r/BALLET • u/karma898 • 1d ago

What qualities do dance teachers look for in kids to put them on a competitive team

If you have taught ballet, what qualities makes a young child dancer (e.g. age 5-8) stand out compared to others? Is it their ability to focus and learn, their flexibility, their body proportions? How do you choose which kids go on to comeptetive vs rec team? I'm curious what teachers look for. Specifically in kids who do not have a lot of training yet.

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u/ShiningRainbow2 1d ago

Most ballet schools do not have competitive teams. When the dancers are tweens or teens, they may do ballet competitions, but solos are usually the focus. At 5-8, a good teacher will be hesitant to predict too much, but they might look for flexibility, flexible feet, turn out, longer legs and shorter torso, musicality, ability to follow directions and take corrections.

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u/karma898 1d ago

Oh really? In my area most of the kids' dance schools have regular rec classes and then either an invitational or audition required performance company. Maybe competitive is not the right word, more the dance company that goes to different dance competitions throughout the year. In contrast to the rec classes where the kids just attend their class or two a week and no dance competitions.

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u/No-Blood8098 1d ago

Are you talking a straight up ballet school or more a studio that does all the genres like jazz, tap, etc.?

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u/karma898 1d ago

A studio that does all genres

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u/No-Blood8098 1d ago

Ok so that's totally different than a ballet school. In our experience, the schools like that (of which my dancer was part of when they were younger) hold an "audition" but most kids make the team. Since most dance schools operate on really thin margins, it's in their best interest to take a lot ok kids into their performance group, competition team or whatever you want to call it. I can't recall any kids at my dancer's studio not making the team. I don't know if it's like that everywhere, but that was our experience. Ballet schools don't have teams per se. They might take kids to ballet competitions, but it's a totally different beast than studios that do more than just ballet.

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u/ShiningRainbow2 1d ago

I’m sure there are different ways that studios configure training, and I know what you mean about the youth company. It is usually an add on to the regular classes. But my dancer never has had that kind of configuration. The home studio and pre-pro program did not have separate performance companies. Everyone in the studio took part in the Nutcracker and year-end ballet.

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u/PortraitofMmeX 1d ago

I do look at their flexibility and body proportions but not as much as I look at their movement quality and and their ability to learn new skills or choreography and apply corrections. Also a good attitude and an intrinsic desire to be participating (rather than doing it because their parents want them to, or their friends or siblings are doing it).

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u/intothewildabyss 1d ago

Musicality and ability to replicate movement!! I've taught skilled dancers who could NOT dance with the music or even follow the group. I would prefer less physically technically proficient kids who understood how the movement fit to the music first.

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u/vpsass Vaganova Girl 1d ago

Not sure if we’ll allow this post as it seem more of a question for r/competitivedance but for now I’ll allow it.

OP, ballet schools are very usually different from competitive schools (with a few exceptions like the Rock school which I think straddles the line but still produces good ballet students).

Now, as a ballet teacher at a competitive school I can answer your question. At age 5-8 it’s like 80% attendance and attitude in class - does the kid engage with the class, do they learn? Do they attend consistently. Anything else we can teach, (we can teach flexibility, we can teach coordination) OR we can’t change anyways (body proportions).

Competitive schools are not focused on turning our professional dancers, certainly not ballet dancers, despite what they may tell you. A very professional ballet school might select students based on body proportions but there are also many great schools that do not. Anyone can learn ballet to a high level with good training, and there are lots of accessible schools that offer good training.

So yeah mainly it’s attendance and attitude. I’ve had a super flexible student who was built to dance but if I gave her a correction (very nicely obvi it was a rec class) she’d pout on the middle of the floor for 10 minutes and the class couldn’t continue because she was on the floor. So when my bosses suggested her for comp I had to be like “maybe next year” because her behaviour would not be a good addition to a competitive team.

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u/karma898 1d ago

Thanks for this. My youngest (age 4) absolutely loves ballet which is why I asked it here. Our current dance studio does several genres and they are invitational for the company, so I was just curious to know what they may look for. As long as she is enjoying her classes I am happy whether that be in rec or competitive!