My daughter is still only 8, so I don’t know where things will end up, but it’s recent enough to remember age 6. Because it was lockdown, she had lessons over zoom for the Spring term of Year 1, so I could observe them.
She is young for the school year, so started ballet at the beginning of Foundation, just turned 5 years old, but then lost any teaching for half of Foundation, and had lessons at home by zoom for Spring term in Year 1. So there’s a caveat that what I am describing may be ‘behind’ what would be expected at this stage in a non-interrupted childhood (but a little more to contradict that later!).
She goes to a good ballet school (distinctions generally across the board with marks usually in the 90s, respectable number going on to vocational training, excellent results in competitions).
So in the zoom lessons, there was no use of ballet terminology. They practiced steps as part of short dances, which were the set sequences for the pre-primary, although the children were not to know that then. There was a lot of the teacher calling out individual names and saying ‘good’. There were far fewer corrections, which were mainly about pointing toes. Obviously, there were no physical corrections in these lessons, but I’ve just asked my daughter and she says they did happen in face to face lessons.
However, skipping/walking/running are part of the exam syllabus, at least for the first few grades. Mime is important throughout.
For pre-primary or primary, there was a dance which exactly included running in and waving at your friend before a series of spring points, so what you saw might actually be them preparing your daughter in a low key way.
i would also say that when they opened a section of a lesson to the parents early on, I was hugely underwhelmed, as it was pretty much as you described! I think it’s more an opportunity for people to coo over their child looking cute than to get a true insight into their training.
With regards to exams, different dance schools take things at different speeds. Our school takes early ballet slow and it feels that they usually enter children for an exam at the point that they are confident they will achieve a distinction. I remember that children at other dance schools in the area did their pre-primary a lot earlier than my daughter. I think even now she is a grade behind some other schools.
She is young for her academic year and there was the disruption from lockdown, but I think this is when she did hers (ISTD)
Pre-primary - Autumn year 2 (age 6)
Primary - Autumn year 3 (age 7)
Standard 1 - Autumn year 4 (age 8)
Grade 1 - Spring year 4 (age 8)
She was entered for pre-primary 2 terms later than some other girls in her year group, one term later for primary, same for Standard 1, and then with a smaller advanced group for Grade 1. She was an little upset at the time of pre-primary but it was definitely right. She needed that extra time to build strength, concentration and focus (for everything, not just ballet).
Having watched her galumphing around, and knowing that she was ‘behind’ in being entered for Pre-primary, I was surprised to receive an email asking if she would like to do a dance festival at the beginning of year 3. I was even more surprised at how quickly she picked up her steps, and how graceful she suddenly looked 2 terms after those zoom lessons. Then I was staggered when she won medals at a series of festivals, against children with clearly more advanced choreography. These things are a bit of a lottery, and should be taken with a pinch of salt. Normally any 10 or 15 children could potentially place depending on what the adjudicator is looking for. The point is however that, contrary to my assumption that ballet was a bit of nonsense for her, from what looked like a very inauspicious start, she can actually dance.
The rate of development has been staggering over the last 18 months. It seems that because the basics are solid, they can start building more quickly from this point onwards. She has joined a pre-vocational programme, and reached the finals of a more meaningful ballet competition.
If you had told me what her dance commitment would be now when she was 6, I would have outright laughed in your face. I thought she would, like me and millions of other little girls, prance around for a year or two and then give up.
So the point of my long ramble is, if your daughter is enjoying the classes and seems to be getting something out of them, then I wouldn’t worry. You could look at the older children, or look at where students go onto when they leave the dance school if you are very worried. If you are happy with that, then trust in the school. A slow start doesn’t necessarily mean that it isn’t good.