The Movement Lab

🧑‍🩰 Our Fairytale Ballet classes take real ballet technique and terminology and bring it to life through story and imagination - because that’s how young dancers actually learn best.

👉 No barre. No standing in line waiting for a turn “across the floor.” Instead, we build skills courses that get every dancer moving, exploring, and practicing technique through play - baking a ballet cake made of pliés and tendus, building a stronger posterior chain with mermaid swims, learning the building blocks of a pas de chat with the Cheshire Cat. Positions, terminology, and proper alignment are woven into every story, every game, every skill station.

💭 We also make room for real improvisation and creative explorations - painting the roses red with a scarf while friends freeze into a rosebush of creative shapes or moving like the mechanical dolls of Coppélia. These moments build imagination and expressive range right alongside the technical skills.

🤷 Why does this matter at this age? Early elementary children are still building body awareness, coordination, and confidence. Rushing them into adult-style ballet drills or “cutesifying” the technique into meaningless baby-talk does them a disservice either way. Kids this age need real vocabulary, real skill-building - just delivered through the imaginative, story-driven approach that actually fits how they think and learn.

🩰 The result? Dancers who leave Fairytale Ballet with genuine technical foundations, a real love of movement, and the confidence that comes from mastering something - whether or not they continue their ballet education in the future.

✨ Classes start this week! Registration is open now. The Thursday class is full, but we have spots available in the Tuesday class.

😁Is it perfect? Nope. Was it a whole bunch of fun working to perfect it. Absolutely!

👞 What is it? Part of the Coles’ Stroll, AKA The Walkaround. It’s classic traditional tap dance choreography created by legendary tap artist Charles "Honi" Coles. Designed to prove his philosophy that "if you can walk, you can tap dance," it is traditionally performed in a circle where dancers travel and add their own distinct rhythms.

🙋 Want to learn something similar? Join us for tap class! We’ve got spots open for pre-teens and teens in our Tap 2 class and spots for adults and more advanced teens in our Adult Tap classes. Visit Class Registration - Fall 2026 for the details.

❓We get so many questions: What is The Movement Lab? What exactly do you do? Do you have boys in your classes? What about students with disabilities? What do your classes look like?

👉 Answers: The Movement Lab is a husband and wife team - with occasional assists from our grown ballerina daughter - dedicated to making dance, music, and movement accessible to everyone. We create light-bulb moments through movement. Yes! Yes! Why don’t you take a peek for yourself?

👀 Here are videos and photos from just a tiny sliver of our classes, workshops, camps, and special events over the last three years. Get a glimpse into what we do from our perspective! Still have questions? Ask us! We're happy to answer.