Lydia Johnson Dance

About Lydia Johnson Dance

Ms. Johnson's passion for encouraging children to create dances led to the founding of the Lydia Johnson Dance School in 1998. Starting with just five young dancers in a single Choreography Workshop, the school has since grown to 130 students. With years of experience in choreographing, Ms Johnson has developed a curriculum which provides an in-depth and structured approach, constantly revised and expanded to meet the interests and needs of the creative young dancers. The school also offers a unique Dance Camp, as well as the Student Company, allowing students to explore and perform their own works. The Lydia Johnson Dance School has earned acclaim for its warm community of dancers of all ages, its family-centered sharing of work and its focus on excellence and creativity. Ms Johnson's own children have benefitted from the school, with all three attending South Orange/Maplewood schools and graduating from Columbia High School in Maplewood. Phoebe is now a law student at Temple Law, Evan is a MSW therapist in Brooklyn, and Zander is a filmmaker in LA.

Programs

The classes, camps and experiences this business offers.

Creative Ballet for 3-5 year olds including Kindergarten

Our Creative Ballet offers a unique curriculum which allows for a both a joyous experience as well as basic dance skill development. These uplifting classes, for 3-5-year-olds and Kindergarteners, include movement stories, creative games, structured free dance, dance with a prop, show and tell, musical interludes, dancing the roles in story ballets, and ballet basics. Each day will have a surprise "treasure box" interlude with a special activity! In keeping with our fine- arts approach, our youngest dancers will experience dancing to a wide range of music including classical, great ballet scores, contemporary classical, folk and of course beloved children’s songs. The semester culminates with an Open Class to share our class with each dancers parents or guardians.

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Ballet 1A For older 5s with experience and 1st & 2nd grades.

​A class that continues to encourage young dancers imaginative movement ideas while working on ballet terminology, the positions of the arms and legs, musicality and rhythm. Technical concepts such as alignment and posture are addressed as they are developmentally called for. The class includes a very brief and careful introduction to the barre. The young dancers travel in across-the-floor exercises as well, and begin combining steps to make a ballet "combination". The Level 1A class includes beginning choreography as we create a class dance. The class culminates in an Open Class.

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Ballet 1B and Ballet 2 Level 1B 1st & 2nd grades

Our Ballet classes include the study of developmentally appropriate ballet basics such as ballet terminology, the positions of the arms and legs, musicality and rhythm. Correct alignment and posture are addressed increasingly at these stages. The curriculum expands to include ballet steps that move through space and are expressive and fun as well. These classes allow our young dancers to explore today's increasingly contemporary ballet vocabulary as well. Ballet has changed and is no longer focused exclusively on story ballets. Our classes offer a wonderful chance to dance to a wide range of music including classical, contemporary classical, jazz as well as selected pop songs and folk. All of our classes include our very popular choreography section, during which students can use their own ideas and imaginations to create dance phrases of their own. Our Winter/Spring semester culminates in an evening performance at The Woodland in May. This is a wonderful alternative to the usual commercial recital, as our young dancers share class excerpts and their own choreography with their families.

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