Did you take ballet?

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I hear you, hale bopp! I always wanted to take ballet as a child, but my mother wouldn't let me. So I started lessons when I was in my early twenties. I was a natural, except for doing things backward sometimes. I stopped for a while, and when I tried to take classes again with my daughter, our classmates were experienced dancers who sneered at us and made us so uncomfortable that we quit. I miss the ballet! Now I have fibromyalgia and can't practice anymore.

I took ballet at 3 and then again at 7, until the teacher pulled my mom aside and said, "Mrs. {mv's mom}, you really shouldn't waste your money anymore."



And this wasn't some snooty elite French- or Russian-discipline school, this was local community theater! Where they live by the classes they can give to the community!

I wasn't allowed to take ballet

My best friend took ballet, tap and modern dance...I wanted to too because I loved dance but my mother wouldn't let me because A. I was always very tall yet for ballet my mother insisted you had to be petite and B. because I was unable to be around people without having meltdowns - both fair enough points. My mother has always had this lovely habit of treating other people's kids more like her kids than me, so she'd make costumes, help with make-up and talk-up my best friend while I just had to sit and watch.

This is my excuse for watching really bad dance films

Yes, I took creative dancing when I was 5 and when I was 6 I took ballet. I wasn't very good at it though.

I took dancing classes from the age of 3 until I was 13, which included ballet. When I was about 10, I started to do additional ballet classes. I should have continued, but when my periods started, they were hellish and I missed the classes every few weeks, then I felt I had to give up. I do Zumba now and I do feel a bit of regret about what happened. When I see the Zumba instructors doing their thing, I feel I might have been able to do something like that as a career, if I'd found a way to continue. They don't even need to speak much, they just demonstate and smile. That said, it's an option, even without the dance training (even at my age), but I need to get better at it and fitter, before I even consider going for Zumba instructor training.

I wish my daughter would take classes, in any sort of dance. I'm pretty certain it's the reason I can go to a party and dance and don't feel self conscious (I don't look like a dork). She's tried the usual class, which was uninspiring and she only went for a couple of months. Then she did street dance and zumbatomic (only went to one class of each then refused).

I'm still (in my 40s) *SO* clumsy that I try to do things like Zumba, and I muddle through them, but I never get quite good or comfortable with it. Sometimes the instructor will demonstrate something and I literally cannot translate in my head how to make my body do that step or movement.

I think dance isn't for everyone. {shrug} I have many other talents!

^ My hyperfocusing comes into it's own when I'm watching a dance instructor. I completely home in, in what she's doing and learn choreography quickly. But, I started dance lessons at 3, so I honestly think that's how I'm able to do it. You can easily spot the ones at Zumba who had dance lessons as a child, most people take ages to learn new dances. I'm not all that co-ordinated normally - I can't drive, miss the bottom step often and just don't get on with mirrors at all.

When I teach dance, I find the biggest barrier most people have is they are "up in their head" too much. They over think everything. The students who do best are those who relax (hard to do if you are getting frustrated or tense with it).

Of course it depends on the way you learn too. Those who are primarily kinesthetic followed by visual learners are often pick it up much more easily than the rest.

I think that's great! Yes, I can usually tell by looking at people (in movement or athletics) who's had some sort of dance training as a child.

I'm kind of ungainly, anyway, so it's no big loss to the dance world! I like to watch dance, though, it's fascinating because it's so ... *foreign* to me.

I did calesthenics when I was 6 to the age of 7 and was kicked out due to being too tall.

It is no great loss as I am not the dancing type. I refuse to put my 3 yr old Aspie daughter into dance with all the other girls her age because she is already the height of a 6 yr old and towers a head height over the other 3 yr old girls. I don't want to push body insecurity issues from a young age.

I did it for two years, I think, when I was 4 and 5.

I took ballet when I was 9-12, but I was horrible at it.

Took ballet for a couple of years to help balance and coordination when I was 7 -8

Pluto is not a planet.

I took Ballet when I was 3-4. Shockingly, I was very good at it. No one knows why because I wasn't good at anything else athletic. However I quit because I did not like wearing the leotard and tights and they would not let me wear anything else. And there was going to be a recital and the anxiety of getting on stage in front of people, even at the age of 4, was enough to make me quit. I quit before the recital.

No, but I did rhytmic gymnastics. Sadly my body was as flexible as a stick.

And no, Pluto is not a planet. I had a dream one night, I was watching Pluto, and I saw it as an irregular fragment of ice. I like it anyway.

As someone who was big for her age, I applaud your decision! (see my post above) There are lots of other ways for children to develop coordination that don't involve such an emphasis on conforming to a certain "aesthetic ideal".