Ohio ACE Education Marketplace

The School of the Central Ohio Youth Ballet offers ballet and modern dance classes for school aged children. Given the professional and academic backgrounds for all of our dance faculty, our program naturally falls in line with the Ohio Department of Education Dance Standards both by design and simply because the standards make sense to us. As an elective pursuit, we ask that dancers be "thinking dancers", that they learn and voice educational aspects of classical dance, including terminology, positions, shaping of movements, energy of movements and the musicality of a movement phrase. We hope that when they eventually make their way into further education, they integrate their knowledge into their own dancing with detail. They are asked to keep a dance journal to record what they learn each week. Dance elements they might write about would include body awareness, particularly specific natural strengths they possess, the emphasis of a technical element or exercises that could enhance needed strength. All of this is presented in a light-hearted manner allowing for many smiles withing the classes. Dancers at the intermediate level and above are asked to participate in ballet and modern dance classes, giving them an opportunity to broaden their awareness of techniques. Modern dance also offers increasingly complex rhythmic and coordination challenges. We ask our dancers to know proper technique as it relates to their bodies so that they pursue concert dance in the healthiest way possible. Also some dancers at the School of the Central Ohio Youth Ballet pursue choreography within our program and with that they can begin to establish their own dance voice. We applaud such pursuits and if the work warrants, support student choreography in our performances. I would like to clarify here that our organization does offer strings lessons and this application is not intended to be for those offerings.