Hi, my name is Samantha and I created Move Dance Learn as a sister site to my first website Dance Parent 101. Dance Parent 101 is a website that is full of helpful articles and videos that answer parents questions about formal dance lessons in styles such as ballet, jazz and tap as well as provides how-to guides on things such as how to sew on elastics and ribbons to dance shoes or how to do a bun or make a DIY ballet barre. As a parent of two young dancers, even though I had danced since the age of five I found that the information was out there about some of these things, but was aimed at the dancer rather than the parent who also needed to know the information and skills too.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, I like many other people felt helpless – that is until i had this crazy idea that I should start creating free dance tutorials for kids. I wanted to create something for them to do when stuck at home to keep them moving, to ignite their imaginations, but provide something that also had an educational element since so many would be missing out on school. This idea became so vivid and strong that I could not ignore it. That was the beginning of my creative dance tutorials, adding craft activities and reading stories about dance, on the Dance Parent 101 Youtube channel.
At first I felt that this all came under the same Dance Parent umbrella – but I have realized that this content and material deserves it’s own channel and website in its own right and that there really are two separate audiences viewing each kind of material that I am producing.
So having experience as a parent, a dance teacher, a primary school teacher and professional dancer as well as having an insatiable urge to be helpful and teach – I decided to create Move Dance Learn.
Move Dance Learn is the space where I can use my expertise to teach kids fun dance tutorials to get them moving and learning. It is where I can put all of the crazy craft activities I think of so that kids everywhere can enjoy doing them too! It is a place for sharing my love of reading and storytelling – my own children are read to or read by themselves almost every night and I believe that this single act is one of the most important factors to children becoming literate and learning to read themselves. Move Dance Learn is a place for me to indulge my love of research and learning to provide information and articles about how children learn and the best ways parents can help their children thrive, learn and grow.
I am looking forward to all that Move Dance Learn will become.
Samantha.