Ballet Book Club: Monthly Hand-Selected Dance Books

Ballet and Books Go Hand-in-Hand

One of our very favorite parts of Tutu School’s class curriculum is the investment in exposing our dancers to ballet stories through our Ballet Storytime. Born from the mind of a former professional ballet dancer, Tutu School was founded with the idea that children should be introduced to art, music, and movement at a young age. While our curriculum focuses on the pleasure and principles of dance without the rigorous training often associated with ballet, our Ballet Storytime curriculum allows students to experience classical ballet in a very magical way.

In a similar vein, Tutu School launched its very own Ballet Book Club in 2022. As a sort of supplement to our Ballet Storytime curriculum, this book of the month style club explores more exciting tales of ballet and different dances from around the world. These are stories that your little dancer might already know and love, or that they can pick up at a local bookstore and twirl to again and again. Books featured in our book club list feature dances and dancers from all around the world and different walks of life; similar to our Ballet Storytime story, these books offer young minds exposure to new cultures, perspectives, and important life lessons. 

We’re passionate about helping children nurture their imagination and develop confidence and joy through music and movement. Our mission has extended to our Ballet Book Club, a perfect blend of dance and literacy, aimed at helping young minds and bodies enjoy the world of dance through storytelling. Each month, Tutu School hand-selects a different dance book for our students to dance and read-along to. We can’t wait for you to join us!

Childhood Literacy

At Tutu School, we know how important it is to champion early childhood education and literacy. While we offer a boutique ballet school experience in the classroom, a love of the arts and all creative forms is something that we’re dedicated to. The opportunity to combine a myriad of valuable activities for little minds and bodies – art, music, movement, and reading – was a no-brainer. Tutu School was founded with the goal of creating magical storybook adventures in ballet, and we wanted to ensure our dancers could continue these adventures outside of class, too! 

Whether we’re hosting a special Ballet Bookclub event or you buy the book to twirl with your dancer at home, reading aloud to children is so crucial for their development. The books chosen for Ballet Bookclub are at a variety of reading levels. Students will likely get to learn new words, dance-related or otherwise, that will help them grow their vocabulary. As we read aloud to little dancers, we’re sharing both new and familiar sounds and syllables, enabling them to develop greater language and listening skills. Reading stimulates a child’s imagination, enhances their ability to focus and concentrate, and improves their memory and problem-solving skills, leading to success in the classroom as they grow. By consistently reading aloud to toddlers and children, we have this amazing opportunity to make reading an integral part of a child’s life, and we hope that our Ballet Bookclub is the start of a lifelong love of books.

Thoughtfully Selected Stories

The selection of books featured revolves around dance, of course! But these stories aren’t just limited to ballet. While Tutu School is a boutique ballet experience in the classroom, we’re excited to champion and celebrate all forms of dance with our dancers. Whether these are styles of dance they may do at home or that are brand new to them, little dancers are always excited to learn about different cultures. Books like Danza! were selected to showcase beautiful Mexican folk dance (and stunning traditional Mexican art-inspired illustrations, too!), and books like Josie Dances share the rich dance history and culture of the Ojibwe tribe. The vibrant, colorful illustrations of our Ballet Storytime Curriculum feature a diverse range of different dancers, and this influences the types of books we select for our Ballet Bookclub, too. 

All of our favorite dance books help us remember that dance is for everyone, and it’s important to us that all of our students know that they can dance with us at Tutu School. I Will Dance, which centers around a little girl with cerebral palsy, helps share our philosophy with dancers. As the protagonist of the story learns how to dance in her wheelchair and performs on stage with her dance friends, we hope that our students can see that we’re not so different from each other. We’re all here because of our love for dance!

Ballet history is also such an important part of the Ballet Bookclub. You will definitely notice familiar faces in the pages of the book club books. From Misty Copeland’s stunning children’s book rendition of The Firebird to the oh-so-magical Charlotte and the Nutcracker, showcasing a young dancer that our dancers can look up to, twirling in one of the most iconic ballets of all time. Whimsical adventures from Vamparina Ballerina and relatable stories like When Langston Dances may be featured stories, too. Tutu School’s Ballet Bookclub offers a wide variety of dance books that dancers of all dance and reading levels can enjoy. Books featured will be in the lobby, so if you’re looking for your child’s next read, our lobby library is a great place to start!

Our mission has extended to our Ballet Book Club, a perfect blend of dance and literacy, aimed at helping young minds and bodies enjoy the world of dance through storytelling.

Read and Dance-Along!

A great way to engage with your child is to expand upon each of the stories in the books with dance and music. This is the same approach that is applied to our Ballet Storytime curriculum; we want these incredible activities – movement, music, art, and reading – to overlap and create a multisensory experience for children. Whether you’re visiting a Tutu School-led Ballet Bookclub event or having a cozy storytime session at home, there are moments all throughout the story for young readers to engage their senses to enjoy the story in a new way. Looking back on Danza!, our book club selection about the Ballet Folklórico de México, what can be incorporated into a storytime session for children to experience more than just the page? You or your child’s Tutu Teacher can help little ones with new words in Spanish. We often use French in class to count or refer to certain ballet terminology, but this is a great opportunity to introduce children to a new language– and maybe some ballet friends in class already speak Spanish at home and can show off their language skills! 

No storytime is complete without a dance-along. The beautiful illustrations offer a moment to look at the steps of the characters; what dance moves can your little one replicate? There are so many great online dance resources that you or Tutu Teachers may use to show little ones some new moves. They might be used to ballet steps we use in class, and they can apply similar techniques to try out new forms of dance showcased in the book. Just like with Swan Lake or The Nutcracker, there is an opportunity to introduce dancers to some magical music used by the Ballet Folklórico de México in their performances or other kinds of Mexican folk music. With many children’s books, there are also resources from the publisher, author, or child-friendly content creators to expand the storytime experience, like a virtual read-along. 

We always want to make time and space for audience interaction. Little minds always have big thoughts, ideas, and questions, and it’s crucial to make sure that Ballet Bookclub – and any storytime session – is a comfortable, safe space for dancers to explore. Tutu Teachers make sure to leave time in between pages for any comments or questions from Tutu Schoolers. All dancers are invited to share their opinions in a conversation, even (or especially!) if they differ from each other. Every dancer is encouraged to speak up, and all ideas are celebrated. Tutu Teachers are equipped to formulate thought-provoking questions and answers to fit the curious minds of students, helping them explore what interests them about the story and learn about new perspectives.

The stories selected for our book club present readers with important life lessons. Each of our Ballet Storytime stories has a central message, like being courageous or following your heart, and our Ballet Bookclub books are chosen with this in mind. Many of the stories feature young dancers, just like our Tutu Schools, and in these characters, little ones can see themselves. Whether the protagonist is having trouble making friends in class or trying to face stage fright before a dance recital, there is something for every dancer to relate to. Aspirational books with strong role models are important to the book club, too! From Misty Copeland, a ballet icon who helps us remember to never give up on our dreams, to dancing dads who show us that dance is for everyone, your child will learn so many important life lessons and find some new role models along the way.

Our Ballet Bookclub is such a special part of Tutu School. Handcrafted with the importance of childhood literacy in mind, our Tutu School’s Ballet Bookclub prioritizes the development of little minds and bodies with each and every storytime. Whether you’re coming to a Tutu School-hosted event or reading to your child at home, you’ll find that all of the books on our reading list are hand-selected with care. From stories about classic ballets to fairytales about dancing dinos, little dancers will have so much dancing and read-along, and along the way, they might just discover a lifelong love of reading.

As a small business, we hope this is an opportunity to shop locally at a nearby bookstore, too! Or maybe it’s the perfect excuse to sign up your dancer for their very first library card. Our Ballet Bookclub is driven by our passion for literacy, music, and movement, and we’re so excited to share this with our community.

What dance book are you and your dancer hoping to see on our reading list? Follow us on Instagram to see what book we’re reading next month and what events are happening at Tutu School.