getting discouraged

[Jgurl]

I just finished my first year of ballet study but I'm thirteen. When I'm at class I look around and everyone else is much better, even though they're younger. Then I get discouraged and feel that I'll never be able to get better soon enough to be able to progress. I really love to dance, but this worrying is starting to effect my dancing. How can I help myself feel better about this?

[Victoria Leigh]

Jgurl, you have already told us that you did not start ballet until you were 13, which means that you have had less than one year of training. You are probably in a class with younger students, and that is to be expected. Even though younger, they have studied longer.

 

It sounds to me like you are getting very impatient, and without reason, according to this post you made just a couple of weeks ago:

 

Last week during my summer intentsive my mom asked my teacher how she thought I was doing and my teacher offered me a spot in her pre-pro program. I'm so happy. This is what I have been working towards for the whole time I have been dancing.

[angelina ballerina]

I have to agree with Miss Leigh on this. If you are not patient and perseverant, you will never reach your full potential, which by the sounds of it, is rather high.

I think it is important that you enjoy dancing or you're just wasting your time.

Don't let the others bother you, its about you when you dance. You should only picture you and your teacher. She will help when you need help!

The second you stop enjoying yourself, (I hate to say this) stop.

Its not worth it if you dont enjoy it.

Make the most of it! Maybe the others will inspire you to be great!

Good luck! xx

[Victoria Leigh]

Angelina, please remember that young dancers do not give advice on Ballet Talk for Dancers. We also use punctuation so that we know where one sentence begins and another ends, as welll as capitalization for proper nouns.

[mydancingheart]

I also started dancing ballet when I was 12, and it was frustrating at first. I was put in the same class as my sister, who is two years younger than me, and, since she had just started the year before, she was already the oldest in the class. Even though all the girls were nice, I felt out of place, and couldn't shake the feeling that I should be improving faster than I was.

 

Now though, I've been dancing for a couple months short of 3 years and I am glad I didn't quit. This year, I moved up to my small local studio's advanced program (along with a couple other girls from my original class), where I am of average age. I am still more often compared to the girls several years younger, as I'm the "newest" in the class, but it's nice to dance with girls my own age.

 

I don't think it's ever really too late to start dancing, as long as its something you really enjoy. Age and time can be obstacles, but only mentally, not physically. Just remember, everyone else started from somewhere, too.