Expert: Dianne M. Buxton - 6/7/2009

Question
my daughter has been in grade 3 ballet for 1 year she is 10 her teacher said she is good but wants to hold her back for 1 more year she is the only 1 out of 20 and they do not no it well but she also does point strenthing and intermediate foundation another school says grade 2

Answer
Hi Steph - I'm not sure what your question might be, but I will encourage you with one thing I saw happen repeatedly in professional ballet schools - when in doubt, hold the student back.

Why? Ballet students who are both physicaly gifted and talented artistically, were not put ahead, and if anything, held back.

Gifted and talented students are usually emotionally vulnerable, take corrections and (perceived) criticism quite hard, and need a lot of encouragement. It's well worth a professional ballet school's time to hold back on "Hyping" an unusual talent.

And also, just because a student is able to do ballet easily, it doesn't mean they don't need the same progression of development through classical ballet training, to excel.

So, if you change schools, it is really hard to tell if you are accelerating your daughter or not. Think about how much you trust her current teachers. And how much you trust the teachers who are saying "we'll advance her".

Since I cannot see your daughter dance, nor can I see the classes in both schools, I cannot truly answer your (non) question. But I think I know what you're thinking about.

You could try to find out what percentage of graduates from each ballet academy get jobs in professional ballet companies. That would get you toward an answer.

Hope this helps! All the best, Dianne