to guide every skill. A child may also forget what happened in class by the time the next lesson arrives. The result can be frustration on both sides: the dancer wants to improve, while the parent is left asking what to do next.

Josh and Ioana saw a feedback loop that needed closing. The opportunity was not to turn parents into dance instructors. It was to bring more of the coach’s structure into the space between classes.

From endless scrolling to purposeful practice

One of the biggest ideas behind 8Counts is that practice should feel inviting, especially for children who already spend time on screens.

Josh described the goal as turning “scrolling time and just endless YouTube and YouTube Reels and YouTube Kids” into something that makes a young dancer think, “Ooh, I’m excited about this. It’s helping me with dance.”

That is where the game-like environment comes in. Josh compares the experience to “Duolingo, but for dance”: a visually engaging world, structured progression, and dance moves to practice along the way. The game is not there just to decorate the training. It gives young dancers a path to follow instead of leaving them to search through an open-ended stream of content.

The distinction matters. Random dance videos may be entertaining, but they do not necessarily tell a child what to practice, how often to practice it, or how that practice connects to their class and goals. 8Counts is intended to make the next step clearer.

How on-device feedback fits into the experience

8Counts uses pose-estimation technology to recognize how a dancer performs certain movements. The camera sees the movement, and the system can provide guidance about whether the move was performed accurately or whether the dancer may need more help.

Josh emphasized that this feedback happens on the device rather than requiring information to be sent to the cloud. For a product designed for children, that boundary is part of the experience—not an afterthought.

The technology also has a practical purpose: it gives dancers a way to practice when a coach is not physically in the room, without pretending that a machine can replace a teacher’s eye. The app can help with repetition and basic feedback. The coach still handles the nuance and artistry.

That division is central to 8Counts’ philosophy: “The app should help dancers with repetition at home. The coaches should handle the nuance and the artistry 100%.”

Homework mode gives everyone a clearer next step

The other major part of 8Counts is its connection to studios and coaches.

With homework mode, a coach can assign practice to dancers in a few steps. Instead of sending a child home with a vague instruction—or a piece of paper that says what to do without explaining how often to do it—the studio can provide a more organized path.

Josh remembers his family asking questions such as:

•What exactly are we supposed to practice?

•How often should we do it?

•How many repetitions should there be?

•How many counts should a dancer hold a move?

Those questions are not evidence that coaches failed to communicate. Josh was careful to say that coaches answered when asked. The challenge is that every dancer is different, and the details can shift. Families need a single place to return to after class.

Homework mode is meant to create that shared reference point for the dancer, parent, and studio. It also gives coaches a clearer view of what is happening outside the classroom.

Parents are part of the dance team—but they are not always the coach

A particularly thoughtful part of Josh’s perspective comes from his experience as a former USA Hockey coach. He worked with everyone from very young children to National Hockey League players, and he understands the fine line parents often walk.

Parents should be excited. They should encourage their children. But they also have a specific role. As Josh put it, “They’re the kid’s parent. They’re not their coach.”

That distinction is especially important when dancers are practicing acro or other skills that require proper instruction and spotting. Josh offered a humorous but honest version of the question a parent might face: “Could I spot you? Yes. Should I? Probably not.”

8Counts is intended to give parents another tool without asking them to perform a job they are not trained to do. Parents can help create time and encouragement for practice, understand what the coach assigned, and reconnect their dancer with the studio when questions come up.

The larger goal is to make the time, effort, and money a family invests in dance more effective—not by taking over the coach’s role, but by helping the whole support system work together.

Repetition at home, artistry in the studio

Josh does not see technology and dance as competing forces. He sees the right technology as a way to make the human parts of dance more valuable.

If a class spends less time re-explaining material that dancers were supposed to practice during the week, the coach can spend more time on development. As Josh explained, a class can lose momentum when a teacher has to say, “We covered this last week, but nobody did their homework, so I’m gonna re-explain it again.”

That is why 8Counts is focused on reinforcement rather than replacement. A dancer can repeat a move, style, skill, trick, or section of choreography at home. Then the coach can use studio time for the feedback that requires experience, observation, and artistry.

Making progress visible can change the conversation

Another benefit Josh described is the ability to log effort.

Dance competition results can feel subjective to dancers and families. Practice is different: a dancer can record that they worked on a move for a certain amount of time, completed a certain number of repetitions, or worked through an assigned piece of homework.

“If you do something on 8Counts, you are clocking the hard work that you’re putting in, period. End of story,” Josh said. “You have the data.”

That information does not define a dancer’s talent or determine their future. It does provide a more concrete picture of consistency.

It can also support more useful conversations. If a parent asks why a dancer is not progressing, a coach may be able to look at homework completion and see that a dancer is practicing consistently—or that there is an opportunity to create more time for practice. The conversation becomes less of a guess and more of a shared problem to solve.

A safer way to share practice videos with a coach

Before 8Counts, Josh and Ioana were using ordinary messaging tools to send videos and updates. A parent might text or message a coach to say, “Look what my daughter finally did.” That works, but it can scatter communication across different apps and make it harder for coaches to keep track of dancers.

8Counts gives parents a secure way to send a practice video directly to the coach connected to their studio. The coach can respond with an audio note over the video, sending feedback back to the parent.

Josh described this as a more organized alternative to the mix of WhatsApp, iMessage, TeamSnap, and other tools families may already be using. Coaches can keep classes, levels, teams, questions, and feedback in one place rather than piecing the story together across multiple conversations.

The parent remains the person who initiates that connection. That boundary is important to the way 8Counts thinks about a child-focused platform.

Why 8Counts is intentionally not another social app

8Counts does not include social functionality by design. Josh described the product as a “walled” and safe garden of controlled content, where parents know what their child is doing and who is connected within the app.

That approach is different from sending children into an open social environment or relying on an unlimited stream of videos. It also reflects the reality that a child-focused product has to consider more than convenience. Content, partners, data access, communication, and retention all matter.

Josh spoke about privacy and safety at both the infrastructure and product levels, including secure authentication, encryption, controlled communication, and attention to child-focused requirements. But his larger point was that parents should not have to become security specialists to feel comfortable. If the product is doing its job, the experience should feel safe and understandable from the parent’s point of view.

The coach workflow has to be simple

A tool can have a thoughtful mission and still fail if it adds too much work for coaches.

That is why 8Counts is designed around the end of class, when the coach can select a few skills, choose a class, and assign the homework in roughly half a minute. Josh described the action as a few taps while the material is still top of mind.

The aim is not to create a new administrative burden or ask teachers to rebuild their entire workflow. It is to make the useful action easy enough that it can fit into what coaches are already doing.

Building for dance by listening first

Josh came to 8Counts with technology experience and a history of coaching hockey, but he did not assume those backgrounds gave him a complete understanding of dance studios.

“I wasn’t trying to optimize something that I already knew how to do,” he said. “I was trying to solve a problem that simply—we were dealing with this problem every week.”

That meant listening to studio owners, coaches, dancers, and specialists rather than forcing a technology solution onto the industry. Josh said he had spoken with nearly a hundred studio owners during development, learning what they were concerned about and what questions they raised.

He also acknowledged the difference between sports and dance. His hockey experience helped him understand coaching and parent dynamics, but “this is the same thing” would be the wrong assumption. Dance has its own culture, needs, artistry, safety considerations, and studio realities.

The product has been shaped with input from professional ballerinas, people connected to nutrition and sports medicine, childhood-development experts, hip-hop and acro professionals, coaches, and studio owners. Josh’s description of the process was direct: “It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, we just designed this app in a vacuum somewhere in some ivory tower.’”

Three core problems, one larger purpose

By the end of the conversation, Josh came back to three things 8Counts is trying to bring together:

1.A game-like environment with structure for young dancers.

2.Homework mode for studios and coaches.

3.A feedback loop between the dancer, parent, and coach.

Those are not abstract features chosen because they look impressive in a product list. They are the same areas Josh’s family struggled with—and the same areas coaches told the team they struggled with too.

That is why his final description of the company is less about technology than outcomes. “We’re helping kids get better,” he said. “We’re helping them stay excited about dance.”

For a dance parent, that may be the most useful measure of all. Does the child know what to practice? Can the parent support that practice without taking over? Does the coach get more meaningful time with the dancer? And does the dancer remain curious and excited enough to keep going?

8Counts is being built around those questions.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is 8Counts?

8Counts is a digital dance experience designed to help young dancers practice with more structure. It includes a gamified practice environment, studio-assigned homework, on-device movement feedback, and communication tools connecting parents, dancers, and coaches.

Who is 8Counts designed for?

Josh described the experience as being focused on children around ages seven to thirteen, with the product intended to grow as the platform expands. It is also designed to serve dance parents, coaches, and studio owners.

Does 8Counts replace a dance teacher?

No. The product is designed to support repetition at home while coaches handle nuance and artistry. The goal is to make studio time more efficient and strengthen the connection between dancers, parents, and coaches.

How can 8Counts help dance parents?

It can help parents understand what a dancer is expected to practice, support consistency at home, and communicate with the child’s coach without having to become the coach themselves. It is especially useful for parents who do not have training in dance technique or acro safety.

How does 8Counts approach child safety and privacy?

The product is designed as a controlled, child-focused environment without social functionality. Josh discussed on-device feedback, secure parent-initiated communication with known coaches, controlled content, and infrastructure-level privacy and security practices.

How does 8Counts use pose estimation?

The technology uses the device camera to observe certain dance movements and provide feedback about whether a move appears accurate or may need more guidance. Josh said this feedback can happen on-device rather than sending the information to the cloud.