It’s been three weeks since we began our Youth Impact (YI) ballet class. What a fun time we’ve had so far! Here’s some of what we’ve been working on.

Barre

Each class, we begin with stretches and a standard ballet barre. Most of our YI students haven’t had any formal dance training, and for those who have it’s been many years. For these new dancers, we’re focusing on learning the “basics” of ballet positions, placement, and form. Later, we’ll add other aspects of ballet and dance in general.

Center

After barre, the dancers work in the center of the studio, now relying on their own balance and focusing more on moving their whole body. This week and last week, we learned about swinging movement. The dancers’ homework last week was to use the “swings” we practiced in class to make up their own dance. They could dance in their bedroom, in their yard, anywhere they wanted. Several of the students wanted to share their choreography this week during class – it was great! We love to see them thinking creatively and putting concepts together.

Adagio

We also talked about adagio this week during center. The girls were really apprehensive about moving so slowly and with their legs high in the air! But when it came to doing the adagio combination, they did great. No one fell over or stumbled, though afterward they said it was harder than it looked.  This project is funded in part by the Weber Arts Council.