Ballet and Other Dance Styles

[annaliesey]

I thought I'd start this thread to get other's views on other styles alongside ballet. 

 

It seems there are many students, parents and teachers who feel that to be good at ballet and to stand a chance of vocational training and success that other dance styles should be dropped to focus completely at ballet. 

 

Others seem to think it's good to try and be an all rounder. 

 

We've had lots of messages about continuing with other dance styles. For instance when DD when to a one off class at Birmingham Royal Ballet the tutor there spoke with them all about doing as much as they could in other styles including tap and musical theatre. 

 

But then the people we see in our networks gaining places in the vocational schools really don't seem to be that broad in their styles. Mostly are purely ballet in our experience. 

 

If you had a child that equally wanted to be successful in ballet alongside other styles would you encourage them to do it all or would you find yourself encouraging them to focus on their ballet more.

 

Just a question  

[trog]

A few years ago, the BRB were doing one of their jazz ballets (I can't remember which one) and one of their dancers was "sneaking" into the contempary class at the DanceXchange, presumably to give him a feel for a less strict dance style. Sadly, the ballet class that I do runs at the same time, so I couldn't watch him through the window. I sure that he would have been superb; he certainly was on stage. Many modern ballets are incorporating none ballet techniques. I think the more styles of dance you are exposed to the better. Of course, you must not spread yourself too thinly.

[Fiz]

Both of my ex dds fell in love with musical theatre when they were very young although the youngest was definitely much more ballet oriented. We were advised to do tap, modern and ballet as a bare minimum. They later added jazz and contemporary and the youngest did a few lessons in disco and hip hop for a very short time. They both preferred jazz to modern and my youngest still loves contemporary. Our eldest was not cut out for balllet and at seventeen had had enough of feeling inferior. Our youngest is still auditioning for various drama schools and musical theatre places and continues to keep up ballet, tap, jazz and contemporary as well as singing and drama.

[taxi4ballet]

For ballet-focused students, maybe it is worth also taking contemporary as all the vocational ballet schools teach that anyway, and possibly jazz as well. Funnily enough, my dd was advised by her physio not to do tap, but everyone is different!

[Pups_mum]

I'm no expert, but given the shortage of purely classical contracts available for even those who make it through classical vocational training it seems intuitive to me that having more than one string to your bow would be a good idea.

Plus a great deal of enjoyment can be had from a variety of dance forms, which, in my humble opinion, is what it's really all about. Realistically, only a tiny percentage of even very talented children are going to end up earning their livings as ballet dances and I think they should be enjoying the here and now rather than focussing too much on long term outcomes. Obviously if a student doesn't enjoy other genres it's different, but many do, and I think it's a good idea to at least try different things. You never know, it may turn out that they love another style even more than ballet.

As I say, I am just a regular mum, and absolutely not an expert, but I think that youth should be a time of trying new things, pushing different doors and taking as many opportunities as you can, whether that's in dance or life in general.

[Guest]

Great question. I assume your dd has a strong pull towards classical ballet?. If summer schools are anything to go by then ENB have a strong emphasis on contemporary styles as well as classical and Elmhurst also go for variety - they included singing which made quite a few of them want to hide at the back. Having said that the auditions do seem to be extremely focussed on ballet so that would appear to be what matters most in terms of selection criteria for classical ballet courses. It was said to my dd that if you are a purely recreational dancer then fine just do the genres that you enjoy, but if you want to take dance further you need to have a good grounding in a range of different 'subjects' (think like you would for GCSE and A level ) that specialises in your area of strength. Also there are 'cross curricular' benefits e.g. tap is meant to be beneficial for fast and accurate footwork in ballet. One area to 'flex' on is whether to do exams in that style or not. I'm sure that there are many different opinions on this topic and probably no one right answer. Hope this helps or at least promotes discussion.

[Kate_N]

What does your DD want to do with dance? Probably around 1% of current ballet pupils will end up working professionally as ballet dancers (that's the statistic that's bandied about), but maybe 10% will work with dance in some way. So adding in some high quality teaching in other dance forms couldn't e a bad thing. But high quality, so it complements, rather than counters good ballet training.

[Dance*is*life]

Ballet training is the basis for strong technique in most of the other dance genres.  I would say that the majority of the top modern dance companies give a morning ballet technique class to their company dancers and therefore it is important to have as strong a ballet technique as the physique and natural facility allows.  However, having said that I would definitely not advise any student to concentrate on ballet alone, because even in a classical ballet company, the repertoire today is so varied and you need to be able to adapt.  Also you never know what path you will take in life and what skills you will need.  As well as all the dance training,  I also studied mime and acting and this was very important to me when I became a character artiste in a ballet company at an older age. 

[annaliesey]

Great question. I assume your dd has a strong pull towards classical ballet?.

Yes she does but she also really enjoys contemporary and Jazz.

 

I just wonder really how and when children know if they want to focus more on ballet and start to drop other dance styles. She seems to be enjoying tap and modern less these days.

 

She says she wants to perform as a ballet dancer, that's her dream but wants to be able to teach when she gets old!! (Quite matter of fact at age 11 hehe)

 

Her ballet has always been constant but her other favourite styles seem quite changeable depending on her mood, her teachers, who she is in a class with, what music they dance to etc

Edited September 8, 2015 by annaliesey

[Huddsballetmum]

My dd loves ballet, it is her passion, however she realised at the age of 13/14 that she was never going to have the physique of a classical ballet dancer  ( legs too short).  She has studied modern, tap and contemporary and has now gone down the contemporary route and is on the CAT programme at NSCD.  She still takes 2 ballet classes per week as ballet is the foundation of most dance.

 

Dancers may have their dreams, but they need to be realistic if they want to have a dance career.  Limiting themselves to classical ballet may well be detrimental to their ambitions in the long run.  

[taxi4ballet]

Yes, it's usually around 13/14 that dancers set on a performing career will begin to know whether there is the chance of classical ballet becoming a realistic option to follow - if it is, then they do tend to drop some other styles (although it's useful to continue with contemporary and jazz as well). If not, then they generally continue with as many styles as possible and MT/singing as well, to keep their options open.

[CeliB]

My DS, who has only ever been interested in classical ballet, has also done contemporary and character at school, but honestly only around one class a week. What I find really interesting is that when he started vocational training he didn't like any other form of dance than classical vaganova, he even eschewed other ballet pedagogies such as Balanchine. The more he has progressed the more he has started to enjoy other dance forms and other styles of ballet. But I would note that as soon as his ballet technique became sufficiently advanced (after about 2 years) he had no trouble at all adapting very fast to other dance styles, and has never been told he is lacking in ability on those styles even on relatively little experience....

I think he would argue that once the basics are there you have transferable skills, but maybe others might disagree.....