Training Turnout in Tiny Dancers
For Dance Teachers and Health Professionals
This teacher training workshop is now available as an online virtual workshop with Beverly Spell and Lisa Howell.
For the latest dates and information on upcoming courses CLICK HERE or check out the individual listings at the bottom of this page.
Many teachers struggle with hip pain and injuries in their adolescent dancers, but few realise how much of this stems from the training that children had in their early years. This course delves into the delicate art of training turnout in tiny dancers, through to adolescents. In conjunction with early childhood Master Teacher Beverly Spell, we explore safe ways to develop both range and control in young hips, preparing them for higher level work in the future, while having fun with creative play in the classroom. All good learning is laid down in layers; we explore what concepts need to be introduced at what ages and how to practice this in class.
This course is perfect for teachers who are looking to incorporate the right preparatory exercises into their tiny dancer classes to help them develop correctly and avoid injury in their hips.
Some students seem blessed with lots of range but lack the ability to control it, while others constantly struggle with the mobility of their hips. This makes training a group of students a constant challenge.
In this systematic and comprehensive approach to training turnout in young artists, Lisa and Beverly provide dance teachers with direct techniques to use in class to safely develop optimal range and control of motion in all dance students. This program begins by establishing strength and control in parallel, before adding on the control of rotation, which is hugely important in the long term health of dancers’ hips. Using elements of fun and creative play to bring scientific and detailed training programs into dance schools is a unique and effective way to help thousands of young students worldwide.
We believe that at younger ages, children should be playing and exploring the full movement of their bodies. Pushing them into ballet class at a young age and not letting them do anything else is a way to diminish all natural movement and lower their body awareness. Climbing trees and swimming, for example, are great ways for them to train the diagonal fascial lines that run through their body which will help them later in their careers once they start performing more dynamic movements.
This course is perfect for teachers who are looking to incorporate the right preparatory exercises into their tiny dancer classes to help them develop correctly and avoid injury in their hips.
During this course, we aim to train teachers to work with their tiny dancers by exploring:
- Visualisation and pretend play
- The physical development of young students
- The importance of crawling
- Anatomical variations and other factors that may affect physicality
- Safe stretches for young dancers
We then look at a 6 stage program designed for students aged 4-8 to gradually prepare them for the demands of dance training. This includes:
- Encouraging natural development of core stability
- Sustained balance on one leg
- Awareness of rotation from the hip
- Cross BODY patterning
- Introduction of more formed ballet
- Maintaining turnout through movement
Please note that this course is a stand-alone course and does not require you to take the Level One workshop prior to attending. However, we highly recommend you familiarise yourself with the Leap ‘N Learn philosophy and Lisa’s approach prior to attending the workshop.
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