What is Create and Dance?

The Royal Opera House’s Create and Dance programme offers creative learning for schools across the UK.

The programme has been designed with teachers, maintaining strong curriculum links to develop children’s understanding of dance; stimulating their imagination and creativity.

With dedicated teacher training, classroom films and lesson plans, these resources suit the needs of teachers and their students.

Teachers do not need previous dance knowledge to take part.

Whether you have been part of the project before, or whether you are completely new to Create and Dance, we are delighted that you wish to be part of the growing community. Find out more about the programme on our Learning Platform.

CPD training

Our creative and interactive training sessions invite teachers to collaborate and explore the Create and Dance programme together. There is an emphasis on play, discovery and participation and we therefore ask attendees to bring a a "give it a go" attitude.

Please note this is a 2 part training course and attendees need to register for both parts separately on Eventbrite.

To ensure the required number of attendees we ask all teachers to sign up with a deputy who will step in for you, should you not be able to attend. Both you and your deputy may attend, just let us know if this is likely to be the case.

If you have any special accessibility requirements please get in touch via createanddance@roh.org.uk.

Our free programme of training and resources

The Nutcracker - FUN AND ENGAGING - KS1 AND KS2

Join Blue Peter presenter Radzi Chinyanganya, as he goes on a journey with The Royal Ballet into Sir Peter Wright's production of The Nutcracker. This course explores motif-development, character dancing and performance skills, through the themes of the ballet, which include 'Let the battle commence', 'Transformed by magic' and 'Travelling to far-away lands'. The programme culminates in the creation of a short piece of choreography.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - LITERACY AND WIDER CURRICULUM - KS1,2 AND 3.

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland provides the stimulus for a Create and Dance scheme of work that can support cross-curricular learning, particularly literacy, for Key Stage 1, 2 and 3 teachers. The schemes of work include a series of films featuring Karim Zeroual from CBBC, who journeys down the rabbit hole with Principal Dancer of The Royal Ballet, Lauren Cuthbertson, to understand the basics of creating dance.

Romeo and Juliet - MUSIC AND MOVEMENT - KS1,2 AND 3

Romeo and Juliet provides the stimulus for a Create and Dance scheme of work that explores telling stories through music and movement, for Key Stage 2 and 3 teachers. The schemes of work include a series of films featuring Karim Zeroual from CBBC, who explores Kenneth MacMillan's passionate choreography for Romeo and Juliet and Sergey Prokofiev's iconic score, to understand the basics of music and creating dance.