Ballet parents

[LibraryLover]

Tell young child's ballet experiences.  DD  is starting in Foundation 1. Experiences?

Edited October 19, 2013 by LibraryLover
missing comma

[jg_puppy]

My dd started ballet at 6. She is now 9 and loves dance. She is on a dance team at a local studio that is very conservative. We have had a few very minor annoyances with the studio, but overall dance has been wonderful for my dd. Dance has become such a large part of her life that I can't imagine her not dancing. She has said for the last two years that she wants to be a dance teacher. She is still really young, but I think she just might do it. Several of the teachers at her studio work there part time and also home school their kids. That is what my dd says that she wants to do.

 

Jan

[Ali in OR]

We just started last week. Dds have been doing gymnastics for a few years but aren't interested in competitive gymnastics. They wanted to try dance, so we've switched from gymnastics to ballet. They are at a classical ballet studio--no jazz, modern, etc. Pink tights, black leos, hair in a bun. Very nice conservative place--I'm impressed so far. And I don't know if this is typical, but it's cheaper than gymnastics--$40 per month instead of $60 for a weekly class and we get a discount for the second kid which we didn't for gymnastics.

[chiguirre]

Dd is starting her 4th year of dance. Up until now it's been the typical preschool/K little girls in pink learning a few basics mixed in with physical activities to promote coordination and build strength. This year we switched to a more serious studio because she had a truly lame teacher last year. So far, so good. I don't think dd is very talented but she loves ballet and wants to go.

 

Ds also wants to dance, but he's nowhere near as serious as dd and I don't think the serious place would be a good fit. I found a 10 week hs class without recital, so he's going to do that. It's very close to dd's TKD class, so I can kill 2 birds with one stone.

[ChristusG]

DD took dance last season when she was 4. It was ballet and tap. It was a VERY laid back studio. Not the best dancers, but they all had fun. The instructor was nice. No strict codes or anything like that. The recital at the end was cute and was a great price as well. We're sitting this season out of dance....between soccer, our first year of homeschool, homeschool group, church, etc, I figured I wanted our Monday nights free.

[MgoBlue]

Dd's first year of ballet was last year at age 7. A former homeschooler teaches the class so it's small and comfortable. There was a recital in may & it was very low key...nice. The kid LOVES ballet--LOVES getting out w/other kids. Dh is unemployed & ballet teacher emailed me & said "bring her and pay me whatever you can". She does it out of her heart more than for profit. WE're blessed to have these circumstances. Again...dd LOVES ballet & is VERY GOOD at it. (don't know where that came from as I have like 2 left feet!)

Paula

[Terabith]

My oldest is starting her third year of ballet. She started when she was three doing a little class at The Little Gym. Very, very casual, lots of general coordination stuff. We moved right before she turned four, and after Christmas she started at a more serious places where she got to be a duckling in Peter and the Wolf. She took there last year as well, and she has learned a lot. But the studio had a sort of a split a couple years ago between the artistic director and administration, and they became increasingly disorganized last year, so we moved over to the new studio that was the other half of the split. I LOVE it. My youngest is also taking this year. They are pretty serious about what they are doing, but there aren't skimpy costumes or recitals; each year there is a performance, like Sleeping Beauty, etc. They have a lot of homeschoolers there; there are morning classes for level 2 (ages 6-8 ish), level 3 (ages 8-10 ish), and level 5 (12-14 or so), which to me indicates a sizable percentage of homeschoolers. I never did anything like dance as a kid, and I have worried about dance values/ attitude/ body image, etc. But, it's been a very good thing for Anna. It has helped her coordination and fitness a lot. I have a friend whose daughter studies at the same school who is 13 and pretty competitive, and she has given me some hope that it'll be okay if my girls want to continue it. In my imagination, I thought they would do dance/ gymnastics during early childhood and then switch to team sports or martial arts or something. They still might, but Anna loves dance, so we'll see. So, my advice is, be like the angels say and "Fear not."

[Zanyan]

My daughter is 13 years old is very serious about ballet. She trains 5 or 6 days a week, depending upon her rehearsal schedule. We live in a small town that doesn't have the best training available, so for the last 6 months, we've been driving over an hour each direction to take her to and from her classes.

 

She started in pre-ballet classes when she was 3, almost 4 years old. She then went to the graded levels starting at about age 7, but only had one hour a week of ballet classes then. The number of hours gradually increased until at the age of 12, she was taking 10 hours per week. She will have about 12 or so hours per week of ballet this year. Once she's 15 years old, she'll move into the advanced division and then she'll have 18 hours a week of classes, and 5 - 10 hours per week of reheasals/performances.

 

Ballet has been a wonderful, exciting, difficult, frustrating, and character building endeavor for dd. Sometimes I wish she was just a regular kid, but then she wouldn't be herself. When she was young, say before the age of 11 in ballet, it was all fun, all joyful. I think it's a wonderful skill for young kids to learn. They learn to pay attention to detail, to show respect for their teachers, their classmates, and themselves. They learn to carry themselves beautifully, and they get to immerse themselves in learning a classical art form. Once they become very serious students is when the real challenges begin. Those challenges have made my daughter a very strong, confident, poised, and compassionate person. Not too shabby, really.

 

And I agree with you that ballet is a great form of dance because they don't wear risque costumes and shake their booties on stage. I'm also a conservative liberal! :D.

 

At this stage, just have fun with it. I kinda miss those early days. :)

Edited September 13, 2009 by Zanyan

[LibraryLover]

 I have tried so hard to keep us low key, but with multiple children and multiple interests, it's not so easy. I hope everything will be ok.

Thanks for all your feedback. :)

[AngelaNYC]

Dd is 13 and has been taking ballet since she was 3. Dress code is black leotard, tights, bun, ballet shoes. She takes all forms of dance (tap, lyrical, hip hop, contemporary, musical theater, acro, and jazz), does about 6 regional competitions a year, and a summer nationals. She is on a team of 6 others (4 girls, 2 boys) around her age and ability and also does group numbers with the 6 girls on the older team. She has anywhere from 6 to 16 hours of classes per week.

 

I don't know how old your dd is, but my dd's younger years of dance was learning all the moves (along with all the french names, lol) and learning a few numbers for the recital. She started competing at 7y/o and that's when things got more intense - and she loved every second of it. :D

 

She plans to make a career out of dance and will be auditioning for performing arts high schools in a few months.