Ballet Dancers!

I'm not a dancer yet, but I'm starting classes in 2 weeks time.

Dancer here! Been dancing for about 4 years and I am HOOKED. I've just recently started pointe, but I've taken ballet, jazz, modern, lyrical and I'm also in an aerial hoop class.

I took non-professional ballet classes for six years, now I just dance at home I miss it, but I moved and I can't find ballet schools which are not super-expensive and/or super-competitive.

I've never done ballet before, but my daughter has been going for 18months and is really keen, and her dancing school offers a class for adult beginners. I am mainly going so that when she asks me if she's doing something correctly, I might know the answer! But I'm really looking forward to it - I always wanted to do ballet, but there was nowhere where I grew up to do it.

Have you just started ballet as an adult?

I'd think that's quite unusual. Many people in my experience ( including myself and my children) went to ballet class as kids. And used that experience to go on to hdifferent styles of dance in the future.

I danced ballet as a child, then took a class again when I was 18, and now I'm back at it (I'm 27 now, getting too old for dancing at the night clubs lol). Though I'm taking the course at my university (yep, still a grad student) and it's taught by a fellow student, so maybe not the best quality dance class, but it's cheap and it's fun! Classes for adults are REALLY hard to come by.

When I was a kid, my mom and my aunt also took adult ballet classes, everyone in the class was middle aged (they were a lot of mom's who's daughters/sons danced ballet too), they had lots of fun. My aunt and some of the women even danced at our big end of the year show! They had small roles, but they had a blast!

Getting the basics is key, learning the positions and basic steps. Well, all dances are like that, really!

I'm always prancing around my house, my kitchen is basically a dance studio. Roommates have asked me about all that 'jumping' they here coming from my room.... be careful, dancing is addictive!

YES! You will LOVE it! I danced when I was younger - never professionally, but I practically lived at the studio and performed. I was never in better shape than I was when I was dancing - granted, when you're taking at LEAST one class a day, 5-6 days a week, it would be difficult not to be in good shape. When we had to lift weights in gym class, I could leg press more weight and do more incline sit-ups than most of the jocks in my class. For me though, the best part of ballet was not the body it gave me, but the sense of discipline it instilled. Progress is slow, but steady, and it helped me curb my impatience a bit , not expect immediate results, and to work my @$$ off for what I wanted (in those days, it was perfect pirouettes). Also, it will improve your posture and the way you carry yourself; it's been almost 15 years since I consistently danced, but to this day I still have people tell me "you move like a dancer."

The unintended consequence is that you will instinctively point your toes and use ballet arms when you need straight arms and flexed feet (like yoga class!). And when you see ballerina ornaments and Christmastime, you'll be tempted to correct their form.

Good luck, and enjoy!!!

Good for you for getting into ballet as an adult!

After a childhood full of dance, I got back to ballet classes a couple years ago (I'm 33)...I love it! I only go twice a week, but I really enjoy it. The hardest part has definitely been managing expectations on myself. I was so much thinner and stronger when I was doing it before, but now I have to accept different levels of difficulty.

Anyways, enjoy yourself!!

cooi wrote: »

Are there any ballet dancers out there? I just started ballet and would love to hear if there is anyone else in the community who dances.