Dance - not good at acro

That should have been qualifications of the coaches.

You can fit the dance choreography quite seamlessly with their routines on the mats by the way. Visit a gymnastics competition; rhythmic, sports acro, or floor section of general gymnastics. See how it's done.

That was to @dancinfeet

Im going to demystify some of the ? about why acro is performed without mats.
Acro should be performed without mats this is the whole point- to seamlessly incorporate acrobatic dance moves into the choreography as part of the performance. Acrodance is not the same as Acro (gymnastics) and I think that dance teachers should be doing a better job to explain this to their customers.

Nonsense. There's no justification for children doing aerial walkovers, somersaults and sports acro balances (these involve two or three people, the bottom person is a base, the top person a 'top' and so on) without mats. 'Seamlessly incorporating into the choreography' sounds like you don't want the mats to interfere with the non acro parts.

We will all know the difference between sports acro and gymnastics taught by a gymnastics club and 'acro' taught by a dance school thanks.
The hours of training the gymnasts receive, especially if they're squad, and the qualications of the judges. They also use mats for safety.

You're fortunate nobody has had a serious accident.

I’m going to demystify some of the ? about why acro is performed without mats.
Acro should be performed without mats this is the whole point- to seamlessly incorporate acrobatic dance moves into the choreography as part of the performance. Acrodance is not the same as Acro (gymnastics) and I think that dance teachers should be doing a better job to explain this to their customers.
Learning acro correctly and safely should take time- new skills should firstly be learnt on a good quality mat, and if necessary with additional equipment (crash mat, octagon roller, wedge mat depending on the skill) or support such as having the teacher spot them (provide light physical support) the first few times. All acro skills have basic requirements- such as if you can’t backbend to bridge AND recover to standing, you won’t be able to do a forwards walkover no matter how much you try. A good proportion of the acro lesson should be spent on strength building and progressions leading to more difficult skills- these progressions can take years to master before eventually being able to do the skill they were intended for.
Clean technique and strength is essential, with no cutting corners, this is to avoid injury and so repetition repetition repetition on the mat is a must. A skill is ONLY ready to be transitioned to the floor without mats once the dancer can perform it consistently with no intervention/spotting, and with correct technique.

Even though I teach acro myself I do think it has crept into both the freestyle comps and theatre dance festivals to a point where the tricks seem to be taking over, combine this with some comps/festivals hiring adjudicators who clearly have no knowledge of acro technique and will place a badly done front/ side aerial or back handspring higher in the awards than a student doing beautifully clean walkovers because, let’s face it an aerial is more ‘showy’ than a walkover.
Worse still, are those teachers who want to jump on the popular acro bandwagon but can’t be bothered to actually do the proper teacher training with a reputable company and instead just buy a few mats and copy what they see on youtube. These are the teachers whose students are throwing out tricks dangerously, and who often fall and have near misses on stage. This is happening in both the freestyle and theatre competition circuits but seems to be even more prevalent in freestyle dance. Unskilled unqualified acro teachers give all dance teachers a bad name, and I completely see why some parents have their reservations about letting their child do acrodance.
My students are the ones at our local
dance festival with decent acro technique (am not going to pretend they are perfect but we work very hard on safe clean technique), competently pulling out their ‘safe’ acro tricks. They are working on much harder skills back in the studio on mats, but you won’t see them perform those in comps for another 1-2 years, until they have transitioned them safely to the floor. And yes, all of them are still in novice acro, often walking away consistently with 2nd or 3rd place having being pipped at the post once again by a scaerial or a bend legged, bent armed, undercut back handspring type solo. However, my dance families trust me to make the right and safe decisions for their child.

Strength, stretching and other training, under supervision, will help. There's no quick fix, or shouldn't be for safety.

Ariel cartwheel I'm guessing, rather than aerial walkover, if she can't yet do a standard walkover. Probably better to be able to do both walkovers, forward and back, prior to that handstand or back end, etc, into position.

Has anyone’s DD managed to progress despite not being naturally able? My DD is desperately trying to get her walkover and Ariel, she even has private lessons 🙈 but she just can’t do it!

Absolutely agree @taxi4ballet

The competition is really tough.

Added to that we know of people whose talented children (at around 18) have secured professional contracts with companies (specifically ballet) and the pay hasn't been enough to make ends meet and the parents have needed to supplement their wages. One case we know of they dropped out and found a university place doing a non dance degree.

My daughter felt that as she graduated during covid where half her classes where online and her graduate showcase etc were cancelled that despite 8 years of training from age 11 she didn't even start out "match fit" so to speak and it has been difficult. So she has had a couple of small scale contracts but is mostly earning a living through other means and looking into going into education/outreach.

There really aren't enough professional dance jobs out there to support the number of graduates from all these colleges. So many young people train and get qualified in MT or professional dance, then turn up to open auditions, find that there's literally hundreds of other dancers there too, and don't make the first cut. Do that a number of times and it would be really demoralising. There's also the problem of trying to stay match-fit, so to speak, if you are no longer training full-time.

The overwhelming majority never end up with any kind of long-term professional contract, and so either have to find other work outside the performing arts, or end up getting some dance teaching qualifications and going into teaching kids at local dance schools, often the one where they themselves trained. Which is fine if that was their aim all along, but otherwise not really what they wanted.

It's tough out there.

Yes, but then what? What qualifications do they end up with - Btec, a level 5 or 6 Diploma, or a BA degree? And then what? Once they graduate, what professional contracts do they get?

It's little wonder funding has been cut for areas like this, in my opinion.

I personally know of so many (via school promotions also) mediocre dancers who succeed with places at the various colleges and dance degrees.

Local dance culture - as created by local dance schools and competitions- is a really interesting thing, and very variable a tods the country.

DD - a very good dancer, though not one who has gone on to dance training after 18, having chosen an academic route - grew up and competed within a local dance culture driven by dance schools where solid ballet technique and core strength were the main focus. Exams and exam classes, up to Advanced 2 in all genres, were the bedrock of each week’s dancing. Competitors were the main Festivals, held 3-4 times per year, plus the main exam board national competitions (Janet Cram etc) in each genre for a very few. Nobody competed in group dances without 3 ballet lessons a week, seen as the best way to develop the strength the avoid injury.

Yes, some individuals did solos with more ‘acro’ content, if they had the specific facility, but none of these were more successful in local or national competition than those who did ‘standard’ Modern Theatre in Modern classes.

This was the same for all local schools, and what we saw in local Festivals and in access to further training was that those with the best technique, founded on secure classical training, were the most successful.

To echo lonecat, my dauhgter is hypermobile but really struggled with her splits, she didn't get them until the end of year 7. The physio assessed her though and she has full 180 degree turnout.

Lonecat - was that one of the NIDMS clinics? My dd went to the Birmingham one and they are so good there.

@DanceMumTaxi hyper mobile is not necessarily being flexible to do tricks. The biggest indication of hyper mobility is natural turnout, if a dancer has good natural turnout they are almost certainly hyper mobile.
I didn't realise my daughter was hyper mobile until she suffered an unusual hip injury at 18 and ended up with a referral to a specialist dance sports medicine specialist who asked to see her natural turnout, there were other bits to his examination, but that was his first screening test.

Yes Mrs Bennets says better all the things I was trying to say earlier. It clearly isn't for enjoyment when a 7 year old feels "behind" enough and OP says it's because they want to win. When asked the reasoning was the 7 year old wants to win at all these competitions they go to. All the competitions and 6 days a week creates a competitive environment where the winning "counts" rather than the dance.
A better title would be "How can I improve my 7yr odds acro so that they are the best..."

I don't think it is that obvious, personally.

If the dd was dancing for enjoyment, a different school with less pressure would be the obvious choice. A school that creates the type of environment where a 7 year old child gets upset about not being able to do an aerial is not really focused on enjoyment in my experience. Surely the only reason you would keep your child in that kind of intense, pressured environment is because you envisage them making some kind of career out of it?

I know the OP is saying that the pressure is self imposed and not from the school, but I have seen these situations time and again, and I don't believe that a 7yo would feel that pressure unless the school had created that kind of culture. And the child is attending 6 days a week, so she will be heavily influenced by that environment.

Clearly, the OP has no intention of moving her so she is willing to accept the risks that are associated with that kind of dance school, but let's not pretend that enjoyment is the only thing that matters...I have seen schools like this kill the enjoyment for so many kids over the years!

I know @DanceMumTaxi I am a bit baffled , it was obvious from your post this is about your DD dancing for enjoyment!

Yes, but then what? What qualifications do they end up with - Btec, a level 5 or 6 Diploma, or a BA degree? And then what? Once they graduate, what professional contracts do they get?

👏🏻👏🏻

I was saying something similar down thread. Then they perform without safety mats in competitions!

Wilkes has actually got a pretty good reputation, if a bit commercial. I’d put them on a par with Performers but not quite a Bird, Laines or Urdang.

Never heard of it. If it's on a par with performers that explains it. I wondered if it had been known as something else. Other non classical - I've known of people who have gone to Bodyworks (?) then found work in MT and cruise ships.

I'm more familiar with the classical options to be fair.

Don't learn gymnastics from a dance studio.They teach poor and dangerous technique

One thing to consider. My dd is hyper mobile which looks fantastic (swayback and banana feet) but it means she hasn’t got the strength for tricks and gets injured easily.

My dancer DD (9) struggles with acro. She’s got a dancers body and beautiful technique, but just can’t “get” the harder tricks. A lot is confidence with her, but she has private acro weekly and still can’t do much beyond the basics 🤷‍♀️ She is desperate to be able to, as all her friends can do it and much younger too. She gets upset too, I get it

Wilkes has actually got a pretty good reputation, if a bit commercial. I’d put them on a par with Performers but not quite a Bird, Laines or Urdang.

Centre Pointe have been running btec courses for quite a few years now. I’m not quite North West but Dd attended a full time dance school in the north west from age 11.