The CAS Dance Program

Dance is a fun, lively, expressive and energetic art form that teaches students to use their own body as an instrument. Dancers develop technique, expression and communication by moving their bodies in a multitude of styles.

In addition to the individual benefits of dance students participating in a dance program learn social skills, teamwork, and good sportsmanship. Dance students build friendships that can last a lifetime!

Dance students develop positive forms of self-expression and are taught the ability to make creative choices. This leads to dancers having increased confidence, independence and critical thinking skills. Dancing gives students an outlet for their emotions and promotes a positive way for students to have their feelings, thoughts, and ideas to be heard.

Dancers are taught a wide movement vocabulary that promotes coordination, motor skills, flexibility, strength and stamina. This knowledge leads to increased physical fitness, exercise habits and a long term healthy lifestyle.

Students in dance are taught to develop time management skills, critical thinking abilities, musicality, education about different cultures, understanding of their own body and its abilities, creativity, and confidence.

Dance at BW CAS is different. Here at BW CAS we pride ourselves on our warm, engaging environment. Our goal is to have every student fall in love with the arts. Our instructors work hard to ensure every child is having fun, feels safe, and is accepted for who they individually are.

At BW CAS we keep our class sizes small. We believe every student deserves individualized attention. Our student teacher ratios are made to assure no student slips through the cracks or feels overlooked.

The BW CAS curriculum is focused and progressive ensuring that all students have all of the foundational material needed before progressing to harder concepts and technique. This ensures that no student has gaps in their technical knowledge. It also promotes an environment of safety. Every student is well prepared before trying a higher level skill.

The BW CAS faculty is comprised entirely of professionals. Our faculty has a mixture of degrees, high level dance certifications, professional experience, and teaching experience. It does not matter if your student is an early learner or a pre-professional company member, all of our faculty is qualified at the highest levels. We maintain a commitment to our families to always provide the best quality education from the most qualified faculty.

The BW CAS dance system is designed to ensure that every student gets the education that is right for them. We value our students whether they take one class a week or if they are here every day. Every student, in every class, will receive an evaluation on their progress throughout the season. With this evaluation comes the option for a one on one meeting with the CAS Director of Dance. These one on one meetings allow all families to discuss their child’s education and make sure they are on the pathway that is right for them.

The Baldwin Wallace Community Arts School dance curriculum is based on a pyramid, or stacking, method where all technique basics are used as building blocks to build to ever more challenging steps. This method ensures that all technique is constantly being expounded upon, and that all students get a comprehensive education with no holes in their knowledge. This also promotes safe, healthy, level appropriate instruction for all students. The BW CAS dance curriculum also focuses on artistic quality and self-expression to ensure we are building confident dance artists.

The Baldwin Wallace Community Arts School dance department uses an exam method to promote students between class levels. These exams take place during class time and provide an opportunity for our leadership team to get to see the progress of each student. This ensures every student is progressing at their highest personal level. These exams take place in March and provide an occasion for all students and families to receive written feedback about their student’s progress.

After exams have been completed, families will also be able to set up one-on-one conferences with the CAS Director of Dance to discuss their results and their student’s dance goals. It is anticipated that students may need to spend multiple years within a level to completely master the content within that level. Promotion each year is not guaranteed or expected.

Dance classes with prerequisites require that a student be promoted from the BW CAS class noted on the class listing OR permission from the BW CAS Director of Dance. To obtain permission from the Director of Dance students will need to come to BW CAS, at a mutually agreed upon time, to participate in a quick evaluation. These evaluations ensure our students safety and make sure every student has the foundation needed to progress to the next level. To schedule an evaluation, use this contact form.

The Baldwin Wallace Community Arts School enforces a dress code in all dance classes. This dress code ensures that every student can participate fully in class and that the dance faculty can teach without restriction. Students who do not follow the dress code will not be allowed to participate in class.

**Leniency in dress code will be provided for the first two weeks of the 2019-2020 season to allow all families time to purchase the items needed to fulfill their dress code requirements.

To purchase all dress code requirements BW CAS recommends Footsteps Dancewear. Footsteps Dancewear is conveniently located at 24048 Lorain Rd, North Olmsted, Ohio. Footsteps Dancewear is the largest dance store in Northeast OH. They are very familiar with the BW CAS dress code and can assist you in finding everything you will need. Receiving the professional fitting and assistance from Footsteps will ensure that your student is set up for success in all of their classes!

Please note that all required class footwear is the same footwear students will use in recital.

The Baldwin Wallace Community Arts School dance department has two parent observation weeks per year. These informal observations area chance for parents to come in to their student’s dance class and observe an entire class.

The observation weeks for the 2019-2020 season are November 18 -November 23, 2019 and February 24-29, 2020.

Each student is allowed to bring two (2) adults with them to observation weeks. We will make every effort to accommodate siblings who may need to attend observation weeks with their family. Seating will be provided in each dance studio during the observation weeks.

The BW CAS dance calendar for the 2019-2020 season runs from September 9, 2019-June 1, 2020. Here are the important session dates to mark on your calendar.

• Monday, September 9, 2019: Start of 2019-2020 dance session at BW CAS
• Thursday, October 31, 2019: BW CAS dance classes closed for Halloween
• Tuesday, November 26-Sunday, Dec 1, 2019: BW CAS dance classes closed for Thanksgiving break
• Friday, December 20, 2019-Friday, January 3, 2020: BW CAS dance classes closed for Winter break
• Monday, Jan 20, 2020: BW CAS dance classes closed for MLK Day
• Monday, March 9-Friday, March 13, 2020: BW CAS dance classes closed for spring break
• Saturday, April 11, 2020: BW CAS dance classes closed for Easter
• Thursday, May 14, 2020: BW CAS Dance Recital Dress Rehearsal
• Saturday, May 16, 2020: BW CAS Dance Recital (NO dance classes)
• Monday, May 25, 2020: BW CAS dance classes closed for Memorial Day
• Monday, June 1, 2020: Last day of 2019-2020 dance session at BW CAS

Baldwin Wallace Community Arts School is pleased to announce their dance recital for the 2019-2020 dance season. Recital is a wonderful opportunity for the dance students to show off all they have learned by performing, on stage. Every dance class, with the exception of Creative Movement, will perform two dances during the recital. The students will all perform a dance with their individual classes. They will also perform in an all cast finale number with the entire BW CAS dance student body.

Our recital will take place in the gorgeous Gamble Auditorium on the Baldwin Wallace University campus. The recital will be at 7pm on Saturday, May 16, 2020. A mandatory dress rehearsal for all performers will take place on Thursday, May 14, 2020. A schedule for dress rehearsal will be released by March 1, 2020.

Immediately following the recital all performers and ticket holders are invited to the Baldwin Wallace University conservatory for a reception. The reception will be a celebration of all the dancers hard work and will provide photo opportunities, desserts and other goodies.

Each dancer will receive a costume to wear in their dances as well as a T-Shirt to wear in the all cast finale. The costumes are the dancers to keep after recital and the T-Shirts are wonderful keepsakes for the students to remember their fantastic show. Each student will pay a costume fee of $65.00 per class enrolled. This fee covers costume, T-Shirt and any dance recital rehearsal time.

We will have a dance recital picture day that will take place on Saturday, May 2, 2020. A schedule for picture day will be released by March 1, 2020. Students will have the option to purchase both group and individual photos. It is not mandatory that a student purchases photos. We ask that every family, regardless of their plan to purchase or not purchase photos, makes it a priority to attend picture day. A lot of families really love the keepsake of a class photo. Having an accurate representation of an entire class makes the picture experience more enjoyable for all of our purchasing families.

Please stay tuned as we make more exciting announcements about our upcoming recital!