How do you know if a ballet teacher is 'good'?

[Rugbylovingmum]

DD (5) has ballet lessons with a local teacher and absolutely loves it. She started off doing tappytots at 2 - only because some of her friends went and it was a chance for the mums to get together, let the kids jump and skip about then head to the cafe next door for a chat . She carried on and asked to change to ballet when she was 4. She loves her classes - the teacher makes the lessons really fun and it has done wonders for DDs confidence. DD is quite anxious and a bit of a perfectionist so I am really pleased she can just relax and enjoy these classes without feeling under pressure or criticised.

Another mum asked me recently whether I would recommend the classes and if the teacher was a 'good' ballet teacher and it occurred to me that I don't really know. I just want DD to have a great time, enjoy herself and feel confident so by my standards the teacher is brilliant but I don't think thats what the other mum meant. DD is doing her preprimary exam in April so I assume we will find out then if she has learnt anything . I don't know anything about ballet so have no idea whether she is teaching them good techique or not, and it's a small fairly new school (in a village hall type of thing) so it doesn't have a good/bad reputation like the bigger schools. I don't really care but out of interest how would I know if the teacher was a good one or not?? I won't be moving DD anyway (at least for now) so it's just idle curiosity really.

Well credentials aside I think it rather depends on what you want out of it. For you the enjoyment is priority, for others it might be exam passes or even distinctions at all costs, or dance festival success, auditions or vocational school. What progress do older children make?

Hmmm, as far as I know she only teaches up to grade 2 atm - she took over some baby ballet classes in the village and as the kids get older she just adds new classes on for them. Her DC are quite young so I think she is building her school/classes up slowly while they are small. The kids who took their grade 1 tap last month all got distinctions but I''m not sure how much that means at the early stages. The website says that she has been teaching for 15 years but I'm not sure what she did before her maternity or what her success rate was.

As you say, it doesn't really matter for us. DD enjoys herself and if she passes her exam that's great (they all love the certificates and sense of achievement don't they) but I don't want her to worry about her marks. My only niggle is, if she wants to carry on, would it be a problem if she wasn't learning great technique now? I don't mean doing it as a career, just if she wanted to carry on dancing for enjoyment. Can I tell from her exam marks/comments whether she learning properly. I'm a very laid back mum but occassionally worry I may be dropping the ball on this stuff!

Oh dear, very laid back and apparently very wordy mum! That was long!

Depends what you mean by "good".

What are the teachers qualifications? It is a little surprising that she only teaches up to grade 2 level- how big is the school? How long has it been running?

I think it's quite common for small relatively new schools to only have the lower grades to start with, as the students progress then the teacher will gradually add the higher grades as they go.

Perhaps the most important things at first are that the children really enjoy the class, the teacher is enthusiastic and praises what they do well, and is also helpful when parents ask questions.

You can pretty much tell by looking whether a teacher is a good dancer or not herself. But I'd say that doesn't matter if your child is having fun and building confidence.

Maybe the time to really start thinking about the quality of the teaching is when your dc is about 7 or 8 and:

They have a naturally good sense of rhythm, co-ordination and musicality, flexibility in the joints (particularly the hips), good posture, long straight legs and a short torso, feet that neither roll in or out, a long neck and a small head, begin to get higher marks in exams than the others in the class, enjoy performing, and are really keen...

If you're able to watch the class, see if corrections are being made, what overall standard is like. Exam marks gained generally.

Difficult to judge when it's a fairly new school.

Thanks all, like I say it was mostly just idle curiosity. I am really happy with the teacher and my daughter is getting loads out of her lessons. I'm more concerned with the fun/confidence type stuff than the ballet IYSWIM, especially at this stage. She's really eager to please and easily upset if she thinks she's done something wrong but the teacher gives her loads of praise - just keeping my fingers crossed she isn't upset by the exam.

gelseyk - I'm not sure about corrections. She doesn't correct them when they are dancing from what I've seen (doing little routines) but does when they are doing 'exercises' like knee bends or pointing toes. I've no idea what the standard is like - what should 5 year old look like? Sorry to be so clueless.

I agree it depends on what you are looking for.

When we were trying to find classes for my girls it had to be somewhere fairly strict (they are both very conscientious and get fed up with people messing around so I knew they would be happier in a class where the teacher had control over the pupils. I wanted somewhere fairly traditional as I think ballet is a discipline and I wanted them to learn the correct technique. For me I was looking for either RAD or ISTD. I wasn't bothered about shows.

All you can say if someone asks is that for you and your daughter it is right and that you like it because....

exam feedback and marks should give an indication BUT it does depend on what exams they are doing, there are a huge range of exams and quite a few boards and the requirements for exams are very different (some preprimary exams are say 10 minutes whilst for a different board they can be 30 minutes which is a big difference in content and expectation).

Thanks nonicknameseemsavailable. She is doing ISTD preprimary and we have been told that it will be approx 30min. I am just hoping it goes well and she doesn't get upset. She burst into tears during watching week because she didn't like all the parents watching. Once she started she was fine but I'm hoping the exam won't be the same! I considered not entering her but she really wanted to do it and I think, or hope, it will be good for her confidence if when she manages.

Oh and you are absolutely right that I should just say it is right for us because.....

I have a long list of reasons why it suits us.

I think exams are quite good for them. Life is full of tests, exams, monitoring etc so if they can learn to manage the situation from a young age then it will help them in the future. They also get to see how their efforts pay off.

One of mine took preprimary ISTD recently and they all scored VERY high. I really don't think they can score below distinction on preprimary. Our teacher said that then the marks tend to go down. Examiners are told to mark high on the class tests I was told to try and encourage the children so she will do well I am sure, not saying she wouldn't if they weren't high markers, I don't mean it to come across like that but hopefully you know what I mean, tell her to relax and enjoy it, that it is exciting. She is still very young, our school don't enter them for ANY exams until they are 6 and often they are 7 before they start ballet exams which I think helps with how they handle the whole process.

The examiners are always very nice with the little ones I believe from what people have told me and they do their best to put them at ease. I have known children who have gone wrong in preprimary but who have been allowed to start the exercise again and to be honest from their results I don't think they were penalised for it.

oh and remind her if she gets upset about someone watching that in the exam it is only the examiner, her teacher and a pianist (assuming they have one rather than a CD but the teacher will tell them that) so it is only 2 or 3 people not ALL the parents.