“If my daughter is signed up for syllabus ballet why should she take open classes?”  In Open classes the teacher moves outside of the syllabus work, broadening the student’s capacity to pick up exercises quickly, to coordinate phrases of movement in new ways and challenge the student to dance with varied tempi and dance rhythms.  Open classes are a fantastic and necessary challenge for a dancer, this is the place where students experience whether what they are learning technically in syllabus class can transfer successfully into an open class, a situation everyone is in at an audition or a masterclass.

It can be viewed as a spelling test.  On Monday the teacher hands out 10 spellings that need to be reviewed before the test is given on Friday.  With effective repetition and practice most students will be successful in spelling several words.  A higher level challenge comes when the student then writes a creative story including these spelling words, the story needs to be well crafted, illustrated and hold the reader’s attention.  The Open ballet class, demands that the rigors of technique, artistry and musicality have been practiced in syllabus class, without that security the fluidity and mastery of movement will not be possible in Open class.

Open class is not an ‘extra’ to be added into the schedule for fun, it is an essential part of a dancer’s training.   It is Open class that cements the foundations to the future.