Our classes are built and designed using brain-compatible principles that make learning fun and enjoyable for every child. Our main objective is to build a healthy connection with music and movement. We use a five-part lesson plan for each dance experience. The five-part lesson plan alternates teacher-directed activities with student-centered activities, and developing skills with improvisation. We begin first by warming up with the BrainDance, exploring the concept, developing skills, creating, and cooling down. This structure provides the repetition and novelty that engages all learners. We offer classes for children ranging for ages 1.5-8yrs.  

What is Brain-Compatible Dance Education?

A structured methodology for teaching dance using a lesson plan and strategies that create an environment in which the brain is ready, willing, and able to learn. This holistic approach develops every student into a skilled technician, critical thinker, collaborator, and creator.​​ Brain-Compatible Dance Education is a nationally and internationally recognized teaching methodology. This curriculum was learned and adopted from Anne Green Gilbert of the Creative Dance Center.

The Brain Dance

The Brain Dance is a sequential and holistic exercise based on the developmental movement patterns infants move through during their first year and we continue refining throughout our lives. The BrainDance patterns are: Breath, Tactile, Core- Distal, Head-Tail, Upper-Lower, Body Side, Cross Lateral, Eye-Tracking, and Vestibular. The BrainDance integrates mind and body and may be adapted for all ages and abilities. The benefits for children cycling through these patterns each week include reorganization of the neurological system, increased blood and oxygen flow to the respiratory system and brain, and enhanced body strength and alignment.​​

Five-part lesson plan

WARMING-UP
BrainDance exercises performed to rhymes.
Ballet exercises to increase balance and enhance body alignment

EXPLORING THE CONCEPT
Each week a different movement concept is introduced and explored as the focus of the dance class. 

• Shapes and Relationships: Children learn to copy each other's shapes and to mirror moving shapes. Letters and numbers are explored through body shapes. Symmetrical and asymmetrical shapes are introduced.
• ​​Instruments and Rhythm: Students explore instruments both while sitting and moving. Moving to music with varying meters and from other cultures increases rhythmic awareness. Children learn the names of the instruments and practice keeping a steady pulse to a variety of meters.

 
DEVELOPING SKILLS
Locomotor and Nonlocomotor Skill Development
Children walk, run, jump, leap, gallop, slide, twist, bend, stretch, swing, melt, crawl, and roll etc...

• Leaps: Students move through obstacle courses to develop spatial awareness and balance.
  

            Objects are piled higher and wider to increase the range of motion used in leaping.

CREATING
Improvisation or Choreography
Students improvise to a variety of musical forms integrating the movement elements they have explored during the class. Sometimes they create their own simple compositions to perform for classmates.

COOLING DOWN
Relaxation and Reflection
Students relax their muscles while the teacher works with each student on alignment.
Teacher gives hand stamps to each student at the end of class.

Movement Learning Outcomes

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• Gain physical strength, flexibility, stamina, and agility.
• Children learn body awareness, control, and coordination.
• Release stress through positive physical activity.
• Increasing listening skills and how to follow directions.
• Children increase leadership skills through partner and group work.
• Children bond with one another through positive physical contact and the sharing of ideas and space.
• Children learn to solve problem that are simple and complex.
• Students express their feeling through movement, becoming more attuned to the inner self.
• Students increase their self-esteem through self-expression and the mastery of movement.
• Students learn to take risks by mastering movement challenges and learn trust through activities that engage in weight-sharing, partnering and group cooperation.
  

Creative Movement Curriculum