Becoming a ballet dancer is not easy. Determination, undying spirit, hard work, pain, and unbounded practice,
mingled with deep love for the dance, go in to make a truly magical ballet dancer whose every movement and step personify
grace and beauty.
Ballet dancing involves pleasure mingled with danger. With injuries and other physical
hazards galore, ballet is dangerous when not taught or learnt properly. Research shows that almost every company or school
has its own specialists for treating injuries. Pressures to maintain a ‘Balanchine body’ such as petite, thin,
and long-limbed makes many students to suffer from eating problems.
Ballet dancers usually start at
a young age, around 9 years, and become trained dancers in their late teen years. After graduating from a renowned academic
and dance programs, they usually audition for dance companies. Graduating from a good university program helps young dancers
to get into dance companies.
Some schools like the Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet and School of
American Ballet in New York, among others provide excellent training to ballet dancing. Students usually start with few class
hours and then proceed on to more hours.
Students and novices get a chance to perform at competitions,
musical shows, and the like.
Research shows that ballet dancers usually do not have a high pay scale,
but with improvement, practice, and experience, they usually get bigger and more demanding roles in performances. Slowly and
gradually, their earnings increase.
Awareness of the short career in ballet dancing does not dampen
the spirits of those who dream of being a dancer. Ballet dancers undertake vigorous training and practice, and overcome all
obstacles in their way to emerge finally as a graceful dancer, who stupefies the audience with beauty, gracefulness, and talent.
Some talented and famous dancers include Anna Pavlova, Vaslav Nijinsky, Alicia Alonso, Briely Movric, Paloma
Herrera, and Mikhail Baryshnikov, besides many, many others.
Ballet provides detailed information on Ballet, Ballet Shoes, Ballet Classes, Ballet Dancers and more. Ballet is affiliated with
Ballet Flat Shoes.
Multitudes of ballet schools exist which have brilliant teachers imparting ballet lessons to people of
all ages. Apart from the normal ballet lessons, there are even summer intensive courses and some special courses for children
aged 3 or 4 years. Such courses help to tune in their movements to music.
Some good ballet schools are
The Classical Ballet School, Ballet Academy, Boston Ballet School, Russian Ballet School, School of American Ballet, the San
Francisco Ballet School, and Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet besides many others.
Such schools offer
both beginners classes as well as classes for training professionals with live music accompanying instructions and training.
Some of them like The Joffrey Ballet School among others also offer placement opportunities, besides giving ballet classes.
Some non-profit schools include American Repertory Ballet's Princeton Ballet School and The Ballet School
at Stamford. Classes in the former school include both children and adults. Some classes are for ages 4 to 9, while the rest
like the, "adult open enrollment classes" take people aged from 13 to 70. With a relaxed atmosphere in the classes
and live music, such classes make learning a pleasure.
The latter-mentioned school, however, has a number
of classes, each suited for different levels of learning such as "pre-ballet," "ower school," "middle
school," "upper school," "supplementary classes," "pre-professional classes," and finally
"the adult classes." $14 is charged for each adult class, but it comes even cheaper if we buy class cards which
are valid for some months.
Coming under the banner of top institutes, Pacific Northwest Ballet offers
numerous classes for children and adults. Its classes run in two semesters -fall and spring- and to enroll in it, we have
to just fill up a registration form. Classes for adults are divided into different levels like "beginning," "intermediate,"
and "advanced." Class cards are available which are much cheaper than the class fees.
Besides
the regular classes, some institutes like Ballet Academy and Shan-Yee Poon Ballet School have certain special elements attached
to their classes. While the former allows observation classes where parents can actually know how their kids are taught, the
latter allows for free trial classes in the spring semester, 2006.
School of American Ballet, founded
by George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirsten, also has extensive courses for everyone. Special classes for boys are provided by
North Star Ballet School. Russian Ballet School offers graded classes, wherein students are placed according to their dancing
abilities. For those interested in learning dances of different countries, here is a class called character dance - which
helps us learn dances of different countries.
Ballet provides detailed information on Ballet, Ballet Shoes, Ballet Classes, Ballet Dancers and more. Ballet is affiliated with
Ballet Flat Shoes.
