taxi4ballet Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 I've recently found myself idly playing the 'spot the kid who should be doing ballet' game. Does anyone else do this or is it just me? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ecarte Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 Sadly yes, I have even mentioned one kid to a ballet teacher. It is the much younger brother of another girl who dances with my daughter, he copies her and with no training he is utterly amazing! However my Dd is v graceful whilst dancing but off duty, so to speak, she is the clumsiest most accident prone kid there is! She would not show up on any ballet radar! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted June 1, 2012 Author Share Posted June 1, 2012 I was in the paper shop this morning and there was a mum with a little girl of about three waiting in the queue. She was standing in first position naturally, and I later saw her skipping beautifully away down the path. She was really graceful and light on her feet - I think if I see them again, I'll be nosy and ask her mum if she takes her to dancing classes yet! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pups_mum Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 I see someone every day who should do ballet - my son.Sadly he is not interested, despite my, and my DD's teacher's attempts to persuade him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted June 1, 2012 Author Share Posted June 1, 2012 Pups-mum, how old is your son? Is he genuinely disinterested, or does he think it's not 'cool' and his mates would tease him? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Belleballerina Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 My little boy of eight is the same. Can do frogs legs beautifully - has feet his sister would die for and has natural rythmn - but no way is he going to ballet classes he would rather do football and tennis! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pups_mum Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 Pups-mum, how old is your son? Is he genuinely disinterested, or does he think it's not 'cool' and his mates would tease him? He's 8, nearly 9. It's a few different things I think. He did have lessons when he was younger and was doing very nicely, but when he moved from the pre primary to the primary class he suddenly refused to go anymore and would get very upset if I tried to persuade him, so I decided not to push the issue. He is very shy and doesn't like to be in big groups of children and I think the bigger class (both in numbers and stature) freaked him out. I think there is an element of "boys don't do that" now maybe, but I think it's more the shyness as he's the same with other activities too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomuchtallent Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 my son is the same!he is 10 and has good turnout flexable,lovely feet and can definatly dance!He has asked afew times about ballet and dances with his sister only at home,trying to pick her up like the proffesionals!.Last night he asked if he could come to a local ballet show which he did.Even though he enjoyed it there was only one boy in the show and here,i have only seen maybe 4 boy ballet students in 5 years!Last year i took my family to watch Swan Lake and he loved the joker so much!Its strange,some months he hates it and then out of the blue he asks alot of questions!Wish we were in the UK,i know he would start if he was in a mixed or boys class. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted June 1, 2012 Author Share Posted June 1, 2012 It must be quite daunting for boys to go into a studio full of girls prancing about in pink! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JulieW Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 Fortunately our girls wore blue at the time Josh started (good job too, my dd hates pink!) so that didn't put him off 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meadowblythe Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 When my DS was about 6 he was all for giving up ballet instead of football. Two things changed his mind: A trip to see Northern Ballet's Beauty and the Beast (he then demanded a full costume for Christmas, or failing that at least the knee pads) Another teacher at his ballet school, who pointed out that footballers do ballet for warm up, and suggested he went to ballet on the way to football. A science teacher at a school I recently worked in was a footballer at international level (he retired just before the Sky deal, hence teaching science!). He confirmed that they used to go to the Royal Ballet school to take class. And the footballers were all envious of the ballet dancers, because they have a core stability that they never achieved and needed to be able to turn and shoot. Given DS's problems with core over the years perhaps he should have stuck to football! Following the Beauty and the Beast trip DS used to regularly write to David Bintley to share his critiques of the ballets viewed, and ideas for future productions (Star Wars the ballet sticks in my mind). At the time he was a poor writer and we were desperate to improve his skills. What David Bintley thought of this I don't know, but every letter received a personal and prompt response and I will always be grateful. Meadowblythe 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa O`Brien Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 When my DS was about 6 he was all for giving up ballet instead of football. Two things changed his mind: A trip to see Northern Ballet's Beauty and the Beast (he then demanded a full costume for Christmas, or failing that at least the knee pads) Another teacher at his ballet school, who pointed out that footballers do ballet for warm up, and suggested he went to ballet on the way to football. A science teacher at a school I recently worked in was a footballer at international level (he retired just before the Sky deal, hence teaching science!). He confirmed that they used to go to the Royal Ballet school to take class. And the footballers were all envious of the ballet dancers, because they have a core stability that they never achieved and needed to be able to turn and shoot. Given DS's problems with core over the years perhaps he should have stuck to football! Following the Beauty and the Beast trip DS used to regularly write to David Bintley to share his critiques of the ballets viewed, and ideas for future productions (Star Wars the ballet sticks in my mind). At the time he was a poor writer and we were desperate to improve his skills. What David Bintley thought of this I don't know, but every letter received a personal and prompt response and I will always be grateful. Meadowblythe I thought professional footballers did some sort of ballet training,but wasn`t sure if this was true or not. Do all clubs do this,and how often, does anyone know? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimi'smom Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 On a similar vein when have your dds/dss been picked out as being as a dancer in a non-dance environment? Ours was two and a half years ago sitting on a gurney in the fracture clinic at our local hospital waiting to have her broken arm put into plaster. One of the nurses asked my dd (then just having turned 9) if she was a dancer and said she could tell just from her posture as she sat! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regattah Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 I play 'spot the dancer' or 'should be a dancer'. But I tend to look at body types and proportions, thinking that if only they realised how ideal (and how rare!) they were, they would surely dance! Once, though, we were in a motorway service station somewhere (can't remember where) when a girl came in with her family. We looked at her, they looked at my DD and it was obvious that both sets of parents were thinking 'I wonder where she dances'! It wasn't even as if either of them had buns in or anything - there was just some common kind of recognition! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
primrose Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 When my dd was younger, she was stopped in a supermarked by and elderly lady who asked if she did ballet dancing. Turns out the elderly lady was a ballet dancer in her younger years. Not so long ago, dd was stopped again in a chemist where the assistant asked her if she was a ballet dancer. I dont know what it was that made them notice her, freaked dd out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anjuli_Bai Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 Or the other kind of experience.....the ballet dancer taken for something else.... Once directly after a matinee performance I had to get home quickly (family schedule thing) and on the way pick up some essentials in the food store. Thus, I quickly changed into some old sweat pants and jacket but to save some precious minutes I didn't stop to wash off my stage makeup. Standing in the checkout line just ahead of me was a young girl (about 11) with her mother. The child was transfixed by my makeup. The mother said something quietly to her daughter, rolled her eyes, and made it quite plain that I was "that" kind of woman her mother had been warning her about. After that - the kid was doubly transfixed. I smiled to myself and wished that I had on a pair of red net tights to flash. oh naughty, naughty! 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legseleven Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 My DD has been asked whether she does ballet by a lady in a shop who was watching her rise to demi pointe to reach for an item on a higher shelf. She said she had danced herself and had noticed DD's proportions, in particular her long neck and small head and her arched feet. DD was a bit embarrassed but secretly pleased! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiz Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 The gym accompanist at my school knew I danced. She said we all looked the same and red marks on our ankles from turnout! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soodle Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 My 6 year old son would be a lovely ballet dancer, except for his complete lack of interest! Weirdly I was asked if I'd had dance lessons due to my posture when doing a manual handling course at work (taught by a physio). Obviously those few years of dancing badly as a young child had an impact! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ja Sm Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 My dd, who does not have the classical proportions, was asked in a restaurant recently by the waiter if she was a ballerina "because you do everything as if you you are dancing". Her swimming teacher smiles because she points her toes with every jump and every stroke! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All4dancers Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 At a parent/teacher meeting in the autumn, my dd's PE teacher said "I knew she was a dancer as soon as I saw her feet!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxi4ballet Posted June 9, 2012 Author Share Posted June 9, 2012 We were sitting in Trafalgar Square in London the other day, and dd noticed three tall, lean, fit, agile young men (I noticed them too ) and she said that they looked like dancers. I had to point out that I knew they definitely weren't, as they were dressed in army fatigues and green berets, and were in fact Royal Marine Commandos! 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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