Disciplines

Cirque Du Soleil exemplifies the acrobatic finesse of dancer and gymnast in a seemingly effortless series of lifts, aerials, air steps, somersaults, knee–drops, splits, butterflies, cartwheels, flips and spins. From its Italian roots in Adagio, Acro reaches beyond the traditional combination of steps done to slow music.

Today, this thrilling performing art form requires extensive training in proper technique, but is one of the most entertaining to watch.

A combination of dance and gymnastics, The Woodbridge School of Dance’s AcroDance lessons target the artistic and controlled use of movement, strength, agility, balance and flexibility. Students will learn the key techniques to execute accurate movements and assure safety. It is highly recommended students in the Primary, Junior and Elementary levels of AcroDance enroll in a Ballet and/or Jazz class to keep up with the dance requirements of this program, as it is a requirement in the Intermediate, Senior and Advanced Acro levels.

Age Requirement: 6 years and older.

The earliest known ballets were lavish costumed and masked events performed in Italy’s renaissance courts. From here, France gave birth to its own brand of ballet in 1581 with the first complete score that survived. Ten years later, Louis XIV opened the Academie Royale de Danse, the first recorded school of ballet. It is here where the masters were born and where the court ballet opened the doors to professional dancing. Ballet is at the core of The Woodbridge School of Dance’s curriculum; it is the place from where all dance forms were born. To master ballet is to master all dance and our programs are among the most comprehensive in Canada.

Our classical ballet teachers are highly skilled and trained dancing professionals. Beginner students will receive a rewarding and exciting experience in the technique of classical ballet, from the study of basic feet, arm and body positions to the introduction of the “barre”. Here, the fundamentals – ballet exercises, centre practice and dance step combinations – reinforce traditional classical ballet. In the senior level, students will develop the technical, artistic and performance skills of the adagio, pirouette and allegro, the prerequisites for eligibility into WSD’s advanced pointe classes.

Age Requirement: 2.5 years and older.

Contemporary dance was developed in the early 20th century as a reaction against the rigid techniques of ballet. Pioneers such as Isadora Duncan and Martha Graham searched for ease of movement using the body’s natural lines and energy, allowing a greater range and fluidity of movement than conventional dance techniques.

Contemporary dance differs from ballet, jazz dance, and modern in that it is concerned not with a defined style but with the development of new, more individualized approaches to the moving body and choreographic possibilities. Contemporary dance can be danced to almost any style of music, or united with other dance forms to create new styles of movement.

Contemporary dance is a name given to a group or mix of Modern 20th century theatre dance styles, thus is not characterized or limited to one specific dance technique per se. The study of movement as it relates to the human body and body/mind inter-relationships will be explored. It is a non-story dance, which means it is open to interpretation. It’s fresh, stimulating and risk-taking.

It is highly recommended students in the Elementary level of Contemporary enrol in a ballet and/or jazz class to keep up with the dance requirements of the Contemporary program, as it is a requirement in Intermediate, Senior, and Advanced levels.

Age Requirement: 10 years and older.

In the summer of 1983, New York City was abuzz with a fad that would become an art form and a revolution in dance. Its name was Rap and it took America by storm. Today Rap is just one component of a larger pop culture called Hip Hop, a street world that embraces break dancing, attitude, baggy clothes, graffiti and its own “speak”. DJs like DJ Blaze brought hip hop to the forefront in the early ’90s, culled from the cult classic Beat Street.

Contemporary and distinct, hip hop is high energy attitude on the dance floor. The Woodbridge School of Dance offers hip hop training to a strong beat, helping to build stamina, improve physical fitness and coordination. With its emphasis on body isolations, freestyle movement and rhythm, hip hop combines today’s best music with the movements of the hottest music videos. Although it is not a prerequisite, students would benefit from enrolling in an additional ballet or Jazz class to keep up with the physical demands of this class.

Age Requirement: 6 years and older.

Bob Fosse made it a household name on Broadway and in the movies. And even though jazz has its roots in the ballet technique, it is a forever–changing genre of creative movement that exploded in the 1920s after World War 1. From the days of the “flapper” to the “lost generation” of young soldiers returning home from the battlefields to New Orleans, St. Louis and Memphis, jazz became the dance of choice. It was and is the vehicle for dancing the shimmy, the rag, the Charleston and the fox–trot. Jazz is the dance of the “Big Band” era, and today it is more popular than ever.

The Woodbridge School of Dance is proud to present a jazz program that is spirited, contemporary and comprehensive, designed to give students the technique, rhythm and style basics to progress to advanced combinations and explore different jazz styles. From warm–ups to traveling steps and combinations, jazz is most enjoyable if students also study ballet.

Age Requirement: 3.5 years and older.

Musical Theatre is a unique form of entertainment that integrates words, music and dance to communicate the emotional and story content of a stage piece. Hob on the Wall, the first full–length stage musical, debuted in colonial America in 1735, a time when musical theatre was usually accompanied by a pint of ale.

From the long–running Fantasticks to The Sound of Music, Cats, Rent, West Side Story, Les Miserables, Oklahoma! and Phantom of the Opera, musicals continue to delight audiences on the stages of Broadway in New York and London’s West End.

For everyone who loves to sing, dance and act, The Woodbridge School of Dance offers one of the best musical theatre programs in Canada. Students will learn to develop their performance skills and nurture the unique relationship between performer and audience as they study the choreography of many popular musical productions like Annie, Chicago and High School Musical. It is highly recommended students in the Primary and Junior levels of Musical Theatre enroll in a Ballet and/or Jazz class to keep up with the dance requirements of this program, as it is a requirement in the Intermediate, Senior and Advanced Musical Theatre levels.

Age Requirement: 6 years and older.

Pointe is the crown jewel of ballet, a very difficult but exquisite part of this classical dance form. In pre–World War 1 Europe, it was Russia’s young Anna Pavlova who turned the dance world on its heels in the early 1900’s, revolutionizing the genre forever and transformed herself from ballet dancer to prima ballerina with a single curved arch of the foot and toes. In elevating the pointe dance form, she defined the beauty of the ballet and the strength and extension behind effortless pointe work. Like her contemporary, Isadora Duncan, Pavlova reached beyond ballet’s confinements into ballet’s innovations.

Pointe is the most highly disciplined and physically challenging extension of ballet. Only technically proficient senior level ballet students who have mastered the skills of basic and advanced movement and positions will be selected to study pointe work. Physicality, stamina, stability and coordination will all be considered criteria. Pointe students must attend a minimum of two ballet classes per week in order to keep up with the technical demands.

Age Requirement: 11 years and older, by recommendation only.

Street Swing – urban and raw – is tap dance’s middle name. Popularized by the greats like Bill Robinson, Bo Jangles, Gregory Hines and King Rastus Brown, tap is a step dance tapped out loud with hard–soled shoes or shoes with taps added to the heels. For African Americans in the U.S., it replaced the drums as the rhythmic and traditional code of physical expression. It is subtle, intricate and fast. From its first reference in 1928, modern tap grew from the “buck and wing” style of British and Irish clog dancing to spawn the famous Shuffle Dance.

The Woodbridge School of Dance offers a detailed and exciting tap dance curriculum that teaches students how to use the body as a rhythm instrument. Emphasizing footwork and sound, our tap classes help to develop agility, musicality and stylized movement. Each lesson includes all the basic exercises, movements, time steps and razzmatazz, making tap an ideal dance choice. Students are encouraged to also study ballet and/or jazz as they make perfect companions to tap.

Age Requirement: 6 years and over.