CriticalDance Forum

A few months ago, I posted on another board looking for a syllabus for our studio. I received two excellent ones, one for Jazz and one for Tap. The person that sent them to me said they also were working on one for Ballet and one for Pointe. I am very interested in seeing whatever syllabi you (anyone) use for these two disciplines in your classes. Please feel free to email me@ dancerbabe69@hotmail.com<P>------------------<BR>-Dancerbabe

hi!<P>great to see you here...<P>it would really help if you could tell us which COUNTRY you're in, because some syllabi aren't available, or aren't examined in some countries......<P>i am, amongst other things, a ballet examiner, so i have contributed to syllabi, and am writing course materials for ballet TEACHER training at the moment, so i find this a very interesting subject and look forward to this discussion. thanks for raising it. <P>also we have a few other very knowledgeable dance teachers here, who no doubt can assist as well - TUK, trina, maggie, michael montgomery, and sorry if i've left anyone out! if so, please pop up and tell me off!

Hi! Thanks for telling me that! This is my first time to this board and I never gave it a thought. I am from the United States (Maryland, to be exact):-)<P>------------------<BR>-Dancerbabe

OK - that helps!<P>the 3 administrators of this board are in san francisco, london, and (me in) perth, australia! the board began in SF, but obviously we aim to be - and we ARE- truly international.<P>next question: do you want your students to be 'externally' examined? i.e. examined by a representative of a dance society, rather than by yourself? this would be, for example, RAD, Cecchetti Society, ISTD, etc....<P>next question (!) : what are your students there for - just for fun, or with a serious aim of dancer training in mind as an outcome? this affects the type of syllabus you choose.<P>look forward to hearing more!

No, I don't want my students to be examined, I'm just looking for a guideline to follow, to ensure that what I'm teaching will let them have a good foundation, if they decide to continue on else where. My current studio is recreation based (I teach for the dept. of rec and parks) but we are looking for something that would fall in line with a private recreational studio, not just the public programs that parallel ours. Keep the questions coming, I'll tell you anything you need to know! <BR>Thanks so much.

hmmm, this is getting a bit harder - mostly because 'parks & rec dept' suggests (correct me if i'm wrong!) that you really have to stress FUN and not too much discipline or hard work, such as ballet normally requires..<P>also, i'm just curious: why are you not interested in exams? i guess it's because of the same thing - the setting, the type of students it attracts, etc...?<P>exams - even if YOU set them up and invite a kind and knowledgeable friend to examine, and supply your own assessment forms and certificates - really do provide a focus for the learning, and generally it means the students achieve far more. <P>but maybe in THIS setting, it is not about 'achievement' but more about the process?<P>one more Q: what age levels are we talking about? and approximately how many kids in each class?<P>

hi! I learned RAD and ISTD ballet. I don't think those would be suitable for you if you aren't doing exams. ISTD have a tap and a modern syllabus as well as a ballet syllabus.

grace and all-I think we have a cultural miscommunication about this "syallabi" thing. In the US, syllabi does not necessarily connote a test or an examiner; it is merely an outline of material, vocabulary or steps to be covered. I know that in the Vaganova and RAD methods, a syllabi is more formalized and certain vocabulary is expected at various levels, and tests are required to pass from one level to the next. ....hope this helps clear things up a bit.

thanks angelica. i think i agree with you, although each of those syllabi do still provide good outlines which she could follow.<P>trina, as someone who has written dance syllabi, i do know what one is! i understand your point, that perhaps exams are far less frequently undertaken - at least thru external syllabus organisations - in the US, than in england, australia, etc.<P>ANY ballet syllabus is a progression of steps at various levels, the command of which is necessary to satisfactorily work at the next level. whether or not it is examined (formally), makes no difference to it's structure and content, but it DOES make a difference to attainment, in my long teaching experience.<P>btw, singular = syllabus; plural = syllabi!<P>my points in the above posts were made with this in mind. thank you for the help, but this one is not a cultural misconnection. <P>what do you 'follow' if/when you teach ballet?<p>[This message has been edited by grace (edited July 04, 2000).]

grace, are you going off again correcting everyone's grammar... sigh...<P>Well, I guess you *are* a perfectionist, aren't you?

lol, azlan! <P>that's me!<P>can i get away with it, here? (quizzical-looking smiley)<P>or are YOU going to kick me out, too?<P>sorry trina! <P>p.s. trina - perhaps you aren't aware that of course RAD or ISTD or BBO syllabus, for example, CAN be used just as a syllabus, without taking the exams. <P>of course, none of this stuff comes cheap.<P>that's the only thing that surprised me about dancerbabe's post - apparently people have sent her syllabi free, (presumably).... whereas in my experience, ALL syllabi are very expensive items, precisely because so much work goes into them.<P>however, my intention, once i know dancerbabe's needs better, would be more likely to recommend a book, rather than an organisation's syllabus. <P>i have two, in particular, in mind, which give a syllabus within the book, with enough structure to make it easy to follow, but still sufficient leeway for someone in her position to suit it to her practical daily needs.<P>just waiting to hear the answers to my last two questions....<BR>

Well. in reply to your last 2 questions, the children range in age from 3 to about 14, with pointe work starting (for some) at age 12. Ballet classes have about 8 children on average, often more, up to 12. The pointe class has, I believe, 6 youth in the class. I do not give exams because I am not allowed to give exams, do to the restriction set forth by the council I work for. I judge children's ability on my own, with the consultation of the other teacher I work with, and we decide from there whether or not a child moves up "through the ranks"

OK - here is my recommendation: "Let Them Dance" by Laurel Martyn, published in 1998 by Fountain Press at Box Hill Institute (which is an Australian tertiary institution).<P>it was originally published by Dance Books in London, but this is a re-issue, and an improvement in layout etc.<P>since ballet is ballet, wherever, the fact that it's an Australian reference source really shouldn't matter. it is based on sound common sense.<P>i think you would find it much more helpful than a simple set of steps (which this does include) because it incorporates teaching method and lots of helpful hints.<P>the post that follows this will be my review of that book, originally published in Dance Australia magazine last year.<P>the book would be obtainable from <BR>Box Hill Institute,<BR>PO Bag 2014, Box Hill,<BR>Victoria 3128<P>it occurs to me now that Australian books are rather pricier than american ones, and of course i understand that you may hesitate to try to get something that's not a quick click at amazon.com, or similar.....even WITH a good recommendation!<P>so i hope that TUK and trina, and especialy any other US teachers of ballet, will chime in with comments about what THEY use - dean speer: where are you?

woops - can't find review on disk! <P>sorry!

after all THAT!...i checked the book content again, and while it IS just marvellous for teachers of young students, it doesn't go up to a high enough level for dancerbabe's needs, -so other suggestions more welcome...