how do you know your son has caught the dance bug?

[Guest happycc]

For awhile now my son has said there is nothing he would do more than dancing and performing on stage. Given that he is only 9yrs old and to be sure of that...how do I truly know he has caught that dance bug and will stick with it in the long run? Next year on top of taking two ballet class, a tap, a jazz and gymnastics class he wants to take Ballroom. Should I let him? He has also announced that in a few years he wants to start TAing so he can earn free lessons. Since he is a creature of habit and routines how do I know this something he truly likes or that he is stuck in the routine and habit of doing it. He also thrilled about the idea of winning a scholarship through the dance studio where a specially chosen student can take unlimited amount of classes without having to pay. Finances are tough for us but my husband and I want to be prepared for the expenses that might take place in preparing someone going into a profession of dance.

 

The dance studio mentioned that for boys-if they dance for more than three years and very cooperative about it that is usually an indication that they have gotten the dance bug. Usually by the third year boys who don't want to do it will start giving mom, dad, teacher, director problems or indications that their hearts aren't in it.

What do the rest of you think?

[Mel Johnson]

One of the absolutely sure signs isn't as overt as dancing around. It's just sitting, pointing and flexing the feet, whether in street shoes or barefoot.

[Clara 76]

Hello happycc,

 

Here's what made me know I have a dancer in the house:

 

Tried all the sports teams possible. He never wanted to practice. Never. I had to take all kinds of grief from the coaches.

 

His best friend saw "Riverdance", and wanted to try tap. Best friend didn't want to do it alone, so I sent my son with him.

 

It's now 4 years of tap and 2 years of ballet later. And oh! My poor wood floors!!!!

 

He NEVER stops tapping. Never. Ever. He no longer walks around the house, he dances. I take his tap shoes away so I can have a hour of peace and still, he taps...barefoot!!!

 

Now he's taken up playing the drums...

 

From what you've described, you have a dancer in the house too!!!!!!

 

As far as the money:

Rest assured, you are not alone. There are usually scholarships and financial aid available, don't be afraid to ask!

 

Probably not what you wanted to hear but I hope it helped anyway!!

Clara

[Guest happycc]

Oh gosh the tapping...The tapping is stinking non stop. My kitchen floors are all scuffed up from his tapping in his tennis shoes and sandals even. He taps on the way out of the house and into the car and out of the car to the store. He taps in line in stores, banks. It drives me nuts. It is almost a nervous habit or tic or something. He;ll tap while I am trying to explain math to him, he;ll tap in the shower and I would hear him slip and fall sometimes.

 

i don't see him do very many ballet moves in line in the grocery store though. Maybe he does but I just don;t know it.

 

He does cartwheels and one handed ones all over the place. Loves to handstands and walk around on hands.

 

Jazz-sometimes I see him do his steps. The jumps and turns.

 

My girls do most of the dancing around the house though. They get all dressed up and start making up their little routines and such. My son isn't into making up routines. He would dress up to be ObiBenKenobi and slashes his light saber around. He likes to play Pokemon, Yugioh and video games. I hate the video games bit but since we homeschool and he wanted to connect with some neighborhood boys I gave in. Actually I liked playing the Lord of the Rings video game. And learned to play the Pokemon card game-has a bunch of math and reading involved.

At least we got 5 of the boys to come with him to the dance studio and visit-first by talking about Pokemon -then the come and see my dance thing.

 

Brandon was on the swim team. He picked up swimmmmming rather quickly. But he had a strange reaction to the chlorine. Made his tics and behaviors worse.

He loved to swim but didn't like having to swim in the cold windy hailing days and wearing snow boots and hats. I hated the long swim meets where we had practically had to pack up more than we would for a camping trip it seemed.

 

He won't try any sports involving ###### for some reason. He says he doesn;t like to get him with the ball even though I don't think he has ever been hit by one. I am wondering if I just didn;'t give him the chance to try them when he was younger. He was so spacy and out of it that I didn't bother to sign him up for T-ball or soccer and whenever I did think about it he was usually on stage performing and loving it or in the pool splashing around. Oh maybe I should just sign him up with some sports ball team to definitely be sure I haven't deprived him of some "masculine" sport ;)

 

I have put him in Kung Fu just to give him variety....but he still prefers dance maybe because he is use to dance. Martial arts is very similar to dance but we tried karate when he was younger and was frightened by the aggression and didn't like being around the boys. He says he is more comfortable around the girls because they are better behaved and more predictable.

 

dance bug or not but I definitely have a child who likes to move around a lot.

 

Thank you -you guys are awesome

[Guest happycc]

No the pointing and flexing of the foot hasn't started yet. I did that while I was in gymnastics.

My daughters ages 6 and 7yrs do it all the time though. Constantly placing themselves in dance positions....staring in the mirror. Changing their clothes five million times a day. Giving each other make overs. Pretending to be dance teachers and giving each other dance or acro lessons. Talking ballet talk. plie, demi plie, tendu and sonche or something like that. It is almost scary. You can tell this whole ballet dance thing is so foreign to me. I was the kind of kid who wanted to ride a motorcycle all the time.

 

I guess that is normal for most girls.

 

My son's fellow boy dancer at his school and his mom tells me that Chandler makes up routines all the time at home. WOW that is awesome. Even in class he tries to change the teachers dance routines and add his ideas which are often creative. Brandon is not quite into that at all.

 

 

Well I guess we will have to wait and see if he has the bug.

[Vision]

My son started dancing at age 9, was cheerful and happy to go to classes, and LOVED performing. At age 13, his committment and motivation accelerated, and he became sure that dancing was what he wanted to do. He still has many other interests, but nothing drives him like dance.

 

He does dance around the house; movement has always been part of his way of being. He'll come in, ask a question, do a few pirouettes while waiting for an answer. It's more like part of his vocabulary rather than a separate performance staged for anyone. (I remember at nine months of age, he learned to RUN not walk, and had a big egg on his forehead for a long time from bashing into things.) He did well at sports, but lacked the killer instinct, and also shied away from aggressive activities. Now he's listening to music and choreographing to it in his head, for example, while riding the schoolbus.

 

I think I knew that this would be his path when he became old enough to glimpse his own future, and imagine himself in it. From what I've read, he is becoming more committed at an age when many boys drop out. Maybe it is in the middle-school age years that kids move beyond the moment in their thinking and can take charge of their own direction. Obviously, the support has to be there as well.

 

The other element for him was getting positive feedback from knowledgeable adults, for example, in auditions, and from teachers. As he expresses it, "I can't wait to be good," and his effort and motivation reflect this. Your child will let you know in his own way and time. I guess all we can do is follow and respond. It certainly is clear that movement will always be in his life in some way or another!

[Dance_Scholar_London]

I totally agree with Mel Johnson - If he starts "flex ´n´ pointe" whereever he is, you can be sure that he has catched the dance bug!

[Guest PAmom]

When the little ballet exercises start overtaking everyday activities, your son is then possessed by ballet.

 

Once we were attending a pre-performance talk where Miami City Ballet's director Edward Villella was speaking. This was a big deal for my son and he got there early enough to sit in the front row, I sat beside him. In the middle of the talk I noticed my son, although dressed in a suit, was sitting in a very un-gentlemanly way, straddling like a cowboy. I tried to quietly let him know that it wasn't proper to sit that way but he was not very receptive. It took me a few more times like that over the year to have it explained to me that he was sitting "turned out" and didn't like sitting any other way. It also took my son a while to realize that there are places where sitting turned out is not going to be viewed as proper.