Dance lessons for 7 year old

[TheSconeOfStone]

My DD will be 7 by September and has asked to do dance lessons. She tried one lesson of ballet at 4, and although she behaved and followed the class she wasn't interested in joining. She has mentioned a preference for tap.

Is she too old to start? I've been told that ballet is essential for any dance discipline, but is it really for someone who just wants to dance for fun?

I've sent an e-mail to a school that does a tap/modern class. Another school only allows attendance at modern jazz if the child already does ballet. Any ideas what to look for in a class, apart from time and location. I'm worried my tall nearly 7 is going to be put with 4 year olds and that might put her off.

No, she isn't too old at all. Even if she wanted to do ballet 'seriously' she could still catch up. Do you know what syllabus it is? I doubt very much she would be put with four year old children (who would probably be in pre primary or prep as a guide, depending on the syllabus).

Most children seem to do ballet/tap/modern as standard. Others do gymnastic dance/acro and do competitions and private lessons. If you're interested in any of that, look at the school website/Facebook page and and check how well they do in competitions/exam results/vocational school places etc

absolutely not. my eldest was 6 when she started dancing, took up ballet, tap and modern. initially wasn't keen on tap as the others had been doing it a while and I expect it was hard for her to pick it up at first but by the time they took their first exam she was the best in the class. Our school does say they all have to do ballet to do any other styles and I can see where that is coming from, especially at the beginning. in our dance school the children usually slot into the right age group, occasionally if they are really struggling to catch up then they may be asked to double up with the previous grade or have some private lessons to catch up but they wouldn't normally put an older child in with little ones.

Ballet really is considered the core to most dance classes- most schools don't begin teaching modern until they've had two or three years of ballet training. Schools that teach tap or modern would normally insist on ballet also. at the age of 7, lots of them don't even split the classes into separate styles, they will often all be taught to all the students. If she's adamant about not doing ballet, you could look at something like Irish, where she could end up eventually doing hard shoe, or something totally different like street/commercial. Or simply explain to her that ballet is a means to an end- at 7 she may now grasp that better than when she first tried. I hope she finds dance classes she can love xx

They do modern from 5 years here. Starting off in pre primary. Many schools will let you do other dance forms alone, but ballet would be extremely helpful addition in terms of added technique.

Thanks for all the responses. I've booked DD in for ballet followed by jazz. Will think about tap depending on how she gets on with those two. She is like a human wrecking ball so ballet could be interesting

It depends on if your DD is likely to want to go into dance as a career, if so then ballet from the get-go. My DD has danced Disco Freestyle, Jive and Contemporary from the age of 18 months and competed nationally from the age of 3, she took up ballet aged 13 but it never held her back before that. It really depends on what your DD wants from her dancing. My DD just loves to compete and doesn't want to go into it for a career, she just took up ballet out of curiosity really.