ballet moms...

[LMA]

How many hours a week would you have a 6-year old dance? My dd has been told she is quite talented by several independent teachers and could take more classes if she would like.

 

Do I just stick with two classes a week? Would you let her take an intermediate class? I don't want to burn her out or get any overuse injuries. She has other sports also.

 

Would you stay with a local studio that is quite good or go to someplace like Boston Ballet?

 

I'm just not sure what to do. I want to proceed cautiously but I don't want to hold her back either.

[Avila]

Two would be plenty at six years old. Most serious ballet places are still offering only pre-ballet classes at six. Anything above is already advanced.

 

Remember that the hours will just continue to go up, and the sooner they do, the more chance she has to burn out, get frustrated or get injured before she even hits "intermediate age and intermediate level."

 

The other issue is that many studios have nothing for kids past intermediate for ballet that is not en pointe. How early do you want to have to make that decision? The sooner she begins intermediate level, the sooner this issue crops up.

 

As far as training goes, the advice for ballet is always to go with the best training you can afford, but make sure it is worth it. Sometimes the big name places are fabulous, but only at certain levels. Many have their apprentices teaching the younger kids, and you would be paying more money and often commuting for the same level of teaching you could get cheaper locally.

 

I would check out Ballet Talk http://dancers.invisionzone.com/index.php. They can be over the top, but they also give solid advice about these things.

Edited June 4, 2012 by Asenik

[justasque]

Remember that the hours will just continue to go up, and the sooner they do, the more chance she has to burn out, get frustrated or get injured before she even hits "intermediate age and intermediate level."

 

...

 

As far as training goes, the advice for ballet is always to go with the best training you can afford, but make sure it is worth it.

 

:iagree:

The key questions to ask at all stages is "Are you still enjoying this? Do you want to take the same amount, or a bit more, or a bit less? Do you want to eliminate this other thing to do more, or do a bit less so you can add in such-and-such."

 

Ballet is a lifetime sport, which in a very few cases leads to a career, but in the vast majority of cases is simply a fun, healthy form of exercise for body and mind. Don't over-promise the former, don't under-estimate the benefits of the latter.

[LibraryLover]

Boston Ballet offers 6 yr olds one class per week for 45 minutes. The 7 year olds have a 60 minute class once per week. If it's not undue hardship to get there (Boston traffic is delightful ;)), you're not going to go wrong, training -wise, at BB.

 

I would think twice a week enough for now if she enjoys it.

 

www.BostonBallet.org

Edited June 4, 2012 by LibraryLover

[DianeW88]

I wouldn't pursue it too seriously until age eight. Right now, just see if she continues to enjoy it. There's plenty of time left to make it a job...and that is what it becomes around age eleven or so, when you really need to ramp it up.

 

If she's genuinely talented, five classes a week at age eight is not too many. Around age eleven, she should be taking two classes per day (technique and one other...pointe, character, variations, etc.)...and it increases from there. When my dd was in her ballet day program, she took six hours of classes per day, starting at age thirteen.

 

If she is serious, you will also need to begin looking into summer intensives around age twelve. Kids usually stay local for a year or two, then audition for and go to programs with major companies in other cities. If your dd is very talented, she will be offered scholarships for these which will help mitigate the cost. Most are 4-6 weeks in length, so they can run into the thousands of dollars for one intensive. The most promising students will attend two per summer.

 

Boston Ballet has an excellent school, and since quality training is a must, you should definitely look into their school.

 

HTH...it's a long road to a pro career, but it is fun and well worth it to see your child succeed in something they feel so passionately about! Good luck!

[sassenach]

Maximum 2, but honestly, I'd stick to 1. I've seen it over and over with kids, if you advance them too quickly, it just really kills their love of the activity down the road.

[chepyl]

There are many things that a six year old should not be doing. There are positions in ballet thay should not be used extensively by kids until they are 8 or older. They can cause injury to their hips.

 

My 6 year olds take one hour of class a week. A few choose to take a second class. It is only required if they want to compete. Their second class is a strength and flexibility class, plus rehearsal. I don't require two classes a week until they are older and if they have decided to pursue dance more seriously. A six year old does not know what they want to do. If someone is pressuring you to put a six year old in more classes, I would look for a new studio.

 

As far as the idea of pointed coming up earlier if she progresses faster at a younger age, run fast from anyone who want to put her in pointed shoes.before the age of 12. I don't care if a child takes ballet 6 days a week and is super strong. Muscle strength has nothing to do bone development. Bones in the foot must be 75% occified before pointwork begins. That does not typically happen until around 12 and can only be seen in an x-ray.

[jujsky]

How many hours a week would you have a 6-year old dance? My dd has been told she is quite talented by several independent teachers and could take more classes if she would like.

 

Do I just stick with two classes a week? Would you let her take an intermediate class? I don't want to burn her out or get any overuse injuries. She has other sports also.

 

Would you stay with a local studio that is quite good or go to someplace like Boston Ballet?

 

I'm just not sure what to do. I want to proceed cautiously but I don't want to hold her back either.

 

I think it totally depends on the 6 year-old. When it comes to number of classes, I think it's a matter of passion. She can have all the natural ability in the world, but if the passion isn't there, she will be miserable if she's in a ton of classes. What does she want to do? Does she want to commit to dance or still do other activities? My DD (who has NO natural talent, BTW) is passionate about dance, and at 6 she was taking 4 classes. At 7 she is also taking 4 classes and will probably take 4-5 next year. There is a fine line there between passion and burn-out. My DD is starting to experience that this year after joining dance company because the extra rehearsals are a bit TOO much for her.

 

IF my daughter had the passion she does coupled with talent AND the desire to be a professional dancer someday, I would find the best school available. If not, I'd stay at your current school if that's where she's happy.

[catz]

Two would be plenty at six years old. Most serious ballet places are still offering only pre-ballet classes at six. Anything above is already advanced.

 

:iagree: Pointe classes are better started too late than too early (ETA to switch this around!). Some precocious kids do get frustrated waiting to be able to get en pointe.

 

My 7 year old took 4 hours of dance all last year (she turned 8 yesterday), but she took 2 of ballet and 1 of tap and jazz. She also took 2 hours of acrobatics. And that was really nice rounding for a kid who really enjoys this kind of thing (she would do 10-12 hours if we let her and it's also a social outlet for an extroverted kid, she also did a committed winter show that had extra weekend rehearsals). I could see her going into dance possibly, but higher level ballet is so specific to body type that I can't see narrowing my kid to that at age 6 (or even at pre-pointe level unless you had a kid that was very clear about what they wanted and I had several professionals saying that she might be able to). There are amazing kids that come out of our dance studio that do dance in college and go on in it, so I don't worry about the quality of our program (even though plenty of classical ballet only studios would snub their noses at it).

Edited June 4, 2012 by kck

[DianeW88]

There are many things that a six year old should not be doing. There are positions in ballet thay should not be used extensively by kids until they are 8 or older. They can cause injury to their hips.

 

My 6 year olds take one hour of class a week. A few choose to take a second class. It is only required if they want to compete. Their second class is a strength and flexibility class, plus rehearsal. I don't require two classes a week until they are older and if they have decided to pursue dance more seriously. A six year old does not know what they want to do. If someone is pressuring you to put a six year old in more classes, I would look for a new studio.

 

As far as the idea of pointed coming up earlier if she progresses faster at a younger age, run fast from anyone who want to put her in pointed shoes.before the age of 12. I don't care if a child takes ballet 6 days a week and is super strong. Muscle strength has nothing to do bone development. Bones in the foot must be 75% occified before pointwork begins. That does not typically happen until around 12 and can only be seen in an x-ray.

 

:iagree: No pointe shoes before age 11...and only if she's had her feet checked. You can absolutely ruin a child's feet if you push them into pointe shoes too early. That is also why there should be no serious ballet training until age eight. Younger bodies cannot do the positions correctly, and you end up with a dancer who has a whole bunch of nasty habits that are almost too ingrained to change, and a whole mess of injuries from incorrect body placement and using the wrong muscles to maintain turnout or force extension.

[Mary in VA]

Pointe classes are better started too early than too late. Some precocious kids do get frustrated waiting to be able to get en pointe.

 

 

No, No, No!! Pointe is NOT better started too early. Pointe work it TOTALLY dependent upon strength AND development of the bones. As a PP said, it is usually not begun before age 12, rarely before. Permanent damage can be done to the feet. Dancers should be taking class AT LEAST 4 days a week before they go en pointe. If a precocious student wants to quit because they can't go en pointe yet, then they should quit, ballet isn't for them. The dancer can continue to develop and grow as a dancer not on pointe and when she gets pointe shoes she will take off with them. Ask me how I know:001_smile: My dd had to wait about 5 months longer than the rest of her class to get her pointe shoes at age 12. She is now 17 and dancing in a pre-professional school, 5 days a week, 14-17 hours.

 

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack the thread, but pointe should be when the dancer is READY, not before.

 

As for the OP :001_smile: I agree with the PPs that one hour a week is fine at age 6. If you can financially and logistically support going to Boston Ballet that would be great, but probably not necessary technique wise until age 8.

 

I also agree with the PP who suggested checking out Ballet Talk for Dancers! Lots of great info there!

 

Enjoy your ballet journey! We have one more year with our dancing daughter at home before she goes off to college, to hopefully minor in dance. It has been a wonderful experience to support her in this passion.

 

Mary

[LMA]

Let me clarify. We are not talking about pointe at all. She takes two classes at two different studios. She is with 8, 9, and 10 year olds. The teachers' placements, not mine and both studios are not aware of the other's placement, meaning one teacher did not place her in the class because the other studio did the same. One studio lets her take makeups with the Intermediate Level A technique class. All teachers have said she will do pointe around 11.

 

I have inquired about injuries previously and all teachers said she will not be doing anything that is too advanced for her growth and could cause injury, including the makeup class. If she is too uncomfortable with anything, she tells the teachers.

 

The teachers have suggested that she take one more hour each week during the summer.

 

As far as my daughter goes, she loves ballet with a passion. We have been to three productions in May.

[Avila]

Let me clarify. We are not talking about pointe at all. She takes two classes at two different studios. She is with 8, 9, and 10 year olds. The teachers' placements, not mine and both studios are not aware of the other's placement, meaning one teacher did not place her in the class because the other studio did the same. One studio lets her take makeups with the Intermediate Level A technique class. All teachers have said she will do pointe around 11.

 

I have inquired about injuries previously and all teachers said she will not be doing anything that is too advanced for her growth and could cause injury, including the makeup class. If she is too uncomfortable with anything, she tells the teachers.

 

The teachers have suggested that she take one more hour each week during the summer.

 

As far as my daughter goes, she loves ballet with a passion. We have been to three productions in May.

 

I guess my point was that there is no reason to hurry this. Most places do not have ballet training above intermediate level without the child going en pointe. That means that you could be hurrying now only to effectively run out of training later that will challenge the child and keep her safe.

 

I would say that you would be better off choosing one studio -- maybe Boston Ballet, like you mentioned -- than straddling training at more than one, just for the sake of consistency and follow through. Take her and have her evaluated at Boston or somewhere like it, and see what they recommend, even if you don't go there. That way you know you aren't being pushed for extra tuition money where you are.

 

Even an extremely talented ballerina really doesn't need hard-core training until they are eight or older, simply because they physiologically can't do anything with it before that anyhow. A six year old being in class regularly with ten year olds for ballet scares me. A lot.

Edited June 4, 2012 by Asenik

[LMA]

Several teachers say there is no need to go to a place like Boston Ballet until age 9 when they have auditions for classes. It is an hour away from me and parking is very limited.

 

One current teacher was in the company of Boston Ballet for many years. It was her suggestion to take a third class.

 

I guess I haven't thought more classes was too much because she figure skates 6 hours a week. There are many other skaters her age who skate more than that, so the skating hours and training are fine with her age.

 

I was comparing the number of dance hours to sports hours but maybe they are not comparable?

[catz]

No, No, No!! Pointe is NOT better started too early.

Mary

 

This was my mistake! I definitely DID NOT mean that and I went back and fixed it. I meant the opposite. That's what I get for typing while talking to a child! Definitely better TOO LATE than TOO EARLY! :D

[catz]

Let me clarify. We are not talking about pointe at all. She takes two classes at two different studios. She is with 8, 9, and 10 year olds. The teachers' placements, not mine and both studios are not aware of the other's placement, meaning one teacher did not place her in the class because the other studio did the same. One studio lets her take makeups with the Intermediate Level A technique class. All teachers have said she will do pointe around 11.

 

 

If she loves and it and you can swing it, I think it's ok. My daughter's is the youngest in her group of dancers too.

 

But the thing is she'll be "stuck" right where she is at until she's 11 and can do pointe. Depends what else you have going on for her and how you want to do things. If you are at a ballet specific studio, of course they'd love you to do more ballet. I just think at this age, it's not going to get you anywhere faster and she might get bored and burnt out earlier.

 

I do think being at a single studio is better for rounding a kid out. I liked Shelly's recommendations there. If you're serious, I'd go into several studios and have someone see what she can do and what their recommendations are from there.

 

If she's also doing 6 hours of figure skating a week that is probably definitely helping the ballet and her "lines" and that is probably why she is looking very good for age. I'd keep doing that if that's a fit. The dance/acrobatics combo for my kiddo has been great and she definitely stands out in both groups because of it. The other thing is at some point she will have to pick one of those activities if she wants to get to a very high level and I think the longer you can put that off at this age, the better.

[LMA]

If she loves and it and you can swing it, I think it's ok. My daughter's is the youngest in her group of dancers too.

 

But the thing is she'll be "stuck" right where she is at until she's 11 and can do pointe. Depends what else you have going on for her and how you want to do things. If you are at a ballet specific studio, of course they'd love you to do more ballet. I just think at this age, it's not going to get you anywhere faster and she might get bored and burnt out earlier.

 

I do think being at a single studio is better for rounding a kid out. I liked Shelly's recommendations there. If you're serious, I'd go into several studios and have someone see what she can do and what their recommendations are from there.

 

If she's also doing 6 hours of figure skating a week that is probably definitely helping the ballet and her "lines" and that is probably why she is looking very good for age. I'd keep doing that if that's a fit. The dance/acrobatics combo for my kiddo has been great and she definitely stands out in both groups because of it. The other thing is at some point she will have to pick one of those activities if she wants to get to a very high level and I think the longer you can put that off at this age, the better.

 

I am aware she is in the class until 11 and that is okay. I have been to several studios. Due to the low number of students, they only offer one class a week. These are all just classical ballet. The first studio suggested that she study another hour a week somewhere else. The second studio is well aware of that.

 

Her first ballet teacher at age 4 said she is very talented and she did not say that likely. The teacher said she had seen hundreds of kids and my daughter stood out. We liked that studio very much and it was close. It has a professional company and a large enough school. But they had financial problems and we left after two years because the school was getting hit more and tuition was used to finance the company even though the two organizations were supposed to be separate. A lot of parents left because of this. So we went with smaller studios.

 

Actually, it is the other way around, the ballet has really helped her figure skating. She does her own choreography of her skating programs and she is taking a ballet choreography class next year.

 

So, I will just think about it some more and figure out what is best for her.

[Lady Marmalade]

How long are your classes? Ours are 60 minutes long, and at 6 years of age, one class is probably enough. Both of my kids took 1 class their first year at the age of six.

 

The next year DD bumped up to two hours of class. But the other hour was a split class of Tap/Jazz. Her third year (age 8) was when we started ramping up the ballet. She added another hour of ballet, and total was up to 4 hours of dance.

 

Starting in a few weeks we will be up to 4 hours a week of ballet. When she moves up to pointe sometime over the next year it will be 5 1/2 hours a week of ballet instruction. Total dance hours a week will be at 13, she will be turning 12 years old this summer, so it's taken us six years to get to this point.

 

She has aspirations of being a dance teacher at this point in her dance career, so she is taking almost all styles of dance to make her a better rounded dancer.

[kroe1]

I'm confused as to what her passion is, ice skating or ballet or both?

 

But whatever, I think you mentioned that she is spending about 6 hours a week between the two.

 

The first thing I would do is look at my body and my DH's body. If one of us has a dancer's or skater's body, and my DD had a chance at a dancer's body, then I'd let her follow her passion vehemently. If my DD didn't have a chance at one of those types of bodies, then I would expand her horizons in other social sports activities like soccer, swimming, etc. rather than plowing her straight ahead into a brick wall.

 

I would also expand her horizons a little, irrespective of what she chooses. If this child is a natural performer, then I'd get her in an acting class and voice lessons. The acting lessons will make her a better dancer and add to her repertoire of skills. Plus, it is something she can do life long as a hobby, and will help her at most careers. The voice lessons are added to ensure she becomes a triple threat, and she will be marketable in multiple disciplines whether it be dance, theater, etc.

 

Also, I might think about other genres of dance for this kiddo to keep her from burning out. (I know all you ballet moms are going to throw tomatoes.) But while she's young, and before she must limit her interests, other genres might be fun and help her perform in other activities she's less comfortable in.

 

My own DD12 is a local triple threat in a resort town that is huge on performing arts. Her competition is immense. Nonetheless, she's mostly featured in dance numbers because of her facial expressions which give her an illusion of being a better dancer. Acting, voice, and stand up comedy have made her so comfortable on a stage that dance is just another character to her. And it shows.

 

I hope that makes sense.

 

:)