Littleton Ballet Academy

The Open Class Division offers a recreational ballet class to dancers who have had some experience but have moved on to other activities and do not have the time to commit to ballet.  The Open Class Division does not offer performance opportunities​​​​​

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Teen Ballet

For dancers aged 11 and up, the Teen Ballet class is taught by Sarah Linville and allows dancers to take just one class per week.

Clothing suitable for movement is essential. Leotard and tights are recommended but may be worn with dance skirts, yoga pants, etc. Men should wear a dance belt.

No bare midriffs allowed.

Ballet shoes and a ballet bun are required.

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Conditioning 

Focuses on exercises designed to help stretch and strengthen a dancer's body. For dancers Ballet 3 and higher and is mandatory for dancers who are going on pointe or who are on pointe. 

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Yoga

Yoga is an ancient practice that cultivates full body awareness and connection. We apply traditional Hatha yoga knowledge of movement, breath, and mind to help feel more connected, stronger, and resilient. This is not, turn yourself into a pretzel yoga. This is to help you feel more calm, confident, and balanced. 

 

Every class offered has the following elements: 

• Breathwork (traditionally called Pranayama) 

• Movement and Balance (traditionally called Asana)

• Meditation/Mindset (how to tune out excess noise)

 

These three elements are core to helping each person better understand their own body. We focus on where they are in each session, whether we are working with more energy expenditure or if we are working active recovery and moving slower. We focus on where their end range of motion and work to expand that without pain. We pay attention to injuries so we are moving in ways to help heal and not exacerbate. 

 

I provide props to assist them with achieving better positional alignment in their bodies. This yoga class isn’t about moving quickly between positions, but moving intentionally and with purpose. 

 

We focus a lot on posture; how it impacts our breathing and our movement and our mobility. Many of our postures help build core strength and supporting muscle groups to improve posture and make better posture more sustainable. 

 

Balance is another area we spend a lot of time. It isn’t just being balanced on one leg, but moving through transitions while keeping balance. It is moving and trusting our bodies as we learn arm balancing poses, building into more tricky applications of balance enabling more confidence in what our bodies are capable of achieving. 

 

Last element is that meditation/mindset piece, learning to tune out the extra noise. Learning how to focus their attention where it needs to be through the “noise.” This is also the piece where we talk about the importance of how to rest. We can’t get better if we are always running on empty. Rest is vital to staying healthy and on track. Some weeks this could include a journaling prompt of visualization exercise.

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