Shake Your Boom Boom!

I have a tremendous bias when it comes to dance.  Call me a snob, call me whatever you want; but, in the dance world, Ballet is King!!!  I believe that a strong ballet dancer can do almost anything other dancers can do and better.  There are a few exceptions to this rule--Krump, pop and lock, breaking, and tap dance (these are specialty art forms and do not necessarily rely on the traditional dance vocabulary).

Given my prejudice towards ballet, you can imagine my feelings about parents that limit their children's training to commercial (recreational/competition) studios.  I know it is often out of ignorance, but I think that children that are still at commercial studios after the age of 13 face an ever-narrowing window of opportunity when it comes to dance.

Interestingly enough, I think commercial studios blow pure ballet programs out of the water  until age 10 or 11.  If you look at a student that attends a pure ballet program at ages 5 through 9, they are not very advanced in dance.  They typically lack the flexibility, expression and musicality that their similarly aged competition counterparts possess.  This continues up until age 10 and then an interesting transformation seems to take place.  The ballet-focused 10 year old begins to catch up to the competition student, by age 11, they are neck and neck with the 11 year old ballerina being cleaner in execution and the competition dancer being more expressive and musical and certainly possessing the tricks that wow an audience.  But, by age 12 (or 2 years of serious ballet training with a weekly jazz and lyrical class, the ballerina tends to take the lead).  At age 14, the ballerina that performs a lyrical piece is mesmerizing.  She  is technically flawless and somehow it all looks effortless while the prodigy commercial dancer often looks sloppy and seems to be unfinished.

So, these early results produce an interesting conundrum for parents; when is the optimal time to transition from a commercial/recreational program to a ballet program?  I see many parents stick with the commercial focused training too long.  In fact, there is a snobbery that comes from commercial moms to ballet moms.  Can anybody say "irony"?   I hear moms of 7 year olds that are at commercial studios say things like, "oh she is really advanced, she can already do triple pirouettes leading into 3 right leg hold turns into a double illusion followed by a back walkover into a split up into an aerial."

I think to myself, "Wow!  My daughter better get to work."

However, I leave it at a plain "Wow!" and I genuinely mean it.

They then go on to further offer that they think their children would be really bored at a ballet studio.  I have to admit I can understand why.  But, this pomposity will set her child up for failure in the future.

Like ballet moms, commercial moms get sucked into their dance lives and tend to think that sticking with the status quo is the best course of action.  This can spell trouble.  At 10 and even 11,  all of those super duper, shake your boom boom tricks and turns are paying off, but there seems to be a wall that these kids hit and for the most part, they stop improving.  Typically, mom doesn't realize it until it's too late.  Her daughter is still winning trophies and she can now do 6 pirouettes leading into a 5 right leg hold turn into a quadruple illusion followed by a back walkover into a split up into an aerial; so she is improving, but the technique is not coming along, and the artistry seems to start flailing.  The problem is they don't see that the rest of the pack is catching up until they have been passed by and the only dance prospects that remain are those that mean a lifetime of going from audition to audition looking for the next big thing.

This is actually a common problem among a lot of dance moms.  We tend to be very comfortable with our studio and the way things are going and we forget that our studio is  a vacuum  being the best in the class does not mean that they are holding up against their peers at other programs.    This is why I advocate finding a way to benchmark your child's progress.  In the younger ages, competitions either entering or watching are a great way to go about this.  As your children age, the Summer Intensive audition circuit is a wonderful option.

I am not suggesting that there are no successful commercial or ballroom dancers who have not been trained in ballet.  In fact, that is absurd. What I am advocating is that a student who wishes to improve their chances to be a  successful ballroom or commercial dancer would be well-served to supplement their training with a solid ballet education from ages 10-18.  The student that does so, will find that they are well-prepared for a career that starts on So You Think You Can Dance, or Dancing With the Stars and perhaps includes a stop on Broadway.  I think that the child that limits their training to commercial training only without a strong ballet foundation will still work as a dancer but they will be the ones slogging from audition to audition and going from gig to gig without the security of a weekly paycheck--as a parent, this is my nightmare.

For the record, while I believe Ballet is King.  I think that a ballet student that is a strong jazz, lyrical, musical theater, hip hop and tap dancer is more likely to work than a student that focuses exclusively on ballet.  In the corporate world, we refer to this as cross-training, in dance we just call it versatility. Whatever you call it though, the other genres lead to greater musicality, artistry, expression, and rhythm all essential components of a successful ballet dancer.

So, to my ballet mom friends...for all of the times that you have been talked down to because your child isn't able to do 30 pirouettes, remember that a beautifully choreographed dance like a piece of music, uses phrasing and punctuation through movement to convey the story.  A piece that is all pirouettes, leg hold turns, and other tricks is the choreographic equivalent of TYPING IN ALL CAPS.  IT CONVEYS A MESSAGE BUT NOT NECESSARILY ONE THAT FITS THE MUSIC.   However, for most of us while fluidity and technical precision are beautiful, we also love the excitement of a well-placed trick or two or heck even three or four.  Both commercial and pre-professional ballet training seem to create a well-rounded dancer maybe both parties should embrace what the other side has to offer and recognize that crossing over to the "dark side" may be just the ticket to put your dancer over the top when she is looking for a job.

A few videos of prodigy dancers at all ages:

Amazing but still makes me shudder...

Strong 7 year old dancers

Even though they are remarkable at 7, I object to the choreography and costuming.  Truthfully, this is why so many ballet moms are reluctant to put their children in commercial programs.

What I love to see...

Alex Wong, a classically trained ballet dancer shows his versatility!

This makes my heart soar!

Yuan Yuan Tan and Damian Smith