Number of classes

[kat23]

After a recent viewing of First Position, my daughter has the YAGP bug--I think mostly because it looks as close to people her age dancing professionally as she can imagine. I am curious about the training that the American girls in the pre-competitive division receive to be at such a high level at such a young age--I'm assuming training in Europe/Russia is a completely different animal. It's hard for me to imagine that my daughter could reach that level taking the normal 2 or 3 1.5 hour a week classes that most 8 and 9 year olds take. Are the students that teachers view as having the potential to perform at that level usually approached about more classes?

[Katya]

Hi Kat23 - I am sure the admins on the forum know more about this topic, and I hope it's OK that I am replying... please remove this if it's out of place.

 

I think what often happens is that a promising child will progress through the levels faster, and get to the levels with more classes per week a little faster. Some studios distribute students mostly by age, while others use progress in ballet as the more important metric. Once your child gets to pre-pro level at 9 or 10 or 11, if that's what she wants to do and if that's what she can do while staying kind to her body and healthful overall, you will start to see more classes offered per week.

 

That said, three 1.5 hour ballet per week at the age of 8 years old is great.

[Clara 76]

Apples to oranges. Okay, let me explain:

 

The training for YAGP is a completely different animal than the training for a professional ballet career.

 

Many children in the pre-comp level are rehearsing that variation, and that variation ONLY, several hours a day multiple days per week. Chances are if you saw them in a ballet class, you would not be able to distinguish them from their peers because they are not receiving equal ballet training, but variation training. I know it would seem the 2 are the same, but they are not.

 

Some schools participate in YAGP, others do not. If your child wants to participate, you will need to be in a school that participates, or you will have to find a private coach who does YAGP.

 

At the end of the day, reading through our "Company Congratulations" thread may be helpful because you will see that most dancers gained employment through good old-fashioned ballet training and auditions- not through a competition.

 

These threads may help as well:

http://dancers.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=56207 Suggestions for tweaking YAGP

 

http://dancers.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=54558 Taming the tutu

 

http://dancers.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=56224 Best Bang for your buck re. training options

 

http://dancers.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=56120 So you just competed at YAGP?

 

http://dancers.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=54726 So you think you want to try YAGP?