- George Balanchine
Dancing is a great challenge, it has to be taught, learned
and practiced habitually to continue its growth. From a young age you learn the
fundamentals of dance from the roots of ballet. Many young dancers acquire
training in ballet from an interactive combo class consisting of tap and
ballet, which also contains musical, stretch, pretend and tumbling aspects.
From this young age the fundamentals do not seem as important, they are just a
weekly sequence of the class that don’t pertain anywhere else in their life.
For this reason, dance teachers need to make ballet classes highly interactive
for young students. It is easy for young ones to become quickly bored with
ballet and its slowness, but there is really no reason for that. Ballet is so
important in a dancer’s life, and should remain that way until they put an end
to their dancing careers.
To make ballet stand out in importance, a dance instructor
must first make it fun and enjoyable. You want the young dancer’s to come to
class each week excited to put on their ballet shoes. To do this, play fun
songs that they feel engaged to dance to, such as popular Disney music. Make up
rhymes and stories for them to remember their ballet terminology, and repeat
them weekly. An example being echappe, echappe, echappe, balance, balance,
balance, balance, fifth. Also, make great attempts to move around and switch up
formations and activities, keep the class vibrant and new so they do not find
themselves becoming bored. There is a lot more you can do, to add to the class,
such as bringing dolls and toys to watch them dance, having a dress up day,
stamp rewards for doing a good job, and encouraging them to yell out the ballet
words.
Give young dancers the head start to love and passion they
will acquire for dancing, through their combo classes, especially ballet, the
building blocks and foundation of dance. By making the class enjoyable, lively
and fun you will stray away from the ballet stereotype of boredom, and will
give them excitement in coming to take ballet class throughout all of their
years of dancing. The importance of ballet only becomes more demanding the
older you get, so the faster they learn to appreciate it at a young age, the
more successful and enjoyable they will find it in the future.
~Julia Brewer
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