How Rachel Ritchie-Moore Inspires Her Youngest Students
Having been in the dance world for almost 25 years, Once Upon a Ballet Certified Teacher Rachel Ritchie has a few tricks up her sleeve when it comes to keeping students inspired. In Rachel’s classes, inspiration comes by keeping things playful, fun, and imaginative. Plus, with OUB lesson plans to rely on, she can tie her classes into larger stories, elements, and themes. “I've absolutely loved the fairytale element, and I think the students really love it too. Hearing those familiar [stories], like Ariel or Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty, you've already got their attention.”
The fairy tales and storytelling aren’t the only reasons Rachel likes OUB. During her Certification Course she recognized that by understanding technique principles, teachers can physiologically meet students at their level, and neurologically keep their brain development in mind. “I'm a biology professor, and so I found the neuroscience of children and very young children extremely fascinating. I find myself thinking about it just constantly in my classes, thinking: What are their bodies doing? What are their brains doing? How can we sort of tie that all together really holistically?”
Rachel reflects that during the last school year, she followed OUB curriculums “to the letter,” rotating through a different story every month. She’s been able to see a number of benefits in her students, especially in students getting familiar and comfortable in a classroom format. “A lot of these kids joining my classes right now are ‘pandemic babies,’ that’s what I would call them… I had one [student] tell me she has never been away from mom and dad… so her walking into my classroom was the first time she had walked away from her mother for any length of time, and she did great. So they're learning not just the ballet class format, but they're also learning: Who is a teacher? What does it mean to be a student? What does it mean to watch and listen?”
Rachel’s teaching doesn’t stop at preschool—her students range from two and a half to 50 plus, and she specializes in ballet with a little bit of contemporary. Her own dance journey started with ballet classes at the age of five, and at twelve years old, Rachel joined a local ballet company in west Texas. Dance kept her busy through high school, then when she went to college to receive her Bachelor and Master's degrees, Rachel took a break from dance. When she moved back to her hometown, she went back to the same studio she had been with for so long and rejoined the staff. She’s still at that studio- teaching and acting as the children's director of their program.
When we asked Rachel how the OUB Certification Course impacted her teaching, she told us that it empowered her and reminded her how influential the job of the dance teacher is. “Every single time they come in the classroom, I have the ability and the opportunity to help them grow just a little bit, to help them develop this skill just a little bit… some of those pre-planning worksheets and specific class planning worksheets from the curriculum I started using for my session that just started this week, and it felt so intentional. I really liked that, that there was this really intentional lesson planning. I set a vision for what I want my session to look like.”