Learn How this Elementary School Teacher Turned Dance Teacher Sparks Imagination in Students
Visit Briarwood Ballet in Birmingham, Alabama and you’ll likely see Once Upon A Ballet Certified Teacher Danielle Brabston sparking the imagination of her three to eight year-old students. “I think it’s really important with that age group to use imagination as much as you can in the classroom, that really seems to help inspire them. It keeps them engaged, and they just come alive with that.” Danielle tries to inspire students in every class, using props, OUB printables, and imagination to encourage creativity and excitement. “When I teach them a certain technique, like plié, if I take away the imaginative part, I just lose them. But when you add in imagination, like imagining you’re in an elevator and you're going down, they immediately connect with that, they love that.”
Danielle started her journey with Briarwood Ballet a year and a half ago. She is also a certified ballet barre fitness instructor through the International Ballet Barre Fitness Association. Having grown up dancing, she took a break for several years after having children. But after taking some adult classes while living in New York City and rediscovering her love for ballet, Danielle decided to pursue dance once again. With a Master of Arts in Teaching, Danielle became a certified elementary school teacher before having her children. And though she’s always enjoyed being a teacher, she told us that teaching dance brings a sense of joy and excitement that she hasn’t experienced before. “Being a classroom teacher, there’s just so much pressure with standardised testing and meeting benchmarks… I guess all of that is gone, and it’s more just a creative expression, and just joy with the kids… it’s really fun, so I’ve enjoyed being able to be a teacher in this way.”
As a new ballet teacher, the OUB curriculum has helped Danielle find her footing and make sure she’s teaching age appropriate techniques. “I enjoy watching Ashley and seeing how she introduces a new technique to her students. It gives me good ideas in terms of how to explain it and introduce a new concept… it has been really helpful for me being a new teacher to have those resources.” In addition to this, the OUB Teacher Certification Course helped Danielle develop her confidence and generate ideas around how she was going to teach certain concepts.
Danielle’s favorite part about the OUB curriculum? The artwork and printables that teachers get to share with students in class. “For that age group… it’s adorable, and they absolutely love it. You've done a great job making the bug… really cute and attractive for kids… I'll take the time to print them… because they are high quality and really capture the student's attention. I know I’ll use them, and it connects well with the age group that I’m teaching.” In Danielle’s classes, she encourages students to pick which animal they want to be from these OUB printouts. Students will then “transform” into that animal and go around the circle as the animal. Danielle reflects that when she brought these printables and imaginative activities into the classroom, it changed the way her students interacted with class. “Before I was just using props, like jumping on rubber dots across the floor.” But when she added the printables whether they be bunnies, bugs, or owls, her students loved them. “It definitely adds a level of excitement and imagination and enthusiasm… the biggest change I’ve seen is in their level of engagement and excitement.”
We wrapped up our conversation with Danielle by asking her what one piece of advice she would give to a brand new preschool dance teacher. In her answer, she discussed the importance of imagination once again. “The most important thing for me to keep them engaged is definitely imagination. Any way that you can bring in [ideas like] ‘oh we’re going to travel through the forest and hop over these mushrooms and we might see a bunny,’ anything like that. I try to build my whole class around imagination and helping them to use that powerful tool to engage in what we are learning.”
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What We’re All About
At Once Upon a Ballet, we want to help you teach dance in a way that sparks your students’ imaginations, keeps their attention, and has them leaving class excited for what’s next.
DANCE CURRICULUMS
Our complete curriculums for toddler and preschool dance and children’s ballet give you a full year of lesson plans for each age group. Our lesson plans are rooted in child development and teach dance through imagination and play. We strongly emphasize correct, age-appropriate ballet techniques for young children, as well as building self-esteem, creativity, problem-solving, and classroom skills.
CERTIFIED TEACHERS
If you teach toddler or preschool dance, our teacher certification course gives you the tools to better connect with your littlest students, keep their attention, and have better classroom behavior.
LICENSED STUDIOS
For our licensed studios, we provide branding and marketing support to help them grow their classes that use our curriculums.