What is a brand?

Previously, I talked about why your dance studio’s brand is important for growing your business. But what exactly is your brand?

It does comprise your logo, and the fonts and colors you use. Visual design is important, of course!

Three Pillars of a Successful Preschool Dance Class

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.

How to Teach Technique Correctly to Children

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.

Why I Started Once Upon a Ballet

I want Once Upon a Ballet to help teachers inspire their youngest students. All of our materials are meant to bring FUN into the dance classroom, but in a way that is educational, age-appropriate, fosters child development, and gives students a strong foundation for beginning levels of dance later on.

What makes a great dance teacher?

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?

7 Pre-Ballet Benefits

Most of us started dancing simply because we loved it. But did you know ballet provides more benefits to children than just joy of movement? Here are seven simple benefits of pre-ballet classes for young children...

MarketingAshley HartfordSeptember 25, 2020pre-ballet, benefits, ballet benefits

Keep Your Toddler and Preschool Dance Classes Running Smoothly

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...

teachingAshley HartfordJuly 14, 2020classroom management, once upon a ballet, pre-ballet, teaching

How do You Know if You’re Correctly Teaching Turnout in Pre-Ballet?

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.

Ballet Class Games

One way to get children to really learn while having fun in ballet class is to include dance games and movement activities. Learning through play is a wonderful concept that really works.

Dance Class Structure

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.

teachingAshley HartfordDecember 10, 2019class structure, class flow, pre-ballet, preschool ballet

Better Leaders

According to Forbes, ballet can in fact make you a better leader. I love the reasons they cite. Here are the reasons that make their list.

MarketingAshley HartfordOctober 22, 2019leaders, ballet benefits, pre-ballet, preschool ballet, beginning ballet

Ballet Classroom Etiquette

Classroom etiquette may vary slightly from school to school and from teacher to teacher. To me, classroom etiquette is basically how students are supposed to behave in a ballet class.

Planning Successful Parent Observations

Many ballet schools have a set time every month, session, or semester, in which they invite parents into the classroom to watch their child dancing.

Teaching Skips

Skips can be a rather difficult for some students to master. Even after a child grasps the coordination of a skip, the technical aspects can be difficult.

teachingAshley HartfordAugust 19, 2019skips, teaching ballet, beginning ballet, pre-ballet, preschool ballet

Teaching Curtsies

We've all seen it. It's recital time, and it's time for a group of little ones to line up and curtsy. (Of course, boys will bow, but for the sake of simplicity we will say curtsy in this post.) Regardless of whether they are pointing one foot front or crossing one leg in back to curtsy, it always seems in disarray.

teachingAshley HartfordAugust 12, 2019curtsies, teaching ballet, beginning ballet, pre-ballet, preschool ballet

Teaching Turnout

There are many schools of thought on turnout in ballet. At Once Upon A Ballet, we recommend the degree of turnout progresses according to each student’s ability and age.

teachingAshley HartfordAugust 5, 2019turnout, teaching ballet, pre-ballet, preschool ballet, beginning ballet

Class Management, Pt. 2

Last week, we discussed some ways to help you manage your pre-ballet classes. This week we'll continue our discussion with a few more tips.

Pre-Ballet Classes

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.

teachingAshley HartfordJuly 1, 2019pre-ballet, preschool ballet, teaching ballet, ballet teachers

7 Ballet Benefits

Most of us started dancing simply because we loved it. But did you know ballet provides more benefits to children than just joy of movement?

MarketingAshley HartfordJune 24, 2019ballet, pre-ballet, preschool ballet, ballet benefits

Ballet Props, Pt. 2

Today, we continue our discussion on using props effectively in ballet class. Here are a few more tips for using props, especially in preschool and pre-ballet classes.