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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have a DD8 in competitive dance. It’s her 2nd year in comp, but she’d done rec since she was 3. She’s not an acro kid and not naturally flexible, but she’s a great dancer. Both things can be true. Initially she refused acro and I was fine with that, but she’s realized it might be worthwhile to get a few skills. She takes acro at our big dance studio, but it wasn’t a great environment for her. Classes were too big and I didn’t feel like they were teaching her, plus she was fearful. This fall, I got her into acro privates and that’s made all the difference. Her coach is able to walk her through the skills more slowly. She will probably never be a power tumbler, which is fine by both of us, but at least she’s learned a few “tricks” (ugh I hate that word) to include in her solo and gives her more versatility for groups.

In regards to flexibility, that just takes time when she first started at her current studio 2 years ago, her splits looked like lunges, now she’s accidentally kicked herself in the face. But her back flexibility is still limited but getting better. I echo the people who said it’s actually a blessing to learn flexibility slowly. DD has many hyper mobile friends prone to injury. I actually think I will look back in a few years and be glad she had to work so hard at acro too. Every time she’s gained a new skill, it’s already technically correct vs a wonky mess because she’s practiced it 1000s of times.

The mini age in comp dance is hard. DD moves to junior next year, and while that also comes with its own challenges, moms seem to mellow a bit and take things more in stride and realize the growth is not linear. And I’m here for it!

The comp world is an interesting one. Being at the right studio makes all the difference. We are at one that emphasizes technique over winning (though we still win a lot!) and it’s very age appropriate. I’m not sure we ever would’ve gone the comp route at a different studio. [/quote]

What classes teach technique and how many hours in actual classes vs rehearsing [/quote]

Once choreography is learned at our studio, they only practice each routine 15 minutes/week. One of hers practices 30 minutes/week because it’s a longer/bigger production. So between all of her routines, she rehearses under 2 hours/week. She’s in class 10 hours/week, all genres - ballet, technique, tap, stretch, hip hop, even more. Lots of studios spend a crazy amount of time rehearsing… but they are all sick of the routines come this time of year, so they put emphasis on training.

Yes, this is an absolutely insane amount of class. She wants even more … but she’s not required to take this much. I think she’s only required to take 4 hours. That’s what we did last season. Then she asked to go all in for summer intensives last year (I agreed because it was only 4 weeks). I figured she’d burn out, but nope. She’s just all in, she’s found her thing. She’s never once not wanted to go which is mind boggling to me, because I often don’t want to drive her there haha. I’ll support it until it’s a problem and so far it’s not. I don’t know how she’s not exhausted, but she’s not. It’s a weird world to me never having done anything at this level growing up. [/quote]

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