Class descriptions
A grounding in ballet translates to any genre. The Vanessa Lee Dance Academy provides the discipline and technique of ballet as the building blocks to all dance forms. Developed over centuries, ballet has been influential as a form of dance globally. We study the RAD syllabus Pre-Primary to Advanced 2.
Dancing with the Vanessa Lee Dance Academy brings careful and precise training of the mind and body to achieve incredible movement and flexibility within the dancer. Students are taught classical ballet technique, dance vocabulary, proper body placement, body alignment, barre and floor work, along with across the floor combinations using balance, strength and style.
All dance students are urged to study ballet, as it is the foundation of all other dance styles, and facilitates further success in these disciplines.
Teachers at the Vanessa Lee Dance Academy have experience in performing and teaching Jazz to bring out the creativity in the techniques and movement. Broadway, Funk, Hip Hop and Lyrical.
Originating from African American communities of the late 1800s, jazz developed into the smooth style seen today. Jazz dance is a very popular style seen frequently on Broadway, television shows, music videos and commercials.
VLDA’s Jazz classes are upbeat and energetic, and include stretch and strengthening exercises, isolations, floor work, and across the floor progressions in addition to floor combinations, to a wide variety of music.
To excel in jazz, dance students are encouraged to take ballet classes as well, as it encourages grace and balance.
Tap dance is an exciting and fun style involving syncopation, rhythm, dynamics, and varying sounds. It is a form of dance characterised by using the sound of one’s tap shoes hitting the floor (or other surfaces) as a percussive instrument.
VLDA’s experienced Tap teachers can really bring out the entertainer in everyone in our fun, skilled and creative Tap classes! Tap students at VLDA are taught Glenn Wood Tap; is a comprehensive syllabus designed for both teaching and evaluating Tap.
What sets it apart from other tap syllabuses is that it is founded on solid tap technique, whilst being fluid, relaxed and enjoyable. It is the tap that everyone wants to tap!
With a focus on creative self-expression, Modern/Lyrical sheds the traditions of costume and shoes. Mostly danced in bare feet, this dance style is more relaxed and freestyle. It is expressive, simultaneously subtle and dynamic, focused on conveying musicality and emotion through movement. Choreography can be gripping and exquisitely delicate at the same time.
Choreographers use emotions and moods to design original steps. There is also a deliberate use of gravity, and Modern often utilises floor work.
This style requires a solid ballet-based technique. Whether your passion is for Classical Ballet or Modern, the Vanessa Lee Dance Academy can develop your talent.
Contemporary dance is a fusion of ballet and modern dance. Contemporary dance tends to utilise both the strong and controlled legwork of ballet and modern dance’s stress on the torso, and also employs contact-release, floor work, fall and recovery, and improvisation characteristic of modern dance. Unpredictable changes in rhythm, speed, and direction are often used as well.
Contemporary is performed by most dance companies around the world, and is universally celebrated for developing the creativity in classical technique.
Hip Hop is an upbeat urban style of dance that is forever evolving. This energetic, fun-loving, current style of dance uses an eclectic mix of music, from R&B to house to pop and teaches dancers hip hop movements, musicality and technique while also working on rhythm, precision, and muscle memory.
Hip Hop is unique in that it allows its dancers to perform with freedom of movement, adding in their own personalities. Students will learn the importance of isolations and dynamics to execute pop-and-lock and funk movements.
VLDA’s stretch class is designed to improve a dancer’s range of motion, enhance muscle flexibility and increase their level of core muscle strength. Through a variety of stretches and strengthening exercises, dancers will also increase their awareness of their own body’s potential as it connects to expression through movement.
Learn the basics or work on advancing your skills in this flexible Acro class! Acro is not the typical tumbling or gymnastics class. Our experienced acro instructor will guide the class towards increased flexibility, balance, strength, muscle control, discipline and concentration, to prepare dancers for gravity-defying tumbling skills. This class will focus on fundamental acrobatic technique, all at each student’s individual level of experience. Students will practice on safety mats and progress to performing skills within dance. Each student will be assisted hands-on with the instructor and will progress at their own pace. And it’s fun, too!
Give your child the magic of dance!
Vanessa Lee Dance Academy is proud to be an official location for READY SET DANCE and READY SET BALLET, catering for preschoolers aged 2-5 years. Our classes are designed to give boys and girls confidence, coordination and creativity in a safe, professional environment. With a major emphasis on FUN, our classes will be the highlight of your child’s week.
READY SET DANCE is a one hour combo class that includes jazz, tap, hip hop, singing, music and a whole lot of FUN!
READY SET BALLET is a 30 minute magical ballet experience filled with friends, feathers and fun.
Come and visit Vanessa Lee Dance Academy to see why parents think that our preschool classes are the best introduction to dance for preschoolers.
If you’re unsure which class would suit your child best, contact us today…
- telephone 0408 474 532
- email info@vanessalee.com.au, or
- pop into the studio for a chat.