Expert: Jennifer - 4/7/2004

Question
I am 16 and would like to begin ballet. I've been introduced to ballet but never formally. I currently am taking a dance class at school but ballet is not taught. Is it too late to perfect my technique? Also, I don't have the perfect ballerina body, but I'm not over weight, just average. I'd like to also say that I'm pretty flexible. At this age, can I still have what it takes to dance ballet? Please send me your comments and thank you.

Answer
Hello, Stacie!

The answer to your question depends on what your ultimate goals are. For the sake of answering your question here, I am going to assume that you want to take up ballet as a hobby and not as a career goal.

I'm sure you meant it more as a figure of speech, but you should know that no dancer ever *perfects* her technique. Even the top ballerinas(like Yuan Yuan Tan or Maria Kowroski)work for hours every day to improve their dancing, though they often seem perfect on stage!

Is it too late to have the technique of Yuan Yuan Tan? In all likelyhood, yes... even she wouldnt have the technique she does now if she hadn't started dancing when she was a very young girl. Is it too late to acheive a technique that allows you to really *dance* ballet, perhaps even en pointe if you want, and have fun doing it? Certainly not!

It takes hard work to build your technique, but is very rewarding both physically and mentally. When you take ballet, the shape of your body changes and I even grew an inch after i learned to stand with correct posture! I had exposure to ballet when i was young, but I never took it seriously or concentrated on my technique. I quit when I got into high school. By the time I was in college, I really started to get the dancing bug and enrolled in a ballet for beginners class at my university. I was lucky enough to be placed with an excellent teacher (she was a recently retired soloist with the Boston Ballet) who made me fall in love with ballet and really work hard to improve my technique. In only 2 years, when i was 21, I had improved to the point that i was accepted to a ballet summer intensive at the Tulsa Ballet Center for Dance Education. If I could do it at 19, you certainly can at 16!

Your exposure to dance (even if it was not ballet) gives you a great head start because almost all western dance is based on the same basic principles... pointed feet, turnout, and a strong, upright posture. Your natural flexibility will also help you tremendously. Lack of flexibility has always been a major frustration for me, and I wish I was as lucky as you! You do not have to have a perfect ballet body to dance! Perfect bodies have always been the exception rather than the rule in all of the classes I've taken. Don't let that expectation scare you away from ballet.

For you, I'd say find a ballet studio in your area that offers a teen or adult beginning class (or talk to the teacher at the studio to see what she could offer you class-wise). Work hard in class, and let your teacher know what your goals are. Don't let your feelings be hurt when a teacher corrects your technique... its not an insult to you but a sign that your teacher cares about you and is interested in your improvement. I dont think it would take you long to be able to move up to a more advanced class level!

Please let me know if you have any more questions. I'd love to help you!

Good Luck!