Thoughts/Advice - associates overload?

[Jays]

Dd's already doing a monthly associate and really wants to audition for a ballet associate that is twice a month.

 

She already dances every night of the week and is going into Y10 in September where I'm guessing homework may increase.

 

Are associates really needed?

If anyone's child did two associates or more at once, how did they cope not spending much time seeing friends due to lack of free time?

 

If she were successful and offered a place on the ballet one too, then it means an even bigger financial commitment. 

 

Is it all necessary or can good quality training at your dance school be enough?

 

Would she need both associates (ballet, jazz, lyrical) and the ballet one or is one enough?

 

Thanks

[Neverdancedjustamum]

I think it depends on what your DD wants to do. Does she eventually want to apply for upper schools/sixth form/college and do dance? What kind of school does she want to go to? I think if she’s more of an all-rounder (diff types of genres) then the pressure to do lots and lots is slightly less. Speaking from experience and personal observation, if she is keen on classical ballet mainly, then the competition is ridiculously fierce as the ballet world seems to have gone all out in recent years. My DD mainly does classical ballet but does it purely out of love and doesn’t have any immediate goals of auditioning for schools but we know of others who are extremely committed and focused. I know of young dancers who do 4 associates  schemes, some who are in full time school but also does associates schemes, associates schemes plus every day training in local schools, multiple privates, competitions in the U.K. and abroad, regular physio/gyro/pilates/strength/conditioning/PBT classes and 121s, multiple intensives during schools holidays (how many can you squeeze in during the school breaks?) both in the U.K. and overseas - I feel exhausted and broke just thinking about it. But that is how the reality for a good number of young (classical) dancers these days. On the upside, I know of many successful young dancers who get places in dance colleges with only local dance training and they are absolutely stunning and extremely well rounded dancers. In the end, this versatility I think might make them more employable. At the end of the day, I think you need to think carefully, realistically and long term - can you afford additional classes without sacrificing family time and holidays and other siblings’ activities? What does your DD actually want and is it a long term goal or is it a young person’s current ‘want’.  What are the realistic job prospects of the career your DD wants and is she happy with that? If I got a pound for every time I’ve heard parents tell me “but this is what my DC wants”, I can probably fund multiple intensives for my DD too. 
 

In answer to your question about finding time, I don’t know how they do it either. I know some who have resorted to home/online schooling, some who leave their schools early some days to go to training, some who have no rest days and don’t get home until late at night. My DD only dances 3-4 times a week, mostly in the weekends, and she’s still up late most nights trying to finish homework and preparing for exams. 
 

Sorry if the above doesn’t really answer your question about whether it is necessary. I think it would very much depend on many factors like the above.

[Ruby Foo]

Probably repeating a lot of the excellent points in the previous post.

It depends on quite a few things -

The quality of her classes at the moment. (We are presuming the associate class will be  super beneficial but we can’t take that for granted).

Whether she feels too comfortable in her current classes and with her teacher, and is not being challenged? Or challenged enough.

What she is looking to do in the future? Is this just for interest and fun or Vocational school? If so which vocational school?

Around year 10 in vocational schools, the standard changes/ is upped considerably (understatement ) especially in the top classical schools. This is the point in the UK where we see a large proportion of students appearing from overseas, 

Its always good at this age to have a different teacher and perspective and to dance with other dancers other than the ones you’re used to- no matter how good your own teacher is.

A different teacher sees different strengths and weaknesses which can be helpful. And being out of your comfort zone just a little can be beneficial.

What does your daughter really enjoy? Obviously Ballet is key, but the joy of dancing has to be a priority and if she prefers other styles to Ballet then why not indulge in those and  become a more versatile dancer?

Maybe she could drop one of her usual classes and do associate’s instead?

There’s plenty students who haven’t done a single associate class who have achieved what they wanted to. I guess it’s about personal choice and time management. Making the most of yourself and your time.

 

 

[Pas de Quatre]

Some good advice above. Just be careful not to overload with too many classes, a growing body needs at least one day a week without any classes to allow recovery time. Otherwise injuries or burnout are more of a risk.

[Jays]

 

She's not expressed an interest to do just classical ballet, I think the interest in the ballet associate is to become better at ballet and ballet is one of her favourite styles. 

I couldn't imagine 4 associates a month, we couldn't commit to that financially or with time.

She definitely wants to be challenged, that was the reason for auditioning for her current associate.

It's not just for interest and fun, she's wants to go to dance college and then study dance at university.

 

Thanks all for the replies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[glowlight]

For my dd, we struggled to find sufficient classes locally at an appropriate level when she was in Year 10 and 11, so her Associate classes were really valuable. 

 

Her goal was to become a professional dancer, and she wanted to go to vocational school at 16, so we felt it was important for her to get the right training to give her as good a chance as possible when auditioning with students who were already at vocational school.

 

It's important to consider the end game. Does she want to be a professional dancer when she grows up? In that case a vocational course might be better for her than a Degree in Dance from University (I hope I'm not offending anyone here, and happy to be corrected). Maybe she wants to teach dance? Or just continue with her dance education because she loves it?

 

Associate schemes aren't all equal, they standards and amounts of training. If I was you I would ask your dd's local dance teacher for advice, taking into consideration what your dd wants to do in future?

 

 

 

 

[Jays]

Glowlight what type of associates did your DD do and did she do a couple at once?

She wants to be a professional dancer although she also says she would like to be a choreographer, so possibly a little undecided at the moment and not sure what is/isn't achievable.

She hasn't mentioned a vocational course and it didn't even cross my mind we will look into this.

 

[glowlight]

No she didn't do more than one at a time. The main one she did covered ballet and contemporary dance - this was twice a week. At different times she did a pure ballet scheme which was weekly.

 

If your dd wants to be a professional dancer I would suggest you research vocational schools/colleges. There is lots of information in this forum.

 

Those which specialise in ballet (Royal Ballet School, English National Ballet School, Elmhurst, Central School of Ballet etc) tend to take students at 16. (RBS and Elmhurst from 11)

 

Some colleges take students from 16 upwards, so Northern Ballet School takes students from 16 who particularly want to focus on ballet. But others don't join until they are 18 or older - and these students tend to be more focused on jazz, tap, musical theatre etc (but still do lots of ballet). Others that I can think of like this are The Hammond School, Tring Park (they also take students from 11).

 

If contemporary is her thing - the main contemporary dance colleges seem to take students at 18+ and these are generally degree courses. Northern School of Contemporary Dance, London Contemporary Dance School, Urdang Academy.

 

There are lots of others.

 

These schools and colleges offer vocational courses aimed at training professional dancers. You will see from other threads that there's no guarantee of getting a job at the end, but probably greater than doing a dance degree at a regular university.