Joey Finds His Jump!

A Dance-It-Out Creative Movement Story for Young Movers (Dance-It-Out! Creative Movement Stories for Young Movers)

By: Once Upon a Dance

Narrated by: Amy Barron Smolinski

Kids’ movement inspiration wrapped up in a charming story of friendship and determination.

One of 12 Dance-It-Out! Creative Movement Stories by an award-winning dance teacher turned award-winning author and her ballerina daughter.

Movement, technique, and dance concepts in this heartwarming story include:

• pliés
• tiptoes
• relevé
• marches
• skips
• side stretches
• child’s pose
• hops
• jumps (two-foot jumps, spinning jumps, etc.)
• leaps (grand jetés)
• frog jumps
• twisting
• body part isolation and coordination
• moving with emotion
• concept of wide/narrow
• concept of small/medium/large

Major themes include friendship, the value of practice, empathy, helping each other, meeting new people, making new friends, and working toward a goal.

The story has two tracks - one includes movement suggestions (text narrated by Amy Barron Smolinski, as expressed by Ballerina Konora), and one with only story text.

Each Dance-It-Out story is an interactive kids’ storytelling adventure to ignite children’s movement, joy, and imagination.

The books can be used as a supplement for dance or theater studio classes or camps. Joey Finds His Jump! pairs well with themes such as storytelling, going to the zoo, making new friends, kangaroos, or frogs.

Ideal for pre-ballet, preschool, daycare, early learning, homeschool, kindergarten, etc.

©2021 Once Upon a Dance (P)2021 Once Upon a Dance

Critic reviews

"Highly recommended for anyone with young children and those young at heart too." (Reedsy)

"An innovative use of dance and storytelling for a fun, child-focused activity." (Kirkus Reviews)

Grand children loved this!

This story made my grand children happy! They throughly enjoyed listening to how Joey found his jump. We had to play this over and over so they could listen and laugh while we were on an out of town trip .