Classes at Saldance Theatre Arts
Our structure of classes is designed to ensure the best possible training for our students.
Children enrolling at pre-school age are welcomed with our Fairytale Dreams class – a great way to start their dance journey by building confidence in the studio surroundings alongside mummy and daddy!
The next step is First Steps Ballet – building strong foundations for beautiful dancers.
Students may then like to branch out and explore other styles. We offer generous multiple class discounts to encourage students to train in a wide variety of genres and develop versatility.
We aim to change class times and teachers as little as possible in order to achieve a secure and nurturing environment, minimising changes also helps students to form long lasting bonds with members of their class.
The Goal – Strong, well-educated, versatile dancers, with a passion for dance and theatre, lifelong friendships made and many happy memories to treasure forever.
Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions / to enquire about availability.
Fairytale Dreams
A wonderful introduction to our lovely dance school and the world of dance!
Our aim is to inspire a love of dance and to build confidence with the help of mummy and/or daddy. We encourage movement and expression to music alongside a light introduction to Ballet basics. Our tiny dancers explore a different fairytale each half term, sparking their imaginations and providing many magical moments for you and your little one to share. Truly special!
Ballet
Essential foundations for strong and beautiful dancers.
Ballet forms the basis of all theatre dance, teaching discipline of body and mind; also deportment and grace of movement. As students progress to the higher grades class frequency increases to enable our dancers to reach their full potential.
We also offer Progressing Ballet Technique (PBT) classes from Grade 4 onwards to enhance the development of correct technique, this class also assists with the evaluation of students for pointe work. It takes many years of training for dancers to reach the level required to be considered for pointe work and not all dancers’ feet are suitable. There are many factors the class teacher will take into consideration and the decision will be entirely at their discretion.
As with any dance form – the more you put in the more you will reap the rewards. It takes a lot of commitment and dedication to fully understand and develop the beautiful and seemingly effortless technique dancers aspire to, but it’s so worth it!
Whether taking up dancing as a career or not, your ballet training will be an asset throughout life.
Tap
Putting on your first Tap shoes is such an exciting moment, our young dancers love exploring their ‘noisy shoes’ and learning to make their own kind of music!
The value of a Tap class should not be underestimated, it is a music lesson in itself – students are soon learning musical note values and developing a keen sense of rhythm. Stage directions are covered and students begin to develop impressive coordination. As students progress to higher grade and performer level intricate tap work is established and performed with individual style.
Contemporary Modern Jazz & Theatre Craft
Both styles are widely used in theatre productions and are an asset to our dancers.
During early training students will alternate between the two genres, with the option to add in another class to work both alongside each other as training progresses.
Contemporary Modern Jazz
A wonderful addition to any dancers training, developing strength, flexibility, freedom of movement, fantastic elevation and deep musical connection.
We explore the interpretation of varied musical styles and learn to bring the emotion we are inspired by to life through our movements and performance.
Theatre Craft
Developing versatile show dancers – students will explore a wide range of musical styles and are encouraged to really bring out their inner performer.
We will work on characterisation, use of props, limbering of kicks, precision of turns and much more! On reaching Grade 3 level female students will begin to work in character (heeled) shoes – an essential skill for any show girl!
Acrobatic Dance
An artistic form of gymnastics – inspired by gymnastic floor work and rhythmic gymnastics.
This genre requires a high level of technique, students will work to achieve great strength and flexibility and with dedication will acquire a strong, agile and well limbered body to be proud of which will enhance their all-round dance training.
The aim is to build a repertoire of acrobatic movements, creative shapes and impressive balances that can be performed fluidly in a routine. This class is great for partner and team work as lifts are also developed amongst the class.
Lessons always commence with a thorough warm-up session in order that the body is supple enough to progress with agilities.
Commercial Dance
This is the class to come and let your hair down!
Our dancers work extremely hard, so it is important to offer a more relaxed class where we can explore different styles of music and dance together. Routines may be, lyrical, contemporary, funky …. you name it, our commercial dancers have probably done it all! It’s a great class to explore individual style, develop performance skills and just enjoy dancing!
If you are looking for a more relaxed class – this is the one for you!
Musical Theatre
Our Musical Theatre classes develop confidence, creativity, team work and much more through song, dance and drama.
Students explore the world of the professional theatre, learning essential stage skills and terminology along the way. We have lots of fun working as a team towards the IDTA Musical Theatre Stage examinations and students are also given the opportunity to take individual medal tests.
Vocally we work to improve articulation, projection and expression and learn correct breathing techniques to support our voices. Characterisation, mime and accents are explored, along with improvisation and the ability to express and input creative ideas. Dance content is appropriate to the material we are working on and will be tailored for the class – we love to play to our students’ strengths to achieve the best possible outcome for everyone.
The benefits of studying Musical Theatre are endless, not only in the dance studio, but for so many areas of life – and we have so much fun!
Adult Classes
Adult classes – for those discovering or re-discovering dance a little later on.
At Saldance Theatre Arts we are home to a thriving adult community, we offer beginner and advanced level classes for both Tap and Ballet and a mixed ability class for Commercial Dance, our adults are very much a part of school life!
A great way to keep fit and socialise at the same time! Please be sure to enquire for availability.
Our Studios
Saldance Theatre Arts has two studios, which are well equipped, light and spacious. Each has a floor area in excess of 1,000 square feet, with one fully mirrored wall and fitted ballet barres. One of the studios has a sprung maple floor.
There are clean and comfortable changing / waiting areas and plenty of car parking space is available