Elementary School Programs

Nashville Ballet’s Curriculum-Based Education Initiative
Nashville Ballet brings innovative educational dance programming to elementary schools across Middle Tennessee. Working to achieve our mission to develop and cultivate audiences with a lifelong appreciation for the essential and inspiring art of dance, we offer a variety of educational programming that uniquely integrates arts education with core academic subjects including language arts, math, science and social studies.

Utilizing standards-based dance education workbooks, interactive teacher resources, movement exercises and activities taught by our professional teaching artists, we assist educators in helping students of all ages strengthen their academic performance while increasing their awareness, knowledge and utilization of dance and the arts.

All outreach programs can offer an arts integration experience and feature an engaging interactive demonstration component that is tailored to the age of the scheduled audience. Programs are available September through July.

Dance Me A Story – Programs for Elementary Students
Utilizing classical and contemporary dance, drama, music, literature and visual arts, our narrative children’s ballet performances are based on diverse cultural folk tales, fairy tales and literary classics that enable us to bring books to life while stimulating children's creativity and curiosity and encouraging them to seek the arts as a positive means for their social, physical and mental growth.

Ballets on tour during the 2012-2013 season, for elementary audiences:

Degas and the Little Dancer
When young Marie gave up her dream of becoming a famous ballet dancer because of her family's financial hardships, she earned money by posing for the artist Edgar Degas when he created his famous bronze sculpture of a young ballet dancer, "La Petite Danseuse." This ballet follows the heart-warming tale of the friendship that grows between the temperamental old artist and dedicated young subject, as told in the book Degas and the Little Dancer by children's author Laurence Anholt.

Aesop’s Fables
This engaging children’s ballet features four popular tales by the world-famous storyteller: The Tortoise and the Hare, The Fox and The Crow, The Wind and the Sun and The Ants and the Grasshopper.  Woven together with an original narrative, these stories creatively depict Aesop winning his freedom from slavery through his cautionary storytelling. Audiences are transported from ancient Greece, with period costumes and elaborate masks, to present day as each of the four memorable fables come to life through movement.

Residency School Partnerships
Nashville Ballet partners with area Title 1 MNPS elementary schools to provide live dance performance experiences (ballet performances, storytime events and teambuilding workshops) at no cost to the school or students.  Students ages 6 to 10 are also eligible to audition to receive annual full scholarships to train with the internationally recognized faculty and staff of the School of Nashville Ballet.

Read Me Week Appearances at Local Schools
Dancers, instructors and staff members of Nashville Ballet travel to local schools during Read Me Week to read stories and perform storytime events for students. Contact your school to inquire about our participation in Read Me Week or book an appearance with our Outreach Coordinator at outreach@nashvilleballet.com or by calling (615) 297-2966 x17.