Ballet- pink tutus and tippy toe princesses?

[Darcicapointe]

Lots of my non-dancer friends say that ballet is for, you know, little pink tutu babies. they do a little turn with their hands all crooked and feet all wrong, and tell you "that's what you do for two hours every day after school!" it's not like bullying, but it makes you feel like they need to know how much effort is put into it. I am a serious dancer, and i don't like that they don't take ballet as seriously as dancers take their friend's passions. sure, I know that they are just poking fun. but we all know that ballet is just as hard as football, tennis, and soccer. Has anyone else went through this? if so, can you tell me any way to show them that ballet is more than that?

[SwiftDancer13]

I often have this problem, other teenagers and child have no idea what goes into making a dancer. I often lose a lot of respect when they find out I do ballet and want to be a ballerina, and they just can't understand just exactly how difficult ballet is. unfortunatly it's extremely difficult to make them understand, so we just have to put up with it! x

[swan#7]

The solution to this is so easy: tell them to try some ballet like doing tendus and plies and correcting them like your teacher would. If they aren't willing to do barre with you, the best and fastest solution is a developpe. I tell them to lift their legs a la seconde with me and once they realize how much strength is required, they never mention it again!

[#Balletdancer]

Swan#7

 

That is the best thing I've heard/read for this problem ever! I am definitely going to do that next time!

[Darcicapointe]

Thx 4 all of the suggestions. my friends will fall over if I ask them to do a petite allegro or an adagio i have learned in class. great idea!!! thx!!!

[musicaldancer]

I've gone through this, not many people understand how hard ballet is. A good idea would be to teach them to stand with perfect ballet posture (Straight back, stomach muscles pulled up, straight knees, turned out legs, etc), then make them walk around like that! Ask them if it would be hard to do 32 fouettes like that!

[kballet1862]

I remember once in elementary this boy was getting made fun of for doing ballet Most people don't realize how hard it is until they try it so you should ask them to.

[Gisela]

I had this problem when I started, but then it kind of faded away. How? Well sometimes I would do things like people above me have suggested, like trying to teach basic things, and that made them see that's not so easy as it looks. We also have PE classes at school, so my friends have seen how fit ballet has made me, like I can run long periods of time no problem and have lots of strength (now I just have to figure out how to play sports haha). And as we got older, they seemed to realize that I wouldn't be spending so much time dancing if it was really that easy. Most of them even got interested because they didn't know it required so much training, so they researched ballet and found out that it was not only pink tutus They figured out what ballet really is besides the stereotypes.

[ascballerina]

Just show 'em the Misty Copland commercial...

[pirouettegirl123]

When they lift their legs in à la seconde make them hold it for 16 counts too! ;)