Competitions

Jennifer - posted on 03/22/2009

My youbger daughter is 5 and she loves to sing and dance she performs for EVERYONE!! she has besides her own 3 dances learned all of her sisters just frionm watching. they want her to do a solo next year as well they think she has a lot of potential  she s a lil showman and she isnt afraid of anything which is very hard genetrally for young kids to understand showmanship. when they got it let em use it !!!

Beth - posted on 03/21/2009

I agree, My DD is only 3 is the problem. She takes ballet 2x a week (long story, not my choice) I worked at the studio until my youngest was born. The director wants her to do a solo at competition this year and my child is all about it. There is NO pressure and we even have the understanding that we can get there and be on the side of the stage and if she tells us she doesnt want to do it we will not make her. I just worry that she maybe too young but on the other hand, this is the same child who will go into the small studio and practices her recital dances in front of the mirror by her self with no music. Her teacher thinks we should encourage her talent.

Jennifer - posted on 03/20/2009

Here, Here.

Jennifer - posted on 03/20/2009

|I think it all depends on the child I put my older daughter (almost 8) on a team when she was 6 only because I used to dance and compete. I wasnt an awesome dancer but I was good and I was so confident when  Idanced it made me feel good. My mom saw that in me and I want to help my daughter with her confidence she is an awesome dancer and has great lines and form for her age the teachers see a lot of potential in her. She has no fears gettin out on stge and she has come a long way.  She was ready . The other thing is it all depends on the studio some push the kids much harder then they are ready for at a young age  and I think that is inappropriate  aat our studio the younger kids go from a 45 minute class to an hour an 15 min and if they are ready they do one competition usually in may. That is the only "team" requirement at that age no extra classes or private lessons requirede. Last year we had 19 kids between 5-7 they did 1 jazz dance and one competition this year they have 256 and are doing a jazz and lyrical next year they are going to have 3 seperate smaller groups and the older kids will do 2 dances with the younger ones doing 1. The key is not to push them let them make choices in what they do not you. I have a friend who pushed her 2 kids into it this year with too many classes and they both want to quuit  My kids we limited the classes they take and they want to go all the time and we added another class recently. many things factor in and I hope my rambling helped

Jennifer - posted on 03/18/2009

My daughter started performing outside her studio at 5. She started competing as a team at 5/6. But didn't get really serious about competition until she was like 7/8 when she joined a try out team and did her first solo. Because of my daughter's personality and the way her studio handled it, she was ready for it and it didn't overwhelm her. She thrives on performance to this day. By 10/11 she was ready to be done competing only because she had fallen in love with Ballet and wanted to specialize in it (she was doing jazz, tap and ballet previously, along with training in areo). She now dances en pointe in demi soloist positions in community productions and recitals. I don't think it was too early for her, but we let her pick the pace.