Auditions are required for all prospective Elementary Ballet students. Level Placements are determined by Ayana School’s Director.
Junior Ballet 1 (ages 8-9)
Junior Ballet 1/2 (ages 8-10)
The Elementary Ballet syllabus allows the student to learn the exercises correctly and with full physicality. Our instructors use Agrippina Vaganova’s method, developed by the famous Russian Ballet pedagogue. Repetition and slow careful work is emphasized so that students learn discipline and control of their bodies. While we teach our students to be attentive, we recognize that in the first years of education, it is important to instill in children the love of classical dance. Therefore, the teacher pays much attention to how to interest the child. Lessons are very dynamic in the elementary grades so that child does not stand all the time facing the barre and descends from the bustle of boredom. Therefore, we include a variety of elements and movements to make this class fun and challenging at the same time.
The program begins with preparatory exercises, which prepare young dancers’ bodies, hands, and feet to study classical dance. Next is the study of the positions of the hands and feet. The Vaganova method’s schools have always been famous for their distinct beautiful hands, and therefore we pay great attention to hands. All movements are taught according to the degree of complication. For example, all moves are broken down into pieces. Young dancers learn all moves first on the floor through floor barre ballet exercises, then we learn them at the barre, facing the barre and holding the barre with both hands, then we perform the same exercise holding the barre with one hand, and so on.
Elementary Ballet students progress to the next level when they have mastered the material and physical understanding of the syllabus at their current level. Students receive a written progress report at the end of each school year. Elementary Ballet students participate in the Winter/Spring Presentation.