Lawton Ballet Theatre is proud to include the AMERICAN BALLET THEATRE® National Training Curriculum, a breakthrough 8 level program that combines high quality artistic training with the basics of dancer health and child development. The ABT® National Training Curriculum consists of a comprehensive set of age-appropriate, outcome-based guidelines to provide the highest quality ballet training to dance students of all ages and skill levels.

Pointe technique is the part of classical ballet technique that concerns pointe work, in which a ballet dancer supports all body weight on the tips of fully extended feet within pointe shoes. … Pointe technique resulted from a desire for female dancers to appear weightless and sylph-like. In our program you myst be atleast 10 years old and gave a teacher’s approval to start pointe.

Tap is a dance performed wearing shoes fitted with metal taps, characterized by rhythmical tapping of the toes and heels. Our program teaches classic and musical theatre style tap as well as commercial tap.

Jazz dance is an umbrella term that can refer to several related dance styles. All of them are connected via common roots, namely tap, ballet, jazz music, and African-American rhythms and dance. History. Jazz dance originated from the African American vernacular dance of the late 1800s to the mid-1900s. In our program we teach musical theatre jazz, commercial jazz, and African jazz.

Modern is a free, expressive style of dancing started in the early 20th century as a reaction to classical ballet. In recent years it has included elements not usually associated with dance, such as speech and film. Our program focuses on Horton and Graham technique.

Lyrical dance has been defined as a dance style that embodies various aspects of ballet, jazz, acrobatics, modern, and hip hop, while still maintaining its autonomy. It has been strongly associated with clearly displayed emotional moods, fast-moving choreographic strategies, emphasis on virtuosic display, illustration of song lyrics, and, in group form, exact unison. The style is usually danced at a faster pace than ballet but not as fast as jazz.

We believe a good performer is a well rounded performer. Our program includes classes such as Acting that focus on acting methods and theories; Musical Theatre with singing dancing and acting; Stage combat, that teaches safe ways to choreograph stage fighting; Stage makeup, that teaches basic stage and special effect makeup; and Technical theatre, that teaches simple to complex sound and lighting techniques used in theaters across the country. Students have the opportunity to perform in two musicals presented by LBT every season.

There are many opportunities to perform at Lawton Ballet Theatre. There are two Musical performed every season by the Theatre students. One Christmas Musical in December and a Musical chosen by the staff performed in the Spring. Ballet students have the opportunity to perform in The Nutcracker presented every December and the Spring Recital every May. All dance class students have the opportunity to perform in the Spring Recital. LBT Company Dancers perform in two competitions plus many community events. Choreography and Technical Theatre students will create a showcase during their classes and present their work in the studio auditorium in the spring. No matter what class you take, there is always performance opportunity at LBT.

Hip-hop dance refers to street dance styles primarily performed to hip-hop music or that have evolved as part of hip-hop culture. It includes a wide range of styles primarily breaking which was created in the 1970s and made popular by dance crews in the United States.