How to Choose a Ballet Teacher and Dance Studio For Training in Ballet Shoes and Pointe Shoes

This article gives you 7 highly effective tips about how to choose a ballet teacher. E.g., what a good dance studio looks like; the need for professional training; how to learn real classical ballet;will you need pointe shoes, and more. Many aspiring ballet dancers go through these thoughts in seeking a quality ballet class. Here are some important tips.

Things to consider: What Do You Want For Your Child? (or yourself)?

What does your child want from ballet? Would tap dancing, karate, hip-hop or jazz be a satisfying alternative, or does it have to be ballet? Ballet is a traditional, technical form requiring commitment and discipline. Sometimes it isn't fun! Ballet shoes and pointe shoes can be challenging. But many fall in love with this demanding and traditional dance form.

What will you look for if there are several studios you can check out? The following tips about the basic requirements to good, safe, ballet teaching, will be helpful to parents searching for a good dance studio.

A ballet regimen can be used for a weight loss plan, a childcare outlet, health maintenance, or relief for a troubled teenager. It takes a special love, and can fulfill many requirements of the soul. Many ballet teachers, in glamorous and famous settings, or small and out of the way regions, work just to provide an outlet for this broad spectrum of our needs. Some are experts at teaching pre-pointe, many are not.

*** Locations and appearances: professional dance studios tend to be in older buildings, which have large rooms with undivided spaces, and sprung wooden floors instead of floors set over concrete. A teacher trained in a professional school would choose such a place over a newer facility in a fashionable district with smaller rooms and a concrete floor. If the neighborhood is safe, don't judge a a studio by its lack of "chic". A teacher who chooses an older, low-rent district studio may be providing pupils with safer flooring, better musical accompaniment, and the luxury of smaller classes. If premises have been built especially for dance studios, the best amenities are likely in place.

*** Music: today's economy will not allow all teachers to have live piano accompaniment. While definitely preferable, it will be reflected in the fees you pay. Recorded music for classes does not necessarily mean lower teaching standards.

*** Size of classes: for the beginning levels (i.e., younger children) there should not be classes over approximately 15 students without a teacher's assistant, or the students will not get much individual attention.

*** Hard Floors: floors set directly over concrete have no give, thus creating the potential for injury from falls or repeated landings from jumps. This creates stress and wear and tear on on delicate developing joints and soft tissues. Sprung floors are the best, which is wood on wood supports. There are also floors now made for ballet studios which many studios install.

*** Body style favoritism in teachers: this can be devastating to your child's self-esteem. Any body type can learn, and benefit from ballet classes. This also applies if you are an adult looking for classes, beginner or otherwise. Ballet endows any physique with grace, strength, and fluidity of motion. Unfortunately the professional world of ballet is affected by fads of body shape just like high fashion. Children studying any kind of athletics should be encouraged to appreciate themselves, and the wonderment of their human body and their abilities, just as they are, and just as they are not.

*** Professional ballet training requires very specific physical attributes. Some teachers will praise a student's classwork relative to the assets they were born with. This leaves all others left behind. A good teacher will teach towards every student's actual efforts, concentration, and physical progress, be it made because of, or in spite of, their physiques.

*** Corrections and teachers' attitudes: a teacher's positive attitude is essential. Difficult routines can still be enjoyed, as they produce accomplishment. Every student should be corrected in every class, and every student should be noted when improvements are seen. A demanding but compassionate person produces the best results.

The technical details of good teaching is - well - technical! More guidelines are available at The Ballet Store.