Preschool Creative Dance
For Ages 3.5-5
Our preschool dance studios are close and convenient for busy parents in Greenwood, Wedgwood, Shoreline, & Magnolia.
About Our Preschool Dance Classes For Ages 3.5-5
An excellent Foundation For Essential social skills
Does your child love to move when you play music? Play music, and they will dance around the room.
The best creative children's dance activities and lessons engage your child's imagination. Expanding their movement vocabulary in our creative classes is so beneficial. We make learning fun, which is why this is the perfect preschool activity for your child.
Our creative dance and movement classes work on things like developing body awareness, loco-motor skills, strength, and flexibility.
We introduce your child to movement concepts such as levels and directions in space, pathways, and qualities of movement. Your child will see, feel, and experience moving fast, slow, sharp, smooth, strong, light, etc.
For example, they will take one movement that feels very familiar to their body and, with the instructor's guidance, make it into a dozen different movement variations.
They’ll try it high, low, backwards, upside down, with a partner, etc. It’s all wrapped in fun creative themes, and it opens up unlimited possibilities to move, express, and relate to the world around them.
Winter/Spring Session Classes
Session Dates: February 10 - June 19, 2025
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New Years Resolution Session Classes
Session Dates: January 6 - March 30, 2025
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Fall Session Classes
Session Dates: September 16, 2024 - February 9, 2025
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Dress Code For Creative Dance
Girls wear black cotton tank leotard, pink footless tights, and bare feet.
No skirts/tutus please! Except for special skirt days.
Boys wear black shorts or sweats, white t-shirt, and bare feet.
These items can be picked up at Centerstage Dance Shop, 5261 University Way NE
or ordered online at Discount Dance Supply and use school code TP120018.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long should a young child's creative dance lesson last, and how often should they attend?
- Our classes are 45 minutes long, and your child should attend once per week.
What clothes are required for a creative dance class, and does my child require any specific dance shoes?
- Girls wear black cotton tank leotard, pink footless tights, and bare feet. No skirts or tutus, please! Except for special skirt days. Boys wear black shorts or sweats, a white t-shirt, and bare feet. No shoes are allowed.
What skills will my child learn from creative dance courses, and how will they benefit from them?
- Our creative dance classes work on things like developing body awareness, loco-motor skills, strength, and flexibility. We introduce your child to movement concepts such as levels and directions in space, pathways, and qualities of movement. Your child will see, feel, and experience moving fast, slow, sharp, smooth, strong, light, etc.
Is it a drop-off program, or are parents permitted to remain and supervise their child during the class?
- At American Dance Institute, parents have the option of staying and observing class in our viewing rooms, which have comfortable seating and large viewing windows.
Creative Dance as Experiential Learning in State Primary Education: The Potential Benefits for Children
Helen Payne https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2028-1121 H.L.Payne@herts.ac.uk and Barry CostasView all authors and affiliationsVolume 44, Issue 3https://doi.org/10.1177/1053825920968587
Summary: Creative dance classes at the American Dance Institute in Seattle and Shoreline, WA, offer several distinct advantages for children, both physically and intellectually. Creative dance classes for kids 3.5 to 4 years of age emphasize the enhancement of coordination, flexibility, and strength, while fostering creativity and self-expression.
Participating in these dance courses for children can enhance self-esteem and emotional health, facilitating social connections with peers in a positive and supportive atmosphere.
Whether you are seeking a nearby dancing class for kids or investigating various dance styles for youth, creative dance serves as an enjoyable and stimulating method to enhance physical fitness and cognitive growth. Ideally creative dance or preschool dance should begin a child's dance journey. Numerous parents pursue dance classes for their children to promote healthy behaviors and emotional development.
These children's dance lessons build a necessary foundation for a spectrum of styles, from hip hop to ballet to tap, enabling young dancers to engage in diverse movements that promote activity and enjoyment.
Creative children's dance programs are structured to be both entertaining and instructive, guaranteeing that children acquire essential life skills while enjoying themselves. Engaging in dance lessons for children cultivates discipline, collaboration, and resilience, as they collectively learn choreography and refine new movements.
Enrolling children in dancing classes enables parents to facilitate the development of crucial physical and cognitive abilities that will serve them well academically and personally. These programs provide a supportive environment that fosters the growth and development of young dancers, whether you want dance options for children or wish to explore various styles of dance for them.
Creative Dance as Experiential Learning in State Primary Education: The Potential Benefits for Children
Abstract
Background: In the United Kingdom, creative dance is classified as part of physical education rather than an important core subject. Purpose: Taking the U.K. National Curriculum as an example, the article’s primary aim is to examine literature exploring the benefits of creative dance, for children aged 3 to 11 years in mainstream state education, to evaluate whether creative dance can be categorized as experiential learning. Methodology/Approach: The literature review included key words in several databases and arrived at potential benefits which can be framed within experiential learning. Findings/Conclusions: The findings identify benefits of creative dance in socioemotional, arts-based, transferable, embodied, physical, and cognitive learning. Conceptualizing creative dance as experiential learning could support it filling a more central role in the curriculum. Implications: This article recontextualizes the role of creative dance in children’s learning through reviewing related literature. Creative dance might play a more central role in the curriculum when the benefits and its process are framed as experiential learning.Dance in Education
In U.K. state primary schools, the National Curriculum (NC; Department of Education, 2013) must be taught as a statutory requirement with clear subject boundaries, viewed as a hidden curriculum (Costas, 2015) in which some subjects have greater importance. In the primary and secondary sectors (Key Stages 1, 2, 3, and 4), physical education (PE) remains a foundation as opposed to a core subject which is more important, that is, English, mathematics, and science, and dominates the primary school curriculum. PE has six areas of physical activity, of these dance sits alongside athletics, games, swimming, gymnastics, swimming, and outdoor adventure. The time to be given to these activities, or PE overall, is not stated, although the U.K. Association for Physical Education (2010) recommended a minimum of 2 hr per week. By comparison, physical development in the early years’ foundation stage is on an equal footing with mathematical and language development and other areas of learning.The U.K. political educational climate’s emphasis is on increasing achievement in traditional academic skills (the NC 2013, is 223 pages, 181 are on English, maths, and science—only 43 for the remaining nine subjects). Even if dance were separated from PE as an arts subject alongside visual art, music, and drama, its status is unlikely to change because of the design of the U.K. national curriculum. This relatively low status is partly a consequence of the high standing of conventional academic subjects whereby intelligence is associated with cognition and verbal and mathematical/scientific reasoning. By contrast, movement patterns in dance appear to be learned and remembered as easily as language for children, often accompanied by a sense of enjoyment. Costas (2015) has shown children thoroughly enjoy movement and, for dance, found 38.3% of 236 Year 6 primary children interviewed “loved it.” Empirical research from Eisner (2002), The National Dance Teachers Association (2004), Hanna (2008), and Youth Dance England (2010) demonstrated the empowering capacity of dance education pedagogies to shift children’s creative learning and personal journeys of becoming (Chappell et al., 2012). Hanna has drawn on extensive research to argue for dance in the curriculum to be framed as a nonverbal language for imaging and learning. In what follows, we review selected literature on dance and learning, arguing that dance can be considered a form of experiential learning, and thus should be given greater priority in education.Method
The traditional view is that dance plays a role in education (Smith-Autard, 2002) such as teaching physical skills, engagement, or performance. This article reviews the literature demonstrating benefits of creative dance for children’s learning more broadly, using the following keywords/phrases: “creative dance for children,” “benefits of creative dance,” “dance in schools/education,” “experiential learning,” “experiential learning and dance,” and “creative dance and embodied learning.” Education Research Complete, Google Scholar, and PsycINFO were searched with the inclusion criteria of evidence for employing creative dance for primary school children and any benefits with a view to exploring whether creative dance can be understood as experiential learning. The articles were read and analyzed by the first author using a traditional content analysis approach (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005) to obtain a sense of the whole (Tesch, 1990) and sorted into the following features: population, setting, purpose, sample, methods, analysis, and outcomes. Articles (N = 107) were grouped according to benefits (i.e., inductive category development—Mayring, 2000). Some articles (N = 32) were discarded due to the irrelevant population, traditional/technical genre of dance, or other redundant content.From the analysis, it appears that insufficient research/evaluation of dance programs has marginalized dance education in the primary curriculum. Specifically, more evidence is required to demonstrate the worthiness of creative dance as more central for learning in U.K. primary education (Theocharidou et al., 2018). However, there were some benefits found: socioemotional and arts-based/creative learning; transferable, embodied, cognitive learning; and learning through physicality. These benefits are detailed later with reference to experiential learning.Experiential Learning and Creative Dance
Exploring how creative dance can be framed within experiential learning according to the benefits is important because it is a relatively new way of conceptualizing how and why creative dance might be taught in primary schools, where the learners’ experiences are central and valued as a pedagogical tool. This is different from seeking to address set-criteria to meet examination requirements. Proposed benefits may provide a new vocabulary for articulating the importance of creative dance playing a more fundamental part in the curriculum.Experiential learning theory defines learning as “the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience” (Kolb, 1984, p. 41). Learners build deep understanding and expertise through the four steps of the experiential learning cycle: concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation (Kolb et al., 2002). Reflection in experiential learning includes personal experience, cognitive elements, feelings, emotions, meanings, and interpretations from different perspectives (Fook & Gardner, 2007)—all these are present in creative dance.Experiential learning has its roots in the human potential movement. Creative dance could be viewed as a humanistic, self-expressive pedagogy. Its subjective nature, fostering agency, where affect and emotion play a role in learning-by-doing, is from the perspective of embodiment. Seaman et al. (2017) proposed revisiting the importance of the sociocultural context for learning (Sawyer, 2006) and the valuing of all experiences as embodied and situated as opposed to only utilized for abstract reflection aimed at self-understanding. Our body in movement is essentially how we experience the physical world—the basis for Kolb’s (1984) experiential learning approach—where there is somatic interaction with the environment in which sensation, perception, and cognition play a significant part.Kolb’s theory (1984) is not without criticism, for example, Rogers (1996) and Forrest (2004) contended a set of learning stages is too simplistic and that several might occur at the same time. Jarvis (1987) and Tennant (1997) argued the theory was flawed because it does not account for global cultural differences, being largely a Western concept, and that claims made for the four learning styles were extravagant.Dance engages the learner in a process of knowing through the transformation of the concrete experience of moving creatively, reflecting on their own or others’ movements, evaluating them, and forming new shared meanings (Vygotsky, 1986) about movement and the creative process. Subsequently, reengaging in active experimentation with those creative movements provides opportunities to assess their accurate communication and representation of the idea or feeling. These activities can challenge previously held assumptions (such as collaborative creativity) developing dispositions rather than absorbing facts or theories in the subject. Learning can become self-motivated, critically reflective and sustained independently (Perkins, 2008). “Action closes the learning cycle and reconnects the processing inside the brain with the world. It generates consequences there that create new experiences that begin the cycle anew” (Zull, 2011, cited in Kolb, 2014, p. 142). Zull referred to changing the sensory experience into action that is, from the sensory cortex to the adjoining motor cortex, and, through the reflecting/thinking cortex, creating transformation.Kolb (1984) tried to extend his model by the possibility for experiential learning to include somatic activities, but that unfinished effort resulted in several big philosophical questions, of which this review of some relevant literature seeks to illuminate by investigating how creative somatic activities (creative dance) may be understood as a form of experiential learning.Kolb argued learning occurs when individuals (or groups) create knowledge through experiential transformation, which naturally involves the physical senses and movement, as we interact with others and environment/s. By embedding embodiment into the curriculum through implicit strategies, such as experiential learning (Kolb & Kolb, 2012), embodied practices can be valued without comparing children’s bodies as in competitive sports.Experiential learning incorporates a “repertoire of learning instruments” involving body and mind (Claxton, 2015, p. 240). Thus, the corporeal experience informs and enables experiential learning. Experience here is perceived holistically, mediated by internal and external contexts, as theorized in grounded cognition theory (Barsalou, 2008). Recall is facilitated by partial/total replication of a learning situation due to relevant memory cues (visual, tactile, kinesthetic).Sutherland (2012) suggested that in arts-based learning, meaning is made through emerging associations between the art object/activity and human interactions: an experience of “embodied selves in the moment” (p. 34) transitioning from “experiential learning to aesthetic knowing” (p. 25). Knowledge from creating dance, viewed as experiential learning, can be constituted in phenomenological terms involving feeling, thought, imagination, sensation, sensitivity, corporal, and relational experiences in a bidirectional process between body, brain, and mind. The body “communicates social practices and cultural meanings through voice, gesture, and movement” (Cancienne & Snowbar, 2003, p. 244) and dance, as a codified expression of the body, provides alternative embodied ways of making meaning/thinking and expressing knowledge.Our body is not only functional, instrumental in getting us from a to b or an object to dress or get fit, but also subjective and expressive (Barr & Lewin, 1994; Bassetti, 2014). Our inner world of emotions, sensation, intuition, impulse, instinct, thought, and imagination is reflected in how we move, gesture, and take postures. We recognize and resonate, or not, with others through our bodies—their moods as reflected in their posture/movement. Experiential learning emphasizes subjective experience is fundamental to both cognitive and emotional perspectives (Davis, 2011). The moving body as expressed through the subjective body (imaginative dance/movement play/improvisation) can realize and communicate thoughts, ideas (Bassetti, 2014), and feelings. When employing the concepts of experiential learning in creative dance, there is immersion of the whole being in the dance activity, followed by reflection and evaluation of that activity, although not always necessary for learning through the body and sensation (embodied ways of knowing). Thereafter, active experimentation takes place.This contrasts with the dominant discourse in Western education (Moore, 2004) tending to view learning as mostly separate from physical and/or subjective experiences. When perceived as solely an intellectual activity, learning is in specific areas in the brain as a disembodied process, reflecting aspects of 17th-century Cartesian philosophy. Yet, experiencing the world is dependent on sensory perceptions of the body and the brain. Eisner (2002) argued concept formation begins with sensory experience and interactions among sensory modalities. Embodied learning arises from Merleau-Ponty’s (1962) phenomenological philosophy in which learners are viewed as within external and internal lived experience. The body mediates and shapes behavior and ways of relating with others, artifacts, and organizations (Kupers, 2008). This lived bodily knowing goes beyond tactile and kinesthetic learning styles.Preverbal expression continues once language has developed. Literacy involves translating movement expression and communication into words. The learning of language and movement expression is crucial to communication and understanding (Hanna, 2008; Kirsh, 2010). Paterson et al.’s (2015) integrated model for learning and moving links movement studies with experiential learning—supportive of the argument for experiences gained through dance to be framed as experiential learning. Here, the concept of experiential learning is viewed as knowledge creation through the transformation of experience. An overview of the benefits creative dance might offer as experiential learning in the primary curriculum follows.Dance and Socioemotional Learning
Dance as a Form of Arts-Based Learning
Dance and Transferable Learning
Dance, Cognition, and Knowing
Ratey (2008) stated expressive dance can stimulate areas of the brain that increase cognition. When children are offered movement problems in dance, involving selecting movement choices, they learn to think in concrete, physical reality. Creating movement affords the cognitive link between idea, problem or intent, and outcome or solution. Such somatic knowledge (Green, 2002) is essential to the developing child as it supports empathy, communication, the ability to read emotions in others. Nowadays, children spend less time playing outdoors (Natural England, 2016), interacting person-to-person with peers, or creating imaginary games due to time spent on screens, which may lead to reduced somatic knowing, negatively affecting cognitive development (Palmer, 2006). Somatic knowing is based on active learning from the body, its kinesthetic and sensory systems which can be related to experiential learning where active experience/experimentation leads to learning. Experiential learning frameworks emphasize opportunities to practice the application of content such as problem-based learning (Hmelo-Silver, 2004), arguing students need guidance when applying content, instead of exposition of content. Creative dance affords opportunities to apply movement content with teacher guidance.Neuro-education aims to improve learning through changing the brain functioning related to specific perceptive, cognitive, emotional, and kinesthetic abilities (Martínez-Montes et al., 2016). Building on Kolb’s (1984) model, Zull (2002) suggested a learning cycle based on neuroplasticity. To enhance neuroplasticity, learning requires safe, trusting relationships; moderate sympathetic arousal; activation of feeling, emotions, and cognitions; embodied self-reflection activities; the co-construction of narratives reflecting a positive self (Cozolino, 2013); and active learning—all available in experiential learning through creative dance.Learning Through the Physicality of Dance
Dance as Embodied Learning
Conclusion
Payne (2020) provides starting points for creative dance which can be adapted and developed by teachers for educational goals. However, to be confident, teachers need to be trained in, or specialists of, creative dance and movement (Cheung, 2010). It is vital teachers have their own experience of, and understand, this way or learning before embarking on teaching. They need to be able to think in movement, engage critically with the subject, and introduce it effectively to children.Based on this modest review of literature, it appears creative dance has benefits to children’s learning and, when framed as experiential learning, could make a claim to hold a more prominent place in the education curriculum of mainstream schools. Different ways of knowing and areas of learning can complement each other. Education should be holistic, attending to the whole child. Interventions and approaches employing other ways of knowing to support physical, socioemotional, artistic, transferable, cognitive and embodied learning, as well as promoting emotional health and well-being in all our children, are required in schools.References
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Helen Payne, PhD, UKCP Reg. psychotherapist and dance movement psychotherapist (ADMP UK), has taught primary and secondary dance as part of physical education, and led dance studies options in PE specialist secondary teacher education. She has over 100 publications and teaches, examines and researches world-wide.Barry Costas is senior lecturer in Physical Education, Sport, Health and Well-Being. Barry has published widely and worked in Malaysia, and China during his career. Barry also still teaches in a large inner-city London Primary school part-time.Meet your Creative Dance Teachers
Dakota Crist
Assistant Director & office manager
BALLET, MOMMY & ME & CREATIVE DANCE
Dakota Crist had her earlier, training in Ballet, Jazz, Contemporary, and Modern Dance at Diane’s Dance Works in Helena, Montana, then went on to study at Creative Arts Center in Helena, Ballet Montana Academy and Sacramento Ballet. Dakota relocated to Seattle in 2013 and holds a BFA in Dance from Cornish College of the Arts.
As a young dancer, she attended Joffrey South, American Academy of Ballet, and Ballet West's summer intensives. Her love of dance drove her train pre-professionally with Ballet Montana and as a company trainee with Sacramento Ballet.
After graduating from Cornish, Dakota shifted her focus to dance education. She has been teaching dance since 2009 and has taught for ADI since 2018.
Ainsleigh Orwin
Office Manager,
Ballet, hip-hop, mommy & me & creative Dance
Ainsleigh Orwin began dancing at the age of 5 at Village Dance Arts in Claremont, CA where she was trained in RAD curriculum ballet, as well as modern, jazz, hip-hop, and tap. In 2017, Ainsleigh moved to Seattle to continue her education at the University of Washington. She currently holds a B.A. in Dance and B.S. in Biology (Physiology) from UW.
Ainsleigh has been teaching since she was 17, starting at her home studio and branching out to teach summer camps and outreach classes in elementary schools. Her passion for teaching and dance led her to American Dance Institute after graduating from UW in 2021.
Justine Huggins
Office Manager, ballet, creative, and mommy & me
Justine has been a student of dance since she was 5 years old, starting with pre-ballet at ADI! She studied ballet into adolescence before shifting to focus on modern dance. She has studied other styles; including hip-hop, jazz, and flamenco. Dance has always been her happy place, and she loves to bring that same joy and belonging to young dancers as a teacher.
Justine serves as office manage for our Greenwood office and she is also a student at the University of Washington working towards a bachelors in English.
Grace Smith
Administrative Assistant, Mommy & Me, Creative Dance, & Ballet
Heather McRobbie
Mommy & Me, Creative Dance, Pre-Ballet, & Hip Hop
Janae Walla
Ballet, Jazz, Contemporary, & Creative Dance
Testimonial
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"Enroll your children in the American Dance Institute and relax. "
"It was here, at the American Dance Institute, that we, as parents, realized that we could relax and enjoy watching the growth of my daughter's dance skills. She was never made to feel that she wasn't good enough. She was always excited to come, every time. I think it is partially due to the culture here which is welcoming, comfortable and has an inviting atmosphere for children of all ages, genders, for adults and parents, everybody. It is like a neighborhood community school."
Ebba Lucander- Entrepreneur, Activist, ADI Parent for 5 years
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At the American Dance Institute in Seattle, Washington, we believe in nurturing young creative minds through dance education that transcends the ordinary. Parents witness the magic of transformative learning as their toddlers embark on a journey filled with laughter, emotion, and self-discovery within our vibrant studio. Through our incorporation of elements of Brain Dance methodology, children build self-esteem, explore the world of visual arts, and develop music appreciation skills while dancing to the rhythm of their favorite songs. We encourage critical thinking and understanding of the Earth and sky through storytelling and creative dance . Our thorough lesson plans, which combine creativity with the accuracy of choreography and rhythm, help each child become a storyteller and develop them into budding dancers. Our organization thrives on the principles of improvisation and encourages children to reach for the stars, much like the beloved characters in the 2013 film "Frozen." In Seattle, we foster a love for dance that goes beyond technique, instilling a deep sense of knowledge and creativity in every child.
At the American Dance Institute in Seattle and Shoreline, Washington, we offer creative dance classes that spark the imagination of kids. Our neighbors include enchanting Woodland Park Zoo, Red Mill Burgers, and Taco del Mar. Our young dancers attend creative dance live in all of the neighborhoods around our Seattle and Shoreline schools, like Loyal Heights, Ballard, and Green Lake. They dance like joyful carousel riders. In neighborhoods like Hawthorne Hills and Greenwood, our students discover the beat of hip hop dance and the grace of ballet.