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Ballet/Ballet intensives and schools

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Expert: - 12/26/2006


Question
Hi, I'm 19 years old and i have just started ballet a few months ago and i love it and am very serious about it!!
I wanted to know if you knew about any SERIOUS ballet schools that admit beginners at age 19+? or any summer intensives or any type of schooling or intensives that a beginner could apply to. Something very serious that can take you beyond dancing ballet as a hobby.
From the research i have done all the serious ballet schools and summer intensives accept only intermediate-advanced dancers aged 15-18. Seems like if you haven't been dancing since age 6 and already a professional at 15 then all chances of taking it further than a hobby is lost.
I would love any information that could help me
Thanks soo much!

Answer
I can't really give you any names for intensives, but I can recommend that instead of looking at major intensives like an ABT intensive that you look for some smaller studios offering summer intensives.  They usually will welcome beginners who are serious about dance, and they are pretty intense.  If worst comes to worst you could find beginning adult ballet classes to take over the summer to get you a better background so that next summer you can apply to intensives.  If you live in New England I may be able to reccomend a few good schools to try out.
Also, my father, who became a professional dancer, started around 20, so don't get discouraged!

Ballet

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Connie

Expertise

I can answer lots about ballet, specifically the Vaganova syllabus. I'm still training, but both my parents were professional dancers, so most answers will be coming from them, not me. :) They're the experts. Obviously, questions about difficult technique, etc, would be better answered with someone else, but if you're just becoming interested in dancing, or are having problems with basic steps, like pirouettes or plies, then I may be able to help

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I've seen ballet since the age of 0, because of my parents, and I am training to become a professional dancer now.

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