WHY ALL DANCERS NEED BALLET

Ballet training is essential to being a good dancer, even if you are planning to focus on other dance genres such as modern, jazz, tap or hip hop. It provides the technique you need to flourish in all other dance styles. Ballet is the foundation for most forms of dance. Whatever you learn in ballet, it translates to values that can be used to pursue other forms of dance. The alignment and musicality it requires are important qualities in any dance style.

Dance, no matter the discipline, is hard work. But nothing prepares you better for a routine full of jumping and spinning like a barre session, holding the same position for minutes on end.

In ballet, the focus is on slow, flowing, controlled movements, which helps dancers develop strong muscles. These muscles are necessary for the beautiful balletic performances you see on stage, but they’re also very useful for explosive hip hop routines, fast tap pieces, and fun musical theatre numbers. 

All the practice of individual skills, over and over, helps dancers become stronger, more flexible, and better able to endure exhausting routines.

The development of discipline and dedication. Ballet technique is specific and needs practice to improve. In most cases, the qualities of discipline and dedication translate themselves to other areas of life like work and school.

Improving balance and flexibility. Two large parts of ballet technique which, consequently, diminish the likelihood of injury in ballet, sports, and other dance forms.

Improving posture. Everything in ballet requires good posture. In time, the posture utilized in the studio translates to every part of a dancer's life. Dancers are nothing if not graceful, and that grace comes from years of building strong, lean muscles and improving core strength.

For dancers, every movement must come from a centred position, and knowing exactly how any given movement is going to affect your centre of gravity is key to staying balanced even during wild and fast movement shifts. The time spent in ballet class finding your centre and practicing holding it during turns, leaps, and all manner of movements translates easily to other disciplines, as well as everyday life. 

Increased agility. While often slow and graceful, ballet has its swift moments as well. Football players often attribute speed and agility to their experiences cross-training with ballet during the off season.

Aural, visual, and kinetic stimulus. In dance, everything is about maintaining the correct beat for the music and executing individual moves at the right time.

You learn to connect verbal commands and musical cues with exercise demonstrations and perform them in our/your body.

Different parts of the brain are problem solving to perform the movements in time to the music.  While the songs used for many other dance disciplines have heavy beats that are easier to track, the classical music used in many ballet performances is more complex. This makes it difficult to find the underlying beat and requires much more thinking on the dancer’s part. If you can master a ballet routine to a complicated piece of classical music, then you can master any dance to any piece of music!

Confidence. Have you ever seen a five-year-old coming out of ballet class? They are most likely smiling and will gladly show you what has been learned. The confidence that ballet instils is not exclusive to the five-year-old demographic. The artistry, musicality, and grace of ballet are great confidence boosters.

It’s important to add at least one ballet class to your weekly schedule to start. Then, add more as your time and budget permits. It might not be your favourite dance genre, but if you don’t get the training now, you will have a lot of catching up to do if you want to work professionally.

It can be extremely difficult to fix “bad habits” you create over the years by not learning proper dance technique, in ballet, you learn each individual movement and how to execute it properly to preserve proper technique.

Ballet gives you the basic arm and leg movements you need in jazz, modern, tap, and ballroom. It helps you find your centre of balance, gain strength and agility and move gracefully, all attributes that choreographers look for when casting a show. If you don’t have the technical training that comes from ballet, and your competition does, you will not get the dance job. Look at the ballet dancers who also study other forms of dance example: the finalists on “So You Think You Can Dance”.

While many of the ballerinas you see may not be as relaxed in Hip Hop, they tend to have more control over their bodies in modern, jazz, ballroom, and other, dance genres. They are almost always better turners. Working dancers not focused on being professional ballerinas still incorporate ballet into their regular training regime they understand ballet is an essential part of being a good, all-around dancer.