How to Inspire Your Students with the New OUB Story Ballet Curriculum for Ages 7 to 12

When I set out to create our 7-12 year old curriculum, the OUB Story Ballet Curriculum my biggest struggle was not having everyone’s students in front of me. Not knowing how long your classes would be or how many times per week your students are taking ballet. (Not dance class, BALLET.)

When I teach the true beginning ballet years, I’m VERY specific about what I teach DEPENDING on what my students need. So creating a general curriculum was honestly quite hard in that aspect. Sure, I had a list of what I want students to accomplish in each level. I have a consistent set of points A and Z, but everything in between is very customized from year to year.

With that in mind, here’s what I did to make our OUB Story Ballet Curriculum usable for ANY beginning ballet class. :-)

1. The curriculum’s syllabus states what should be learned in each year. There are four levels: Ballet 1A, 1B, 2, and 3. There will be 24 months of lesson plan sets released in total. Each lesson plan set is centered around a different classical story ballet. (Yep! 24 of them total!)

2. For barre, I’ve included recommendations for music, and a list of common exercises I do in each level. If a particular exercise should be done AFTER something else has been accomplished, that’s noted. I’ve also noted if an exercise has a particular focus—like helping to shape the feet, improving posture, or building the coordination for a future step.

3. For center, I’ve included as many imaginative scenarios as possible for exercises. Do you need to tell the story or image for every exercise? No. That would probably be overkill. We don’t want your students to be standing around for too long between combinations. Give them something imaginative or a storyline for every few combinations. Pick different combinations to tell the story part each week so that over the course of a month, you would have shared them all. Do you need to do every exercise in the current month’s lesson plan in every class? No! Think of the lesson plan exercises as building blocks. Pick out the ones that focus on what you think your students need the most to build your class.

4. Don’t forget the extras! Instead of stickers and coloring pages, we’ve included a handout about the current month’s ballet. We’ve also included a link to our YouTube playlist filled with inspirational clips from the current month’s ballet, plus behind the scenes videos from professional companies and full length recordings, when possible.

5. Contemporary, pre-pointe, and conditioning are also included. Do you have to use these? No. But these days, there’s so much pressure to do more and offer more. We wanted to include a few more things to make your life easier. We’re including 12 pre-pointe lesson plans to give your students a little extra prep for pointe work. These lesson plans could also be easily adapted into beginning pointe lesson plans as well. We’re including 12 sets of conditioning plans that can be used for a general boost in strength and flexibility for ballet.

Finally—the contemporary portion of this curriculum introduces contemporary and modern dance through a historical approach—we rotate through 6 pioneering modern artists for 12 months of lesson plans total. We look at what they brought to the world of dance. Our contemporary lesson plans explore the style of each artist. We’ve also included music playlists to make your life easier and contemporary video playlists to inspire your students.

Remember, you don’t have to stick with the exact combinations in our lesson plans. If your students need them adjusted, make changes. If they inspire you to create another combination all in your own, do so! This curriculum is meant to cut your planning time down by 80 to 90%. It gives you all the pieces for your classes. You just need to put the pieces together and make a few tweaks depending on your individual students’ needs.

Final thoughts—my goal with this curriculum is to help you inspire and guide your students ages 7 to 12. I want to give you the tools to not just teach correct ballet and modern technique to this age group. I want to help you bring the art of dance to life for your students. To make it interesting. To bring joy to their lives through dance. Finally, to bring joy and confidence to your own teaching.