PROGRAM DETAILS:
Date Thursday, December 3, 2026
Time 4-6 PM PT
Location Virtual
Cost Free with registration
Good for both beginners and professionals! Requires some dance terminology.
Dark Room Ballet Open Level Class is designed for the educational needs of blind and visually impaired people already familiar with ballet vocabulary. What makes a Dark Room Ballet Open Level Class different from an open level ballet class designed for sighted people?
* We use a different posture than what is taught in classes for sighted people! Dark Room Ballet dancers do not rely on eyesight or the ability to look at a fixed point to create balance, we use muscular engagement of the back body and internal body awareness.
* We dance with turnout based in our muscular engagement of the rotators! That might mean that you have asymmetrical turnout. Don't fix it! So long as you're using your muscles to create your turnout equally, you'll balance better, move more naturally, and keep your joints healthy and safe!
* We don't use a mirror to orient ourselves in space! We use a line of tape on the floor, which is the traditional tool that blind dancers have used for generations. The way our foot contacts the tape helps us keep track of how we relate to our dance space.
* Your teacher describes what she is doing and how it feels and not what it looks like! If our bodies all feel the same, we're all doing the same thing together!
* Your teacher does not reverse movement -- and never stops talking! That's because what she says is more important than any visual image she creates!
* Our combinations are longer and contain more ideas! Don't worry about memorizing; you will hear verbal cues all through class, non-stop!
* Even if you've been a ballet dancer all your life, you might hear vocabulary words you've never heard before! A lot of ballet terms used in sighted people's classes are shorthand for longer terms, but that often means that very different movements are called by the same name. In Dark Room Ballet classes, we differentiate between every movement by name!
* Your teacher doesn't correct you while you're dancing! She can't see you, and anyway, she's busy dancing and describing right now! However, this is a class for adults interested in building their metacognition! If there was something that you didn't understand, or felt wasn't working out, or something seemed off, you have a dedicated question-and-answer time at the end of class to talk with your teacher, and she helps you figure things out conversationally!
* You'll get a dance history lesson! Dark Room Ballet is a tuition-free educational program, and we believe in education justice. That means we don't gatekeep collegiate or graduate-level learning from adult students without access to other programs. Without putting ballet in artistic context, it can seem like a bunch of exercises instead of an art form. We keep ballet art at Dark Room Ballet.
Open level class is suitable for most dancers, from people who have just finished the Intro Level Dark Room Ballet Series up to professionals. This class is designed specifically for the educational needs of blind and visually impaired people. While most ballet movements are fully described in Open Level Class, you will need to be comfortable with the following ballet vocabulary:
Leg positions (first, second, fourth)
Arm positions (low fifth, first, high fifth, second) and their corresponding allonge
Port de bras
Cambré (front, side, back)
Tendu
Dégagé
En croix and alternating legs patterns
Rond de jamb (demi, a terre, and en l’air), en dehors and en dedans
Coupé
Relevé
Elevé
Temps lié
Développe and Enveloppé
Chassé
Cloche
Sauté in first and second
Forced arch foot shape and frappé
Emboîté, or petit jeté
First and second arabesque
[Image ID: A woman in a white leotard stands, using forearm crutches, in a dance studio, framed by a monstera plant in front of the camera. End ID.]
NUMU strives to be an accessible organization by accommodating the needs of all our constituents. The museum's building is ADA-compliant. There is a ramp to enter the Civic Center Plaza starting at the Los Gatos Library’s parking lot. There are no inclines between the lot behind the museum and the museum’s side entrance. The museum has a publicly accessible elevator, ADA-compliant restrooms on both floors, and a wheelchair and fidget toys are available to borrow when visiting. Should you have any accessibility concerns, please email us at visit@numulosgatos.org.
Exhibitions, programs, and operations are made possible by NUMU’s Board of Directors & Circle Members, the Michael & Alyce Parsons Art Endowment, Bequest of Beverly Ann Curtis, the Borgenicht Foundation, Ranae DeSantis, Christie's International Real Estate, The Flick Family, Jan Schwartz & Bob Baden, Lynx Properties, LLC, Carol & Rick Tinsley, The Town of Los Gatos, California Arts Council, and SVCreates, in partnership with the County of Santa Clara.
