(Young) daughter starting ballet.

[Sascis]

Hi im new to the forum, my daughter is 4 in september and will be starting ballet with a well established teacher. Shes already showing a passion for ballet and has pushed me to get her into a class. Has anybody got any advice for a young child starting out in ballet. Many thanks.

[Picturesinthefirelight]

Regular attendance but keep it fun.

[Sascis]

Many thanks ????

[Moneypenny]

Don't do it!!! ... Only joking! As Pictures says, go regularly and keep it fun. Also, don't push it, they have to want to do it and if your teacher doesn't work out for whatever reason, find another one. Good luck.

[Loulabelle]

Don't stick to just ballet, as she gets a bit older start her with some modern and tap. Keep her options open and have as much fun as you and she can.

[Sascis]

Thanks she will be doing tap as well as she enjoys watching Shirley temple. She definitely wants to do it. And will make sure its fun for her.

[ParentTaxi]

Don't just focus on the dance techniques that she is learning, or the future that she may have in dance - also value, and be amazed by, all the other things she will learn along the way. Value the confidence it gives her, her ability to perform, her concentration, her posture, her work ethic, her ability to keep a smile on her face and keep going even when things get tough.

 

What has kept us going with DD's dancing is not the next grade, the next course, the next competition, whether or not she will become a dancer - but all the wonderful things, and all the great friends, that dancing has given her. I feel that we realised this rather later than we should have done, and so would emphasise it to anyone starting out on this path...

[aileen]

Also bear in mind that young children's enthusiasm for a new hobby can evaporate very quickly! With ballet in particular, it's often the dressing up, pretty ballet bag and all the 'accessories', necessary or otherwise, which are the appeal rather than the actual classes. Conversely, your daughter may take to ballet from day one and remain passionate about it for many years.

 

Personally, I feel that it's important to give a new activity a fair go before allowing a child to give it up. For ballet, this should (IMO) be at least a term unless your child absolutely hates it. Some schools allow children to try a taster class before you have to commit to a term or half a term's fees and might allow a child to turn up in street clothes and dance in bare feet for that class so that the parent doesn't go to the expense of kitting out his/her child only to find that s/he has given up the idea.

[Sascis]

That's a good point about the other skills shed learn that aren't about the dancing itself. She definitely wants to do it for the dance as she enjoys dancing. And the first lesson is a taster lesson.

[Fiz]

My daughter got very tired after she first started school and asked to drop ballet. I thought no more about it apart from it was a bit of a shame. Six months later I came into the drawing room to find her sobbing at some ballet on Blue Peter. It turned out that she missed it and wanted to go back. She still dances in amateur shows (although they are choreographed by dance teachers and drilled by them too) 19 years later!

[LinMM]

I think the importance of starting at full time school is very important.

 

Once at school there will be many things to do which use up energy apart from the school day itself.

So don't be surprised if gets tired in the first term especially.

 

Ballet is a funny thing though .....if it does get into the blood she will probably find the energy from somewhere!

I initially started ballet because a friend went who gave up after a couple of years but my attachment has been lifelong!!

[Sascis]

Its only ballet lessons for now not a school. It seems like a rewarding thing to do. She did ballet for 2-3 year olds for the last few months and really enjoyed it and was still dancing when the lesson finished. We will see if its something she continues to pursue. Anyone have a child who is serious about ballet and wants to pursue it.

[Anna C]

I think Pas de Quatre meant the energy that starting at full-time academic school will take, Sascis. :-)

 

Starting in Reception absolutely wiped my daughter out to start with. If your little girl's Ballet classes are on a weekday and after school then she may well have a period of being too tired for ballet. We were lucky in that our local Pre-Primary Ballet classes were on a Saturday.

 

And welcome to the forum!

[Kate_N]

At 4, it's still pre-ballet. The study of simple basics in technique won't really start till she's around 8, and it doesn't start to get serious till about 10 or 11 - and even then it's still age appropriate.

 

So take it easy, as everyone says. Rise above the studio gossip; don't fuss about exams - the grades are not the be all & end all. The aim is to learn the techniques of ballet in a way that is appropriate for her body, and to learn to dance with freedom - in ballet, that freedom comes through technical precision, but the end result is to dance for joy!

[LinMM]

Yes I think I was seven before I took my first exam!! So should be fun to start with and not too formal etc

[LinMM]

Kate_N I love the last sentence of you above post.

 

That is so true whatever age and ability you are dancing.

 

I was in a class the other day where a fairly simple enchainement was set on one level but with turning in different directions through use of epaulement. Once the precision of it was grasped it was such a delight to,dance it that could have carried on all morning doing it!! And that's the moment you are in the joy of it.

 

I say this as this is typical of children too. They love to repeat something they enjoy doing and at four you would have a job to stop them!!

[Sascis]

I didn't know the learning of the technique started at 8. I can see why dancers start so young it takes years to learn. So I take it the older you get the more lessons you need to take.

[aileen]

Kate, I'm surprised by your comment that technique only starts to be taught at around 8 years of age. I recollect that my daughter took at least two RAD exams before she was eight.

 

Sascis, children take more classes as they get older if they are serious about ballet. However, there are plenty of children who continue with ballet as a hobby right through their teens taking one or two ballet classes a week, perhaps with an additional pointe class. They manage to achieve respectable or more than respectable marks in external exams on this basis. A child can enjoy ballet without it becoming an all-consuming activity if s/he wants to. Large numbers of one or twice a week dancers at my daughter's school have got to Grade 7 or 8 standard.

[Moomin]

Kate, I'm surprised by your comment that technique only starts to be taught at around 8 years of age. I recollect that my daughter took at least two RAD exams before she was eight.

 

 

I agree my daughter took her primary exam at 5 years 4 months. Her teacher is fab with the little ones and makes it lots of fun but there is definitely technique being taught in a simple way. She started at 4 years old as well. I think the current syllabi are quite child friendly and a good teacher will incorporate lots of fun and not just concentrate on the set exercises.

I'd say just find a good teacher who your daughter has a rapport with, drop her off on time each week and rely on the teacher for the rest! At least for a few years as children change so much who knows what she'll be like in a few years time!

[Sascis]

Thanks everyone for your advice helps alot

[alison]

Welcome to the forum from me too, Sascis.  I hope we'll be of help to you as you and your daughter start on her big adventure.

[Sascis]

Thanks its a great forum look forward to sharing her journey and getting good quality advice.

[primrose]

My advice would be to make sure the classes are fun and that your daughter continues to enjoy her lessons. As time goes by don't get caught up in the dramas that take place amongst the pushy mum's. Exams will not get your child into a vocational school or a ballet company, the more important exams start from intermediate, they are very expensive and your child doesn't really need to do them unless you both want to do them. She can move up the grades without doing the exams. Again as time moves on if the teacher or school is not right then move on. Your loyalties are with your child and not the school. Most of all enjoy the journey.

[Kate_N]

My comment is based on ideas about when serious training with a view to professional standards generally starts. Of course children can start to learn the basics of technique earlier, but it doesn't need to be as early as 5 or 6! But more importantly, starting to do graded, examined work, with taking exams at 6 or 7, doesn't mean that a child is a "better" dancer than a child who starts a couple of years later. This has been my family's experience (2 professional dancers in my family, neither of whom started serious training until 10/11 - one had never taken a ballet lesson before the age of 11, but is very naturally gifted).

 

I'll always remember talking to an exert in child development about this (it was at some work thing where researchers from different disciplines were mixed up). She was interested in my "hobby" and we got talking about children's dance training. Her view was very interesting - she said that right up to the age of 7 or 8, most children are not able to express themselves fully through words & language. So movement is often the way that they supplement words. She commented that when a parent talks about the way their child is "always dancing around the sitting room" it does not necessarily mean they are the next Margot Fonteyn, but that they are using movement to fill in the gaps of expression that words & language can't yet do for them. 

 

Personally, I find the focus on exams a bit misleading. I've seen dancers in open classes who have apparently passed Intermediate & Advanced exams who have some fairly basic faults, in my view. 

 

I'm in my mid-fifties and still dancing (had a lovely 2 classes back to back on Wednesday). That's the main thing - that children are given the tools to understand how their bodies work, so that through safe, careful & precise use of them, they can dance with freedom for lifelong enjoyment!

[Sherbert]

Think we may have over intellectualised this question!

 

Take her for a while, no doubt she will have fun. At 4, really, that's all that matters.

[Kate_N]

Yes, Sherbert, you're absolutely right of course! 

[Sascis]

Its good to get all sorts of advice, as eventually she may want to pursue it seriously. For now biggest thing will be to keep it fun.

[annaliesey]

Sascis good luck and enjoy the journey

 

Ignore the Mumma-drama (there's always some that have to be "the best" and it never helps to get caught up in this haha)

 

Quite often people pick a school because the class is local / convenient / has parking or whatever but even from an early age I would encourage you to pay attention to the qualifications and professional experience and the teaching styles and as Primrose says, if it's not right, then move on maybe listen out for conversations of how happy the older dancers are.

 

Just a tip about this age and classes after school .. Sometimes it helps to go straight to class after school so they don't come home and then get nervous or tired or distracted. My DD at this age loved her ballet but if we went home first sometimes it would be a struggle to get her out of the house on time as she would be playing with polly pockets and want to do it all with no concept of time (she's the same now at 12 but distracted by make up or her phone haha)

 

Have fun

[Sascis]

I keep hearing about mummy drama lol. Im guessing some people have experinced some competitive parents.

[Pups_mum]

I think you get competetive parents in every kind of activity - but plenty of nice ones too, so don't be put off. At your daughter's age, as everyone else has said, the key thing is that she is having fun, but I would say it's worth seeking out a good teacher from the beginning as bad habits learned early can be hard to undo, if she does continue.

[baby steps]

Hello Sascis. My little dd has just turned 7 and started ballet at 3 and modern/street dance at 4. When she started school she had a bit of a "wobble" . Following tears at ballet every week ,due to tiredness after a full  day at school , I decided to postpone lessons for a while. She wanted to return once she settled at school and she restarted in year one. She has just left year 2 and has fully regained her joy of ballet.

I think it is important while they are very young to just let them enjoy the whole experience and just "go with the flow." She is going to start taking exams when the new term begins in september ,,at her request, as her friends are taking them too. 

While she is so young l just want her to enjoy the whole experience  how ever long it may last!

[aileen]

Have you seen Dance Moms on television, Sascis?! I don't think that any UK ballet mums are as bad as that.......Or perhaps some are.

[Sascis]

I havent seen dance moms actually. Not that it would bother me your always going to get parents who are to pushy in any field. In my daughters class ill get to stay and watch. Im lookint forward to see her dance.