With ages ranging from 2 to 8, I have to get creative with what I teach and how I teach it. For example, you might see us tiptoeing around the room or playing head, shoulders, knees, and toes but, believe it or not, we're actually learning technique! 

While we gear up for our Christmas show (which is in less than three weeks), I'll share what we are doing in class and how we are learning basic skills.

This class is the MOST FUN. We usually begin with tap in a circle, in hula hoops. We do a very choreographed warm up where we tap our toes and heels and do small jumps. After that we do the princess hockey poky and a basic following directions dance (like We All Clap Our Hands Together) to work on listening and following the beat. Once we use our hulas to shake our hips, we move to the barre. I know what you're thinking, Miss Cami! 2 year olds at the barre? Yes! Even if it is for 2 minutes, it helps they learn that barre is part of dance class! We do shuffles by 'painting' the floor different colors and shuffle hops.

We then move to ballet where we stretch together, work on kicks (little kids love to kick!), and skips. After we're nice and warm, we dance like different animals and walk around the room different ways such as tiptoeing (up on our toes), marching (high knees), or skating (gliding gracefully). If everyone has paid attention during class we all dance with toy babies. We point our toes, work on passes and balances, and learn soft touches by gently hugging and patting our babies.

So, while you might see and hear funny songs and noises from our room, we're really learning body parts, following directions, skipping, walking tall, and how to treat our friends!

Hippity Hop is like a creative movement class but with fun music and a little more shaking. We start class in hula hoops with a stretch song. Then we do a pike stretch while we do head, shoulders, knees, and toes. After we yell all the body parts of head, shoulders, knees, and toes, we do if you're happy and you know it to get excited for class and then go across the floor. When we go across the floor in hippity hop, we work on getting low, marching, shaking our hips, running backwards, and running while kicking our booties. I usually go across the floor with each kid, so at least 20 times.

Each week we try to learn a combo or work on our recital dance. Recently, we've been working on our Christmas dance which is 1:30 long. They do great! We learn really big chunks (about 30 seconds or so) each week so we can work on dancing big for the show. Our biggest struggle is cleaning hippity-hop dances. So instead of making sure every dancers toes and fingers are going the same way, we make sure everyone is dancing as big as possible and smiling. (Let's be honest, that's the best part of watching little kids dance)

Age 3-5 Ballet/Tap:

The biggest the thing I do with this class is hold each dancer to high expectations. They come in ready to have fun and learn something new each week. All combo classes start with tap (because parent's can tie all the tap shoes before class starts, and we can easily slip ballet shoes on when we switch shoes in the class room). This class begins on their spots in two rows. We warm up our feet, review shuffles, shuffle hops, and shuffle ball changes before we go across the floor. When we go across the floor, each dancer works on heel digs, running flaps (we just call them brush stomps right now since they are slow), and ball-heel walks. 

After tap, we put on ballet shoes in the classroom. Our warm up is a choreographed stretch in a circle that ends with chasses and kicks. After that we do two pieces in the center, one working on balances and one working on port de bras, we do across the floor focusing on ballet walks, burres and sautes. 

Normally, I will pick one style every two weeks to learn a combo in, but lately, we've really been focusing on Christmas dances. For choreography, I have found that isolating parts of their body makes for the most clean routine. Take our ballet routine, we first port de bras through 5th and then, with our arms in a resting position (en bas), we do tendu to pique. This helps them focus on each movement individually.

Remember how I said I hold these dancers to high expectations? They prove they are big girl ballerinas by learning the terminology such as 1st position and tendu. Then, they have the opportunity to show me the following week. I keep track of their progress on a goal chart and let them put a sticker on when they show me a new skill. Our studio started the goal charts this year, and it has really encouraged the girls to think about what they're learning. Here is a downloadable dance goal  chart that we use in class!

There you have it! A normal day of tiny tot dancing with Miss. Cami!

Thanks for reading!