About Us
Ballet Caraïbes, formerly known as The Dominica Children School of Dance and the brainchild of Flora Leptak-Moreau is a project which Flora started in her homeland, Dominica, an island in the Caribbean located between two French-speaking islands, Martinique and Guadeloupe in May 1985. Flora wanted to expose children to the art of dancing, to create training opportunities for children who have the urge to dance and to provide the opportunity to children who otherwise would not have access to educational programs beyond the normal non-arts school day such as dance to help them develop their talent and valuable learning skills that will become valuable to them in the future.
The school catered to children from 3 years and offered programs based on rhythmic and creative expressions to bring out the natural ability to move freely and easily, developing a strong foundation in technique. Flora believes that technical training combined with the development of personality, expression, and confidence are some important qualities dancers must continually work on. Other program included dance (modern,/contemporary / jazz, ballet, folk/Afro-Caribbean) and drama.
The school of dance staged recitals annually as well as participated in a national creative dance competitions.
The main aims (and still are) were to:
To adapt a plan of work so that all students could participate fully and obtain enjoyment and education from the dance program, to acquire qualities of a dancer or actor and to ensure that the program contributed significantly towards their cognitive, psychomotor, affective and social development while developing the technique of dancing, performance qualities and to build their self confidence.
Other goal were to provide each child with the opportunity to be fully exposed to dance and traditional elements such as ring games and character dancing, to develop the creative potential of the youth, a sense of co-ordination, timing and rhythm; to develop their concentration span and listening skills; to develop a sense of unity and co-operation among others, a sense of responsibility, positive social interaction and a level of self-consciousness from a physical and mental perspective.
" Our interest lies in the development of dancers".
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More About Us
Ballet Caraïbes, a diverse dance program, offers group and private classes for children, teens and adults who want pre-professional dance training. BC also provide a dance-based childcare DanceCare (currently mainly during holidays such as summers), who is seeking home-based care with an arts enrichment component, dance. The third component of BC’s offering choreography-based focusing on The Creative Process through Dance and Choreography.
BC is interested in anyone who wants to further develop their dance talent and technique, who want to improve self esteem and or begin and maintain a fitness program for a healthy lifestyle and enjoyment while developing the technique of different dance styles or who want to simply participate in dance as an enrichment activity or who wants to develop their performance qualities including expression, stage presence, projection, improvisational skills and confidence.
A new addition is our Weekend Dance Intensive that offers dance training and experience to children beginning from between ages of 8 – 12.
About the Classes:
Children:
Classes are offered to both children and adults. some classes are pre-scheduled and in the case of private lessons, potential student must contact Flora or go directly to the registration page. Children can register here and adults can register on this page
For a listing of classes offered click here
Click here for our children Class Schedule, Fees and Offline application form:
The classes and DanceCare offered, provide participants with an opportunity to explore a range of dance styles and experiences, thus giving them a rounded educational dance experience. Styles include Ballet, Modern, Jazz, Afro-Caribbean, Rhythm/Softshoe tap, Afro-Caribbean and development their movement and dance style sensibilities.
As students explore movement vocabulary from different genres, they may develop a sense of self, develop, poise, grace and correct body alignment. Other skills developed include musicality, rhythm, and creativity, movement structures, combination flow and of course dance technique. They may improve their social and physical health and in general may gain a different excitement for learning as their right and left brain get stimulated, which can have a positive impact on the mind and body.
Our studio is located at 5009 Dovetail Lane, Northside, Cincinnati, Ohio