Teaching dance to young children can be an incredibly rewarding experience. At this age, dance is about more than just learning steps—it's about exploring movement, building coordination, and fostering creativity.
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Incorporating these different types of play into dance class doesn’t just teach kids how to dance—it helps them develop key social and emotional skills that will last a lifetime. Dance encourages children to express themselves, collaborate with others, and understand their own feelings. Plus, the physical benefits of dance contribute to better brain function and overall well-being.
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As a preschool dance teacher, you're tasked with guiding young learners through a world of movement, rhythm, and expression. You have a unique opportunity to plant the seeds of creativity, coordination, and confidence in your little dancers. But before you dive into the lesson planning process, there's a critical step that often gets overlooked.
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As dance educators, we all want to help our students grow and develop their technique from a young age. However, there’s an important aspect of early dance training that is often overlooked: the developmental readiness of young children for certain poses and movements. One such movement is the arabesque.
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Creating choreography can seem like a daunting task when it comes to preschool dance. Can you create a dance for them that they'll actually remember? How will they do on stage? Sure, they're at an age where they'll look cute no matter what. But we still want them to succeed, right?
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We're off to visit Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends in the Hundred Acre Wood! What do you think that silly bear is doing? Do you think he might be looking for honey? Let’s see!
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Levels are a basic dance concept that you can do so much with! Movements and poses can be done low to the floor, at a medium level, and a high level. Here are a few ideas for your preschool dance classes.
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When it comes to teaching turnout (to any age), there are some tried and true tips you should always think about. But when it comes to teaching turnout to young children, there are a few more things you should be thinking about.
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Pliés and tendus are two of the most basic steps in ballet. And if you think about it, they’re really the building blocks of just about every other ballet step there is! Here are a few tips and things to think about when it comes to pliés and tendus!
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By the age of 7, children have much better control and awareness of their bodies. We also work much more on turnout, especially turning out correctly and safely at this age. Because of this, we work more on a turned out retiré.
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When we teach ballet though stories, we immediately open up a new world for our students. The way ballet is often taught is like watching a silent, black and white movie from the 1920s. Teach through stories, and it’s suddenly like watching in 4K color.
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In my later years of dance in a company, plié was always my favorite barre exercise. So today, I want to talk a little about pliés. If you’re a dancer, I hope this helps you get more out of your pliés, as well as barre in general. If you’re a ballet teacher, I hope this helps you to inspire your own students a little more when it comes to pliés.
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When you understand child development, so many things change in your classes. First, you'll see your young students differently. I can remember when I first started teaching preschoolers. I THOUGHT my students would stand in lines, wait their turns, and work hard just like my older students had.
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We focus a lot on posture in Once Upon A Ballet even from early on. Posture is important in the early years to promote good habits in the future. We focus on students’ posture mostly during the more technical portions of class like centre barre or barre, centre allegro, and traveling exercises.
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The best dance teachers I had when growing up were ones who saw each student as an individual—regardless of what curriculum, school, or method of dance they taught. So what makes a great dance teacher great?
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I think as teachers, many of us have our favorite ways to begin a preschool dance class. We bring our students into the classroom, mark the role sheet, then what?
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Today I want to give you a few quick tips for teaching tots—on helping your students wait for their turn during travelling exercises.
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Planning transitions for preschool dance classes is one of those things that can be easily forgotten in a dance class. BUT, if you teach toddlers or preschoolers, I don’t need to tell you what you already know: transitions will make or break your classes.
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For seasoned teachers and newbies alike, you can never have too many tips in your teacher’s “toolbox”. If you’re just starting out teaching pre-ballet, here are some tips that will help your classes run more smoothly...
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When it comes to teaching turnout in ballet, there are many schools of thought on when to begin teaching turnout, how much turnout a student should be able to maintain while dancing, and when to introduce what positions.
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