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Our gym provides dance training once a week during training time. DD has spent the last year enrolled in 30 minutes of ballet with the most incompetent "teacher" you can find and has not improved a bit. She does however know all the lyrics to the song she is NOT dancing to in their annual recital.
Next week she begins private ballet instruction for 30 minutes once a week with an instructor who has a daughter that was a gymnast. She says she understands the needs a gymnast has for dance and is tailoring her instruction to meet those particular needs. She has laid out exactly what her plans are and has shared her philosophy with me and taken the time to listen to what I expect from these lessons. Very hopeful that we can get some turn-out in my child's feet! She walks like a pigeon all the way down the beam, those little toes turned in......
Next week she begins private ballet instruction for 30 minutes once a week with an instructor who has a daughter that was a gymnast. She says she understands the needs a gymnast has for dance and is tailoring her instruction to meet those particular needs. She has laid out exactly what her plans are and has shared her philosophy with me and taken the time to listen to what I expect from these lessons. Very hopeful that we can get some turn-out in my child's feet! She walks like a pigeon all the way down the beam, those little toes turned in......
My DD takes dance on Saturdays (her off gym day) and does 3 hours. She does 1 hour intermediate ballet, 1 hour grade 4 ballet and then 1 hour of Jazz. To her it is just for fun as she does not do he "exams" and hs to decline the performance group offers as she has no time.
It is a win win for us as she he benefiting her gymnastics, but thinks of it as more of a fun relaxation time. Funny thing is that when she was 4yo she dropped dance because she though it was boring!
It is a win win for us as she he benefiting her gymnastics, but thinks of it as more of a fun relaxation time. Funny thing is that when she was 4yo she dropped dance because she though it was boring!
We have a dance technique class that is included with our training but I have been trying to talk my DD into taking an additional dance class to improve her hand/arm/foot postioning... things like that
But she is all worried about being one of the "dancers", I am going to have to talk to her coaches about it, because of course what does mom know right ??
But she is all worried about being one of the "dancers", I am going to have to talk to her coaches about it, because of course what does mom know right ??
Yes my dd takes both. We dance for a separate studio, but my dds dream is to dance not to be a gymnast. She loves gymnastics and excels at it, but she would love to go to college for dance, dance professionally and teach. I am very open with he gym about her goals, and the dance studio recognizes the physical advantage gymnastics gives my dd. they have both been very accommodating. She is currently 9 yr old level 5, she dance an additional 3 hours a week, ballet, jazz and tap, with much older girls. She starts pointe this fall, which is a HUGE dream of hers, and will start competing in dance. We may try one additional year of gymnastics, but if it doesn't work, she will move into a preprofessional ballet program, in addition to where she currently dances.
My DD takes 5+ hours of dance a week - and she competes dance in addition to gymnastics (her dance comps rev up once gym starts to finish up). The two benefit each other in many ways, but the conflicts and scheduling get harder to deal w/ each year so who knows what will happen as time goes on. I think the thing that would make my DD the *absolute happiest* though is if she only had to do beam and floor in gymnastics - those two things are her biggest passion, especially beam. She would do those two things all day every day if she could...now bars and vault, not so much ;/...but she does get excited when she has a good bars day or does a good vault. My DD likes the elegant dance styles the most at dance - like lyrical, jazz, ballet and acro-dance...she's not really a hip-hopper or a tapper...
My dd takes 45 min of ballet and 30 min of jazz a week. She loves it. At first, it was to enhance her gymnastics presentation, form, artistry, etc. But, it has turned into something she really enjoys and is somewhat of a break for her from gym. She gets lots of compliments from her instructor on her flexibility and toe point, but most notably her focus and work ethic. It's been great for her confidence. She stands out in dance, where that is not always the case in gymnastics. She even has a special little part in the spring recital and is so excited about it. She now likes it for many other reasons than how it has enhanced her gymnastics. Which I love, because there is more to life than gym and she has found something else she really likes to do
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My DD did/does- it's almost entirely 100% barre work- feet, positions, arms. One hour a week- not at the gym at a ballet studio. I have noticed a big difference.
E
Ex member
My dd takes a modern dance grade class once a week and also a street dance class once a week (both on the same day)
Pink and fluffy doesn't really have the time of the inclination for dance. She tried ballet before she started gym bit it wasn't "hardcore" enough for her. She now does 1/2 hour of dance twice a week as part of her gymnastics training. She is lucky that she is naturally graceful, there are a couple of girls at the gym who look like scarecrows !
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As a former dancer who is beginning to feel all the aches and pains of the old dance injuries PLEASE make sure her feet a strong enough to start on pointe that her instructors no only make sure she is fitted correctly for shoes, but also evaluate development of her feet. 9 IMO is young for pointe as the feet still have a lot of growing to do and pointe work puts a lot of stress on growing ankles. I don't know your DD's studio, but I have seen and taken classes in studios that put young girls on pointe before their feet are truly ready and I cringe because I know what kind of pain they are potentially looking forward to in the future.
That said, at this time DD does not take dance by she and I work on turn out and form at home and have since she was tiny because we like to "dance" throughout the house. I may at some point put her in an outside dance class, but not yet.
This is why I am moving to the private lessons. I used the word intensity and hands on when talking to the new instructor. Her previous teacher was all glitter and unicorns and would sit there and let those kids have wrong posture, foot position, etc and NOT EVEN CORRECT THEM!!!!! The gym mom in me about died!
We are used to having a coach correct every little single thing. That's how they get better! Letting them do the wrong thing over and over is unthinkable in the gym.
My niece has been taking dance for 8 years and I don't know how her parents can accept her lack of progress from year to year. Every year I sit through her recital and every year I wonder why these kids aren't getting better any faster. So different from gym.
Gwenmom, Thanks, she will be 10 by the time she starts, reality is, the studio she is at, just does 1 hr a week of beginning pointe. She is 5' and woman's size 8.5 feet. Her relieve looks amazing on beam, with her huge feet! LOL. Her instructor feels she is ready, she dances with girls two year older than her and she is one of the strongest in class. Also her tap is fairly advance with a lot of toe stands and turns, so she definitely has the strength. Shoe fitting, will be a challenge, she has really narrow heels. Her teacher will have to approve the fit before class.
Oh good! That she is that tall and her feet that size makes me feel so much better (as I sit here popping my left bum ankle
). As for pointe shoes if you are near a major city most large dance shops have a fitting service you have to schedule an appointment but they know what shoes will have a chance of working.
My DD has been doing ballet as long as she has been doing gymnastics. She does 10 hours of gym and 2 hours of ballet. I'm not sure how long she'll be able to keep both going. I don't see her getting to a very high level in gymnastics so I'm envisioning her continuing with dance once she's done her dash in gym.
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