Creative Movement

In Creative Movement, students learn movement fundamentals through dance, games, music, and imagination-based activities to help build coordination, spatial awareness, balance, and critical thinking skills. No prior dance experience needed.

This class meets weekly for forty-five minutes.

Who is Creative Movement Intended for?

Creative Movement is designed for young children who find joy in movement and imagination. This is a movement class with a strong dance focus, though activities vary between coordinated, rhythmic movement (in other words, dance) and activites focused around movement fundamentals like coordination, balance, and stretching. Typical activities include, among other things, a dance-based warm-up, animal dances, jumping practice, balance practice, and motor-sensory exercises like dance scarf activities.

Students who are new to classroom settings will find ample encouragement and an abundance of patience as we warmly invite participation and foster movement curiosity without demanding participation. Students will have plenty of time and ample encouragement to acclimate to social interaction and group activities at their own pace.

Ages: 2.5–5.5 years.

Class Structure

Class begins with a brief warm-up to help the students prepare their bodies for the rest of class. This is typically followed by a short stretch exercise and a variety of dance and imagination-based movement activities to help students develop their curiosity and coordination.

This class meets once a week for forty-five minutes.

Clothing & Attire

Clothing should be comfortable, non-obstructive, and support safe, dynamic movement in all spatial planes. Some wearable items like toy jewelry, capes, and the like can obstruct some kinds of movement or pose safety hazards. Consider safe, non-obstructive alternatives.

Shoe requirement: none. Class can be done in soft-soled shoes such as ballet slippers, or in comfortable, non-marking sneakers.

Accessibility & Inclusivity

While I do not speak officially on behalf of the City of Evanston or the Robert Crown Community Center, I can share my own observation that creating programmint that is accessible and inclusive is a core commitment at Robert Crown. It is also both my personal commitment as a professional educator who cares deeply about access and inclusion and is reflected in the City of Evanston's accessibility statement (copied below).

In my dance classes, I include sensory check-ins with students to make sure music volume levels are appropriate, and I also support students who want or need to take sensory breaks. One thing to keep in mind for the Creative Movement class's age range is that some strong auditory stimuli can occur since it is natural and expected for young kids to vocalize excitement from time to time. Students are encouraged and empowered to take sensory breaks as needed, and all activities are invitations to join (i.e., not comulsory), reflecting contemporary — and healthy — learning environment practices for recreational class formats.

The City of Evanston is committed to promoting a city-wide culture of accessibility and inclusivity. To request an accomodation for a program, service, or activity, please call 847-866-2919 to make an ADA service request or fill out a request form online at evanstonil.qscend.com/311.