Author: createmovedance

Floor Explorers: We’re Going on a Bear Hunt

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This term in Floor Explorers Parent and Toddler Movement Class we are going to start a new theme that will take us up to Christmas!

Come and join us as we read, move and get creative with Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury’s book We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.

We will be using our imagination to build a bear cave, splash through a deep cold river and squelch through thick, oozy mud.

Please bring a teddy bear with you and we will build the cave together during the session.

Click on this link to watch a wonderful telling of the story by author Michael Rosen.

Our sessions encourage children to develop and use their own ideas, listen to others and think creatively. We love seeing adults and children respond to new ideas, create, move and play together. Our classes are also a great place to meet other parents!

If you have not booked in for our classes yet, visit our schedule and booking page or click on this link.

Classes are on Wednesday mornings in Kington langley Village Hall

10:00 am – 10:45 am followed by a snack and drink (with some time for freeplay).

If you have any questions please get in touch. You can email Rachel at [email protected]

Floor Explorers: Let’s Go Catch A Star

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This term in Floor Explorers Parent and Toddler Movement Class we are going to be continuing the theme that we started in our summer special in July. We will be thinking about everything to do with stars and using that as inspiration to move and create together. Our sessions encourage children to develop and use their own ideas, listen to others and think creatively. We love seeing adults and children respond to new ideas, create, move and play together. Our classes are also a great place to meet other parents!

If you have not booked in for our classes yet, visit our schedule and booking page or click on this link.

Classes are on Wednesday mornings in Kington langley Village Hall

10:00 am – 10:45 am followed by a snack and drink.

We love using books in our classes and this term we have a few books that we will looking at for inspiration in case you would like to get them to read at home.

How to Catch a Star (10th Anniversary edition)

If you have any questions please get in touch. You can email Rachel at [email protected]

The Elves and the Shoemaker

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This term in our creative ballet classes we are going to be exploring the story of The Elves and the Shoemaker.

Each class will engage with the story at their own level but our version is inspired by a performance of the story created by the Northern Ballet. In this version, the shoes made by the elves have a magical quality –  they are dancing shoes! As well as creating ways to retell the story through movement, we will be thinking about how the different types of shoes make us dance. We will also be designing our own shoes and creating our own ways of dancing in them.

If you would like to read the story with your children at home we are using 2 books as well as looking at the Northern Ballet version.

Ballet Prep: 3 – 5 years

Ballet Mode (6 – 7 years) Ballet Tech (8 – 10 years)

Click on the link below to watch a trailer of  Northern Ballet’s version of the story.

Click on the links below to download and read their version of the story with photos of the dancers and watch some behind the scenes videos.

Behind the scences videos

The Story

If you have not signed up for classes for this coming term click on this link to go directly to our schedule and booking page.

Autumn Floor Explorer Classes

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After our successful summer special, we are going to be restarting our Floor Explorer classes in the autumn!

This is a great place to come and meet other parents with younger children whilst also giving your child an opportunity to exercise their creativity in a fun environment where their thoughts and ideas are valued and given room to grow.

Classes are suitable for any child who is walking. Classes £4.50 per child and £2.50 for an additional child.

Fees are paid on a termly basis (6 terms per year)*

Class: 10: 00 – 10:45 am
Wednesday Mornings in Kington Langley Village Hall

(Classes are not refundable if cancelled for circumstances outside our control).

To book a class please visit our schedule and booking page. Please get in touch if you have any questions or difficulties booking a class contact Rachel at [email protected]

Autumn Creative Ballet Classes

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It is time to sign up for our autumn classes! The dates for our autumn creative ballet classes are ready and available to book.

Our classes are fun, developmentally appropriate, interdisciplinary, creative and imaginative. They enable children to experience and enjoy ballet without the pressure of exams and with trained and experienced teachers.

Thursdays

Ballet Prep: 3:30 – 4:00 pm

Ballet Mode: 4:00 – 4:30 pm

Ballet Tech: 4:30 – 5:10 pm

At Sutton Benger Village Hall (just outside Chippenham).
Click on this link to book classes. 

For more information go to Creative Ballet Classes

or email Rachel at [email protected]

Floor Explorers Parent and Toddler Movement Class

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Come and join us for a 2-week Floor Explorers Summer Special! 

Floor Explorers is a movement session for pre-school age children and their parent/carer.

This block of sessions is inspired by the book How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers and is a wonderful opportunity for adults and children to move, learn, be creative and have fun together.

Classes are suitable for any child who is walking. Read more about our classes here.

When: Wednesday, July 5th and 12th
Time: 10:00  – 10: 45 am (with refreshments after the class)
Where: Kington Langley Village Hall
Cost: Classes £4.50 each (one parent/carer and 1 child ) and £2.50 for an additional child

Get in touch if you would like more information AND click on this link to book a place.

Please pass this on to anyone you know that has young children.

Dancing Into Summer

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The summer is almost here and we are getting ready to start our second block of classes.  This term we are continuing our theme of Flight using various children’s stories as inspiration – see here for more information.

We still have spaces available and are offering a free trial class if your child would like to come and try out what we do.

This first term has been a great start and we have loved seeing the children begin to explore new ideas, new movements and new ways of working together. Our classes provide opportunities for children to begin to learn the basics of ballet technique and movement, whilst also being challenged to generate their own ideas and responses to problem solving tasks, themes and story telling. Each child moves at their own pace within the material and we aim to keep classes to a smaller size so that we can respond to each student.

Creative dance helps children develop an increased ability to be in the body in the present moment, feeling all its sensations, both emotional and physical. It can help children’s social and emotional development, and this can, in turn, be of benefit in other spheres of life. 

Hertfordshire University Press

Please click on the links below if you would like to find out more and/or book a class with us.

Creative Ballet Classes Information

Schedule and Booking 

Getting Ready to Fly!

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We are busy getting ready to start our children’s creative ballet classes on Thursday 20th April at Sutton Benger Village Hall. This term has some exciting ideas and inspirations to get us going. We are going to be basing the classes for the summer term on ideas around flight, inspired by stories of butterflies and birds both real and imaginary.

As well as introducing and working on ballet technique and movements, each class is built around a children’s story. We use the stories to help children embody movement concepts as well as provide material for learning choreography and for the children to create their own movements and dances.

The stories we are using this term include:

 

If you have not booked a place in our classes yet we still have spaces available.

Ballet Prep: 3:30 – 4:00 pm (app ages 3 – 5 years)
Ballet Mode: 4:00 – 4:30 pm (app ages 6 – 7 years)
Ballet Tech: 4:30 – 5:10 pm (app age 8 – 10 years)

Ballet Form: still to be confirmed (app ages 11 and up)

Classes are held at Sutton Benger Village Hall on Thursday afternoons during term time startin Thursday 20th April.

Follow this link for more information on our classes.  If you have any other questions you can email Rachel at [email protected] or send a message via our contact page.

Click on this link  to sign your child up for a class.

Starting Again!

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We are excited to let you know that we are restarting classes after the Easter holidays 2023!

After a long period with nothing happening, due to having to close when the pandemic started, we are ready to get going again and would like to invite you to join us. We realise that things will have changed for all those who previously came to our classes but want you to know what we are doing in case you are interested in your child joining any of the classes we have on offer.

We are restarting our 3 youngest creative ballet classes as a first step and will start up our oldest class if we get enough interest. We are also planning on restarting our Floor Explorers parent and toddler classes and looking at running an adult dance class in the near future. Please get in touch if you are interested in any of these.

We do have a few changes. Georgie has now moved to North Wales so classes will be run by Rachel, who originally started createmovedance with Georgie in 2002. We also have a new teacher Synaet Nin, who has recently graduated from Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance and will be starting out as an apprentice teacher. You can read more about our team here.

Classes will be held in Sutton Benger Village Hall (just outside Chippenham) on Thursdays after school during term time. This is a lovely space with a beautiful wooden floor that is great for dancing and there is a playground area just outside for siblings needing a place to run around whilst waiting. There is also a car park at the hall for those who need to drive to classes. The specific classes that we will be running to get us started are:

Ballet Prep: (3:30 – 4:00 pm) This is our beginner class and is aimed at children 3 – 5 years.

Ballet Mode: (4:00 – 4:30 pm) This is our level 2 class and is aimed at children 6 – 7 years.

Ballet Tech: (4:30 – 5:10 pm) This is our level 3 class and is aimed at children 8 – 10 years.

Cost: Ballet Prep and Ballet Mode £4.50 per class. Ballet Tech £5 per class.

Fees are paid on a 6 week block basis.

Please contact Rachel at [email protected] if you have any questions or would like to sign your child up for classes. You can also visit our schedule and booking page Schedule & Booking to sign up for classes.

Places in classes are limited so do get back to us as soon as possible!

On the Sea…

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Carrying on with our Pirate theme, I thought it would be fun to explore what it would be like to live on a boat at sea. Pirates would spend many months at sea sometimes with calm, still waters without wind in their sails and therefore travelling very slowly. Whereas sometimes they had to endure strong windy storms causing their ships to rock endlessly from side to side and up and down crashing into huge waves.

So let us pretend for a moment we are on a Pirate ship:

First of all, you could practice your Pirate warm up to get you into the mood! (see previous blog)

Now lets see if you can find something that could be a pretend boat, a cardboard box that could fit you and your grown up in will do or you may even have a small inflatable dingy. You could even use some cushions or a duvet for a more comfortable boat! Oh and don’t forget to take a telescope with you (a kitchen roll tube would work well for this unless you already have some binoculars or a toy telescope)

• Once you have your boat or Pirate Ship ready shout “All aboard!” and sit in your ship with your grown up.
• Now you will need to pretend to row out from shore to the deeper sea. Strongly Push and Pull your oars in a circular movement with your arms pretending that you are rowing against the breaking waves.
• Once you are out into the deeper sea it will be time to “Raise the sails” so that your ship can travel using the power of the wind!
• Now pretend you are at sea and the weather is fine…. You can make gentle rocking movements up and down and from side to side as your ship travels along.
• As the weather picks up and the sea gets rougher your rocking movements get bigger and bigger until sometimes your ship comes crashing down on the huge waves! Don’t forget to tighten your sails too!
• If the storm gets too bad you may need to tuck down as low as you can get in your ship and wait until the storm passes before you immerge again!
• Once the storm has passed look through your telescope for land so that you can take your ship nearer to shore, with land in sight shout “Land Ahoy” Now you will need to lower your sail and row into the shallower waters.
• After being at sea for along time Pirates would get “sea legs” this is when their legs and balance got so used to being on a rocking ship that when they walked again on firm ground it was difficult to balance properly and therefore just walking and standing would make them very wobbly! Pretend you have “sea legs” and try practicing a wobbly walk, where you keep losing your balance!

I have found a couple of clips on youtube related to the sea, you may like to listen to the sounds and the story and even have a go at making a paper boat with your grown up.

I hope you have fun “Me Hearties!”