Washington Ballet School

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know at what age you can start classes? And what are classes like for the younger children? My daughter loves to dance, and I'm happy to encourage that, but I don't want to send her to a baby ballerina mill.

[Anonymous]

Many places start as early as three. Her classes are mostly play, but they are shown the positions, and build a foundation for later classes. My DD's class is half an hour long, and since it is early on a week night, there are very few girls in her class. The big objective now is for them to learn the positions, and learn to take direction.

[Anonymous]

Does your child attend the Washington Ballet school, or are you talking about early dance classes in general?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know at what age you can start classes? And what are classes like for the younger children? My daughter loves to dance, and I'm happy to encourage that, but I don't want to send her to a baby ballerina mill.

I'm not the OP but would like to know the answer as well (i.e., the creative movement classes).

[Anonymous]

Creative Movement at Washington Ballet starts at age 4. Classes are 45 minutes.

[Anonymous]

Are they pretty lowkey--or not?

[Anonymous]

Classes are a bit more serious as the kids progress from creative movement to pre-ballet to the graded levels....and definitely more serious than places like Ballet Petite. Washington Ballet is more formal as (in the long run) it trains dancers for future professional careers. Auditions are required, though for the younger kids they tend to be low key.

[Anonymous]

DO you recommend it for a younger child (5-7) who is casually interested in ballet? Or just for those who are already more seriously interested? (It happens to be a few blocks from home--otherwise I don't think I'd even be considering it for my child-of-many-enthusiasms.) Thanks.

[Anonymous]

I think if your child is really interested in ballet (meaning learning positions and artistic components, etc.), I would recommend Washington Ballet. If she's not quite there yet and is more interested in the fantasy, fairy, dress-up kind of ballet, I would recommend Ballet Petite. My daughter did Ballet Petite at ages 3 and 4, and it was perfect for her. Then she started asking about doing "real ballet".

[Anonymous]

Thanks for sharing your experience.

[Anonymous]

Washington Ballet is definitely serious beginning at the Pre-Ballet level. If your child starts at age 5 it may be too structured. Ballet Petite offers a similar program - I believe it's an aqua colored outfit level class that you may want to try first before committing to an entire year of tuition at WSB. Our child tried the WSB summer intensive first to be sure that she really wanted to do it for the whole year.

Also, after the PreBallet level (age 7 or 8), the classes begin to meet twice weekly so the ability to do other activities is somewhat limited.