Children's Dance Classes

 

Each semester, the UM Dance Program offers children’s dance classes for the community. UM students earn credit for participating as student teachers.  

Children ages 3½ - 6 are invited to explore classes in creative movement. Our training program provides opportunities for children to express their inherent creativity through their bodies. Children are also exposed to the various elements of movement, learning how their bodies move within different spatial, time, and qualitative structures. UM’s creative movement classes serve as an excellent introduction to dance for all children.

**Our class for children ages 7-10 has been put on hiatus until further notice due to consistent low enrollment. UM Dance encourages  guardians to seek out dance training for children in this age group at one of Missoula's local dance studios.**

For information, please contact instructor laurel.sears@umontana.edu.

Spring 2024 Schedule

Registration for Spring Session is now open!

SPRING SEMESTER: January 25-April 18 (12 weeks; no class Spring Break--March 21)

Classes Offered:

Creative Movement I for ages 3½ - 4 on Thursdays from 4:00-4:30pm

Creative Movement II for ages 5 - 6 on Thursdays from 4:45-5:30pm

About Our Classes

UM dance, theatre, and education students enroll as student teachers to assist in the classes. The class is an opportunity for your child to be immersed in dance, and also a chance for our students to train to be teachers. The student teachers will plan lessons, which are previewed by instructor Laurel Sears, and teach two partial lessons and one full lesson each. UM Children's Dance is a place for everyone to grow together, create community, learn, and make meaning from motion.

Our instructor, Laurel Sears, has been dancing, choreographing, and performing in and out of Montana for over 20 years. She is currently an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Montana. Laurel holds a Master of Fine Arts in Dance from Arizona State University, where she taught multiple college-level classes, created socially engaged performance pieces, and published a professional paper on creating collaborative performance works. As a UM alum, Laurel is thrilled to be back in PARTV connecting to the Missoula community through dance.

As students progress through the class levels, our objectives for their training develop and expand. Each class builds on the skills and experiences developed in the previous class. In upper-level classes, students begin creating their own choreography and learn more complex movement sequences.

Where We Are

Classes are held in the UM Performing Arts and Radio/TV Center (PARTV). Please visit a map of campus with PARTV pinned. Classes are held in our Ballet Studio (PARTV 035) in the lower level of the building.

Guardians may watch from inside the studio the first day of classes. After the first day, the studio door will be closed during class to eliminate noise and distractions for our students, teachers, and musician. Guardians may watch from the windows outside PARTV. Guardians who wish to wait inside during class are welcome to wait in the PARTV Lobby.

Tuition

Tuition is $100 per student per semester plus a $15 administrative fee per student per academic year. If your student takes class both fall and spring, there is only one $15 administrative fee. There is a 10% sibling discount. There is a $10 discount to parents/guardians who are UM employees. Tuition usually must be paid by the SECOND class session (your student can try the first class for free!):

  • Online payments may be made using VISA, MasterCard, or Discover
  • Cash or check payments (checks made to "UM Theatre & Dance") may be made at the first class
  • We are currently NOT able to process credit cards in person
  • Vehicle registration and payment is required on campus for most parking spots from 7am to 5pm, Monday through Friday, but a limited number of free 20-minute Quick Stops are available near the PARTV Center. Guardians who wish to stay for the duration of a class can purchase daily parking permits through UM's online parking portal. Please visit UM's parking webpage for more information and the permit-payment link.

Please email laurel.sears@umontana.edu with questions.