Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I have been using this book for a little over a year in my pre-ballet classes and I have found it quite helpful for planning classes, building coordination, strength, and flexibility, and for introducing young children to the concepts of ballet. One of my classes comprises 4- and 5-year-olds (some were 3 when the class began), and the other class has kindergarten and first-graders, but I have found that the material is just as useful in the older group, perhaps more so, since they grasp the material more quickly. Personally I think it's a little weird to have a man's voice singing about flowers and bunnies in classes that consist of girls only (at least for me), but the girls love the music and I let them sing along as they do the exercises.
The book is very thorough in introducing teaching methods for young children, the components of a pre-ballet class, common mistakes to watch out for, step progressions, and creative ideas to make the classes more fun and interesting. The book is intended to be a complete curriculum and can be used as such. I do not use all of the material or use it exclusively, but it would be easy to do so.
I gave the book four stars instead of five for three reasons. First, some of the exercises as given are a little beyond a 3- or 4-year-old's ability in terms of tempo and combinations of steps. I have modified a few of the exercises (moreso the centre floor exercises than the warm-up) to make them more appropriate for my students. I also have not been able to introduce all the exercises given in a single year for a class that meets once a week for 45 minutes or an hour.
Secondly, many or even most of the centre and allegro exercises are just too fast, regardless of age group. My firm belief is that movements should be learned and mastered at a slow tempo before they are done fast, and the exercises as written in this book often give absurdly fast timing, which in my experience, inevitably leads to the children just plain running or falling down and hurting themselves. So I do some of the steps at half-tempo where that is the case.
The third reason for the 4-star rating is terminology. A few of the songs use terms that I do not use in my classes, such as coupé and passé which, although used commonly in the US, are misnomers for sur le cou-de-pied and retiré, and I am particular about using the proper terms in my classes, so I just don't use one or two of the songs. I also don't use the port de bras music because it gives first through fifth positions of the arms (which can apply to either the Cecchetti or French school), and I teach the Vaganova method which only has three arm positions; another studio where I teach pre-ballet uses the French terms for the arms (en bas, en avant, en haut, etc.) so I don't use the song for that class either, but someone who uses the French or Italian port de bras won't have that issue.
Overall I think this is a really useful book, especially for beginning teachers or teachers with little experience teaching young children, because you can follow the material to the letter and have a whole year's curriculum laid out, or you can just pick and choose exercises and use the book and CDs as inspiration for your own ideas. Either way I recommend it.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Ballet Beginnings for Children: Pre-School Movement Fundamentals for Ages 3 and 4 (Bk. 1)
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