Beatrix Potter Themed Ballet Classes

After Easter we will be using the Beatrix Potter stories as inspiration for our Creative Ballet Classes. Come and join us as we introduce the children to all of the well known and loved characters including Peter Rabbit, Jeremy Fisher, Jemima Puddle Duck and more.

As we work with the characters and stories we will also be sharing some of the stories as performed by the Royal Ballet and the music composed by John Lanchberry for many of the characters. You can watch a trailer for the ballets in the clip below.

We have three levels of classes and children move up through the classes according to age and ability.

Ballet Prep: (30 mins)  3 – 5 years.

Ballet Mode: (30 mins)  6 – 7 years.

Ballet Tech: (40 mins)  8 – 10 plus years.

Cost: Ballet Prep and Ballet Mode are £4.50 per class. Ballet Tech is £5 per class. Fees are paid on a 6 week block basis. We offer a FREE trial class that can be booked on our booking page at the link below.

Please see our Schedule and Booking page for times and locations of classes.

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.

Chasing Butterflies

Today was our last week with The Hungry Caterpillar story and we had great fun using shadow to take our butterflies on an adventure over land and sea, through gardens of trees and flowers and meeting other larger animals. Below is a video of the magical moments from the session!

 

 

New Teacher

Hi Everyone,

Most of you should know that I am going to be away for the next couple of weeks teaching in Thailand. So I wanted to introduce to you  Georgie Cockburn. Georgie has worked with createmovedance in the past and we are excited to have her with us again. She will be supporting Synaet in teaching the ballet classes and will be leading the Floor Explorers classes for the next 3 weeks. Synaet will be in all classes so there will be a familiar face for all of the children.

To help introduce Georgie here is a photo and a bio of some of the exciting work that she has done in the past and is doing now.

Georgie has worked as a freelance dance artist for 20 years.  From her late teens, she supported youth theatre and outreach at the Bristol Old Vic and continued to work with local companies, moving gradually to focus more on dance.  Georgie holds a BA in Theatre and English from University of Birmingham, which included two years of Contemporary Dance training, and an MA in Theatre and International Development from the University of East Anglia. In East Anglia, Georgie developed her practice with older people, delivering work in residential homes.  Having worked with neurodiverse communities consistently throughout her twenties, she moved to London to work with Corali and Artsdepot, managing and delivering learning and outreach programmes to support diversity and inclusion in dance.  Georgie then spent six years in China, co-founding project based initiative Pojie Arts | 破界艺术 with NZ dance artist, Rosey Feltham and delivering performance based projects with children and adults with disabilities.  Georgie returned to the UK in 2016 to work as Learning and Participation Manager for Rambert and to develop her freelance portfolio, focusing on Early Years dance and dance for health.  In Wiltshire, Georgie joined Createmovedance first as a participant with her then toddler, Milo.  She then supported Georgie Taylor in Floor Explorers, becoming increasingly passionate about dance in the Early Years. 

Currently, Georgie is completing a fully funded PhD at the Centre for Dance Research, Coventry University.  This research is in partnership with People Dancing and focuses on dance for people living with Parkinson’s.  Georgie also continues to freelance in the South West, Midlands and London. 

Please let me know if you have any questions. I look forward to seeing what you have all been doing when I get back.

Best wishes
Rachel

The Sand Horse

This term in our creative ballet classes we are going to be exploring a beautiful story called The Sand Horse written by Ann Turnbull and illustrated by Michael Foreman.

One windy summer day, an artist makes a horse sculpture out of the sand on the beach at St Ives. It takes him the whole day, and all the beach people admire it. But when everyone goes in at the end of the day, the Sand Horse can hear the white horses in the surf calling to him: ‘Come with us to Sennen, Land’s End, and Longships Light!,’ and he longs to join them. The story ends with the Sand Horse galloping away in the waves with the other white horses. 

Each class will engage with the story at their own level.  We will be taking our inspiration for movement from things that we find at the beach and as well as creating ways to explore and retell the story through movement.

The Sand Horse

Unfortunately this book is no longer available to buy new but you can find it second hand here.

We have three levels of classes and children move up through the classes according to age and ability.

Ballet Prep: (30 mins)  3 – 5 years.

Ballet Mode: (30 mins)  6 – 7 years.

Ballet Tech: (40 mins)  8 – 10 plus years.

Cost: Ballet Prep and Ballet Mode are £4.50 per class. Ballet Tech is £5 per class. Fees are paid on a 6 week block basis. We offer a FREE trial class that can be booked on our booking page at the link below.

Please see our Schedule and Booking page for times and locations of classes.

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.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

This term in Floor Explorers Parent and Toddler Movement Class we are going to be starting a new theme.

Come and join us as we read, move and get creative with Eric Carle’s book The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

We will be using our imagination to explore each section of the story from popping out of the egg and moving like a caterpillar, to travelling to find all kinds of food and transforming into a beautiful butterfly.

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!

Classes are suitable for any child who is walking.

Classes £4.50 up to 2 children and £2.50 for an additional child. (free trial class available)

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

If you have not booked in for our classes yet, visit our schedule and booking Schedule & 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: We’re Going on a Bear Hunt

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

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

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.

Floor Explorers Parent and Toddler Movement Class

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

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