Is my dd ready for full time ballet school?

[gemmasky]

My dd has been doing ballet for about 7 years now, she started when she was two, and is now preparing for her Grade 4 ISTD exam. Over the past month she has shown an interest in going to a full time ballet school. However, I am not really got a big knowledge of the world of ballet and was wondering if anyone could help me?
Thanks
Gemma

Ask the ballet teacher.

She ought to have an idea of about what standard they would be looking for and whether your dd has any hope.

Does she do any associate programmes? For full time school at 11 it's very much about having the right physique and good facility for the intensive training. They are not remotely interested in what exams they've done. My ds has just started full time ballet school in September and did his grade 3 in the summer so not very advanced. Have a look at some of the posts on the balletco forum and speak to her teacher to see what she thinks.

I didn't even know it was a possibility until my DD mentioned that one of the girls in her ballet class had gone off to a boarding dance school near Chester. DD is 11 and has just started at secondary school, so that would seem to be the obvious age to do it. I have to say I couldn't imagine my daughter going 4 hours away to go to school, but I guess it's down to your child and how much they want to do it. From what I gather you have to go through a fairly vigourous interview/acceptance process, but the obvious thing initially would be to discuss it with your daughters ballet teachers.

My dd is 9, going to be ten in March. At the moment she isn't doing any associate programmes however her teacher has always said she has got the correct physique for ballet. I will talk to her teacher about potential tonight after her ballet class.
By the way dd is doing her grade 4 exam at the weekend and her teacher wants her to go on pointe next September.

Last night, dd's ballet teacher said that my dd has a lot of potential and could go far. She also said that my dd was going to have to do ballet for t least 6 days a week if she wanted to do her grade 5 exam in the summer. I want to know how any of you would feel if your 9 year old dd did ballet at these times every week.
Monday: 4-5:30pm
Tuesday: 4:30-6pm
Wednesday: 6-7:30am
4-5:15pm
Friday:4-6:30pm
Saturday: 11am-2:30pm
Sunday: 6-8:30am
4-7pm

Unless she has a genuine passsion for it, and the ability, that sounds like a hellish schedule.

My dd does have a real passion for ballet and has always got good roles in show and distinctions in exams.

I wouldn't choose it for my daughter personally but then neither she, nor I want her to be a ballerina (though she does go to dance lessons).

It would require serious time and financial commitment. She wouldn't be able to do any other activities, have play dates or go to many parties. School work would probably also suffer a bit.

How would any such blinds be impacted?

She'd need to be really, really, really sure she wanted to be a dancer and that she understood what that entails.

However, that said, if she really does want to do it and you are willing to support it go for it.

She would be doing that amount of ballet if she went to dance school. However, I would have drawn the line at the morning classes! The evening and weekend classes are more than enough. There's no race to get through the grades though, not sure why her teacher wants her to get the grade 5 done so quickly.

I would have loved to have had that number of lessons at your DD's age. I did 3 nights a week and about 3 hours on Saturdays. I was nowhere near good enough for a career but loved it anyway. It would be a feather in your teacher's cap if DD gets in, so I suspect she is shooting for over-preparedness with that schedule. You will have to keep an eye out for fatigue/injury.