Understanding level placement

Evaluating a dancer takes place year-round and is observed by each intsructor the student trains under to ensure correct placement is considered at all times.  These evaluations may factor in on casting roles and/or future promotions including when a dancer is ready for pointe work.  We encourage you to take a moment and read through to familiarize yourself a bit with our processes.

Meet the Teachers!

Lucetta Furr-Snider

Lucetta has over 40 years of training, performing and teaching.  She is a Juilliard Alum and a Certified Ballet Instructor by the American Ballet Theatre.  She is the owner of WAD, the founder of WDC and the Artistic Director of Capitol Movement Dance Company in Washington, DC.

Dawn Whitaker

Dawn has a Bachelors of Science in Dance with a focus on modern dance and teaching methodologies.  Dawn is an employee for PWC Parks and Rec working with preschool-aged children.

Cierra Kaler-Jones

Former Miss New Jersey, member of the nationally-ranked Rutgers University Dance Team, and NBA dancer.  Cierra has a PhD in Education and over a decade of teaching experience.

Britney Joyner

Brittney has a BFA in dance from George Mason.  She is an accomplished dancer and choreographer in the DMV area.

Dominique Frye

Dominique graduated with her undergrad in Community Health and Wellness with a minor in dance. She has her Masters in Psychology in ABA, and is a Preschool Autism Teacher in Fairfax County.

At Woodbridge Academy Of Dance, we know that the progression of our class levels can sometimes be a little confusing to understand.  Dance class placement can be different compared to other extracurricular activities, or to the way students progress through grades at school.  We hope the information here will help clarify how level placement works, and what you can expect as your child grows with us over the years.

 With our youngest dancers, level placement is primarily determined by their age and peer group.  This allows us to introduce the fundamentals of dance at the correct developmental stage and ensure that we are teaching movement that is age-appropriate.  With these young classes, we also place more emphasis on gross motor skill development versus technique so that a solid movement foundation is built first.  

 Dance class placements beyond the beginning levels are made with several factors in mind.  Some of the biggest factors include physical safety, body awareness, developmental appropriateness, and skill mastery.  This is also where we begin to focus more attention on growing your child’s technique, because their bodies are more equipped for those demands.  At WAD, we take these things seriously so that we can develop emotionally mature, physically healthy dancers.  

At a certain point in a dancer’s education—past the introductory years—factors like friend groups are not considered.  As they advance, each dancer’s progress is going to be very individual.  Even though they’ve been exposed to the same teacher and the same curriculum, two dancers might actually progress through our levels at different rates.  This is completely normal and can be a benefit to a dancer’s progress.

 In many ways, the way children learn dance is a lot like the way they learn math: Understanding basic addition and subtraction comes first, and after that it’s possible to move on to concepts like multiplication and division.  Understanding each basic component then makes it possible to study more complex ideas, like algebra or geometry.  Dance knowledge progresses like this too; students can’t skip ahead to more advanced material without first mastering the fundamentals.

Although class levels might vary from studio to studio, it’s typical that they are set up in such a way that a student would be in the same level for more than a year or two.  This is pretty different than what your child is used to at school!  But dance studios like ours usually do not have thirteen grades like school.  And it is expected that students will require more than one year to truly master specific skills and be prepared for what’s next.

We encourage you to think of our class levels as the ladder your child can climb to achieve their strongest skills and their best self, with each rung of the ladder allowing them more opportunities to develop and grow.  We are here to instruct them on the journey upward and ensure they never miss a step along the way!

Criteria for Pointe Work

Here are some criteria used to evaluate students for pointe:

• A dancers age and maturity.
• A firm understanding of ballet at an intermediate/advanced level.
• Be able to correctly hold turnout while dancing.
• Have a straight, pulled-up back while dancing, especially the lower back.
• Maintain correct placement (alignment) and stability on flat and in demi-pointe.
• Keep the heels forward toward big toe (no sickling) while on demi-pointe.
• Keep the weight evenly distributed over the balls of the feet.
• Be able to do continuous relevés in center-work without losing one’s balance.
• Be able to hold a passé balance on demi- pointe.
• Execute piqué passé with a straight leg.
• Possess flexible and/or strong ankles so that the knee, instep, and toe are aligned when the foot is pointed or on demi-pointe.
• Relevé on one leg while maintaining balance and pulling up in the legs.
• Maintain proper technique while performing center combinations in "flat work".