Gymnastics or ballet for nearly 4 year old who already does ballet

[winemummy1]

My nearly 4 year old does RAD preschool ballet & absolutely loves it, she wants to do either gymnastics & drama. I can't decide & one only like her doing either one for the moment along with her ballet as she gets tired after preschool trying to weigh up the pros & cons...
Gymnastics would be great for confidence, balance & gross motor skills
Drama great for pronunciation, confidence & public speaking & both would tie in nicely with her ballet which she adores...
All opinions welcome!

Woops sorry, meant to say drama or gymnastics!!

at that age it really doesn't matter I don't think. Drama for under 7sish is really just playing around and not formal drama although it can really help with any speech problems and confidence like you say, gymnastics is of course more fitness but can also help with confidence because they can get a huge sense of personal achievement when they become able to do something they have been working towards. Can you try a class or two of each and see which she prefers?

Yes we could try both on a trial basis & see, the ballet is surprisingly a huge success & I guess the gymnastics would compliment that. She is a little chatterbox but sometimes her speech can be a little hard to understand especially if she has a cold, nothing too serious but I would be thinking the drama would be good for this & for public speaking etc... I suppose what I'm asking is really which would be more beneficial to her long term as I think she would love both..

I think it depends on the groups too, I don't know much about gymnastics, but my friends children go to a local club and the time spent at training/in competitions seems to ramp up quite steeply from quite a young age. I guess drama groups vary too, but generally they seem to be less of a commitment. My DD (10) does ballet/tap/modern and drama and they do complement each other well.

I'd go for drama on the basis that as she progresses gymnastics & ballet can work against each other as the right posture in gym is the wrong posture for ballet.

personally I would say drama is probably better if she wants to continue with the dancing as that gives her extra insight into things like miming and how expression can be used as well as if she wants to audition for things in the future, they like them to be able to dance, sing and act or at least 2 of the three. however she is still so young it might be that she would prefer gym to dance anyway.

Thanks for all the replies, leaning towards drama too, think it would be more beneficial in the long run.. She would love gymnastics too but she's very tall already so feel maybe the drama would be better...

I think I saw some combined gymnastic and ballet classes somewhere. I'm not quite sure but think it's called Slingtastic. Where are you? Also have you tried looking for classes on www.encyclokidia.com?

Also I don't know where you are, but something like this may also work for your lo, a combination of multiple things. www.encyclokidia.com/service/16410/Dance/Danceworx/Knaresborough-Studio-The-Castle-Yard-Knaresborough-North-Yorkshire

You can't combine gymnastics and ballet in one class - they are entirely different disciplines.

You ar right dodobookends, I got it wrong! I was thinking of springfit and they combine gymnastics and trampoline - which I thought was unusual too.

At 4 she's not really doing ballet. It should be age appropriate. A good ballet studio will do stuff that's safe for their bodies.

Frankly, I'm not so sure about the safety of gymnastics. The training pushes young bodies to much greater extremes than good ballet teaching, which should be slow and steady.

So to balance out the ballet, I'd be inclined to have her do Drama. But really, at 4, it's going to be structured imaginative play. Not acting. If the classes are any good that is.

Even for older children, a good Drama class won't be about speaking nicely. If it is, run a mile.