The Australian Ballet's website explores many famous ballets in the company's repertoire. It also has short videos of warm up routines for a range of age groups. All teacher resources are downloadable.
Structure and features
Ballets explored include 'The Nutcracker', 'Sleeping Beauty', 'Coppelia', 'Swan Lake' and 'Cinderella'. For each major production, the website explores:
- the story of the ballet
- the design elements
- the music
- the choreography
- the choreographer.
The Warm Ups for early years students include:
- video of dancers performing the warm up
- music included in the video
- voiceover instruction throughout the video
The website also contains multiple links to various other ballet and dance-related sites and resources.
Links and files
Teacher notes
This resource addresses the responding and making strands of the Australian Curriculum.
Suggested uses
- Secondary students could use the website for specific research of a particular ballet, choreographer, or the use of stage design processes. Their findings could inform the creation of a dance, or set, or costume design to be shared, refined and submitted.
- Primary students may read the story of a particular ballet, discuss the different characters, or create their own dance movement to tell the story.
- Early years students could do the warm ups demonstrated, then create the shapes they see in the photographs with their own bodies.
- All students need to be guided by the teacher to specific parts of the website for a specific purpose or learning intention.
