During this on-going ballet class, we will use stories, crafts, seasons, themes and characters to enjoy and learn a variety of classical ballet techniques. This class is recommended for ages 5-8 and dancers should have previous experience with basic Ballet.  

Below you will find our weekly schedule. Starting in October, we will enjoy some Halloween Costume parties, Holiday themes (non-denominational or religion based in anyway), and, of course, learning classical ballet along the way. 

Week 1: story/craft: Tallulah’s Tutu by Marilyn Singer 
	Lesson: talk about what it takes to be good at something
	Ballet skill: 5 positions of the feet + plies in all 5 

Week 2: theme: Halloween - dancers are welcome to dress up in a costume
	Lesson: putting together a few ballet steps to create a routine	
	Ballet skill:  Spring points, Spring Heels, and traveling movements.

Week 3: story/craft: T is for Tutu 
	Lesson: What other ballet/dance terms start with T?
	Ballet Skill: Tendu, turnout, and stretching our Toes. 

Week 4: story/craft: popsicle stick ballerinas
	Lesson: What are different ways we can balance on one leg?
	Ballet Skill: Passes (parallel/turned out) – balancing, balancing in releve, turning, and walking/skipping

Week 5: story/craft: Fancy Nancy and the Mermaid Ballet
	Lesson: we will listen to our music and do the ballet techniques that are called out in the song.
	Ballet skills: plies, releves, tendus, passes, jetes, arabesques 

Week 6: theme: dancing like different animals
	Lesson: creative free-movement and how we can turn animal movement into dance moves. We will look at different pictures & videos of animals to try to replicate them.
	Ballet skills: standing tall like a giraffe, walking like a flamingo in passe, turned out like a penguin 

Week 7: Nutcracker Ballet  
	Lesson: We will watch a short clip from the Nutcracker Ballet and point out techniques we know.
	Ballet Skills: What do we see the dancers doing? Can we learn that and replicate it?

Week 8: Theme/Story/Craft: Nutcracker Ballet – We will make a Holiday Card with a ballerina on the inside.
	Lesson: We will watch a short clip from the Nutcracker Ballet and point out techniques we know.
	Ballet skills: What do we see the dancers doing? Can we learn that and replicate it?

Week 9: Theme/Craft: 5 positions of the feet Holiday Tree 
	Lesson: The progression of our feet positions is similar to all ballet/dance techniques; you need to be able to do the basics prior to advancing. 
	Ballet skills: plie vs. grand plie, tendu to degage to grand battenment, passes to pas de chat, etc. 

Week 10: Pinkalicious Tuturific
	Lesson: Being able to do the basics is important before advancing in level at dance class.
	Ballet Skills: introduce a jete and using a chasse into a jete

Week 11: theme: Snowman Building! 
	Lesson: Using our arms, we will build a snow man and create shapes.
	Ballet Skills: Our “port de bras” is translated to “carriage of the arms” which is meant to be graceful and an accent to the movements of the legs kind of like when snow falls and how the wind moves together with it. 

Week 12: theme/craft: Prop Dancing – Make your own prop and dance with it!
	Lesson: We can dance with props to make different shapes, create new movement, and have lots of fun! 
	Ballet Skills: What skills can we do while incorporating our hand-made props? What shapes can our prop make to make our dancing more interesting?

Week 13: theme: Let’s choreograph a ballet routine together! 
	Lesson: Using our Ballet knowledge, we will each add our favorite ballet techniques to our routine. 
	Ballet skills: Putting a series of steps together is a hard task and the learners will learn how it is done. We will choose a song and learn how to count to our music, what a music cue is, and how to make our moves blend together nicely from one to another. 

Week 14: theme: Ballet Variations & Learning Variation #1 
	Lesson: Let's talk about what a Variation is so that we can study them each week! 
	Ballet skills: In all variations, there are ballet techniques that we will recognize and work to replicate in a way that is doable for the dancers. 

Week 15: theme & Craft: Firebird book & Firebird Ballerina Craft
       Lesson: We will read the book Firebird by Misty Copeland and watch excerpts from the Ballet. 
       Ballet Skills: Similar to creating a variation to fit our techniques, we will do a similar ballet skill by mapping out our Firebird Variation.

Week 16: theme: The Snow Dancer
	Lesson: Read the book and see what kind of dancing is in the book. 
	Ballet skills: There are pictures in the book that we will look at and try to replicate the style of dancing. 

Week 17: theme: Ballet Variations & Learning Variation #2
	Lesson: Let's talk about what a Variation is so that we can study them each week! 
	Ballet skills: In all variations, there are ballet techniques that we will recognize and work to replicate in a way that is doable for the dancers. 

Week 18: Easter Bunny Ballerina & Easter themed class

Week 19: theme: Book: Joslyn Learns to Dance 
	Lesson: Let's learn 5 different styles of dance through a story.
	Ballet skills: There are many styles in addition to Ballet and we are going to experience them!


**More classes added as needed***