If you have ballet dancers, how much do they do?

[Fathertedismyuncle]

My ds (9) has recently taken up ballet. He loves it. He has now decided he wants to be a ballet dancer. He is currently doing 3 x half hour ballet classes, and 30 mins each of tap and modern. He also does 4 hours of gymnastics each week as well as hockey for an hour.
I have absolutely no clue about ballet/dance. I want to support him as much as possible but also have 3 other younger dc to consider.
How many hours a week do your dancers put in and do you think this will be part of their life in the future?
Thanks

I did ballet for 17 years.
When I was about 14-18 yrs old I did it 5 times a week. I loved it though and I would have done it loads more.

My DD was aiming for a career in dance until recently- she is now focusing on acting and has a place at a top drama school from September. Looking at her dance schedule from last year when she was 16 she was doing about 22 hours a week. That's with competitive ballroom, latin and sequence as well though. 6 1/2 hours of ballet, 4 ballroom and latin, 3 contemporary, 1 jazz, 1 tap, 1 acrobatic, plus stretching, private lessons and choreography on Saturday mornings. This has been cut to 4 hours of ballet and 4 of ballroom and latin this year so she can focus on her a levels and drama.

When she started aged 4 it was 1 hour of ballet and 2 hours ballroom and latin!

Dd is 6 and does 6 hours over 4 days a week. The hard work pays off though as she got a super mark in her first ever exam and clearly loves what she is doing

Did you decide to go for JA associate audition?

My ds 10 does probably around doc hours of ballet per week plus 2 lyrical classes, tap, modern and musical theatre. His are a combination of syllabus, unset and associates. Dd 7 does 2 hours of ballet, 2 lyrical classes, tap and modern, and musical theatre. They don't need to do this much but they love it and we pay a weekly fee where they can do as many classes as they want.

*six hours - not doc!!

My six year old has three ballet classes (three different schools! ISTD, RAD and IDTA), private lesson, tap X2, modern jazz, theatre craft, gymnastics then comps.

My older DC does similar but also 10+ hours a week of gym (over 4 days)

Blimey maybe we need to up our game. Not sure we can fit it all in though!

I think he's doing fine, Ted. As he has just started, he may change his allegiance in the next couple of years, so I would keep it fairly broad until he hits secondary. (At one point dd1 was ready to give up ballet as she wasn't enjoying it as much as she had, then she started pointe) ballet is crucial for the technical aspects of pretty much everything though, so it's enough to make sure he is getting a good grounding.

Dd1 dances four nights a week (few different ballet classes, tap, modern - she ditched jazz and lyrical last year) and is a stand in teacher for the tap class (she TAs the two junior classes) plus the odd weekend day in comp, exam or recital season.

Discuss with his teacher how he can be expected to move up through the ballet syllabus from this point - but there is really no need to panic. How many boys are at your dance school? Are they used to dealing with committed boys? (Ds1 dropped ballet as the girls in his class were too young to understand the need for male dancers and told him he wasn't welcome - it's great that your ds is so committed!) the teacher should have some sensible things to suggest.

Three different ballet schools for a six year old is unnecessary. It's fine if you have the money and the temperament to believe that all that is necessary, but it really isn't. Talent will rise to the surface and they can start auditioning once they hit double figures. A couple of girls from our dance school have been picked up for summer school by dance companies through auditions, and have certainly not been dancing at that level of intensity since reception.

And the interesting thing is that obviously more boys come to dance late, and statistically they stand more chance of becoming professionals with less intensive training. Obviously, in secondary school he will need to start putting some more training time in, but there is really no need to fret at 9, in the first year he has shown an interest.

The more kids you have, the more complicated the juggling is, and expensive... My other two don't dance as much, but are as horribly overcommitted as Alina's kids. Swimming, skiing, karate, ballet, hip hop, tennis, golf...

I do wonder in ten years how much money I will have spent on completely unnecessary activities

Dd1 will use dance teaching as a pt job to put herself through university. She wants to do genetic engineering.

Relaaaaaaaax! And hooray! Another boy finds dance!

Fatherted, I would say what your ds is doing is absolutely fine! As madwoman says, talent will rise to the surface. 6 hours a week at age 6 is insane! I was a professional ballet dancer, and was certainly not doing anything like that much at that age! Yes ballet requires commitment and dedication from an early age, but you don't want to put all your eggs in one basket, keep up the other activities as you're currently doing.

Well we do just 1 ballet class a week, for 45 mins. My daughter was recommended for the JA associate audition but we decided not to go for it. She loves ballet and is very good at it but we have decided to stick with local lessons. The term of the exam, she has 2 classes per week.

Three different ballet schools for a six year old is unnecessary. It's fine if you have the money and the temperament to believe that all that is necessary, but it really isn't. Talent will rise to the surface and they can start auditioning once they hit double figures. A couple of girls from our dance school have been picked up for summer school by dance companies through auditions, and have certainly not been dancing at that level of intensity since reception.

I didn't ask for your opinion or advice on my situation, madwoman. Thank you. It's pretty bad form to do so, especially as you don't know any particulars. She's been doing very well in terms of exam grades and competitions also and enjoys it very much.

As madwoman says, talent will rise to the surface. 6 hours a week at age 6 is insane!

She doesn't do 6 hours, I didn't say so And Madwoman's comments were very bad form, and so are yours. Perhaps you, and madwoman, ought to keep to the OP. I'm sure as an ex professional ballet dancer you'll be able to offer lots of advice.

Fatherted as others mention, your ds is probably doing enough dance at his age, perhaps I might suggest though, that boys really benefit from dancing with other boys and/or having a male teacher; especially if there are few boys at their regular dance school.

So maybe look around for workshops and short courses specifically for boys - the RAD do them in various locations round the country, and also Tring Park School for Performing Arts in Hertfordshire. Something else is the English Youth Ballet, which puts on full-length productions in the regions and auditions about 100 young people from the area to take part. They are always on the look-out for boys and it is a really good opportunity.

Alina, the 6 hours comment wasn't directed at you, another poster said that. To be honest, I would just advise speaking to the dance teacher for further advice. But it's a shame you have to go to different schools to find different syllabuses, my school offered both ISTD & RAD.

I only commented about the hours as the op had expressed concern in a subsequent post that her ds wasn't doing enough, so I was just trying to make the point that in my opinion, it's not necessary to do that many hours at a young age. I didn't mean to upset anyone.

My dd was doing one 45min class until she was 9 or so, then it started to pick up speed and at 15 she's dancing nearly every day - mostly ballet with a bit of jazz and contemporary thrown in. It's about 18-20 hours a week, something like that.

So sorry, nuzzle, if I got it wrong and was snappish.

I posted for the OP's benefit only and was surprised Madmum had decided to critique what we do. I didn't read your post properly, obviously.

My daughter's ballet classes are only half an hour so she's doing the same number of ballet classes as the OP's child. All of the other classes are also quite short at her age. And I can't give detail here, but obviously she won't be able to sustain all of those classes, or all of those schools indefinitely, but we do have reason for doing it like this at present.

My daughter hopes to be a dancer

She is 13 & dances every day except Sunday. Around 8-8.5 hrs a week of ballet plus 2 hours each of tap & modern plus contemporary & street.

However at she 9 it was 1x 45 min ballet classes, 45 mins each of tap & modern plus occasional workshop/Associate classes. She increased to 2x 45 min ballet classes around the age of 10-11.

I forgot she also does pilates/stretch class too.

My 12 year old dances every day (in fact she's about to go off to a two hour group rehearsal in a minute- teacher said we were keeping Mother's Day free... Not sure what happened there!) I think she does about 20-30 hours a week.

Ds1 who is 8, does an hour and a half of ballet a week, 45mins musical theatre, half hour tap, 45 mins modern, 45 mins jazz and half hour Classical Greek. He is quite serious about dance and wants to go to full time dance school at 11. Those are his classes, he's also in about four groups that rehearsal on average an hour each every fortnight (although more when it's close to a festival).

Dd1 definitely wants a performance based career. Whether it would be ballet I doubt, to be honest, just because she isn't he right shape/ jobs are so few and far between. She also sings and acts so I expect she's more likely to go into musical theatre.

At 9, I think an hour and a half of ballet per week is absolutely fine, although for a little extra you might like to consider auditioning him for an associate programme, such as the ones run by the Royal Ballet School and Elmhurst. They give the children that bit of extra training each week and it's also a good opportunity to catch the eye of the top ballet schools.

My only niggle is the amount of gymnastics he does. 4 hours a week is a hell of a lot and I think you should consider trimming one of his training session. I'm definitely not saying stop gymnastics, quite the opposite as gymnastics is fantastic for all round body conditioning, but you can have too much of a good thing.

Four hours of gym isn't too much for a child of that age, I'd have to disagree, though I'm comparing to similar age children in development and squad classes who do 10/12+ of gym every week.

I think the poster may have been referring to the contrast between classical ballet training and gymnastics - the two methods require the development of different muscle groups. That's fine when dc's are younger, but if they decide to concentrate on ballet, then too much gymnastics training can hinder rather than help ballet training.

Yes, I'd think that too, but four hours gym training wouldn't seem nearly enough to present such problems. Those doing between 12-20 hours, yes. It starts to affect the posture etc etc
Still manageable even then perhaps, and many excellent ballet dancers, and those late ballet starters, were gymnasts first.