About Movement Arts Dance
The foundation of our children’s dance program is the Creative Modern class for ages 2 and up. We believe that the first dance experience should be joyful, fun and age appropriate.
Valerie Anderson has been developing a specialized dance program for the young child for many years. She combines over twenty years of experience as a preschool teacher, currently at Stay and Play Preschool, with her dance training to create a program that emphasizes creativity, group interaction and the joy of self-expression. She focuses on developing spatial awareness, energy control, musicality and locomotor skills (including walk, run, leap, gallop, hop and skip).
Props are a fun part of her classes, including scarves, balls, rhythm instruments and even paintbrushes (with imaginary paint of course!).
Drawing is included in the Creative Modern classes as part of an integrative approach to arts education, and poetry and children’s literature are occasionally used. Age appropriate music, including classical, children’s and world music provide the soundtrack to the classes.
Please contact Valerie to hear more about her philosophy of dance for children.
Valerie Anderson has been developing a specialized dance program for the young child for many years. She combines over twenty years of experience as a preschool teacher, currently at Stay and Play Preschool, with her dance training to create a program that emphasizes creativity, group interaction and the joy of self-expression. She focuses on developing spatial awareness, energy control, musicality and locomotor skills (including walk, run, leap, gallop, hop and skip).
Props are a fun part of her classes, including scarves, balls, rhythm instruments and even paintbrushes (with imaginary paint of course!).
Drawing is included in the Creative Modern classes as part of an integrative approach to arts education, and poetry and children’s literature are occasionally used. Age appropriate music, including classical, children’s and world music provide the soundtrack to the classes.
Please contact Valerie to hear more about her philosophy of dance for children.
About Miss Valerie
Valerie is the force behind Movement Arts Dance, which began in Movement Arts Studio in downtown State College. She holds a BPh in Dance from Penn State University and performed with Orchesis and The Contemporary Dance Company. She taught dance formerly at the Central Pennsylvania Dance Workshop under the direction of LaRue Allen and more recently at Strawberry Hill Center for Creative Arts under the direction of Betty Jane Dittmar. She worked as an assistant teacher at St. Andrew’s Preschool for 20 years and now works as a lead teacher for three year olds at Stay and Play. She has used her experience with preschool-aged children to develop the program of developmentally age-appropriate dance at Movement Arts Studio. She is certified in Pilates matwork and Reformer through PHI Pilates.