4-5 Year Old Dance Program
Stacey’s Dance Studio offers a wonderfully unique program that cultivates a love of dance and the arts in our young dancers. Preschool dance classes for 4-5 year olds is a combination of ballet tap, gross motor skills, and tumbling. Skills that are introduced in the 3 year old program are reinforced, and new skills are added weekly. It is amazing to see what the dancers are able to accomplish at such a young age.
Our preschool curriculum offers a variety of dance genres and the opportunity to use make believe and imagination. We use a variety of dance music including current preschool favorites. Each lesson has specific music, themes, and skills that are taught. Dancers may pretend that they are Princess Jasmine on a magic carpet ride searching for Aladdin while reinforcing dance skills that have been introduced earlier in the class. Life lessons are also talked about by different songs (example: You’ve Got a Friend in Me” we talk about friends, how to make friends, and how to help others who may need a friend). Our dance curriculum is updated annually and follows a week by week progression format. We have listed below some of the skills, progressions and lesson formats that we will use throughout the dance year.
- Counting: Dance is based off of an 8 count of music. We encourage dancers to count steps out loud, to understand the repetition aspect. We also use rhythm sticks, canes, or poms to clap out the beats of the music. Musicality and counting are introduced and reinforced with activities.
- Ballet Skills: We teach the correct terminology to our dancers, and amazingly enough they can repeat the words and can show you the skills. The skills that will be introduced are all five positions of the feet and arms, plié, relevé, sauté, tendu, glissade, assemblé, échappé, changement, dancer’s walk, triplet, pas de chat, and arabesque to name a few.
- Gross Motor Skills: Skipping forward, backward and in a circle, leaping, jumping, and hopping all increase overall coordination, and assist in future dance steps. We reinforce these skills weekly.
- Tap: Tap skills are a wonderful tool to assist preschool dancers who may favor either their right or left foot. Basic tap skills that were introduced in the three year old curriculum are reinforced and combinations are taught that increase the difficulty level for the older preschool dancer.
- Tumbling: This is a favorite for the 4-5 year old dancers because at this point they have an increased amount of upper body/shoulder strength that allows dancers to master a cartwheel, back bend, and hand stand. Tumbling skills are taught in a progression format beginning with basic skills and then proceeding to harder more advanced skills.
Preschool Dance Attire: Girls-white ballet shoes, black tap shoes, and any type of dancewear. Boys-black ballet shoes or bare feet, black tap shoes, and any type of athletic wear. Please bring dance bag to class. Label all shoes with name.