Intermediate Student Classes
Level C Technique
Students focus on strength, flexibility, body placement, and coordination. Barre work emphasizes alignment for pre-pointe preparation, while mat exercises strengthen the core, back, legs, and feet. Elementary barre exercises teach proper body and leg placement. In the center, jumps build leg and foot strength, and simple combinations like polka, waltz, and pas de basque enhance coordination. These elements prepare students for continued study in the classical ballet program.
Level D Technique & Pre-Pointe/Pointe
Level D builds strength, flexibility, body placement, and coordination. Classwork includes conditioning floor exercises, barre work, center practice, and traveling steps across the floor. Pointe work is practiced twice a week and transitions from the barre to the center. Intermediate students meet four to five times a week. Students complete the intermediate levels with a thorough knowledge of the ballet vocabulary to support progress to the Advanced level of study.
Level E Technique & Pointe
Level E builds strength, flexibility, body placement, and coordination. Classwork includes conditioning floor exercises, barre work, center practice, and traveling steps across the floor. Pointe work is practiced twice a week and transitions from the barre to the center. Intermediate students meet four to five times a week. Students complete the intermediate levels with a thorough knowledge of the ballet vocabulary to support progress to the Advanced level of study.
Level F Technique & Pointe
At Level F, students meet five times per week, advancing through three levels of study that build upon the foundational ballet knowledge acquired at the elementary levels. In addition to the core curriculum, students enjoy various dance enrichment opportunities, including variations classes and company roles in The Nutcracker and spring full-length ballet performances with the Salt Creek Ballet youth company.
Level G Technique & Pointe
Level G students meet five times per week, advancing through three levels of study that build upon the foundational ballet knowledge acquired at the elementary levels. In addition to the core curriculum, students enjoy various dance enrichment opportunities, including variations classes and company roles in The Nutcracker and spring full-length ballet performances with the Salt Creek Ballet youth company.
Level G Contemporary
Contemporary is a genre of dance that incorporates elements of both classical ballet and modern dance. Contemporary ballet represents a departure from the restraints of traditional classical ballet techniques and traditional rules of composition. Contemporary by definition means happening or existing at the same time and is often used to describe works that are created in the present or recent past. These works tend to reflect the moods, ideas, events, and feelings of the time of their creation and do not always have specific stories or librettos. Contemporary choreographers sometimes infuse their choreography with these themes and ask the audience to think more deeply about the meaning of the work instead of telling them what to think and how to interpret it.
Character (Levels C – G)
Character dance is an integral part of the classical ballet repertoire and techniques. One of the expressive means of ballet theater teaches students how to convey the character, style, and manner of performing folk dances, develops dance technique, expressiveness, and musicality. Character helps dancers gain a deeper understanding of story ballets while boosting strength and also develops the coordination required to become versatile dancers. Entail complex upper-lower body opposition, épaulement, heel-toe footwork, and tensegrity in movement qualities.
Jazz (Levels C – G)
Students start training in other styles of dance, starting with Jazz. Identifying elements of jazz dance include isolations, grounded movement, syncopation, and contractions.
Modern/Contemporary and Modern Contemporary Explorers (Levels C – F)
This Modern class covers movement based on Horton, Arve, and Graham techniques intertwined with methods of Laban and ballet. Focus on the spine, contraction to arch, and curl. Groundedness in the legs, use of deep plie’. The sharing of weight with other dancers and improvisation are just some of the central concepts covered. The importance of relating the techniques to the dancer’s ballet technique is stressed. Modern/Contemporary is a beautiful way to bring more power and groundedness to our dancers, an attribute helpful in today’s dance world. This class expands and educates the classical ballet dancer’s movement vocabulary to meet the expectations of classical ballet companies, prestigious college programs, and choreographers exploring the classics.
