Unfair Evaluations

[Hopefuldancer]

I recently had a conference with my ballet teacher who gave me a sheet of ratings

based on turn-out, foot line, strength, etc. She gave me "adequate" ratings on most of those things and told me I needed to work on them... bla bla bla. I thought "OK, well I'm going to really push myself over the holidays to improve the things she gave me lower ratings on".. And I did. I've been spending 40 minutes twice a day working on my feet ONLY. And thats added to my usual daily pilates and stretch sessions. In other words, I've been working really hard. And you can see in class my work has paid off. I'm not bragging or anything, but I know I am much more polished than the other students in my class. I mean, they could be better but they just seem to be more lazy(I'm finding it hard to word this since I hate bragging!!! )

 

Anyway, I came back to the studio today and overheard all the girls bragging about their MUCH MUCH higher ratings than me.. I mean, I'm hearing this from a girl who can't even lift her leg to 90 degrees without losing proper alignment! Suddenly I went from feeling pretty good about myself and my hard work to "what have I been putting myself through all this pain for??"

 

I told my mom(a former dancer) and she agreed that the "almost perfect rating" girls are no where near where I am.. She proposed that maybe they got higher marks because A. My teacher was afraid their parents would take them out of the school if they had lower ratings and/or B. They are much younger than me(I'm a late starter)..

 

I don't know, but I'm pretty crushed. I went into the bathroom stall during class today and started tearing up... I mean I was looking today at the other girls who were listed as having good turnout and blah.. My feet looked much better! It just doesn't make since! Its almost got to be a joke, seriously!

 

I know I know, I shouldn't be focused on those other girls ... and I usually never do.. This was just a big icy thorn whip across the face for me. I'm sorry to put this long vent ... But I'd like an opinion on what I should do. I'd like to address the teacher sometime or request another evaluation.. But how do I do that without presenting myself as the "Hey I wanna be the star!!!" type.. ?

 

Thanks a bunch!

[Mel Johnson]

Don't let them get you down! And venting is good. It's one of the things we handle here.

 

The next time somebody starts to get on your nerves, just think to yourself, "What an idiot!" or words to that effect, and smile sweetly . It makes them wonder what you're up to!

[MissyC]

I'm sorry to hear you're crushed by this. I can imagine how disappointing it was for you.

 

Maybe, just maybe... your teacher knows what a hard worker you are and KNEW you'd take her evaluation very seriously - seriously enough to keep on working so hard!? ... so she marked you a bit lower in hope that you would try to gain even more strength and accuracy in tech? Maybe she knew it would upset you enough to come back fighting harder??

 

chin up!

[Guest sarabesque]

That has happened to me a lot too- I always have tried to work really ahrd- harder thatn most kids in my class, especially in highschool years when they want to do other things. And it's hard to see if it's payed off. Technically those who work hardest should be the best, but I don't know if it always works that way.

Still, if you think about it, being lazy like the rest of them won't help you iether, so it's better just to wokr hard, becuase you have nothing to lose.

It's hard to stay motivated when you can't see the results of your work and you're surrounded by people who don't have work ethics like you. I'm probably not as hard a worker as I used to be just becuase everyone else's ideas of beign "burnt out", "over-doing it", etc. have worn off on me. It helps to see how hard others are working.

WHen I went away one summer there was a girl that did every compbination iwth every single group- that kinda reminded me that there are other people out there who work extra extra hard. If you read some dancer's autobiographies and stuff there are some that put in extra time- I think Gelsey Kirkland...

Geez- now that I've written all this, and after reading all the stuff you do, I ffeel lazy! I think I'll go to some sittups or something---maybe we can each motivate eachother...

[Guest Eulalia]

Don't worry. My teachers usually give loads of compliments to the others and only give me a compliment when I do something SPECTACULAR. I also get way more corrections, and they do that because they know you WANT to do this and because the other girls are just you know...there. They know you can do and be better and the think they can push you harder than the others. I hope that helps you, and I just had my evaluations (I did the worst I've ever done) and so let's hope I can heed my own wisdom *chuckles*.