Happy Christmas and New Term

And our first term had finished. It was lovely to have mums and dads to watch their little ones in our last class of the term, loved to see parents dancing with their children!

BOOKING OPEN

If you wish to enrol your child in our classes, we have only a few places left. To reserve your place, contact now.

For our new term, here are some important notes.

Payments - NEW POLICY
Payments need to be made before our first class of the term. For your child to take part in the first class, payments need to be completed by then. If payment is not made, your child won't be able to attend the class.

Clothing
Make sure your child has proper ballet clothing for class. There is no uniform, but proper ballet clothing is obligatory.
For girls, it is a leotard and skirt or a skirted leotard, socks or tights, and ballet shoes. For boys, a white leotard or t-shirt, shorts, and ballet shoes. You can buy it yourself, or I can also supply. For more information about clothing see our web - Clothing.

Timetable
The times for classes Advanced and Year 2-3 may be different this new term. Times will be confirmed by new year.

Nutcracker Family Workshop
We will have a new Nutcracker Family Workshop in the new term at some point in January/early February. More information to come in time.

I wish you all a beautiful and dancing Christmas and a Happy New Year.

We'll see us in the term!

The Nutcracker Family Workshop

Sunday 13 December - 10.30-12.30

This time of the year has come. I am delighted to offer a new Nutcracker Family Workshop.

Children and grownups will dive their imaginations into the magic of The Nutcracker through dance and crafts. Enjoy the festive season with this enchanting ever famous ballet, perfect for the whole family.

Have fun with Drosselmeyer and the magic that brings toys to life, learning dances of soldiers and mice set to Tchaikovsky's inspiring score.

Our workshop includes a dance session, followed by arts and crafts, children will build their own props. Fruit and biscuits will be available.

Children and parents creating their props.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Family Workshop 2015

This is a workshop for the whole family, open to all ages, no experience needed. Parents, brothers and sisters are welcome.

Please note at least one adult per child needs to attend.

Prices

Child & Accompanying Adult - £25

Bring a friend or sibling - £20 each

Extra adult is free.

Adult to child ratio: 1 adult to max. 2 children

Where

HACKNEY FORGE

243a Victoria Park Village

London E9 7HD

view map

Numbers are limited so please book early to avoid disappointment. To book please contact:

07550 722 693 or rod_maf@yahoo.com

I look forward to seeing you all there!

Advertisement in LoveEast Magazine

Have you checked our ad in the LoveEast magazine, December issue? Looking very nice. Tell your friends! :)

Come and join us - booking open for January. I look forward to seeing you in one of our classes.

Christmas Family Day at the Royal Opera House

Sunday 29 November 2015

I am delighted to invite you to come to the Royal Opera House for a family day. Open to all parents and children enrolled and not enrolled in our classes, brothers and sisters, all are welcome to join.

This is an event where the ROH opens doors for families to explore its artists and the world of opera and ballet. There will be creative activities for all in an informal setting.

Every family day is different, but example activities running throughout the day are:

• live music
• dance activities
• informal performances
• make-up
• costume dressing up etc.

Please note activities are for 6 year-olds and up; younger children are welcome but some activities may not be fully suitable for them.

Please note this is not a performance we are going to see, this is an event where the activities run in an informal setting in the different areas of the building.

I have been in contact with the ROH' Education department and on our date the themes will include The Nutcracker. It will be magical!

Guided Visit and Tour

I will receive you and introduce the Royal Opera House:

• its history and the Royal Ballet Company
• its connection with The Royal Ballet School
• current artists and work
• guided tour in the outside and public areas inside
• I will be accompanying you throughout the day.

Prices

Adult - £6

Child - £4

Times

Meeting and Guided Tour - 11.30am

Family Day Event - 12.00-4.00pm

Please note:

- Every child that takes part in the activities must have a ticket.

- Tickets must be paid in advance until Saturday 28 November in person in class or by bank transfer. I won't be able to purchase any ticket that has not been paid.

- A group of 40 people have already their tickets reserved. If you still wish to join us, the Royal Opera House releases 70-100 day tickets on the day, which is unlikely to sold out. I am happy to meet you there at 10am on the day to purchase the tickets and include you in our group.

- If you wish to buy the ticket directly with the Royal Opera House, note you won't be able to attend the guided tour.

Eating & Drinking
The Royal Opera House will have an open bar with light food, snacks, coffee, tea etc. You are welcome to bring a packed lunch if you want. With your ticket, you can also go out and back in the building, being the last entry at 3pm.

Meeting Point

Royal Opera House

Bow Street entrance

London WC2E 9DD
view map

Transportation

Tube stations: Covent Garden (Piccadilly line), Leicester Square (Piccadilly and Northern lines) and Holborn (Central line). Please note the closest tube station is Covent Garden, however due to engineering works, on weekends westbound trains may be exit only. Check before you travel. Leicester Square and Holborn are a short walk away.

To book, please contact:

07550 722 693 or rod_maf@yahoo.com

Don't miss this opportunity, it is going to be an amazing experience. I look forward to seeing you all there!

More information on the family day at Royal Opera House website.

Ballet Year 2015/16

We have just started our new ballet year 2015/16! Very happy for it. It was lovely to see our little ones back again so grownup after holidays.

Check our timetable and fees, discounts and payment arrangements.

Know more about our classes and other ballet activities we have for the year.

I look forward to welcoming your child in our classes!

Conclusions of the year 2014/15

And another year has finished. It was a great year, full of adventures, ballet enchanted lands, and lots of fun. The ballet magic culminated in our Under The Sea end of the year sharing at Chisenhale Dance Space. Our sharing was a fantastic time that completed the 2014/15 journey. Here are the conclusions of the year.

Ballet Year 2014/15

This was a busy and intense year of growth in several aspects. This year we opened three new classes, including a Baby Class for 2 and 3 year-olds. We started in September with 17 children and ended with almost 50!

Baby class.

Reception class.

Year1-Year 2 class.

At the end of another year teaching ballet to young children, I conclude a few important things:

• Children's well being comes first than the ballet principles. It is crucial that children of any age (and I would say adults too) have valuable class experiences where they feel good and emotional attachment is generated. Emotional bonding is what matters specially in early years, as if a child doesn't enjoy what he/she is doing, he/she will never learn or engage. Children will have a lot of time to perfect their technique as they grown older if they want to. Robert Cohan says: “teach with love and love what you do”, the rest will come in time.

• Ballet and dance are there to make children better and happier, not the other way round. As Sir Ken Robinson very well used english words when we had a little chat last June when signing his book - I work through ballet, not for ballet. With me, ballet and art are here to enrich and brighten people's lives. If this will end up having an impact in ballet... Well, I think it definitely will.

• It is very important that parents and children dance together in class. It has a very positive impact on the children and parents and their relationship, and so on the overall ballet experience. Here children share and live their dancing with their most important ones, and they see their most important ones value what is important for them, ergo they and what they do are important. Besides, sometimes children get to teach parents or “see if they can do it as well as you do”, which empowers children giving them ownership of the dancing. This moment is an opportunity for family to bond, and then ballet exists as part integral of their lives. See examples of this in our Alice's Family Workshop and in our Under The Sea end of the year sharing.

• Performance is necessary to complete dance education and experience. At the end of our end of the year sharing I clearly saw how good performance experience was for all the children. It boosted their confidence and self-awareness, children were feeling good with themselves by having accomplished something important such as dancing to an audience. It is never easy to be exposed, but when they do, they grow and feel fulfilled. The dancing experience is completed with performance.

As for me, I have ended up enriched and fulfilled out of this year experience. I had lots of fun, constantly learned, and grew into a better person and teacher. I feel my classes are growing clearer into my mission, which makes me very happy. Thank you all for being part of this.

We'll see us in September!

Under The Sea Ballet Sharing

And another year has finished. It was a great year, full of adventures, ballet enchanted lands, and lots of fun. The ballet magic culminated in our Under The Sea end of the year sharing at Chisenhale Dance Space. Our sharing was a fantastic time that completed the 2014/15 journey.

Programme

Here I share our Under The Sea performance and the conclusions of the year.

Under The Sea Sharing

Our sharing comprised individual group dances of different sea animals ending with all groups dancing together with their parents. I am very proud of all children, they did wonderfully! They had lots of fun and, to me, that's what matters most.

The Crabs

The Divers

The Octopuses

Parents and children ready to dance together.

It was an amazing time when parents danced together with their children. The stage was full of people and energy could be felt in the air. This moment had a very positive impact on the children and so on their overall ballet experience.

Parents dancing with children "Under The Sea" theme.

Parents, thank you for sharing this moment with your children, I would like you to know how well you did for dancing with them. (See the link bellow to know more about this in the conclusions of the year.)

Parents dancing with children "Under The Sea" theme.

All children together with their parents have created their own costume under given guidelines – well done mums and dads, we definitely had group cohesion, it was an amazing creative result!

Octopuses' different costumes.

Water's different costumes.

Starfishes' different costumes.

At the end of the dances, we had a contest to see which group was the most creative – can you guess who won? Hard to choose, they were all so good, but this time were the Octopuses!

The Octopuses, winners of the contest of costumes.

Prizes and goodies were distributed followed by our Ballet Achievement Certificate that celebrated the completion of the ballet year.

Child and Mafalda posing with certificate.

At the end of the sharing, I clearly saw how good was performance experience for all the children. It boosted their confidence and they were feeling good with themselves, specially those who were not very confident in class little before the show. I was very positively surprised! (See the link bellow to know more about this in the conclusions of the year.)

All groups on stage.

In the second year of business, this was my first performance organisation with my classes and I am very happy with how it went.
It was a pleasure to develop a creative and stimulating artistic experience for the children. Not only for them, I hope our sharing has inspired and enriched everyone's minds and hearts.

Child and mother at the end of the show.

Here see the Conclusions of the year 2014/15.

A Wonderful Day at Alice's Workshop

What a wonderful day we had at the Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Family Workshop. Children together with their families had lots of fun with creative dancing, crafts and a tea to finish.

Mums, dads and their little ones took part in the creative dance session. All together had a good time finding different ways to fall into the White Rabbit's hole, to paint the Queen of Hearts' roses, or to find a way out of the labyrinth.

After exploring stage directions with the help of the Cheshire Cat, families collaborated to create a simple dance in which children took the leadership. It was lovely to see the children helping parents with their experience in dance.

Afterwards, it was crafts time. Tables placed, lots of glittery materials and heart-shaped markers, all set for our cup creations - after all we were to have a tea party.

Could we have tea in those cups? I think the Mad Hatter would say yes to that. Children did beautiful creations and some parents did theirs too!

To finish, we had a lovely tea with biscuits and a cheesecake a mum brought, how lovely. (Thank you, Elle!) We did our own tea party, just as the Mad Hatter would have wanted us to. (I'll leave it to your imagination whether we used the cups we created.)

It was really nice to see how ballet and dance gathered families together and how the story generated a playful moment for all. I loved to see the collaboration and teamwork between families. I think with this workshop parents could experience how our classes are like.

Hope you had as much fun as I did and hope to see you soon in any future workshop and in our classes!

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Family Workshop

Sunday 1 March 2015 at 1.00 - 3.00pm - FULL

Illustration by John Tenniel, 1865

I am delighted to offer a new Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Family Workshop.

Children and grownups will dive their imaginations into the madness of Lewis Carroll's story and characters through creative dance, crafts and make-up for the younger ones. 

Come to Wonderland and have fun with Alice and the white rabbit, the mad hatter and the tea party, the naughty playing cards and the wicked queen of hearts.

Illustration by John Tenniel, 1865

Our workshop includes a creative dance session, followed by arts and crafts. Children will build their props, colour, and we will make our own tea party.

Children building their props with Roman, teacher of arts&crafts section. Coppélia Workshop 2014

This is a workshop for the whole family so parents, brothers and sisters are welcome. Please note at least one adult per child needs to attend. No special skills needed, just a large amount of enthusiasm!

Open class for parents. Spring term 2014

The workshop is open to all ages. Please bring clothing that allow movement.

Prices
Child & Accompanying Adult - £25

Bring a friend or sibling - £21 each

Extra adult is free.

(Price includes afternoon tea for child and accompanying adult)

Adult to child ratio: 1 adult to max. 2 children

Where
HACKNEY FORGE
243a Victoria Park Village
London E9 7HD
view map

Numbers are limited so please book early to avoid disappointment. To book please contact:

07550 722 693 or rod_maf@yahoo.com

I look forward to seeing you all there!

Illustration by John Tenniel, 1865