Skip to main content

You are here


St.John’s philosophy and mission goes hand in hand with the richness and diversity dance offers. Dance is a lifelong learning activity, an art form and educational medium, stimulated by the school from the early ages in Kindergarten until the end of High School.

Throughout the year, St.John’s community organizes a large number of performances and events, giving the students a variety of opportunities to participate and gain experience on stage. Dance students are motivated to perform dance in front of an audience and are always enthusiastic to share their talents and skills with others.

The unique diversity of nationalities and cultural backgrounds at St. John's is reflected in the dance curriculum.

Students are actively engaged during dance class by sharing their knowledge and traditions about dance. Throughout the year multiple different dance forms are explored in class and performed on stage.

Elementary School

During the early years, our main focus is on body awareness, spacial awareness, musicality and creativity. Through games based upon the children’s imagination, we explore the world of dance. The first basic universal dance positions are taught, and simple choreographies are learned in class and performed on stage.

In grades 3, 4 and 5, dance is offered as ‘ Videoclip Dancing ‘. The dance class starts with a reflection about the previous dance form and a goal setting for that day. Students are encouraged to be creative by coming up with own ideas. Proposing a piece of music or creating a combination of movements are some examples.

Inspired by what they see on popular dance programs, we have a closer look at the sort of dance forms being used and create our own choreographic variation of it.

Middle School

In Middle School, dance classes become more challenging by introducing a technical dance routine. Throughout the year we focus on modern dance, jazz dance and lyrical dance. Technical dance skills such as turns, jumps and battement are explained in depth and practiced in class on a permanent base.

Choreographies are taught, but students are continuously encouraged to create their own dances from music of their choice. 

High School

Dance is a discipline of study, just like other subjects, such as literacy or science. Dance requires many different types of skills useful not only in other subjects, but also in the larger meaning of life.

Dance engages the students physically and mentally. Perseverance, self-consciousness, teamwork, coordination, memorization, courage and self-esteem are further developed through participation in dance.

This is the main reason why dance in the first year of High School is a compulsory subject for all students at St. John’s.  The philosophy for grade 9 dance class is that everybody who wants to dance, can dance.

Every dance class starts with a simple warm-up variation. During the school year, a diversity of dance forms and their basic movements are taught. Examples of some of the dance forms offered are : hip-hop, jazz dance, modern dance, classical ballet, Zumba, yoga, and Bollywood, to name just a few.

In High School grades 10,11 and 12, dance becomes an elective. Although some knowledge is useful, the dance class is open to all students  with a passion for dance and with the will to learn.

The dance lesson starts with a warm-up variation and ends with a cool down combination. Dance routines and choreographies are physically and technically more rigorous. Modern dance, Lyrical dance, and Hip Hop are the core dance forms of the program.

As the students are more mature, dance class is more student-centred and class discussion about dance styles, dance techniques and choreographies is stimulated. The goal towards the end of the dance program is for students to create a choreography from the dance techniques they have learned, performed independently, or developed in collaboration with other students.