When teaching 2 year-olds, it’s always in your best interest as the dance teacher to mix in fun activities in-between dance exercises. I’ve put together a list of different songs I use in my baby ballet class with lyrics that tell the kids to do different dance steps.
For example, I use the “Party Freeze Song” if my class is feeling extra energetic, it has the kids jump, skip, clap, turn, and freeze to the beat of the song. It works great for getting out the “sillies,” as I casually call them in my class, and kids can focus much better after!
The “Goldfish” song is a really cute story-telling and movement-based song that has dancers “swim around” like fish and do different poses and movements. It is also great practice for getting kids to quickly run back to their dots, as the song tells them to quickly “swim back to their rock,” and it actually works really well. Its great for a warmup to get students listening, moving, and prepared to learn.
Another great warmup song is this Jungle track, which has lyrics that tells the young dancers to do movements based on different animals in the jungle. Kids enjoy the different animal noises and being creative with the movement. It’s also a good option if you don’t want them running around a ton like the previous two songs.
For actual ballet-based exercises, I use the first song for tendus and piques, and the second song for plies and trying passes.
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