What Did Class Look Like?

The first Monday I went into each of the classes and introduced the pupils to ballet. I talked a bit about its history, showed them photos and then a video of Marianne and Rayan so they would see a “ballerina” and a “danseur”.

Often some of the children would ask to see the movie again and come into my room and watch the videos over and over.

I taught 3 classes each day – Preschool (71pupils), P1 and P2 (78 pupils) and then P 3, 4, 5, and 6 (136 pupils). The teachers numbered 3-8, depending on their availability.

Each class began with a chorus of “Make a circle” with them repeating “circle” and eventually creating a VERY round circle. We would begin with warm-up stretches, (including our surprised face stretch) then plié, relevé, tendu, pas de chat and sauté, (with straight legs and pointed feet), high knee marching, sliding, skipping (yep—the 2 ½ year olds skipped), and “leaping” over shoes. We spent some time working on arabesque – with tall straight backs. Even some développés were worked on. I taught each group their own dance with steps and patterns they all mastered. Then all classes ended with the favorite –-- Freeze Dance and Popcorn Dance.