The Foundations Lab

The Foundations Lab is a 5-week, self-paced professional development experience for ballet educators who are ready to move beyond tradition and start teaching with clarity, strategy, and sustainability. Built around evidence-based pedagogical practices and dance science research, the course helps you transform your lesson structure, cueing, and curriculum from the inside out.

• Module 1: From Tradition to Intention

  Begin your shift from intuition-based ballet class to intention-driven instruction.

  • Explore the “why” behind common ballet practices

  • Unpack how tradition has shaped what we teach—and where it falls short

  • Discover how clarity and structure can support both artistry and student progress

  • Set the tone for evolving your teaching through research and reflection

• Module 2: Planning with Purpose

  Learn how to use backward design and learning objectives to drive your class content.

  • Write learning objectives that are clear, measurable, and developmentally appropriate

  • Align objectives with your students’ skill levels, needs, and long-term goals

  • Scaffold your lessons using research-backed sequencing strategies

  • Connect what dancers do in class to what they understand and retain

• Module 3: Building the Class Experience

  Design class plans that foster deep learning, student engagement, and meaningful repetition.

  • Use a guided template to structure full ballet lessons with built-in scaffolding

  • Integrate cueing strategies that improve dancer comprehension and movement quality

  • Employ feedback loops, exit tasks, and agency-driven strategies to increase buy-in

  • Build class structure that reflects how students learn—not just what you’ve always done

• Module 4: Assessment, SEL, and Student Growth

  Redefine how you evaluate progress—and the dancer as a whole person.

  • Learn to use holistic assessment that reflects dancer development over time

  • Create and apply growth-focused rubrics aligned to learning goals

  • Embed social-emotional learning into your ballet class without losing rigor

  • Foster a classroom culture of reflection, ownership, and emotional resilience

• Module 5: Becoming a 21st-Century Ballet Educator: Integration, Innovation, and Continuous Growth

  This final module brings everything together and helps you translate learning into long-term, sustainable change. Rather than adding more strategies, Module 5 focuses on integration, supporting you in becoming a reflective, research-informed ballet educator who evolves with intention over time.

  • Create a personalized action plan outlining concrete steps to integrate educational psychology and dance science principles into your teaching over the next year

  • Develop a sustainable system for self-reflection and self-assessment, including tools for gathering feedback and tracking student progress

  • Learn how to stay current in dance science and pedagogy, identifying credible research sources and building a lifelong professional learning toolkit

  • Articulate your evolving philosophy of ballet education, grounded in evidence-based practice, holistic dancer development, and your personal teaching values