I find that the summer is a great time to sit down and really take some time to plan classes for the fall. For our pre-school age children we offer two fifteen week sessions and so I like to make sure that the dancers will be taught as much technique as possible. By using stories from the Ballets and making sure that they become used to using different props it gives the dancers a good chance of understanding how to do different movements. In my experience, using props such as scarves, hoops, flags, crowns and stuffed animals not only make the classes fun but also teach the dancers to have spatial awareness and dexterity of the hands. The stories from the well known ballets and books such as Angelina Ballerina are also extremely good teaching tools because young dancers who have wonderful imaginations can become engrossed in the story and this gives you, as a teacher, a way to enact the story by using classical technique and making it fun and approachable. It is so important to stimulate these young dancers both mentally and physically and if you do you will have no trouble getting them to attend every class.
Here are two checklists that I use to make sure that I cover as much material as necessary for each session.
SESSION ONE
1. Running in a circle with butterfly wings or airplane wings
2. Point and flex feet on floor
3. Bending and stretching legs on floor.
4. Delicate hand exercise sitting on knees
5. Demi Plies from 1st position
6. Pointing foot front from 1st position
7. Walking in a circle on demi-pointe
8. Clapping Hands
9. Marching with foot at knee
10. Jumps over stuffed animals
11. Walking through hoops
12. Using mime to illustrate story
13. A short choreographed routine to illustrate story
SESSION TWO
1.Skipping in a circle
2.Turn in, turn out leg exercise on floor
3.Stretching legs in 2nd position on floor
4.Walking down straight legs with legs in front on floor
5.Strong hand exercise on knees
6.Running with scarves from the diagonal
7.Spinning with scarves
8.Small sauts from 1st position
9.Rises with feet parallel
10.Walking and pointing feet
11.Throwing scarves in the air and catching them
12.Jumping over hoops with spins
13.A short choreographed routine incorporating technique used.
How you divide the technique up in the classes is up to you. I would recommend always incorporating the first few exercises as they will gently warm the dancers up and will focus them in to what you are teaching them. It is important to have them do something with movement and covering space when they first start the class such as running or skipping. This gets the dancers heart rates up and they will definitely be ready to sit on the floor to do the rest of the warm up. Of course, the leg and foot exercises are important but I really like to start working on the use of the hands even with this young age group. Once you have finished the first session you will find that as you add additional technique in the next session you will eventually be able to incorporate it all.
The main thing to remember is that pre-school children have a very short attention span so it is really important to keep changing not only the exercises and the focus but also the levels. What I mean by that is, have them run, then sit on the floor, then get up and do something standing then use a prop so that they just dont have time to get bored. Start working on some steps for the choreographed class after the fifth class as they will need time to get the idea of actually putting steps together. We usually do a short presentation for the parents at the end of the sessions and that is why I include a short choreographed piece for each session. Save the bulk of the story for the last part of the class as they will need a short rest after all that moving about! I like to then get the dancers up to do a final jump and a curtsey or bow and the forty five minute class is completed with the addition of a sticker for good work before they go home.
Have fun with planning your classes and make sure you have plenty of props and stickers. Get some music that the children can relate to and by all means use some of the music from the original Ballets so that in time these beautiful classical pieces will become familiar to the dancers.
