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How can a 12yo “catch up” with dancing?

26 replies

StuntNun · 03/05/2025 06:57

My DS has recently decided he wants to go into musical theatre as a career. However, he never did any dancing until recently so he’s miles behind his peers, some of whom have been dancing for years. I signed him up for a dance class but he was put in with other children the same age with more experience and he just wasn’t able to keep up or learn in that environment so I stopped the class as he wasn’t progressing. He has a great memory for routines and has no trouble learning the moves but he doesn’t execute them well. He doesn’t seem to have any body awareness and can’t tell that he’s not doing the moves correctly. I looked at dance summer schools but I think he would be really out of place at his current level of dancing. He really needs to start from the beginning with a teacher that will give him feedback on where he needs to improve; he just didn’t get that from being in a class with girls who had already had lessons for years. Please can anyone give me suggestions for how he can go back to basics and properly get started with dancing?

OP posts:
GraveAndQuiet · 03/05/2025 08:25

I can only think that he needs to go into a class suitable for his ability, rather than his age.
And perhaps to do any other sort of 'movement' or fitness classes (e.g. trampolining?), in order to work on his proprioception.
Combined with some 1:1 tuition- is there an older dancer, say 15 or 16 who could coach him?
But, basically, to "catch up", he will have to work harder and put in much more practice. He may or may not have the talent to excel. He may or may not be able to work at getting to a basic competency- but this might not be a good enough standard for musical theatre.

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