Ballerina Bear
Ballerina Bear is a first taste of ballet, built around a character small children take to immediately. It comes from Dancing Dots, the syllabus our principal Jenny Corcoran created with her business partner Jenni Nolan-Owens, now taught across the UK.
The youngest group, Ballerina Bear & Me, runs from six months to age two, with a grown-up in the room. From age two, children come in on their own: Saturday mornings split this into two classes (ages 2–3 and 3–4), while the Wednesday morning class covers ages 2–4 together.
Underneath the stories and the games it is real ballet technique — musicality, balance, coordination and posture — taught in the only way a two-year-old will accept it. Children who start here often move straight into Pre-Primary ballet and, in time, ISTD examinations.
What to bring
Comfortable clothes they can move in. No uniform is needed to try a class, and bare feet or soft ballet shoes are both fine.
Often taken alongside
Hip Hop Hippo is the livelier pre-school option for the same age group — plenty of families do both. When your child is old enough for the graded syllabus, children's ballet is the natural next step.