American Dance Festival-Dancing with your Little One Class

What it is:  As long as I've lived in Durham I've known what a wonderful Durham institution the American Dance Festival is.  I've always known what wonderful performances they put on for that amazing month in the summer.  However, I didn't really know much about the classes they taught, and I definitely didn't know that they taught kids classes.

So, I was very intrigued when I found out about the Dancing with Your Little One class I had to go check it out.  So, one Tuesday morning we headed over to the brand new beautiful American Dance Festival building across the street from Duke's East Campus.  We headed up to one of their dance studios with large windows, bright light, and a view outside for our 45 minute class.  While it wasn't decorated with any kids stuff, it was a beautiful space and the kids were thrilled to run around and have class.

The instructor was clearly an expert at dance, but the class was also specifically geared toward encouraging kids development in all areas.  We moved, we danced, we sang, played with scarves and shakers filled with all variety of noise makers, we stretched, we relaxed, and we had a great time.  There were only a few other kids in the class so there was lots of space.  There were many of the child development aspects that were similar to a Kindermusik type class, but there was definitely a different feel.  The movement was more based on a knowledge of dance, and that was great both for the moms there that were very familiar with dance and me, the dance-phobic mom.

What we liked:  I loved how much fun my son had while learning, moving, and growing at the same time.  The space was also beautiful.  Another nice aspect is, sessions are only 4 classes long, so you can sign up for a short sequence instead of the multi-month commitment many of the other classes in the area involve.  Also, the class is in the same building as the new Hummingbird Cafe which made for an absolutely fabulous stop after class.  Oh, and there are also a bunch more great youth classes on their calendar that you can check out as well.

What we would change:  There's not really a whole lot I would change.  We really enjoyed the class.  While the class was a bit expensive for a one day activity (at $15 per class and $60 per session)-when compared with other classes in the area, it was cheaper than the majority.

Website and other important information:

Website: http://www.americandancefestival.org/studios/springYouth.html#springyouthDWYLO

Address: 721 Broad St, Durham, NC 27705

Class Times: Tuesday mornings (class times have been changing so call for specifics.)

Session Dates (Spring 2013): January 15-February 5 • February 12-March 5 • March 12-April 9 • April 16-May 7

Photos:

(the beautiful dance studio)