What is creative dance?

What is creative dance? A lot of people ask me that question. I'll do my best to explain, but it is best understood by experiencing a class. In a future post, I will be announcing dates for free classes this summer for students (and parents) to come and experience the magic of creative dance for themselves. I also plan to post some videos in the future to demonstrate a little of how I teach.

I follow the philosophy of creative dance pioneer, Virginia Tanner, who believed that the use of "wholesome, creative activity would allow children to develop alert minds, healthy bodies, and strong character." Her philosophy is best described in the following statement:

“The motivating force behind my work is not only developing excellent dancers, but more importantly, developing young people who are useful, imaginative, worthwhile human beings.”
Virginia Tanner

Creative dance combines classical dance training with movement exploration and imagination. It is joyful. It is expressive. It is fun! It is the perfect outlet for children to create, discover, learn, grow , and DANCE!! 

In creative dance, we experience the elements of dance: time (tempo, rhythm, beat), space (traveling, moving in place, moving in, out, over, around, level changes 'high medium, low') and energy (sustained, percussive, swinging, etc.). 

My classes follow a basic format, as follows:

**"Dancing Turn" (this is a moment for children to dance freely at the beginning of class, sometimes with a prop)

**Warm-Up Circle: We stretch, develop and strengthen technique, sing and move rhythmically, etc.

**Locomotor Pathways: We practice traveling through space, developing motor skills and dance steps (Skipping, Sliding (chasse), Galloping, Marching, Leaping, etc)

**Creative Exploration: I bring in a story, picture, prop, or other springboard to inspire movement. We imagine and explore as we improvise and create dances together.

I hope this is helpful. More information about free demo classes and videos coming soon! Stay tuned!