adelaide parent Posted April 10, 2008 Report Share Posted April 10, 2008 I am thinking about letting my eight yeat old son audition for a very good junior program and I am wondering about whether my sons body type will be suitable. He has a very strong looking body, broad across the chest and ribcage in fact very solid looking allover, big thigh muscles, etc, he doesn`t really look like the little eight year olds that you see in photos of boys doing ballet class, they look alot finer boned. He has been doing ballet classed for 4 years and loves them very much but I wonder whether he will be looked at as not having the right kind of male body type (if there is such a thing). My 15 year old dd thinks they might feel that as he grows things will change, but is it the norm for boys to be of a more slight build? and is that because of jumping etc as my son seems to jump rather heavily. Thanks for any input. Quote Link to comment
Mel Johnson Posted April 10, 2008 Report Share Posted April 10, 2008 The kid's 8 forcryinoutloud! I really entertain serious doubts whether anybody will even notice that he's built stocky, they'll be so happy to have a boy in class! Let him go and enjoy himself. There is nobody I know who can predict what an 8-year-old is going to look like after adolescence. Quote Link to comment
adelaide parent Posted April 10, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 10, 2008 I guess my questions based more on the fact that it is an audition for the Australian ballet School and they do have hundreds of children, including many boys, audition for only a handful of places. Yes you cant predict a childs body after adolescence and having been through the process already with my older children I`ve seen that first hand. So I guess the auditioners will to some degree disregard body types at this age and look at other things like musiality and flexibility. Quote Link to comment
Clara 76 Posted April 10, 2008 Report Share Posted April 10, 2008 Yes, I agree. It can't hurt to try! Now one of the things that is so tough about the performing arts is the fact that auditions are a fact of life and along with that, comes rejection. Parents have to develop a tough skin and make sure they treat any rejection with a shrug- "Oh well. Not this time- maybe next time", and leave it at that. If parents treat it that way, so will kids. Let us know how things go! Quote Link to comment
citibob Posted April 10, 2008 Report Share Posted April 10, 2008 I can't agree more with everything said above. And as I keep mentioning, the benefits of ballet training are such that the training should be pursued for its own sake, regardless of a real or imagined future in ballet as an adult. The kid is 8 years old, maybe he doesn't want to be a professional dancer and this is all a moot point. And if he does want to be a professional dancer, this is a moot point anyhow, since he'll find a way. Some schools actually do go to a lot of effort to predict what children's adult bodies will look like, and to select based on that. Whether you perceive such a system as beneficial or not, there's not much you can do about it (other than provide or withold donor dollars). But that said, I know a dancer who had a successful career with an unusual body. He said he was "supposed" to grow up to be a football-player-type build. However, he was so into a competitive sport at age 10 that he was not able to eat enough and his growth was stunted (do NOT try this at home!). The result was that he had a football-player build, but was only about 5'5". In ballet class, this dancer was widely recognized from a young age as being an amazing superb jumper. And with such a solid base, he could partner anyone, in any way he chose. Not only was he very strong, he also didn't have to press-lift the ladies as high as the rest of us, and he didn't have to stoop down to lift them either. Among the women who have worked with him, he's recognized as the best partner they've ever had. He danced for many years for a well-respected, well-funded ballet company. Only problem was they would never, ever cast him as a Cavalier or Prince, but he always got the "jester"-type roles. Quote Link to comment
Guest MasterPuppeteer Posted September 30, 2008 Report Share Posted September 30, 2008 Some schools actually do go to a lot of effort to predict what children's adult bodies will look like... Citibob, do you know what predictive methods they use? I once read an interview with Bela Karolyi (coach of Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton) who said that as a predictor of a child's adolescent height/build, he really looks at the height/build of the same-gender parent (the boys' fathers, the girls' mothers). Do ballet schools use this method as well? Quote Link to comment
2continu43 Posted September 30, 2008 Report Share Posted September 30, 2008 Not always a good predictor. Both DS and non DS tower over their father! (6'1'' and 6'3" respectively, dad is 5'8").I am 5'8'' as well and our daughter has barely cleared 5'3" at 14!!! Quote Link to comment
Mel Johnson Posted September 30, 2008 Report Share Posted September 30, 2008 That method is usually pretty good at predicting somatotype: ecto/meso/endomorph, but often doesn't work with stature. Quote Link to comment
dancingawaymylifesavings Posted October 1, 2008 Report Share Posted October 1, 2008 The kid's 8 forcryinoutloud! I really entertain serious doubts whether anybody will even notice that he's built stocky, they'll be so happy to have a boy in class! Let him go and enjoy himself. There is nobody I know who can predict what an 8-year-old is going to look like after adolescence. I just could not agree more--too early to analyze. FOCUS ON FUN! Quote Link to comment
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