Dance Class Structure
How Should You Structure Your Pre-Ballet Classes?
Once Upon A Ballet classes have a structure, but that structure is flexible. You can shorten or lengthen exercises and activities as appropriate for your students. You are also welcome to rearrange the order of the class to best suit your teaching style and the needs of your students. I’ve found this order works best for how I teach. I know some teachers who would rather start class with a travelling exercise or free dancing than circle time. That is perfectly fine as long as your students are engaged, learning, and having fun. So the class structure acts as a guide. It is how our lessons are written out, but it can be adjusted as needed.
Our Once Upon A Ballet lessons is divided into five levels: 1. Tiny Tutus (ages 2-3, as parent-tot), 2. Enchanted Movement (ages 3-4), 3. Pre-Ballet I (ages 4-6), 4. Pre-Ballet II (ages 5-7), and 5. Ballet I (ages 7-9). If you are a member studio owner following the Once Upon A Ballet program, you are not required to call your classes by the same names (but of course you can!), and you are not required to divide your classes into these age groups. If you have a class of 3-5-year-olds, for example, please use the level you feel best suits your students.
STORY TIME / SHARE TIME
We begin class with “Story Time” or "Share Time". This part of the class includes roll call and sharing, rules, and storytime. For the younger students (2 to 4-year-olds), I "read" a few pages from this month’s fairy tale. I put read in quotes for the simple fact that I usually end up paraphrasing for little ones' short attention spans. Reading should only take a minute or two since this is a dance class rather than storytime, but it should remind the students of the fairy tale story for the day's class. For pre-ballet students (4 to 7-year-olds), I go through the illustrated pages of our storybook and ask them questions about the fairy tales since many of them already know the fairy tales by heart. For our students in Ballet I (ages 7+), we do not have a set storytime, but rather, the story is told through dances and exercises done later in class.
CIRCLE TIME
This is where students do strengthening, stretching and port de bra exercises, mostly while seated on the floor in a circle. We use a circle for this part of class up through the pre-ballet levels. In Ballet I, we transition to some floor stretches and strengthening exercises before barre, but not necessarily in a circle.
CIRCLE BARRE / CENTRE BARRE / BARRE
This part of the class will vary depending on your class' age range. For Tiny Tutus and Enchanted Movement (ages 2-4), we tend to stay in a circle and do very simple "barre exercises" (i.e., plies, tendus, and rises). I've found staying in the circle formation helps this age group stay focused just a little bit longer. In Pre-Ballet I and II (ages 4-7), we transition to centre barre while standing in lines in centre. During circle barre and centre barre, regardless of the fairy tale, we become ballerina princesses and practice our “big girl” ballet steps. In Ballet I (ages 7-9), we begin using an actual barre for this part of the class.
STORY TRAVELLING
During this section of the class, we work on travelling steps, but we play out a role in the fairy tale while doing so. Tiny Tutus and Enchanted Movement students may move like different forest animal friends of Snow White’s. Pre-Ballet students may act as Cinderella’s fairy godmother as the do fairy runs and leaps across the floor. They may be Cinderella’s white horses, taking her to the ball as the practice gallops. They may be Cinderella entering the ball as they practice princess walks. Ballet I students may practice skips with turns as jewel fairies at Sleeping Beauty's wedding.
CENTRE JUMPS
During centre, all levels work on steps preparing them for turns, turns, and jumps.
GAMES, ADDITIONAL TRAVELLING OR FREE DANCING
For Tiny Tutus and Enchanted Movement students, a movement or music/rhythm game is usually included toward the end of class but is really meant to be a backup exercise whenever attention spans are running short. These levels also usually have a second “story travelling” option. With their shorter attention spans, working on ballet steps through a story helps them to stay engaged. Pre-Ballet students often practice additional, more structured travelling exercises. With that said, this section of class really varies depending on the particular class’ maturity level, and what kind of day they are having. Some days they are really focused and we can have a structured travelling time in which we focus on technical aspects of steps. Other days, they really just need an extra free dance to be able to express themselves and get extra wiggles out.
STORY DANCING
Here, we do a dance-based on something that happens in this month’s fairy tale. For example, we might do a dance in which we bake a cake and get ready for sleeping beauty’s 16th birthday. Or we may have just been given a magical apple and are deciding whether we should eat it. Whatever the storyline for the dance, the steps we include are steps we worked on during centre barre and/or travelling in class that day. We also usually show this dance to parents during parent observation times.
FREE DANCING
During this section, students are given the freedom to dance as they like around the classroom. Each month, we do provide themes for free dance. We learn about seasons during our Ice Princess lessons and may dance to portray different seasons. We learn about expressing emotions during our Snow White lessons and may act those out during free dance. Other times, students are given complete freedom to do whatever they would like (within reason, of course).
REVERENCE
This section of class is just a simple port de bra and curtsy, but I like to include it in classes as young as possible and explain to the students that we are saying thank you and goodbye. Curtsies progress from a simple demi plie in parallel, to a tendu front en fondu, to an actual traditional ballet curtsy to align with students' ages and development.
STICKER TIME + COLORING PAGES
I end class with sticker time and coloring pages. Here, I give stickers and ballerina coloring pages to the students before they leave. When doing so, I like to tell each student something positive they did in class that day--whether it was listening well, following directions, doing a step well, or being very creative during free dance.
Happy Dancing!
Ashley Hartford
Founder + Owner, Once Upon a Ballet
Want to know more about me?
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