The training “Playful Creative Ballet for Children” takes place on March 2, 2019, at Studio Tasapisitasakaal, located at Graniidi 1, Tallinn. Everyone working with or just beginning to work with children is welcome to attend.

Content of the training:

• Movement games in dance class
• Balance between body and mind
• Creative use of props in dance class
• Ballet elements in a playful sequence
• Exercise repertoire in a playful sequence
• Creative dance: ideas from children
• Creating choreography with children
• Improvisation

Trainer: Kärt Tõnisson
Kärt Tõnisson is a freelance dancer, choreographer, and dance teacher. She graduated from Tallinn University with a degree in choreography and has worked with children for nearly 16 years. Kärt teaches movement arts, ballet, and acrobatics at Rocca al Mare School’s Veskimöldre kindergarten and Kalli-Kalli Kindergarten. She also leads dance and contemporary dance classes at St. John’s School and teaches children’s ballet at Studio Tasapisitasakaal. She has participated in numerous local and international dance projects. She has further trained in contemporary dance and movement workshops in Estonia and abroad. As part of the Zuga Unified Dancers collective, she has co-created multiple dance performances for young audiences. Over the years, she has collected enough material created with children to share with others. Since 2018, she has conducted movement-related continuing education at Tallinn University and held workshops in various schools for both students and teachers.

Training schedule:

• 09:30–10:00 Gathering
• 10:00–11:45 Workshop
• 11:45–12:00 Coffee break
• 12:00–13:30 Workshop
• 13:30–14:15 Lunch
• 14:15–16:00 Workshop + feedback and questions

Training fee: €90 (plus VAT), includes lunch and coffee breaks.

Kärt: Some moments in life become more clearly imprinted than others—sometimes a smell, a taste, a movement… My first memory of being on stage is a movement routine performed in my kindergarten gymnastics group to the music of Mike Oldfield. While others were taking their afternoon nap, we got to practice in the hall (which of course was tiring and difficult, but at least we didn’t have to sleep). That feeling of being on stage and performing—it’s hard to put into words, but it’s the kind of feeling you can easily become addicted to.

Did I ever want to become a ballerina? No, I never had that dream, but a year before entering university, I found myself at the Fine 5 Dance School while looking for dance classes—and I had a revelation: this kind of movement created the right harmony in my body and mind. It was during the rise of modern dance in Estonia.

Today, I am a freelance dancer, choreographer, and dance teacher. Beyond form and beauty, I’m most interested in the process—collaboration, exploration, and discovery—being present in the moment. As a teacher, my role is to be a guide, but also a learner. Everything I know about teaching dance, I’ve learned from my students over the past 15 years. I’m especially interested in the child’s own movement language—when I’ve given them a few tools, a creator emerges from within, and original choreography is born. Development is limitless—every movement, every dance can be refined endlessly. There is always room to grow.

And of course, I still enjoy that feeling that comes from being on stage, when a process has reached maturity. Those 15–20 minutes before the audience enters are vivid, intense, exciting, emotional. And then there’s silence and light… and it doesn’t matter whether I’m on stage or my students are—we breathe in the same rhythm, in this moment, here and now.