Learning how to dance is not just about learning technique. Being able to mindfully create original movement is also crucial to a dancer’s education. Most studios follow a learn and execute model where dancers are shown what, where, when, and how with the teacher’s choreography. While this is important in dance education, this does not train a dancer to think critically or creatively in the same way that allowing them to experiment with movement does.

Young children learn best through experience, experimenting, and having fun. Carefully planned lessons using exciting props, children’s stories, and games help to engage little minds and energetic bodies. The focus in these classes will be to help dancers find the joy of moving and confidence in what they create.

Older children’s classes balance learning a carefully developed technical curriculum with cultivating creativity. This is done through composition and improvisation exercises based around the Elements of Dance: Body, Energy, Space, and Time. Dancers will regularly be given prompts to help stretch their inventiveness in movement, as solo work and in small groups.

EVERY CLASS at Elevé Arts Academy supports the goal of fostering the innate creativity of each student. To showcase this, some of the material that dancers create will also be worked into the end of year recital dances, giving even the youngest dancers a chance to share their own movement.