Adult ballet-does it get better?

[u/royjeebiv]

EDIT: Thank you so much to everyone that has reached out and commented. The response has been overwhelmingly so sweet and relieving! I don’t have anyone in person to talk about ballet with, so I am so appreciative of you all!

Hello! I took my first ballet class in 15 years about a month ago. I stopped dancing in my teens because my parents couldn’t afford it anymore. Ever since then, my love for ballet has never left and I’ve been obsessive about it for YEARS. Recently found a studio that does adult classes-yay!

I started out with the beginner/intermediate class just to see how I would hold up. I was definitely rusty and was very overwhelmed with the amount of steps/moves in the different barre combinations. So I talked to the teacher and she said a lot of returning dancers take the beginner class for a few weeks and go back up to beg/int. So I’ve been taking beginner classes and I’ve been leaving class so disheartened and upset with myself.

My teacher is very sweet and I’m comfortable with her. However, she’s the same teacher that teaches the beg/int classes and I’m just so overwhelmed by the end of the class. I feel like she packs every barre combination with a bunch of different moves that by the time she finishes explaining, I forgot what we were even doing. It’s getting really frustrating because I feel like I’m sacrificing my technique and form to remember what move comes next.

My question is, does the memorization get better? Is there something I can do to help both my memorization AND my technique? Because at this point I don’t really feel like I’m learning anything and I’m getting very discouraged.

[u/Catlady_Pilates]

It does but it’s going to take time. I’ve returned to adult ballet classes after many years away and menopause. It’s been challenging but I’m making progress. I stayed in beginner class for about a year and then realized that I’d have to take the leap to intermediate before I “felt ready” because I’d only get better by being more challenged. It’s been 3 months now in intermediate classes and I’m feeling the improvement. Just stick with it. Doing some YouTube barre in between classes might be helpful. But mostly it’s just about being consistent and patient