What age is ideal for a ballet student to begin training?
You are never to old for your first taste of a ballet class! Ballet is not only a beautiful, amazing, demanding art form, but it's also GREAT exercise. So whether you are 3 or 33, if you have an itch to try ballet, do it!
Students at 3 years of age all the way to 5 or 6 are in an exploratory age. They will learn some good, foundational elements of a ballet class, or show talent or promise, but beginning ballet this young isn't a necessity to becoming a great dancer.
From ages as young as 5 all the way to the pre-teen years, dancers may begin to perfect ballet technique. This is the age range where good training becomes more critical. (See below for how to find the right training.) Generally, if a dancer does not begin to establish correct ballet technique in these years by attending the right schools and taking multiple times a week, it becomes very difficult to progress towards being competitive for employment in the ballet world or ballet school scholarships. But not all dancers WANT to become professionals or care about furthering their abilities. Listen to your dancer and follow his lead.
If a dancer does want to progress quickly and remain competitive for scholarships and employment, it is important to begin to take a ballet class multiple times a week. Read below to understand why this is so.
Which studio is best?
If your son or daughter is just starting out (for girls, ages 3-7; boys 3-13 apx.), the “right” studio provides dance exploration and experience. This is your child’s introduction to dance. It should be fun and engaging. These first classes may have little to do with impressive training and proper technique, and that is okay. Even if your 5 year old has declared he or she would like to be a dancer “when I grow up,” potential, aptitude, discipline, and everything else has yet to be determined or developed.
Look for an experience your young dancer will love. A lengthy drive in the car might kill the whole deal for him or her. Pricey tuition might kill it for you. At this point, it is totally valid to consider cost and convenience as major factors in your decision. And when your son or daughter is having fun, dancing even outside of class, and begging for more, not only do you know you found the “right” place, but it may be time to think of taking the next step in your dancer’s training.
That next step, taking it up a notch, going to the next level means building a solid technical foundation. That is the goal of the training offered at most dance studios for girls between ages 8 and 15, and boys all the way to 16. At this point, it isn’t enough to wiggle around the stage in a cute costume. It’s time to really begin dancing. To build that technical foundation, most studios will begin to offer and recommend longer classes more often. Look for a studio that allows your dancer to take as often as he or she wishes.
Though most parents aren't experts in ballet technique, it isn't hard for anyone to spot a well-trained ballet dancer. Ask to visit the classes of dancers at their highest level, or go to see the recitals or performances at the end of the year, taking your budding dancer with you. It is likely she will be able to tell you what impressed her most. You can also inquire about where students go when they have finished their training at various schools. Do any receive dance scholarships to college? Have any been taken into pre-professional schools or received scholarships to summer programs? Remember, there are VERY FEW LEGITIMATE BALLET COMPETITIONS. So if the studio has a successful competing "team," it may be what your dancer is excited about, and THAT may mean it's a good fit, but that doesn't make it classical ballet training.
My child's music lessons are once a week. Why do you encourage students to take more often than once a week?
First, is the facility. Though ballet is relatively cheap compared to many sports with their related gears and tournament travel, it isn't cheap to put a ballet studio with mirrors, a barre, and adequate space to move in your home.
Even if you were fortunate to have access to such space, when it comes to training muscles, the ballet movements must be done correctly or a dancer may train his muscles wrong. So while giving yourself your own class will give you a good work-out, young dancers must first learn what is proper technique AND then develop the strength to execute it. I know, ballet DOES look easy. But believe me, even standing in a good position takes a lot of effort and dancers simply will not be able to build that strength over time at the rate of one class per week.
If your dancer is asking for MORE classes, and if you have established that what he or she is learning is good ballet technique, give her as much as she wants! Of course, many dancers may not be interested enough in ballet to take more than once or twice a week. That is perfectly fine. These dancers will not become great ballet dancers. And that is fine too.
Why is there so much emphasis on discipline in good ballet training?
Some of the discipline in ballet is tradition. In Europe, schools are centuries old and are funded by the state. Though the US has a loser approach, many top teachers in US schools have come from this older European model. And you know what? It produces amazing ballerinas and dancers. Depending on the school, students are not allowed to sit in ballet class, not allowed to yawn, not allowed to talk, and each must thank the teacher after with a bow or curtsy.
Great discipline is also great preparation for the career to come where things are very competitive and your fellow co-workers will clobber you if they must dance over and over again the same part of the ballet because you missed hearing the details of how to execute your part.
Of course, discipline is often also it's own reward, but I go into that below.
When can my child wear point shoes?
Though views on this may be shifting with new materials used in making point shoes, traditionally, dancers don't have point shoes before age 11 or 12. HOWEVER, the primary consideration SHOULD not be age OR size, but strength and placement of the ankles and core. In other words, if your 11 year old dancer thinks her turn is coming, a good school will be evaluating her ability to stand in those shoes correctly without damaging her ankles or preventing the rest of her body from holding good positions. Beware of schools and teachers that put dancers on point as a rite of passage. Injury is the worst case scenario but forming bad habits also limit a dancer's potential.
In a ballet class, why do students learn the same steps over and over again?
Ballet is an art, and a dancer's body her instrument. Not only does the instrument need to be tuned over and over, but it will play always the same notes, only arranged differently for the different pieces. Dancers and parents can, at times, feel frustrated that a ballet class has so much of what a dancer "has already learned." Your dancer may, in fact, play a perfect middle C already - do a perfect demi plie for example - but rush through a piece (series of steps), skip it, or not play (dance) it with the right emphasis. A ballet class's repetition helps each dancer not only by expanding what he or she is able to do, or in our metaphor, increase the number of pieces she can play, but it also helps her instrument to sound (look) it's best and each piece to be played (danced) with perfection!
My child says she wants to be a ballerina when she grows up. How can I help her pursue this goal?
There are many factors that make-up the attributes of a professional dancer. Ballet is a demanding career, but so wonderfully exciting for those blessed to pursue it. Parents are blessed when children find passions and set high goals for themselves. Sometimes these goals mean a lot of sacrifice on the part of the parents, and even the families. If your child wants to be a dancer "when she grows up," take her to as many ballet lessons a week as she can attend and enjoy. Take her to see professional ballet (Ballet West is the only fully professional company in Utah). Nothing is quite as inspiring as seeing live and in the flesh your dream of what you want to do.
Determine to keep open the doors of opportunity her talents bring to her. Generally the realities of the demands of this career are limiting enough. Some dancers will not have the passion for minutiae that helps them push past a few years of physically demanding but boring training. Others won't have quite the body shape or feet that potential employers are looking for. Still others will get injured in training and decide not to pursue a career further.
As parents, at times we wish to protect our children from these disappointments and prematurely bring interests to a close by setting our own boundaries of time or money. As a parent, I respect the realities of some boundaries. But we should not let our own fears bind the love of our children. The ballet world is filled with the stories of dancers who overcame great odds to dance. If your child's only limitation is herself, you may both be amazed at how far she is able to go. And, in the end, if she falls short of the goal, she will be all the stronger for the obstacles she DID face and conquer.
My Child will NOT be a professional dancer, so are there any advantages to disciplined ballet training over just letting him or her take some dance classes and have fun?
If your child is limited by his or her own interests, by competing interests, or by other physical limitations, parents and dancers face the question of when to "throw in the towel." I encourage parents to let the dancer make the call. Dance can be a wonderful form of life-time fitness, and even many gyms offer ballet or ballet-centric classes. But there are still advantages remaining in competitive and professional training environments.
In fact, I informally polled my former peers and colleagues in professional companies and in pre-professional schools. Some of these folks had long ballet careers, others much shorter, and still others stopped dancing all together and went on to pursue other interests. Without exception, their feedback was to let dancers who love dancing keep dancing at their highest personal level whenever possible. They all referenced the satisfaction of doing something so incredibly hard and demanding and doing it to a proficient level. That kind of dedication fuels the soul with confidence and poise. Ballet trains the mind as well. A well trained dancer is one who is likely to succeed in college, in a professional career, and in demanding and intimidating circumstances. Ballet dancers make dedicated and disciplined spouses, mothers and fathers, workers, and professionals. As the insider viewpoint goes: Ballet dancers "turn-out" better. (A pun referencing the rotation of the hips in ballet.)
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