About
Ballet & more is located in the heart of Neuchâtel, in the beautiful studio of the YogaFabrik.
I, Chantal, offer dance classes that range from toddlers and their parents to pre-teenagers in a family-friendly, safe and supportive environment. I believe that my first responsibility is to treat my students and their families with the upmost respect. I constantly strive to provide a premiere education. At Ballet & more I teach dance and movement, but also look to build coordination, sense of rhythm, musicality and self-expression skills as well as beneficial life skills as commitment and teamwork. I wish to provide a space where my dancers, movers and their parents can make long lasting friendships and memories!
Your child will be nurtured and encouraged, to develop their creativity, confidence, social and language skills. You will love the family feel of my studio, where we support each other and make every child and their family feel welcome.
Mission
Nurturing Hearts and Minds through Playful Learning and Movement Exploration
Hello! I am Chantal
Hello! I am Chantal Jimenez. I founded Ballet & more in January 2022. I was working as a ballet teacher for Piri Ballet at the venue in Neuchâtel first. In December 2021 I got the opportunity to take over this venue.
I studied dance and education at Nova Dans College in The Netherlands. I graduated in 2010 as a Modern (contemporary) teacher, specialised in Limòn style. I also took extra training in Jazz (specialised in Mattox method) and Folk dance (specialised in eastern European folk dance). Ballet has always been a big part of my life and is what I love most. But the ballet world is hard and very strict. According to my teachers I didn’t have the ‘perfect’ body, splits, deep plié and high arches.
After graduating I started to find ways to adjust ballet to the body, instead of adjusting the body to ballet. That is what makes my ballet lessons so special, because I believe that ballet (and dance in general) is for EVERYONE!
In the Netherlands I have been working for VAK Delft, arts center. I was in charge of the selection groups, manager of many showcases and director and choreographer of semi-professional dinner shows. I also did many educational projects for elementary schools and high schools for VAK Education.
Also, I worked for Projects Unlimited. Here I got to collaborate with the Dutch National Ballet and Scapino Ballet Rotterdam and do educational projects at many schools.
At Something Extra I was a dancer in an educational dance show called: Dansen Dansen Dansen (dance, dance, dance). The show was about the history of dance starting with the waltz from the 18th century until the dance trends now.
In 2016 I moved to Switzerland with my family and started working for Simply Theatre and for Piri Ballet.
Education is very important for me, I did many trainings to improve my teaching skills and to learn several teachings methods like: Dansspetters (dance spetters) by Maria Speth, Peuterdans Onderwijs (toddler dance education) by Yvonne Dingjan and in April 2022 I completed succesfully the teacher training program for Contakids by Itay Yatuv!