As we approach open week at PMPA, I thought it may be interesting to give our dance parents some insight into our Junior Classes. Whilst it might look like it’s all fairy runs and jumping jacks, if we look at the Twinkle Toes curriculum, there are a lot of things that your littlies are learning in their class each week!

Ballet technique at the junior level – your dancer will love learning the ballet positions of the set and arms, how to point and flex her feet and how to stand with correct ballet posture.

Ballet Terminology – The names of all of the steps she learns and how to pronounce them correctly.

How to use props and incorporate them into their movements – Dancers will improvise using props, learn routines with scarves, dolls and wands and coordinate their movements with the props.

How to follow a structured week to week program – Each week the dancers build on the movements they learn the week before, they learn to remember what step comes next and how to execute them correctly

Learning choreography to music – In Twinkle Toes we work on two major routines each year, with a lot of little ones or special event routines (like our Christmas performance) in between, the dancers have to use their brains to remember and their bodies to execute the choreography, lots for littlies but so good for their learning!

Listening to music – Our Twinkle Toes have to listen carefully to the music they are dancing to, we use lots of tools to work on their musicality, developing these skills from this young age

How to behave in a group learning environment – Our Twinkle Toes classes are 45 minutes of non stop action, an assortment of individual and group activities, they have to learn to wait their turn and to support each other. So it’s great for their concentration skills, their memory retention and their focus.

These are along with many other great skills learn in our Twinkle Toes curriculum including spatial awareness, respect for others, performance skills and the importance of being dressed properly in ballet uniform.

PMPA offer Twinkle Toes classes for 3 & 4 year olds on every morning (except Sundays) at 9.30am with the very talented Miss Vanessa, Miss Ange, Miss Jessie and myself. Classes are $8.25 each plus GST and dancers may wear their own pink ballet attire including ballet shoes. You can book a free trial on the home page of our website or by calling 02 65 833753. Please share this blog post with any of your Twinkle Toes friends or friends you know that have littles.

And you might be wondering what the Mini Men are doing in their class whilst the girls are prancing around in Twinkle Toes…. lots of the same stuff, with a few hip hop and Acro moves to boot!!

Miss Stacey