If your child is learning ballet, how often do they perform in public?

[GrannyHaddock]

This afternoon we watched our DD dancing in her ballet school's Christmas show. They have been preparing for it all term. She loved it, and so did we. These staged performances happen every two years with this school. It is clear that it is a huge effort to put a show on at that level, but I wonder if literally a few minutes on stage every two years is enough to maintain interest? Now it is back to classes and exams. How else could she be involved in more performing?
For contrast, DD plays an instrument too and performs in public at least once every term in a whole evening's concert.
As I am more on the music side myself, I am a bit baffled by this.

Dd goes to stage school not dance school they share something every term . Not always a full on show but they share what they have worked on. Today’s was low key but really nice . I think lots of dance schools are like yours but I agree it should be more like music - and I’m constantly at concerts for her brother !!

When dd danced, they had a “parents lesson” ie where parents could watch at the end of each term, and the whole dance school did a show (in a proper theatre) once a year.

When my dc did ballet it was watch week end of each term, and a show every 2 years.

The show would be most of 2 terms preparing for it, in the case of the little ones often for less than 5 minutes on stage. (in a costume that cost £25 and £10+ tickets too!) More often would have meant they didn't do much else.

However mine have always performed in musical theatre and other local theatrical groups so it wasn't their only performance.

My daughter danced from four to nineteen. Still dances but not at same level. Her school had a showing lesson each term. Then a parents show each end of year with a big theatre show biannually. She also did ENB later on and trained with BRB so had chances to perform on stage with the company. She was a dance scholar and belonged to school dance company so did lots of dance shows through school at speech day etc.
As a little one, she enjoyed performing but was happy for itntombevjust to parents.

No shows or end of term viewings at child's dance school. However, her ballet associate classes allow us to watch now and then. Dance competitions and festivals is the thing for us, that means performance time every few weeks - very time consuming, and much dedication required, however.

Thanks everybody, your experience has been very much like ours. Our ballet school too lets mums and dads watch the last lesson of term, and our daughter is involved in a theatre group that puts on multiple shows at Christmas, but it's not ballet! Ballet lessons are twice weekly, so quite a commitment.
It is clear she really enjoys it, but the musician in me can't help thinking that more time could be spent on her instrument(s) which she might still be playing in 50 years. I have never come across an adult amateur ballet company, so what are the prospects of continuing ballet after school days? I feel ballet only works if you give yourself to it wholeheartedly.

There is no doubt that her music practise suffers from the time spent on ballet, and she is talented in that area. I have suggested dropping one instrument, but she won't hear of it, though really she does not manage enough practise. Plus she gets plenty of homework.

Just for the record, I have no intention of trying to stop her dancing! It is just that I see her spreading herself thinly over several activities, when she could do very well at one or even two of them.

Ask her teacher about performing in festivals. You can also enter privately, but need a dance of appropriate style and length.

My dd's dance school does shows every 18 months. They tend to work on exams and stuff between the shows. They also do a big competition once a year, but they have separate classes to prepare for that.
Luckily for dd, she goes to a drama group as well, and they do lots of performing which includes some dance/musical theatre etc. She also gets to do some dance in her big school productions - now she is at secondary, the dance numbers tend to be given to the kids who have had some dance training, rather than the primary school style dancing that's dumbed down so that everyone can do it.

DD is 13 now, and some of her dance friends are a bit older than that. They're all obsessed with dancing. None of them seem to have lost interest as a result of the shows being spaced far apart - in some ways, I think it just makes them more exciting. As a parent, I have to say I'm grateful for the gaps, as I spend a fortune on costumes/tickets/DVDs as it is!

I was an instrument player myself, but having watched dd do it over the last ten years or so, I must say, I think dance is a fab hobby. Builds confidence, teaches discipline, promotes good teamwork, provides opportunities for regular exercise etc. Not to mention the social angle. DD goes into her dance class all stressed and wound up after a busy day at school, and comes out like a different person.

She doesn't only do ballet, though - she does tap, modern, acro and some other stuff too. Nice to have a bit of variety in my view.

It is clear she really enjoys it, but the musician in me can't help thinking that more time could be spent on her instrument(s) which she might still be playing in 50 years. I have never come across an adult amateur ballet company, so what are the prospects of continuing ballet after school days? I feel ballet only works if you give yourself to it wholeheartedly.

I agree that ballet can complement other activities very well, in terms of the self discipline, etc, it can bring.

I think there may exist adult amateur opportunities for ballet. I read something very recently but would have to look it up. You can also join the ballet/dance society at university and perform and/or compete against other universities. Many people also continue, after their grades, in adult classes. I think there's far more on offer nowadays.

The thing is, ballet is the foundation for so many other forms of dance, and many adults do some kinds of dance as a hobby. Personally, I wouldn't have the confidence to sign up for that kind of thing, but I'm hoping that my dd will.

Also, fwiw, I suspect that many people stop playing their musical instruments as adults anyway. I know I did. I think I would still play the piano if I had space for one, but neither dsis nor I touch our other instruments these days. Dsis was super-keen, too, and used to practise for many hours each day.

I'm a dance teacher, and put on a show every two years. I would LOVE to stage a show every term, however the parents would grumble about the cost of buying new costumes each time. We could re use some costumes, but then parents still complain as they assume that we are also churning out the same dance routines from show to show (because the costume is the same) and there is always one child in a class who will completely outgrow their outfit within a few months anyway. We have watching week once every 6 months instead where parents can see their child's class progress.

Thanks Alexa, yes I can see the benefit of ballet re confidence, posture, teamwork, etc. The instruments she learns are orchestral ones so more collaborative than the piano, which I have always thought to be a lonely one, unless the player is very accomplished and can get involved with chamber music and singers. I think it is the collaborative side of ballet that she likes at the moment so I am not sure that competitions and solo dancing would quite do it for her. The ballet teacher has not mentioned the possibility as far as I am aware.

I think it depends very much on your dance school. We fell into our school by accident rather than chose it for particular reasons. They do a show every few years, watching (unless the very young ones) is only when they are going to be doing an exam but they have involvement in supplying children for a big annual production locally and if they want to then they can do festivals and competitions.

I suppose your problem really stems probably from the fact that the ballet is not "your world". that isn't a criticism it is just that we generally prefer what we know. I steered my children away from "my activity" as I was worried I wouldn't be able to back off and not push them and allow them to develop themselves. If you were from a dance background you would probably be feeling the instruments were stopping her practicing ballet at home.

If she is happy doing all of the stuff she is doing at the moment and happy with the balance of shows and exam work and you can afford to pay for it all then I would leave it as it is.

If she has said she would like to do more shows then I would look into different dance schools, some don't do any exams, some just do class tests or performance awards which have much less content and therefore can be done in a lot less time, some will do more shows but will expect extra classes for that, some will do more shows and do it through lesson time and if you want to do exams then you do that as extra classes and so on. There are lots of different options available as schools are so different. but she might really like just doing syllabus work for her ballet.

I played instruments and dropped all of them as a teenager and have never played them since even though they are still in my house and I could.

Ask her what she likes and wants and go from there.

there is also the English Youth Ballet in some cities - open auditions.

Similar here with show every two years and watching week once a term . She did the show and an exam this summer which must have been hard to squeeze into the lessons .

Once every two years here too!

They do watching weeks where parents can see the class but the performance is every two years

When dd attended a recreational ballet school it was a show every two years.

Parents were also allowed to watch exam practice which happened once every 18 months or so.

Thanks dancinfeet, I can appreciate the problems regarding costumes, and the sheer organisation needed to put on a show. I have to ask, does every performance have to have full, special costumes, or could something lower-key still work? I expect I'm missing something here, and the costumes are a big part of the experience and fun of it all.

Clearly what you are doing is replicated widely, and it is a tribute to the magical world of ballet that you are satisfying your young customers! And many thanks to Pps who have made suggestions for widening my daughter's options for getting more performance experience.

We used to have a 'big' show every 2 years (plus watching weeks for the little ones) but have changed to an annual lower key 'showcase' where each class gets to do a decent-length dance without there being such a need for props, script, plot, principal characters etc.

Also there is an annual summer course ending in a performance, and also things like a choreographic competition which is on smaller stage and semi-costumed (so those entering put together low-key costumes rather than it being the dance school's responsibility). Local professional panto takes a troupe of dancers every other year - DD did that twice when she was much younger. There's also the Ballet Awards (ISTD) or similar RAD competitons?

Otherwise, I mainly see DD - now 15 - dance at competitive festivals, in solos, duets or performing groups, usually 3x per year. She does ballet, tap and modern theatre, and though not a particularly successful soloist is an absolute stalwart of the performing groups. Does our studios have a performing team of any kind?

There is, in the dance word, a tension between 'performing' and 'training'. Many of the best dance schools in terms of training perform very little indeed, as obviously preparation of 'dance performances' takes time out of the careful daily / several times weekly training. for those of us with 'serious but never likely to be professional' dancers - DD is now taking Advanced level dance exams, so near the end of that particular journey - some of the joy of dance is in performing, especially with friends.

We have shows twice a year! The teacher is quite relaxed, she really wants the girls to enjoy performing and to get a real feel for it. The venue pretty much has enough seats for parents and the odd grandparent to come along and watch (£10 a ticket), but if you didn’t have a child/friend’s child in the production then you wouldn’t be queuing to grab a ticket.

Cantkeep, that's a really interesting observation about the "tension between performing and training". I am starting to understand that now.
In music, the aim seems to be to get children playing in public as soon as they are able and as often as possible.

I was always of the opinion that I was paying for training. Performing could take place elsewhere (Youth theatre, holiday courses etc)

One thing which may be worth emphasising is that, much as my dd loves to perform, she also just loves her classes, and I think she'd want to continue with them even if she never got up on the stage. She gets a real buzz just from going to class! I guess it's the endorphins that come from the exercise, combined with the impact of the music and the sense of belonging to the group - who knows?!

I would agree with Alexa that the 'performance' is for the adults much more than the pupils - DD would only miss the 'shared enterprise and camaraderie' of performing groups, otherwise she'd be happy just to go to her couple of hours of classes each night....

I'm a dance teacher. My school does a 'big' show every year and they also do because performances and competitions throughout the year. If you want her to do ballet professionally she wouldn't really need to go full-time until she is around 15/16 so if you want her to partake in different types of dance and performance then now is the time really, before she (possibly) decides to fully commit to ballet.