Inspiring Children to Dance through Imagination and Make Believe
Over the course of her dance career, Once Upon A Ballet Certified Teacher, Kristin Mueller, has discovered that to inspire her students, she can’t just watch them imagine and make believe— she has to participate in the magic herself. “I think a lot of adults in their life… they’re just nodding and saying how cute they are… but there’s not a lot that are doing that play with them, that make believe in magic with them,” Kristin says. By letting her students know that this is safe to do, and by being an adult figure that is imagining and creating alongside them, Kristin creates a space for trust and vulnerability in her classes. “They knew I was a vulnerable enough person to let go… I wasn’t shy to be silly,” she reflects.
Imagination has always been important to Kristin as a dance teacher, and it’s something that she was passionate about implementing even before discovering OUB. Kristin fell in love with creating imaginative curricula and lesson plans for her dancers while teaching at a studio in Wisconsin. “I was like, ‘They need more imagination, they need more fun, they need more props, they need more imagery.’ So I then went off and made my own curriculum for the dance studio in every single genre except tap.”
Kristin taught this curriculum to her students in Wisconsin for eight years before moving to Georgia with her family mid-pandemic. “I left my studio that I had grown my dancers from when they were itty-bitty to teenagers, that was a hard transition,” Kristin reflects. But she quickly settled into the dance community in her new home and shortly after discovered the OUB program.
Since the use of the OUB curriculum, Kristin has seen a major shift in the classroom. “The whole environment and the way kids pick up on things is easier—because using the imagination, and then going through those basics in how their brains develop, they’re able to catch on… they’re able to actually do it and then be proud of themselves. I think a lot of the times when kids quit or they start being floppy or not listening, it’s because they’re not able to do it.” Kristin thinks that “this curriculum really sets you as a teacher up for success because you end your class with laughs and giggles and everyone participates.”
Kristin started her own dance journey at the age of four through a local dance studio. She started with ballet and eventually added jazz, modern, lyrical, and hip hop to her practice. She attended the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and got into Peck School of the Arts where she earned a degree to teach dance. Kristin was eventually hired at a Wisconsin dance studio where she taught pre-ballet, pointe, and everything in between. Now located in Georgia, Kristin is an OUB Certified Teacher and Contributing Teacher currently helping with the development of the Little Dancer Curriculum.
“I want to spread what I’ve made to other people, and not just in a small community or town… I want imagination to spread through different studios.” As a Contributing Teacher, Kristin is excited to know that she’s continuing to inspire classrooms and students around the globe, even if she’s not their teacher. “That’s why I became a dance teacher, to be able to inspire kids through imagination, and I get to do that.”
We wrapped up our conversation with Kristin by asking what piece of advice she’d give to a preschool dance teacher on teaching this age group. She said: “Keep that magic alive, always get on their level. Dance is supposed to be fun, and it’s supposed to be a place where your body makes beautiful magical things… sometimes you have to remind yourself why you’re there, who’s in front of you, and how old they are. It’s not adults in there with you… they’re little minds looking up at you and you get the chance to shape them.”
Kristin is one of Once Upon a Ballet's Contributing Teachers and helping with our upcoming curriculum releases and updates. This article was written by Once Upon a Ballet Community Manager, Olivia Wickstrom.
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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.
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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.
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