Children's Dance Classes in the Cotswolds

Parents looking for children's dance classes in the Cotswolds usually start with the same problem. The towns are close enough that three of them feel possible, and far enough apart that the wrong choice eats the morning. A class in Cirencester is no help if you live in Charlbury. A lovely pre-school session is no help if your child is in Year 4.

We teach in two of those towns, and only on Saturday mornings, in term time. This is a practical map of what runs where, how long the drive actually is, and which class fits which age. If you want the wider picture of swimming, football and the rest, we have separate notes on Saturday mornings across the Cotswolds, activities in Chipping Norton and activities in Fairford.

In this guide

• Where the classes are
• Chipping Norton on a Saturday
• Fairford on a Saturday
• Drive times from nearby towns
• Which class for which age
• Ballet, street dance or Dance Explorers
• What a first Saturday looks like
• How to choose a dance school near you
• Questions parents ask

Where the classes are

Intune Dance and Movement has two bases. Both are ordinary community rooms rather than a purpose-built dance academy, which is worth knowing before you picture a West End studio. The teaching is the thing we are particular about. The rooms are the thing that makes a Saturday in a market town possible.

Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire. Two venues, both on Burford Road:

• Glyme Hall, Burford Road, Chipping Norton, OX7 5DZ
• Theatre Pop Up Studios, 73 Burford Road, Chipping Norton, OX7 5EE

Chipping Norton is the fuller timetable. RAD ballet from Reception to Year 6, Junior Street Dance for Years 1 to 3, and Dance Explorers for children from 2½. Families come in from the north Cotswolds and from West Oxfordshire. The town page, with maps, is children's dance classes in Chipping Norton.

Fairford, Gloucestershire. One venue:

• Fairford Community Centre, High Street, Fairford, GL7 4AF

Fairford is RAD ballet only, for Reception through to Year 3. It is the nearer room if you live in the south Cotswolds, around the Water Park, or on the Oxfordshire side of the A417. Details and a map are on children's dance classes in Fairford.

If you are not sure which building you have booked, check the class page before you leave home. Glyme Hall and the Pop Up Studios are both on Burford Road. They are not the same front door. Fairford is unambiguous: the Community Centre is on the High Street, and the first visit is mostly a question of which room inside it.

You can reach us on 07956 491018, by WhatsApp on the same number, or at info@intunedance.co.uk. Term dates are the state school terms. We do not run weekday classes.

Chipping Norton on a Saturday

Chipping Norton is the one to choose if your child is under Reception age, if they want street dance, or if they are past Year 3. It is also the one to choose if you have children who need different styles on the same morning, provided you read the times properly. A few of them overlap, and the overlaps are at different buildings.

Glyme Hall

Grade 2 at 8.45am finishes as the first Dance Explorers is still going, and the 10.45am Grade 3 overlaps the second Dance Explorers. If you have a Year 3 child and a toddler, those two pairs will not work as a drop-off and a collection. Pre-Primary at 9.45am followed by Dance Explorers at 10.30am does work: same hall, one class hands over to the next.

Theatre Pop Up Studios

This run is the neat one. Primary Ballet hands straight to street dance, in the same building. A Year 1 child who wants to try both can do exactly that. A Year 2 child can do street dance and then Grade 1, again without moving the car.

Parking is available near both venues. On a first visit, give yourself ten minutes you do not need. Burford Road is simple once you have done it, and slightly less simple when you are also convincing a four-year-old to get out of the car.

Fairford on a Saturday

Fairford is the simpler morning, and that is the point of it. One building, four ballet classes, each 45 minutes, each following the last.

If you have two or three children between Reception and Year 3, this is the timetable that was built for your kitchen clock. You arrive once. You leave before lunch. Nobody is sprinting between villages.

What Fairford does not have, and we would rather say so here than on the morning you turn up, is a class for under-fours, a street dance class, or ballet for Years 4 to 6. Those are in Chipping Norton. For some families in Lechlade or Cirencester that drive is still worth it. For others it is the reason they wait until Reception and start in Fairford. Either choice is a reasonable one.

The Community Centre is on the High Street, GL7 4AF. There is parking nearby in the town. The room is easy to find once you are inside. The first Saturday is the one where you will be glad you left five minutes earlier than the map suggested.

Drive times from nearby towns

These are the drives our families actually do, on a Saturday morning, not a theoretical midweek journey through roadworks. They are typical times rather than a promise. A school fete in Burford or a market day in Stow will add a few minutes. None of these routes is a motorway commute.

North Cotswolds and Oxfordshire

All of these come to Chipping Norton, where the full range of classes runs.

Villages along those roads come too: Bourton-on-the-Hill, Batsford, Blockley, Bloxham, Adderbury and the hamlets in between. There is no separate class in those villages. Chipping Norton is the room.

Oxford, Witney and Banbury all have dance schools of their own. Families who drive past them are usually after smaller classes, or a Saturday rather than a Tuesday evening. If Oxford is your starting point, the shorter piece is dance classes near Oxford. The table above is for when you are still deciding whether Woodstock, Witney or the city itself is the fairer comparison.

South Cotswolds and Gloucestershire

All of these come to Fairford for RAD ballet, Reception to Year 3. If you need Dance Explorers, street dance, or Grade 3, the drive is to Chipping Norton instead, and it is longer.

Cirencester and Swindon have plenty of children's activities already. The parents who come to Fairford from either place usually say they tried a larger school and wanted the teacher to know their child's name. That is a fair test to apply to us as well. Come for the trial and see whether the room feels like that.

Which class for which age

Age on a birthday card is less useful than the school year. Classes are grouped that way so a child who is young for their year is not dropped in with children a whole stage ahead.

A fuller discussion of starting ages, including the child who is desperate to begin at three and the child who is not ready at five, is in what age should children start dance classes?. The short version we give on the phone is: 2½ is not too young for Dance Explorers, and there is no prize for starting ballet before Reception.

Ballet, street dance or Dance Explorers

Three different mornings, and children are not obliged to pick the one their cousin does.

Dance Explorers is the pre-school class. Stories, props, music, a lot of stopping and starting. The point at this age is coordination, listening, and getting used to a room that is not their kitchen. It is not a baby ballet syllabus in disguise, though plenty of children move on to Pre-Primary when they start school. The Royal Academy of Dance, whose syllabus we teach from Reception upwards, describes this stage of dance as lively and structured, for children from about 2½ to 4½. Their own film is a fair picture of the kind of class it is. It is not a film of our room.

RAD ballet starts at Pre-Primary and carries on through Primary, Grade 1, Grade 2 and Grade 3. The work gets more precise as the grades go up. The room does not get more severe. We are not an exam factory. Grades exist so a child can see that last term's wobbly balance has become this term's reliable one, and exams are there for children who want them. The levels are spelled out in RAD ballet grades explained.

Junior Street Dance is the other door, for Years 1 to 3 in Chipping Norton. It follows the DANG syllabus and takes in hip hop, popping, locking, waving and tutting, set to music the children already know. Some children do street dance instead of ballet. Some do Primary at 9.00am and street at 9.45am and refuse to choose. We have written up the comparison in ballet or street dance. Boys are in both. If that is the question you are actually asking, it has its own piece: dance classes for boys.

Teachers are RAD, ISTD or BBO qualified, DBS checked and first aid trained. The school has been running since 2018, and the team is led by Lorraine Razzell, who trained at the Royal Academy of Dance. You can read the individual teachers on the teachers page.

What a first Saturday looks like

This is the version we wish every family had read before the trial, mostly so nobody buys a leotard they do not need yet.

1. Use the class finder on the homepage and filter by school year. Book the £10 trial for one specific class. A trial is one week. It is not a cheaper way to do a whole term, and it does not reserve a place beyond that class.
2. Note the venue, not just the town. In Chipping Norton, write down Glyme Hall or the Pop Up Studios. The address is on the class page, with a map.
3. Clothes for a trial are whatever they can move in. Leggings or joggers, a T-shirt, bare feet or soft shoes. Ballet shoes and a leotard can wait until you know they want to stay. The uniform page is for after that decision.
4. Arrive with a few minutes spare. Tell a nervous child they can watch before they join in, and that the class is short. Most of the children who cling in the doorway are talking about the class by the following week. Some are not, and a single trial is allowed to be a no.
5. Afterwards, ask the teacher how they got on if you want to. Then decide. There is no deposit hiding behind the trial, and no speech about commitment. If the time, the drive or the style is wrong, say so. We would rather fill the place with a child who wants to be there.

For the shy child, the anxious parent, and the question of whether you stay in the room, your child's first dance class goes further than this list. The shape of the class itself is simple enough to sketch:

1. They arrive and settle, which for some children takes the whole warm-up.
2. A warm-up to music, so nobody is asked to be clever while they are still cold.
3. The taught part. RAD steps in ballet, a short phrase in street dance, a story or a prop in Dance Explorers.
4. Something that travels across the room, because children who have been concentrating need to move.
5. A short finish, so they leave having managed something, even if the something was standing in the circle.

How to choose a dance school near you

The Cotswolds are full of classes that look similar on a village Facebook post. A few questions sort them faster than a logo does.

Ask who teaches, and what they are qualified in. "Dance teacher" covers everything from a gifted hobbyist to someone who trained for years. RAD, ISTD, BBO and IDTA mean a syllabus and a standard. DBS checks and a first aid certificate should be ordinary, not a selling point you have to drag out of anyone.

Ask how many children are in the room. A small class is the difference between a child being corrected kindly and a child spending the half hour waiting for a turn. We keep groups small for that reason. If a school will not tell you the number, assume it is larger than you hope.

Ask what happens if your child hates it. A trial that is genuinely a trial, at a price that is not a term fee in disguise, tells you the school expects some children to leave. That is healthier than a registration fee on day one.

Ask whether the time survives contact with the rest of Saturday. A class that ends at 11.45am in a town ten minutes away gives you the day back. A class that is wonderful and 40 minutes in the wrong direction, at the same moment as your other child's swimming, will not last the term. The tables above are there so you can do that sum before you fall for a timetable that does not fit.

There is a longer checklist in how to choose a children's dance school. And if the worry is money rather than the drive, what children's dance classes cost goes through fees, shoes, exams and the extras that catch people out.

If you have got this far, you probably know which town and which year group. Book the trial for that class, come once, and judge it by whether your child wants to go back. That will tell you more than another evening of comparing websites.