Advanced Division – Ages 12-20

Our 2020-2021 season will be a mixture of in-person and zoom classes. This allows both dancers and instructors alike to participate fully either in person on a limited basis, online, or a combination of both. While it’s our desire and plan to return to fully in-studio instruction and rehearsal as soon as possible, we will continue to follow the guidance of local, state, and federal health officials and eagerly await a world in which the COVID-19 virus is mitigated to an extent that will allow this. Our hybrid schedule will include an A and B rotating schedule. One week, a group of dancers will be in-person at CCD while the other dancers are conducting classes via Zoom. The following week, both groups will rotate to the opposite method of learning. We will attempt to pair families so their classes will be on the same rotation schedule. All students will also have the opportunity to attend all classes via Zoom only if this is what makes them most comfortable. For the Adult schedule, some of our Faculty will be teaching via Zoom only. Please visit https://ccdance.org/adult-program/ for all Adult Class info.

Please read our Fall 2020 Safety Protocols. 

Please print and sign our CCD Fall 2020 COVID-19 Waiver before taking any classes beginning August 9, 2020.

In Advanced 1 Division Pre-Pointe, students heighten their strength, control speed and mental acuity through the introduction of more complex combinations, turns, jumps and balances. Students in this level begin preparing for future pointe work by taking a specialized Pre-Pointe class, which focuses on strength and kinesthetic awareness.

In Advanced 2 Division Beginning Pointe, students begin to transition to our more advanced syllabus, taking on more complex combinations, multiple turns, and big jumps, while refining their movements and building stamina. Female students at this level may study Beginning Pointe, if approved by Lead Faculty.

For students in Advanced 3, their attention turns to “the whole picture” as they gain a comprehensive understanding of how their upper body and lower bodies work together. They learn complex combinations quickly and focus their energies on strength, refinement, confidence and risk taking.

In Advanced 4, this challenging level offers students the opportunity to push themselves with advanced technique. 

Students are highly recommend to take 3 to 4 ballet classes in addition to 2 pre pointe or 3 beginning pointe class per week. We also recommend our students to participate in Jazz, Modern, Contemporary or even composition class. Student may spend between 1 to 2 years in each level depending on their strength and mastery of ballet technique.

2020-2021 Class Descriptions:

Advanced Power, Flight, and Turn is a class for advanced dancers to gain full-body strength (to keep them safe when lifting other dancers) while perfecting the technical requirements necessary when performing jumps and turns. Dancers will learn variations and other excerpts from classical repertoire typically attributed to male danseurs.

Improv, Presentation, & Acting for Dancers – This is a class devised specifically for Advanced 3. This class will facilitate risk-taking and diving deep into a dancer’s artistic capabilities. They will become stronger, more confident dancers by studying the craft of character development from the inside out.

Jazz Technique & Anthropology – Learning Jazz Technique is a great opportunity for dancers to explore explosive performative qualities in their movement. In this class, dancers will not only explore the various styles of Jazz Technique – including Luigi, Fosse, Giordano, and more – but they will learn the deep history and Social Dance roots of this art form. Dancers will explore the cultures and people who built the foundation of Jazz and understand the why behind every move they make. This class will also have a strong emphasis on musicality and rhythm.

Modern Dance is a very general term which encompasses a vast wealth of history. At CCD, we believe in teaching our dancers the history behind the dance styles they learn. As such, our Modern Dance program will take dancers through each individual syllabus – including Graham, Cunningham, Horton, Humphrey, and more. Younger Modern dancers will gain a generalized foundation for the important over-arching principles associated with Modern Dance. As the dancers progress through CCD’s program, they will learn the history and cultural implications of each style, become fluent in each form, and begin to think about the role they play in its evolution.

Progressing Ballet Technique (PBT) is an innovative body-conditioning and strengthening program developed by Marie Walton-Mahon for students to understand the depth of training muscle memory in achieving their personal best. The program uses various sizes of Fit Balls and flex bands to simulate ballet/dance technique, thus the muscle memory applied to class work. 

• Highly appreciated by physical therapists around the world, the system is well organized by age, level and challenges. CCD students studying online will need to have their own equipment: 
• Fusion Ball (sometimes called a Pilates ball) 
• Fit Ball 
• Flex band (9 feet long). 
• Please reach out to our administrative staff for more information before making any purchases

Strength & Injury Prevention – Taking dance classes isn’t enough to make dancers as strong as they need to be to withstand the rigors of training and performing. This class is designed to make sure our dancers have strong abdominal musculature, safe spines, safe hips, powerful arms, and sturdy feet and ankles. This is a must-take class for dancers who are serious about not getting injured.

Technique Intensive – CCD’s Technique Intensive class allows for dancers and their dance teachers to focus collectively on the minute details of proper technique, which will ultimately contribute to our dancers feeling successful and confident. Very important to us, we also want our students to feel they are being seen and understood. This will sometimes be a one-on-one class, a small group, or a large class setting. This class will eventually expand to other dance forms, but it will remain a ballet-focused class during the 2020-2021 season. 

Variations/Gala – Dancers enrolled in Variations will learn solo and small ensemble works from existing standard classical repertoire. Each class will learn three to four variations per year, allowing the faculty member to focus on refinement and the details of each variation. For those who choose to perform in our annual production of Gala, dancers will perform one or two of these variations as a small group based on the artistic vision of each individual faculty member.

Vulnerability, Authenticity, and Response – This call takes a deep look at the power of vulnerability to build resilient, authentic artists in a world over-rife with perfectionism. This will be a moving class, a writing class, a thinking class, an asking class, and a creating class, and it will not look the same each week

2020-2021 Season In-Person Class Schedule for our Advanced Division. Classes may be taken In-Person or via Zoom.

GALA represents a class that will perform in CCD’s year-end performance on June 5, 2021*.

*Date subject to change.