How much dance each week?

[Katymac]

How much dance is it reasonable to expect/allow a 14yo to do each week?

Is there a maximum? She does other activities too - how do you balance them?

Help?

[Katymac]

Is it a silly question?

[islandofsodor]

Not silly question Katy. Its panto/Chsristmas play etc season. We are all doing the big taxi service.

You know what my dd does from MN but as an example some of the senior girls at dd's dance school have a schedule pretty much like this (And several go to an academic grammar school.

2 x 45 min graded ballet lessons
1 x 45 min vocational/pointe class
1 x 45 min tap class
1 x 45 min moden class
1 x 45 min contemporary class
1 x 45 min jazz/street jazz class

Many are also members of youth theatres who rehearse for 2 hours or so on a Friday night, more in the lead up to a show. Several play instruments/sing
Some spend Saturdays at RBS associates or CAT scheme and a few do comps but they are only a few times a year.

Thge ones who go to the senior school dd will go to have various extra curricular school activites after school they often go straight from those to the dance school.

Don't worry about what others think - be led by your dd.

[Katymac]

Sorry I didn't realise Really you mean I should chill and let her get on with it; it's just I'm so knackered
She is doing
1.5 Ballet (CAT)
3 Contemporary (CAT)
1 creative (CAT)

1.5 Ballet
45 Tap
45 Modern

1.5 theatre
1.5 drumming/dancing
1.5 choir (I just made her give up another 2 hrs choir)
4 Ballroom & latin

5.5 Btec at school

gosh that is a lot isn't it?

[islandofsodor]

Your dd is unusual in that she is doing the ballroom and latin alongside the other dance. I think it is combining that with CAT that makes her seem like she is doing so much.

[islandofsodor]

If we ignore panto (as she has had to cancel her other stuff when rehearsals clashed dd's schdeul (she is 10) is this:

45 mins ballet (she should be doing 2 classes but the 2nd one clashes with drama)
45 mins tap
45 mins modern
3 hours drama/theatre
30 mins LAMDA exam coaching
1 hour piano
2 school choirs at lunchtime

she is on a waiting list for RAD ballet in Birmingham which will be 1.25 hours and in MArch she can join a youth theatre which is approx 2 hours.

[Katymac]

She has begged (& I have agreed) to another 1.5 hrs (the tap & the modern)

But it's against my better judgement

& I have written a letter to school to discuss how much homework/coursework she is getting

[2dancersmum]

To some extent I think this depends on what your DD wishes to do in the future and how she copes with her schedule. My DD is now in year 11 and gets 2/3 hours homework most nights. She found that she dropped some of her activites in years 9-10 so that she could keep up with schoolwork. She is serious about dance and has been applying for vocational sixth forms but has always wanted to get good GCSEs to keep her options open, mostly as a backup in case of injury. My advice would be to just keep an eye on how your daughter copes overall. Some children can do everything and keep their standards up in everything, others can't. Something slips - or the child starts getting overtired. My DD nows dances straight after school twice a week (til 8pm - home by 8:30), Saturday afternoons and all day alternate Sundays. It still means some late nights and early mornings to get homework done and she rarely has a lunch break at school but her schedule works for her. On the sixth form audition circuit we have met dancers who do anything from 5 - 19 hours of dance a week, so as I say it really does depend on the indiviual.

[Anjuli_Bai]

I think that being led by what your child wants is very good advice. And, always allowing the child the right to say "no." That's important too. What we fall in love with at 6,7, 8 yrs old - doesn't mean we have to love it for years on end. And, I do think the parent should have a role in keeping a balance in the child's life.

One thing I might suggest ..... All those hours in a dance/theatre school - studying, rehearsing, performing, auditioning, etc., can be both insulating and isolating. As a dancer (or any other performing artist) we can find ourselves in a world apart. Interacting, talking to, laughing with, and competing with - other performers.

I think it is important for there to be time to be around youngsters who are not connected to the theatre. The theatre can get to be a hot house environment - comparing like to like instead of like to the "real" world.

I also think its a good idea for a child to have time to do nothing - unscheduled time. Sometimes we clear up fogs and cobwebs at such moments.

I hope I haven't muddled this too much.

[Katymac]

She has always been interested in dance, theatre hit this summer when she won the audition and played Snow White. She was shortly after offered an audition and is now on a CAT

Then the other dancing snowballed as she 'needs' to do it & to some extent she is playing catch up, outside the CAT she started a Grade 3 ballet class & is now studying for her grade 5 (with catch up classes for grades 1-4)

She has a really close group of completely non-performing friends at school which I think is good & Sunday is very quiet day, Friday we are trying to engineer a dance free day too

It's so hard knowing what to do

[ballet pointe]

The CAT team should give you direction regarding the dance hours and the type of dance.

[jenufa]

Hello all. My ds is as yet v young so don't have these worries! But could you tell me what is meant by CAT? Is this a dance specific acronym? Thank you!

[Katymac]

http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/tea ... 1/mds/cats page 7 - I didn't even know they existed until August

They don't seem to recognise the other dances she does & they don't like her competing or performing either

[ballet pointe]

Katymac, think it very much depends which center you child attends, my daughter went to the Place for 5 years, there main concern was how much contemporary and ballet she did, agree that they did not like them performing or competing unless it was with a youth dance company like Hampshire Dance. My daughter had to do a certain amount of hours in ballet and contemporary dance a week all other activities counted towards helping with stamina and maintaining fitness. Cat centers are looking to produce people that want to go into full time training at 16 or 18.

[Katymac]

They haven't said she can't do it; they just change the subject when I mention it (& don't give her time off to attend)

They don't seem to offer much support at all tbh