Ballet vs other kind of dance for a 6yo

[EggplantsForever]

My 6yo dc is asking to have dance lessons. He likes to dance to pop music videos and copy some breakdancing moves. He did half a year of ballet which he enjoyed, but I suspect he will enjoy some sort of breakdancing/contemporary dance more. He is also very athletic and does gymnastics.
I know nothing about dance, but happy to support him.

I am trying to decide whether to continue with ballet or to enroll him in a different kind of dance class. Ballet is said to be a basis of all dance so would it be better for him to get grounding in that should he become serious about dance? Or is it ok to do some more fun kind of dance now and do ballet later if he needs it?

IME, many of the dance schools around here, cover all sorts. People tend to attend more than one kind of dance until your life is completely taken over.

DC1 loves dancing and is doing street dance. She started with ballet but didn’t like it at all. The ballet school also does a modern class but it’s nothing like dancing in pop music videos. I don’t know dance so they probably all have very strict definitions that I’m unaware.

I don’t worry about her not doing ballet. At the end of the day, it’s about doing what she enjoys.

if he is enjoying the ballet then it is a really good base yes but as he gets older and sadly might potentially become a target for bullies because of being a boy who does ballet it might be worth introducing another dance style too so he does more than just ballet. Tap is fantastic and I think a lot of children really enjoy it, not girly at all, clever, noisy, fun etc. Modern is often very syllabus based and not what you would imagine from the name, street dance would probably be a good one for him to do.

Ask him?

I would stick with ballet. It is also a very good introduction into classical music and production (set design, costume design etc) , also serves as s very basic introduction into fine art via set design unlike more contemporary forms of dance. You get more for your time that way.

I would let him try street dance - he can always try ballet again later on if unsure at the moment.

Modern dance isn't like pop videos, it is closer to ballet and very technique based. Commercial dance is what you want for pop video styles of dance