I Want To Be A Ballerina - But I Need More Time At The Ballet Academy

Finding a way to balance school requirements and the time needed at the ballet academy is frustrating for many young ballerinas and boys in ballet. Parents worry if grades drop and use dance classes as currency for academic improvement. What are the alternatives for getting a good education and still putting the time into classical dance training?
If you want to audition for a professional academic/ballet school, do a web search for their audition tours and see if any of them come to your area. Most auditions are held early in the year.

The sooner you can start professional training the better. Check all your choices!

Can you home school - or get a an independent education program? Here in Los Angeles children can home school - they register in a local private school for home schoolers, and get a curriculum put together that fulfills the grade requirements. They document their attendance (legal requirement is 3 hrs per day)and the parents who have registered the school supply computerized transcripts of their grades every year. There is no problem entering a private school or a college, later.

This allows ballet students to attend their dance classes on a more intense schedule. Also, the dance training would fulfill a quota of the home schooling daily requirements - such as physical education, field trips (ballet, art galleries, etc.,). There are very large home schooling communities so students do not exist in isolation.

You may be able to get into an Independent program through their public school, where you study at home and check in with an academic advisor once or twice a month, and do the usual school exams at school. This system allows for both disabled and gifted students to arrange their own schooling circumstances.

Look into all of this. If your school semesters start again in January, or early in the year, perhaps you can arrange a switch to another system of schooling which would fulfill the requirements you would need as a professional dancer, (art, language, for instance), as well as general education.

Also new here in California is a system for students to do ALL their schooling on line. They co-ordinate with a public school advisor to stay on track, yet there is a freedom of schedule for both the parents and students.

So check all your options, and make the best of the years left to qualify for auditioning in a professional company. Try to get some feedback from a local ballet company - audition at their school!

A lot of success in this world comes from having the nerve to approach people, present yourself, and make contacts. While ballet has specific requirements, often the bravest reach the top when the most talented do not.