Fundamentals are not easy, but they can be fun and engaging. Our children's classes are tailored to meet the developmental needs of children according to their age. Our teachers employ pretend play, visualization, and safe stretches to help young dancers learn. Activities that tap into children's natural abilities build their physical, social, and cognitive skills.
Dance and music prepare your child for a life rewardingly engaged with bodily movement and community.
Children's classes prepare students for the world of dance through music and movement. In Wee Dance, Creative Movement, and Pre-ballet (eventually Level 1 Ballet), children build coordination and muscular patterning in age-appropriate stages that will benefit them for a lifetime.
Wee Dance and Creative Movement are where ballet starts.
Movement practice and developmental exploration are valuable for their own sake, but they also prepare a dancer for a successful experience studying classical ballet and modern dance in later years.
Dancing forms the mind as much as it develops the body. Development-focused children's dance classes harmonize self-expression and skill-building while growing respect for peers and the learning environment.
Age Requirements
Children's Classes, Academic Year 2023-2024 (Through Summer 2024)
Born on or before
Wee Dance (starting between 2 and 3.5 years old)
September 1, 2021
Creative Movement 1
September 1, 2019
Creative Movement 2
September 1, 2018
Pre-ballet*
September 1, 2017
Creative Movement 3 (may be taken alongside ballet 1 and 2)
September 1, 2016
* The first level of explicitly ballet-focused curriculum. See our Youth Ballet Program page for more details.
This is an introduction to the art of dance in a nurturing environment ideal for children ages two to four. Parents or adult caregivers attend and are expected to participate. Imaginative exercises present an outlet for active minds and bodies. Through the use of shakers, scarves, balls, and beanie babies, children will experience the pure joy of movement.
Wee Dance: 30 minutes. Students must be two years old on or before September 1st.
Please note that all children in the room must be enrolled.
Creative Movements Levels 1 and Creative Movement Level 2
In progressive levels, children ages four to six develop increased body awareness, gross motor skills, and phrasing while giving imagination time to flourish. Classes begin with warm-up exercises and stretches that develop flexibility and posture. Class then moves on to center floor exercises to develop balance, rhythm, and coordination.
Creative Movement 1: 30 minutes. Students must be four years old on or before September 1st.
Creative Movement 2: 45 minutes. Students must be five years old on or before September 1st.
Creative Movement Level 3
New for Fall 2024, Creative Dance 3 and Creative Dance 4.
Please watch for this section to update as fall enrollment approaches.
Creative Movement 3 brings out and embraces the joyful, creative spirit of middle childhood. It increases physical skills–strength, coordination, balance, rhythmic understanding, and an expanding range of motion with flexibility within the body—while moving through space.
Creative Movement 3: 45 minutes. Students must be seven years old on or before September 1st.
Pre-ballet
A prelude to formal ballet instruction, students age six and up will develop a foundation for ballet technique in a learning environment that fosters a love for dance and music. Students work standing, seated, and traveling across the floor, learning exercises that introduce ballet concepts and ballet class etiquette in a non-competitive atmosphere.
Dancing in pre-ballet builds strength and challenges the vestibular and proprioceptive systems in ways that are age-appropriate. An important part of the developmental process is working barefoot (in convertible tights) so the skin can sense floor while the child learns. Bare feet are also critical so the teacher can be watching for aspects such as:
Keeping the toes long when pointing the feet
Muscular firing in the foot muscles when the dancer stands on one leg
Arches responsive to rotation of the thigh bones
Anchoring through the base of the toes—particularly the joint of the great toe
In spring semester each year, part of class will happen in ballet slippers to prepare the students to have their feet safely covered in shoes during the year-end concert. Pre-ballet is a forty-five minute class.
Pre-ballet: 45 minutes. Students must be six years old on or before September 1st.