Competitive vs Classical Studio

[Anonymous]

DD is a rising kindergartener and I would like her to try dance classes this summer/school year. She really loves to be dance around the house and pretend to be a ballerina.

Studio A is a classical ballet studio that is 20 minutes away. She will get the opportunity to do the Nutcracker when she is old enough in addition to a spring performance. It is a ballet-focused studio that does not offer any other styles of dance except ballet and lyrical. It is a small school that does not have a professional company attached to it but has trained professional ballerinas and sends the dancers to summer dance intensives around the county.

Studio B is a larger studio that is well-known in our community. It is 15 minutes away from our home. Dancers start with ballet and tap and then branch out to jazz, lyrical, contemporary, and hiphop. DD would preform in a recital but no Nutcracker. Dancers have the option to join the performance team in 1st/2nd grade and most begin competing in 4th/5th/6th grade. They attend 3 local competitions and one convention a year in addition to preforming at community events. The costumes on the Instagram don’t look super revealing.

Which studio would you choose?

[Anonymous]

Closer one so she can try more things. Unless she only wants ballet

[Anonymous]

Maybe try the classical one, but when DD is old enough, try some non-ballet classes at the other, and see what she prefers? A solid ballet foundation is always good, but maybe when she's older she'll be interested in competing (in what I suppose are not strict classical ballet competitions).

[Anonymous]

A. But that’s because I don’t like elem school girls dancing suggestively to hip hop.

[Anonymous]

B.

[Anonymous]

Let your DD try both ( few classes each if possible) then decide. We started B style then switched to A style since I felt B wasn’t classical enough, it turned out A had terrible abusive teen coach ( slapped young kids on face) and my DD refused to dance ever since. Be careful the kind of studio pull all curtains down and there’s no way for you to see what’s happening inside the room.

[Anonymous]

Studio A unless it’s Vaganova (Russian) style in which case I would say B. But save your pennies in case she wants to start competing because that can get expensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Studio A unless it’s Vaganova (Russian) style in which case I would say B. But save your pennies in case she wants to start competing because that can get expensive.

What’s wrong with Russian style?

[Anonymous]

Try both and ask your child which one feels best. Even if a dance studio has an amazing reputation, people can absolutely ruin the experience.

[Anonymous]

A. Competitive dance is weird. Weird faces, weird moms. It reminds little girls doing beauty pageants, but the trashy dance version

[Anonymous]

Competitive dance is ridiculous and the professional world of dance is openly critical of the quality of training of competition studios. That said, I would go with a place that offers more. Keep looking for option c.

[Anonymous]

Competitive dance mom here. Competitive dance can be a wonderful experience at the right studio. The stereotype is trashy, but the reality for my daughter is team building, camaraderie, hard work, joy of dance. The moms are AWESOME!!!!

[Anonymous]

Former dancer and dance teacher here. Studio A.

A strong basis in classical ballet helps young dancers with technique for the rest of their dancing years. The focus on posture and on the way the body is warmed up through careful movement to address each joint and muscle group you will use in your practice is fundamental no matter what kind of dance she does later.

Also, kids with strong fundamental ballet training tend to get injured less because they learn how to protect their bodies entering and exiting movements, especially jumps and turns, in ballet. At competitive dance studios or even places that focus on jazz or lyrical without insisting on a fundamental ballet background, there is often pressure for kids to push themselves to do bigger, more virtuosic tricks, and to stretch their flexibility as far as it will go. This combination is really, really bad for joints. I've seen kids with major injuries, or (commonly) chronic stress injuries as young as 7 or 8 because they are working oversplits and high leaps without properly training plies and core postures that will make these skills safer and more reliable.

If you want to dance, ballet is never a bad idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Studio A unless it’s Vaganova (Russian) style in which case I would say B. But save your pennies in case she wants to start competing because that can get expensive.

What’s wrong with Russian style?

I don’t get that comment either. My daughter is a ballerina who trained for over a decade at a Vaganova school and loved it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Competitive dance mom here. Competitive dance can be a wonderful experience at the right studio. The stereotype is trashy, but the reality for my daughter is team building, camaraderie, hard work, joy of dance. The moms are AWESOME!!!!

I think this is called Stockholm Syndrome.