Professional Dancing and Body Type

[aspiretoinspire]

I'm 14 and I just started ballet this year. I am very passionate about ballet and work very hard. I take 3 hours a week and will possibly be taking more soon. My one ballet teacher (who is a retired high ranking ballerina from three different national ballet companies) says that I have the perfect facility, proportions, feet, legs, arms. Natural turnout, high arches, nice lines; etc. She also said I can catch up and become a professional if I work hard. She has commented several times about my perfect ballet body (as a whole and legs, feet, arms, and proportions) and natural facility and musicality. I started the year taking two hours a week of a beginner teen class and my teachers saw how fast I was improving thought I should take more so they put me in an additional class they thought would be at my level, Grade 5 RAD syllabus. I love to dance and would like to become a professional but I'm worried about my weight and the fact that the studio I'm taking lessons at is a recreational, recital-type studio and doesn't have much to offer in terms of ballet. I crave to take more classes and focus on my passion but they just don't exist at my studio. There are no ballet feeder schools nearby and my parents are not willing to move. I'm at a healthy weight but I'm also tall and at the higher end of whats considered healthy.I have struggled with eating disorders in the past, but I'm recovered , and I know I need to lose weight (healthily) to be able to do pas de deux once I get en pointe and on that level (I'm aware this will take several years) and to make my lines nicer. I am very perfectionist and dedicated. So my questions are:

• Do you have any suggestions of what I could do to take more classes?
• Should I try to become a professional and what is the best path of action?
• What would be a good goal in terms of weight loss,like a bmi I should aim for or any other suggestions?

​Much thanks in advance

[Victoria Leigh]

Welcome to Ballet Talk for Dancers, aspiretoinspire. I like your name.

 

It is way too early in your training to be able to answer your questions about professional goals, and we do not deal with weight issues here. Our advice on that is to work with a nutritionist. It's not about numbers, it's about proportion and what one looks like.

 

As to more classes, if your studio does not have them, then you will have to find a way to get to another studio, But a word of caution about that....most studios do not have multiple classes a week for beginning students. You might have to take at more than one studio in order to get more classes.

[vrsfanatic]

Hum, an adult poster has entered the YD forum, by mistake. Please remember only YD and moderators may post here.

[starlightdreamer]

I absolutely know how you feel. I was in your position last year, after taking a year of ballet. I took classes at 3-4 different places to get enough classes in for me to improve and catch up. To prove that this worked, I am now at the pre-professional school in my city in a higher level than I expected! Good luck, I know you can do it!