Early Childhood Teacher Training Workshops

Our Mission as Educators:

TTDC is a Highland Park Los Angeles based dance studio, providing classes in all styles of dance to both recreational and competitive students. Our highly trained instructors provide solid curriculum and creative choreography in a positive, professional environment. Our dancers get the opportunity to perform on stage in annual performances, and we have performance companies and a competition team for those students wanting more from their dance training. Here at TTDC, we strive to be a place to grow your technique, artistry and performance skills, all while encouraging our dancers to be goal-oriented, hard-working, and gracious. Above all, the staff at TTDC work hard to be a place where ALL dancers from ALL backgrounds and ALL skill levels are welcome!

Our Early Childhood program serves as the building blocks for TTDC.

Through our intentionally designed early childhood curriculum, our goal as educators is to encourage multiple intelligences, growth mindset, social emotional learning and cultural relevance in addition to technique and vocabulary, setting our young movers up for early dance experiences that are inclusive, accessible, creative and FUN! ( for dancers ages 18mos-5 yrs)

Teacher Training Workshops:

Hi! My name is Karen Gladis and I am the founder of Twinkle Toes/TTDC and the director and curator of our early childhood program. I have a multidisciplinary dance background and studied both Modern Dance and Sociology at the University of Colorado, Boulder. My professional career was in modern dance and choreography until I became a full time dance educator/studio owner/mom and settled in Los Angeles. I am a member of the National Dance Education Organization and the CDEO and have been currently working with Dr Laurel Butler, an arts education consultant and studio lecturer at Loyola Marymount University. The creativity derived from modern dance and parenthood breathes life and imagination into my classes and ECE curriculum here at Twinkle Toes.

I am so pleased to be able to share the over 25 years of work specializing in early childhood dance with other educators seeking professional development and inspiration and a platform for studio owners looking to expand their programming. Our interactive class series is not a plug-and-play workshop where teachers mirror the materials given but a place of learning and sharing- based on the building blocks of the latest educational theories, pedagogical concepts, teaching and classroom management skills, curriculum planning guides and many creative ideas that will be priceless instruments while teaching your youngest dancers. Teachers will come out motivated and have the skills to create early dance experiences that are inclusive, accessible, creative and FUN!

This is a 4 hr in-person workshop that can be held in your space or our Los Angeles Studio. We travel! The cost is $425/person ( 5 person minimum out if outside of CA) and includes all training materials, class planning guides and unlimited follow up support. We also offer more comprehensive training for studio owners and school/preschool educators looking to re-structure programming, inquire within for a custom quote.

If you have any questions, please email me at twinkletoesdancela@gmail.com or call 818-395-3454.