Teaching Ballet Creatively

How do teachers create a classroom environment that promotes collaborative and inquiry-based approaches to learning ballet? How do teachers impart the stylistic qualities of ballet while also supporting each dancer’s artistic instincts and development of a personal style? How does ballet technique education develop the versatility and creativity needed in the contemporary dance environment? Creative Ballet Teaching draws on the fields of Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analysis (L/BMA), dance pedagogy, and somatic education to explore these questions. Sample lesson plans, class exercises, movement explorations, and journal writing activities specifically designed for teachers bring these ideas into the studio and classroom. A complementary online manual, Creative Ballet Learning, provides students with tools for technical and artistic development, self-assessment, and reflection. Offering a practical, exciting approach, Creative Ballet Teaching is a must-read for those teaching and learning ballet.

Teaching Ballet Creatively offers teachers tips and ideas to make ballet lessons fun whilst teaching the fundamentals of ballet to preschool children. It is supplementary reading for pre ballet teachers and those who teach creative dance to children. It covers rudimentary practices in ballet instruction and creative ways to instil in children traditional protocol. The book includes a range of games, tips and ideas to enrich a standard ballet syllabus. It suggests ways to teach from a child centred perspective to enhance a pupil's enjoyment of ballet and thrust towards artistic growth.

This book offers teachers tips and ideas to make ballet lessons fun when teaching the fundamentals of ballet to children. It covers rudimentary practices in ballet instruction and ways to instil in children traditional protocol. It includes a games and tips to enrich a traditional ballet syllabus.

This text presents easy-to-follow lesson plans for instructors who have no previous experience in teaching dance to children. It includes 34 short, directed lessons for teachers aiming for an enthusiastic response from children. The lessons can stand alone, giving dance instructors the flexibility to structure programmes appropriate for the ages and individual abilities of the children they are teaching.

This book offers an inside view of ballet as the art form we see on stages today, detailing how expressive movement is initiated and controlled, and discussing the importance of embedding creativity and expressivity within ballet technique from the dancer’s first lesson to their final performance. Janet Karin O.A.M. promotes ballet as a holistic art form resulting from the integration of mind, brain and body, and describes the motor control factors that can enhance or interfere with achievement. Throughout, professional dancers’ personal experiences illuminate the text, from the euphoria of ‘flow’ to the search for creativity and harmony, from the debilitating effects of anxiety, trauma and pain to the reward of artistic autonomy. Teaching is presented from a philosophical viewpoint, enriching and extending the child’s innate movement skills and expressive power. Practical yet reflective, this is an essential guide for dancers as well as dance educators and students.

Ballet is a detailed guide to creative practice and performance. Compiled by ten leading practitioners, each chapter focuses on an aspect of ballet as a performing art. Together they outline a journey from the underpinning principles of ballet, through an appreciation of different styles and schooling, into the dance studio for practice in class and beyond. With additional insights from highly acclaimed dancers, choreographers and teachers, this practical guide offers advice on fundamental and advanced training and creative development. As well as providing information from dance science research into training well-being, this book supports the individual dancer in their artistic growth, offering strategies for exploration and discovery. Topics include: principles, styles and schooling of classical ballet; fundamental technique and advanced expression; developing versatility and creative thinking; advice on injury management, nutrition and lifestyle; choreography and music and, finally, best practice in the rehearsal studio is covered. 'A wonderfully accessible and comprehensive resource about the individual disciplines involved in ballet', Leanne Benjamin OBE, former Principal of The Royal Ballet and international coach.

Presents profiles of noted dance teachers along with an analysis of their artistic lineages and techniques.