Ballet Games That Teach: Body Awareness Games for 9-Year-Olds

If you get my newsletter or follow my YouTube channel, you know I've really been focused on somatic awareness this month. One of the great things about springtime is that all the work we've been putting in all year long really starts paying off. Because students have made so much progress towards our key principle and key vocabulary for the year, we have the freedom to spend class time working on elements of artistry like somatic awareness.

Nine-year-olds aren't ready for a ton of somatic awareness---we're still waiting for some crucial brain development to happen. But that doesn't mean we can't build a great foundation for future learning, and tapping into kids' natural love of play really helps us do that. Here are some of my favorite games that help dancers notice the experience of being in their own bodies:

Balloon Body

Have students imagine different parts of their body filling with air like a balloon. Your instinct might be to turn this into a relaxation exercise. After all, instructions like "Fill your ribcage with air and feel it expand in all directions. Now let the air slowly leak out. Next, fill your shoulders... now your head..." sound like a great intro to a nap to me. But resist that temptation. Kids don't want to nap, they want to move!! Once your dancers have filled their ribcage with air and felt it expand, encourage them to move around with a very floaty ribcage. How does it feel to pirouette with balloon ribs? Do they like leaping this way? What about when the air leaks out? Can we keep our ballet posture with no air in those rib balloons? It's really important that kids have the opportunity to notice body parts and movement at the same time.

Marble Roll

This one is a favorite during barre work. Students imagine a marble rolling through different pathways in their body. So during pliés they would imagine the marble starting at their hip, rolling towards their knee, and then dropping down to the floor. What toe did the marble land on? It that the toe they were hoping for? (It's key to developing somatic awareness that we teach kids to notice what actually happened instead of pressuring them into feeling something specific.) Starting with the toe we hoped the marble landed on, imagine that marble rolling back up their shin bone (tibia), helping their knee straighten, coming up their thigh, and finishing exactly where it started.

If you do the Marble Roll game more than once, it can be a fun change in perspective to have dancers choose different sizes of marbles. Maybe a big marble makes it easier to notice movement during a plié but imagining five small marbles is more effective during tendus.

Weight Detectives

You need fabric sliders (squares of cloth, cheap bandanas, the extra chiffon from last year's costumes that isn't enough to make into anything but you hate wasting, etc.) for this. Students stand on the fabric and explore shifting their weight. Start by sliding one foot out without putting any weight on in. Next, put a little weight on it, then a little more . . . how much weight can we put on our feet before they can't slide any more? This game is great for helping dancers with their connecting steps like glissé, glissade, and even chassé.

Once dancers have the hang of this, you can add on to the game by asking the same questions about sliding their fabric back under their midline. Can they slide their foot back to home base with the same amount of weight on it as when they slid out? Often the answer is no and, while 9-year-olds aren't ready for a lesson about how the adductor muscles are often weaker than the abductors, this raises the interesting question of "why?" Asking the question at this age is more valuable than receiving the answer.

Older dancers also enjoy this game but with a piece of fabric beneath each foot. It's just a fun challenge and also a good way to learn how much they've been relying on the friction between their shoe and the floor to help them with turnout.

Micro-Movements Challenge

Start by having students move with a very small body part like their pinky finger. Ask them "What is the next smallest part we could move with that is connected to this finger?" Let the student answers guide your next action. The first time I tried this game I fully expected that we would move our hand next but those smart kiddos figured out that the pinky finger plus ring finger is a smaller body part. (And many of us struggled to move just those two fingers!) Keep asking "What's next?" until you're making whole-body movements.

This game is an asked-for favorite, so you'll probably have lots of chances to practice moving with different body parts. Toes and fingers are obvious, an ear is one of my favorites even though I can't move just my ear so I basically move my head, and your classroom will explode with giggles when someone suggests moving from their bottom and you say "let's go!"

These somatic awareness games help 9-year-olds (and other ages as well!) begin developing the body awareness that will serve them throughout their ballet journey. By introducing these concepts through play, we're laying crucial groundwork for the more sophisticated body awareness they'll need as they advance.

These games are just the beginning when it comes to developing somatic awareness in young dancers! If you've enjoyed these activities, you'll find even more systematic approaches in my book, "Artistry Inside Ballet Technique" It's packed with ways to build that crucial foundation where technical precision and artistic expression meet.

Which game are you excited to try first? Did one of these remind you of something you already do in class? I'd love to hear about your experiences in the comments!

And if you're looking for more age-specific teaching resources like these (because we all know that what works for 9-year-olds won't necessarily work for teens!), my newsletter subscribers get fresh ideas delivered straight to their inbox. Head to the homepage to join our community of teachers who believe in building joyful, technical excellence in ballet education.