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Reviews
"This provocative and colorful book will be attractive to all parents and teachers of young children, and will become a favorite 'how-to' book for the children who learn to power their tiny toes." --—Dr. Elizabeth Rightmyer, Early Childhood Specialist "Give children the gift of dance and they will grow up forever thanking you, as I did my parents." --—Helen Starr, Ballerina  "A Standing Ovation" for Tiny Toes!!!, January 4, 2011
By Popo'sOpinion This is a WONDERFUL book! It's beautiful and charming and a pure joy to look through, but at the same time, seems immensely valuable to the parents of any "tiny toes", ages 2-5. The overall design is lovely and the photographs throughout of the "ballerina author" and her adorable charges are absolutely enchanting. It seems to me, however, that the book's real importance lies in the stretching and movement lessons clearly outlined and illustrated throughout. It is obvious that the youngsters pictured are fully engaged in the "joy of creative movement" and delighted to be so. How I wish MY parents had had this book! I've bought several for friends with young children and am convinced that it's worth FAR more than the price! Five Stars for "Tiny Toes", January 19, 2011 By JJ I LOVE this book, as do the three-year old twin girls for whom I bought it! It's wonderfully accessible with clear descriptions of the movements and their purposes, and with great suggestions about how to actually do the movements with children. All of that is taken to another level with the imaginative stage and book design, and wonderful photographs. The musical CD that accompanies the book makes the time we spend on creative movement even more fun. I love tapping into the amazing creativity of the Grubola family - daughter, mother and uncle. We liked the book so much that we gave it to all our family members with small children. The boys are enjoying it just as much as the girls. And now our tiny, and not so tiny toes, are dancing all across the country! |
"A must have..." March 8, 2011
By Anonymous I was so glad to find a book that allowed me as a parent to introduce my child to the world of dance without the excessive cost of dance classes. This book not only allows a parent to teach the dance moves, but also includes both the music and an imaginative way of engaging the young mind. "Wonder, Imagination, and so much more!" September 1, 2011
By Kerry Bevens Dance teacher New York, M.A. Curriculum and Development - Early Childhood Education Tiny Toes is a fantastic program to introduce young children to the world of dance! The book captures the imagination of young and old alike. As both a dance teacher and classroom teacher it is quite clear that this is so much more than just another dance book. It is a journey into movement through the eyes of a child. The music CD that comes with the book is perfect to spark the imagination and open the creative window of the imagination. This is a book that I treasure as a teacher and would highly recommend to others. Video Reviews by Parents |
Press Reviews
Book review | 'Tiny Toes: A Creative Movement Class for Young Children'
6:31 PM, Feb. 3, 2012
Louisville native Morgan Grubola — a professional dancer who realized that well-meaning parents were submitting their toddlers to arguably counterproductive, traditional ballet classes at too young an age — created the M.E.G. (Movement, Expression, Growth) Technique to integrate creativity and expression with technical steps in a way that would shape healthy attitudes and encourage creative expression while conditioning muscles in age-appropriate ways. She also saw that her unique technique that addresses cognitive and social as well as physical skills could be disseminated beyond her classes and so wrote “Tiny Toes: A Creative Movement Class for Young Children,” a clearly worded and stunningly illustrated (by her mother, Louisville artist Kay Polson Grubola, and her uncle, artist/photographer Richard Grubola) coffee-table book complete with a music CD.
As prima ballerina Helen Starr Jones and education and research consultant Elizabeth C. Rightmyer point out in their forewords, stimulating a child’s imagination while encouraging technical mastery is essential. Jones states, “To give a child the opportunity to be creative while moving to music will allow that child to grow mentally, physically and emotionally while strengthening the body and challenging the mind.”
Rightmyer, who is one of The Courier-Journal’s Point Taken bloggers, adds, “Most early educators agree that teaching skills (social and cognitive as well as physical) taught in isolation, detached from a meaningful purpose, can confuse the young child’s understanding of the whole and thwart the child’s enthusiasm. ...
“Morgan Grubola’s Tiny Toes program offers an alternative approach for parents and young children. Morgan’s deep knowledge of the dance is coupled with her intuition and understanding of the development of young children — she recognizes that they learn what they live. The story-based movements engage children’s minds and hearts, as well as their bodies. As they become the butterflies, the frogs, the mice, they learn to control their bodies with grace and intention and they learn much about their physical world as well.”
The butterflies, frogs and mice to which Rightmyer refers are but a few of the characters Grubola asks her young students to assume as she couches their physical movements as playful roles in stories. For example, in teaching Echappe Saute, a movement in which “the legs escape from one another,” Grubola describes how to execute the movement, discusses how the movement is beneficial in strengthening developing legs, provides notes on teaching the movement and concludes with the scenario that adults may offer to encourage children to practice the move: “On the other side of the pond, the frogs are dancing on the lily pads. The frogs are big show-offs! They are jumping on their very long, bouncy legs. The lily pad is floating and is easily tipped. Can the frog jump from the middle of the pad to the edge without falling in the water?”
Each two-page instruction follows the same simple, yet effective formula. Creative play transcends technical drill.
As one parent of a child in Grubola’s class comments, “My 2-year-old daughter has taken ballet instruction using the M.E.G. technique … for about a year. Sophia has always been a bright and communicative child. But since she has been receiving instruction, her expression in playtime seems more magical.”
Tiny Toes provides parents and teachers with every element necessary for replicating Grubola’s technique. From her concise theory to her explicit directions and from her traceable floor patterns to her CD that contains all the music to perform the techniques described in the text, Grubola’s book presents a beautifully packaged world of possibility for preschool girls and boys whose parents want them to “(build) muscle and flexibility, (develop) rhythm and coordination, and (discover) the joys of movement.”
The book is available at Carmichael’s Bookstores, Barnes & Noble and Celebrations.
Linda Elisabeth Beattie, a Louisville writer and reviewer, chairs Spalding University’s Adult Accelerated Program.
As prima ballerina Helen Starr Jones and education and research consultant Elizabeth C. Rightmyer point out in their forewords, stimulating a child’s imagination while encouraging technical mastery is essential. Jones states, “To give a child the opportunity to be creative while moving to music will allow that child to grow mentally, physically and emotionally while strengthening the body and challenging the mind.”
Rightmyer, who is one of The Courier-Journal’s Point Taken bloggers, adds, “Most early educators agree that teaching skills (social and cognitive as well as physical) taught in isolation, detached from a meaningful purpose, can confuse the young child’s understanding of the whole and thwart the child’s enthusiasm. ...
“Morgan Grubola’s Tiny Toes program offers an alternative approach for parents and young children. Morgan’s deep knowledge of the dance is coupled with her intuition and understanding of the development of young children — she recognizes that they learn what they live. The story-based movements engage children’s minds and hearts, as well as their bodies. As they become the butterflies, the frogs, the mice, they learn to control their bodies with grace and intention and they learn much about their physical world as well.”
The butterflies, frogs and mice to which Rightmyer refers are but a few of the characters Grubola asks her young students to assume as she couches their physical movements as playful roles in stories. For example, in teaching Echappe Saute, a movement in which “the legs escape from one another,” Grubola describes how to execute the movement, discusses how the movement is beneficial in strengthening developing legs, provides notes on teaching the movement and concludes with the scenario that adults may offer to encourage children to practice the move: “On the other side of the pond, the frogs are dancing on the lily pads. The frogs are big show-offs! They are jumping on their very long, bouncy legs. The lily pad is floating and is easily tipped. Can the frog jump from the middle of the pad to the edge without falling in the water?”
Each two-page instruction follows the same simple, yet effective formula. Creative play transcends technical drill.
As one parent of a child in Grubola’s class comments, “My 2-year-old daughter has taken ballet instruction using the M.E.G. technique … for about a year. Sophia has always been a bright and communicative child. But since she has been receiving instruction, her expression in playtime seems more magical.”
Tiny Toes provides parents and teachers with every element necessary for replicating Grubola’s technique. From her concise theory to her explicit directions and from her traceable floor patterns to her CD that contains all the music to perform the techniques described in the text, Grubola’s book presents a beautifully packaged world of possibility for preschool girls and boys whose parents want them to “(build) muscle and flexibility, (develop) rhythm and coordination, and (discover) the joys of movement.”
The book is available at Carmichael’s Bookstores, Barnes & Noble and Celebrations.
Linda Elisabeth Beattie, a Louisville writer and reviewer, chairs Spalding University’s Adult Accelerated Program.
DANCE THROUGH THE AGES: MORGAN GRUBOLA'S 'TINY TOES'!
A new book of ballet instruction focuses on early childhood learning
Article by Carmen Marti.
Entire contents copyright © 2011 Carmen Marti. All rights reserved.
Former Louisville Ballet Civic Company dancer Morgan Grubola may have left Louisville, but she hasn’t left ballet.
In addition to performing in Maryland and Michigan, Grubola has spent the past five years developing and teaching an early childhood ballet curriculum. Her model is presented in the new book, Tiny Toes, A Creative Movement Class for Young Children (2010, Butler Books, $30). Released in December, 2010, the book is available through Barnes & Noble, butlerbooks.com and amazon.com.
While a dance major in college at Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, Grubola couldn’t find guidelines for teaching “really tiny kids,” she says. As she learned what to teach at what age and how it affects cognitive growth, Grubola began to develop the M.E.G. technique, a step-by-step program for dance teachers, ballet school libraries and parents. It’s based on attention to movement, expression and growth (M.E.G.), both cognitive and physical.
Grubola began conceptualizing a book about the M.E.G. technique nearly three years ago while teaching in Maryland, where she had moved with her husband. “I can’t believe I’ve written a book,” she says, “but there was a hole and I had to fill it.”
Grubola enlisted the design eye of her mother, Kay Polson Grubola, an artist, curator, and teacher in Louisville, and the photographic skills of her uncle, Richard Grubola, a photographer, Photoshop instructor and artist.
The team set out to make the book as lively and performance-like as possible. Recurring motifs such as the proscenium stage, animal figures, explanatory sidebars and photos of children dancing help bring the spirit of fantasy and play to the text.
For example, when teaching “first position,” a dance fundamental, Grubola tells her students to pretend to be bunnies. “For them it’s not first position,” she says. “It’s bunny feet.” But they master first position because, “A bunny wouldn’t do it any other way.”
Grubola’s goal was to present the material so it is accessible to all audiences. “I had to figure out how to explain things the best way for kids to understand, for parents to understand and for teachers to get what they need to teach.” Grubola says. “The main thing is that it’s user-friendly.”
Toward that end, the book includes explanatory sidebars to complement movement instruction, a pronunciation guide for the French terms used in ballet, and a CD with music to accompany the class. The curriculum is based on steps from traditional ballet technique and guidelines from the National Association for the Education of Young children (NAEYC).
Now that the book is out, Grubola is running M.E.G. workshops and working with parents. She says Tiny Toes suits at-home instruction as well as studio classes. “I wanted a book that would be easy for parents to do at home too,” she says. “A lot of parents don’t have the money for classes right now. Some don’t want to over-schedule kids until they’re older.”
Grubola organized to the book to enable parents to teach their kids and participate with them. “It’s something I really want people to try,” she says. “They can start with stretches and go from there. Put in the CD, talk about colors, educate your child and get a good stretch. It’s not that hard.”
Tiny Toes, by Morgan Grubola
available locally through Carmichael's
and through Barnes & Noble, butlerbooks.com and amazon.com.
Published by Butler Books www.butlerbooks.com
Entire contents copyright © 2011 Carmen Marti. All rights reserved.
Former Louisville Ballet Civic Company dancer Morgan Grubola may have left Louisville, but she hasn’t left ballet.
In addition to performing in Maryland and Michigan, Grubola has spent the past five years developing and teaching an early childhood ballet curriculum. Her model is presented in the new book, Tiny Toes, A Creative Movement Class for Young Children (2010, Butler Books, $30). Released in December, 2010, the book is available through Barnes & Noble, butlerbooks.com and amazon.com.
While a dance major in college at Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, Grubola couldn’t find guidelines for teaching “really tiny kids,” she says. As she learned what to teach at what age and how it affects cognitive growth, Grubola began to develop the M.E.G. technique, a step-by-step program for dance teachers, ballet school libraries and parents. It’s based on attention to movement, expression and growth (M.E.G.), both cognitive and physical.
Grubola began conceptualizing a book about the M.E.G. technique nearly three years ago while teaching in Maryland, where she had moved with her husband. “I can’t believe I’ve written a book,” she says, “but there was a hole and I had to fill it.”
Grubola enlisted the design eye of her mother, Kay Polson Grubola, an artist, curator, and teacher in Louisville, and the photographic skills of her uncle, Richard Grubola, a photographer, Photoshop instructor and artist.
The team set out to make the book as lively and performance-like as possible. Recurring motifs such as the proscenium stage, animal figures, explanatory sidebars and photos of children dancing help bring the spirit of fantasy and play to the text.
For example, when teaching “first position,” a dance fundamental, Grubola tells her students to pretend to be bunnies. “For them it’s not first position,” she says. “It’s bunny feet.” But they master first position because, “A bunny wouldn’t do it any other way.”
Grubola’s goal was to present the material so it is accessible to all audiences. “I had to figure out how to explain things the best way for kids to understand, for parents to understand and for teachers to get what they need to teach.” Grubola says. “The main thing is that it’s user-friendly.”
Toward that end, the book includes explanatory sidebars to complement movement instruction, a pronunciation guide for the French terms used in ballet, and a CD with music to accompany the class. The curriculum is based on steps from traditional ballet technique and guidelines from the National Association for the Education of Young children (NAEYC).
Now that the book is out, Grubola is running M.E.G. workshops and working with parents. She says Tiny Toes suits at-home instruction as well as studio classes. “I wanted a book that would be easy for parents to do at home too,” she says. “A lot of parents don’t have the money for classes right now. Some don’t want to over-schedule kids until they’re older.”
Grubola organized to the book to enable parents to teach their kids and participate with them. “It’s something I really want people to try,” she says. “They can start with stretches and go from there. Put in the CD, talk about colors, educate your child and get a good stretch. It’s not that hard.”
Tiny Toes, by Morgan Grubola
available locally through Carmichael's
and through Barnes & Noble, butlerbooks.com and amazon.com.
Published by Butler Books www.butlerbooks.com
The First Time: Kay and Morgan Grubola
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Ballet teacher advocates step by step approach
It only takes a few seconds to realize that Morgan Grubola’s ballet classes are a bit different.
By Theresa Winslow, Staff Writer
Published 06/10/10
As she issues instructions to her young dancers in Annapolis, Grubola sounds more like she’s taking them on a trip to the zoo than teaching various steps and positions. But that’s the point. There are no French terms like arabesque or jete, and the children simply hop, skip and leap around, imitating everything from lambs to elephants.
Grubola calls her teaching system M.E.G., short for Movement, Expression and Growth. It’s a kind of a “Karate Kid” philosophy of dance minus the chores. Students just play and have fun, and without realizing it, master lots of beginning moves.
Grubola, 27, has spent the past couple years distilling M.E.G. into a book so that parents can introduce their children to ballet without having to go to a class. Due out at the end of next month or in early August, “Tiny Toes: A Creative Movement Class for Young Children” is a 64-page, full-color guide aimed at children ages 2 to 5. The book also comes with a 21-track CD of music specifically written for Grubola that can be used to accompany the exercises described in the book.
“She’s a very special person doing something very unique,” said Carol Butler of Butler Books, the Louisville, Ky.-based publisher that is releasing the book. “She has a real clientele of not just children who love her, but their parents.”
“Tiny Toes” offers stories for parents to read to children as a way to start exercises, as well as plenty of advice on how to instruct them. Grubola, who currently teaches 13 classes at The Art Space in West Annapolis, hopes the book will be part of her legacy as she prepares to leave Annapolis for Michigan, where her husband is entering a doctoral program.
“As a dancer, you want to be remembered for the performance,” she explained. “As a teacher, you want to be remembered for giving the gift (of dance) to someone. ... I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to dance. I hope (children) get a smidgen of that from me.”
Grubola, who currently performs with two area dance companies in addition to teaching, hopes to continue both pursuits in Michigan, though she’s unsure exactly what the future will hold.
She developed her teaching system as a direct response to more traditional ways of instructing very young children, which she contends can turn some of them off to dance as well as strain their growing bodies.
“I’ve had really good results and no injuries,” she said.
Grubola said she enjoys teaching preschool-age children because of their enthusiasm and the fact that they’re “fresh slates” and haven’t developed any bad habits yet. She’s been teaching for a total of five years, ever since she finished college.
“I’m going to miss her so much,” said Priscilla Smith, owner of The Art Space. “Everybody’s going to miss her. She has a love for what she does and it comes across to children. She understands where they’re coming from and their needs.”
Animal magnetism
“Would you like to be an elephant? Can we do our elephant kicks?”
Grubola was addressing the four girls in her preballet class earlier this week. They all nodded enthusiastically, then proceeded to kick with just as much vigor.
After they were finished portraying pachyderms, it was time for them to take turns as horses, crabs, cats, lambs and bunnies. The girls kept smiling throughout.
“She’s very nice,” 5-year old Susanna Carns of Severna Park said during a short break.
“Miss Morgan gives good classes,” added Jetta Earle-Smith of Annapolis, also 5.
The other girls, Lena Stern, 4, and Gwynevier Para, 5, agreed, and added that their favorite animals were bunnies and horses, respectively.
“She is very passionate about her work,” said musician Robert E. Lee of Louisville, who composed the selections on the CD accompanying Grubola’s book. “I think if I had a young child, I’d like her to work with her.”
Grubola said the book isn’t about teaching children to dance perfectly. It’s more about giving parents a chance to spend quality time with their children, doing an activity both can enjoy, she said.
“Miss Morgan is the most unique dance teacher we’ve ever encountered,” said Susanna’s mother, Laura Carns. “She has such a way of engaging the children. She gets them technically proficient without ever (being demanding) or being mean. ... It doesn’t feel like class (to Susanna), it feels like play.”
Grubola’s book is available for preorder at www.butlerbooks.com.
Grubola calls her teaching system M.E.G., short for Movement, Expression and Growth. It’s a kind of a “Karate Kid” philosophy of dance minus the chores. Students just play and have fun, and without realizing it, master lots of beginning moves.
Grubola, 27, has spent the past couple years distilling M.E.G. into a book so that parents can introduce their children to ballet without having to go to a class. Due out at the end of next month or in early August, “Tiny Toes: A Creative Movement Class for Young Children” is a 64-page, full-color guide aimed at children ages 2 to 5. The book also comes with a 21-track CD of music specifically written for Grubola that can be used to accompany the exercises described in the book.
“She’s a very special person doing something very unique,” said Carol Butler of Butler Books, the Louisville, Ky.-based publisher that is releasing the book. “She has a real clientele of not just children who love her, but their parents.”
“Tiny Toes” offers stories for parents to read to children as a way to start exercises, as well as plenty of advice on how to instruct them. Grubola, who currently teaches 13 classes at The Art Space in West Annapolis, hopes the book will be part of her legacy as she prepares to leave Annapolis for Michigan, where her husband is entering a doctoral program.
“As a dancer, you want to be remembered for the performance,” she explained. “As a teacher, you want to be remembered for giving the gift (of dance) to someone. ... I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to dance. I hope (children) get a smidgen of that from me.”
Grubola, who currently performs with two area dance companies in addition to teaching, hopes to continue both pursuits in Michigan, though she’s unsure exactly what the future will hold.
She developed her teaching system as a direct response to more traditional ways of instructing very young children, which she contends can turn some of them off to dance as well as strain their growing bodies.
“I’ve had really good results and no injuries,” she said.
Grubola said she enjoys teaching preschool-age children because of their enthusiasm and the fact that they’re “fresh slates” and haven’t developed any bad habits yet. She’s been teaching for a total of five years, ever since she finished college.
“I’m going to miss her so much,” said Priscilla Smith, owner of The Art Space. “Everybody’s going to miss her. She has a love for what she does and it comes across to children. She understands where they’re coming from and their needs.”
Animal magnetism
“Would you like to be an elephant? Can we do our elephant kicks?”
Grubola was addressing the four girls in her preballet class earlier this week. They all nodded enthusiastically, then proceeded to kick with just as much vigor.
After they were finished portraying pachyderms, it was time for them to take turns as horses, crabs, cats, lambs and bunnies. The girls kept smiling throughout.
“She’s very nice,” 5-year old Susanna Carns of Severna Park said during a short break.
“Miss Morgan gives good classes,” added Jetta Earle-Smith of Annapolis, also 5.
The other girls, Lena Stern, 4, and Gwynevier Para, 5, agreed, and added that their favorite animals were bunnies and horses, respectively.
“She is very passionate about her work,” said musician Robert E. Lee of Louisville, who composed the selections on the CD accompanying Grubola’s book. “I think if I had a young child, I’d like her to work with her.”
Grubola said the book isn’t about teaching children to dance perfectly. It’s more about giving parents a chance to spend quality time with their children, doing an activity both can enjoy, she said.
“Miss Morgan is the most unique dance teacher we’ve ever encountered,” said Susanna’s mother, Laura Carns. “She has such a way of engaging the children. She gets them technically proficient without ever (being demanding) or being mean. ... It doesn’t feel like class (to Susanna), it feels like play.”
Grubola’s book is available for preorder at www.butlerbooks.com.
