Ages 3 to 6
Flamenco
Half ballet, half flamenco, in the same class. They learn to stand like a dancer, then to make noise like one.
What it actually is
Flamenco is Spanish, old, and loud. Dancers stamp the rhythm out with their feet, clap it with their hands, and play castanets while they dance. Here it is taught next to ballet in the same class, because the posture ballet builds is what flamenco stands on. Where ballet asks a child to be quiet and exact, flamenco asks them to be exact and heard.
What they'll be doing
Making noise
Feet, claps, castanets. In most dance classes the music comes out of a speaker. Here a good part of it comes out of your child.
Counting out loud
Flamenco rhythms are the trickiest we teach at this age. Clapping one and holding on to it is the part that builds focus.
Learning a culture
It comes from southern Spain, with its own music, its own counts, and its own way of standing. Taught properly rather than as a themed routine — most of their friends will not be doing this.
Is this your child?
Flamenco, yes
- They worked out that the kitchen floor makes a noise, and they have not stopped since
- They clap along to a song and land on the beat, not near it
- When they perform it is not silly. Arms up, chin up, and they hold it dead serious.
- Nothing arrives quietly at your house — not the delight, not the meltdown
Try hip hop instead
- They copy dances off a phone. Those dances are hip hop. Nobody learns flamenco that way.
- Everything is loose and low: the bounce, the shoulders. Flamenco keeps the body still while the feet do the work, and holding still would be a weekly fight.
- They dance to make people laugh. Flamenco is serious, and stays serious. Hip hop has room to be funny — and it starts here at five.
What a class looks like
One class, split in two. Thirty minutes of ballet for posture and control, then thirty of flamenco for rhythm and noise. The second half is where they learn the piece they will perform at the spring recital.
- Wednesday
- 5:00 PM · 6:00 PM
- Thursday
- 5:00 PM