Applied Ballet – All In! : Teacher training workshops
NYB believes that ballet is for everyone and we aim to challenge perceptions about what ballet can be, who it is for and how to reach the widest audience.
National Youth Ballet is excited to team up with Parable Dance and South East Dance to offer three, free inclusive teacher training sessions for ballet teachers in the South East region.
NYB has a limited number of spaces available for ballet teachers based in the South East to join a pilot teacher training programme, designed to widen the skills of ballet practitioners and offer practical skills and tips for working creatively and incorporating inclusive practice into the ballet class and creative process.
Ballet as an art-form, both within the creative sector and further afield, is not traditionally perceived as being inclusive. NYB asserts that being given the opportunity to work with disabled students and being taught how to understand the value of inclusive teaching will lead to a new generation of ballet teachers. These teachers will have learned holistically how to develop a more responsive form of teaching which will both embrace a more inclusive practice and which in turn will start to turn the dial towards a more inclusive art-form.
The traditional construct of a ballet class has created barriers that prevent many young people with SEND needs or disabilities from accessing ballet. This has meant that historically they have not always been able to access authentic ballet opportunities.
Applied Ballet – All In! will provide teachers with the professional skills development opportunity to learn from experts and understand inclusive practice, enabling teachers to work in a much more responsive way with their class. In addition it means that teachers are better able to support all young people that they meet with different learning needs, as inclusive practice helps to develop their understanding of a range of young dancers.
Over the course of three days practitioners will learn:
- Tools, tips and techniques for working in an inclusive way.
- How to use and explore the rich language of ballet and how to think of it in new ways.
- How to work with disabled students in a ballet setting.
- How to work creatively with ballet as your language, exploring different creative approaches and broader ways of working.
Dates:
- Friday 2nd December
- Friday 9th December
- Friday 16th December
Please note participants will need to attend the first session in order to take part.
Times:
- 10 – 4pm
Venue:
- The Dance Space, South East Dance
A note from Parable:
We are really interested in further exploring inclusion across taught dance. The origins of inclusive dance developed largely in contemporary dance (creative and improvisation), therefore there has been far less exploration within ballet settings. Companies such as Candoco and Stopgap have created pioneering methods for the inclusive teaching of contemporary technique. However, very little work developing inclusive ballet technique has taken place.
At Parable we are really keen to bring together our expertise in inclusive dance with NYB’s ballet expertise, to really investigate and promote ballet as an inclusive art form. Ballet with its focus on storytelling and rich descriptive words (to bend, to strike etc.) has huge potential to be accessible to all. We are looking forward to applying our inclusive teaching methods to ballet and learning how these methods can adapt and evolve.
Find out more about NYB’s Applied Ballet – All In! programme.
Image: Parable Dance at the Dance Space. Photo: DFphotography
