Parents often seem in a rush to enroll their children in ballet classes. However, formal ballet training should not be introduced until the age of 8. Before then, a child’s bones are too soft for the physical demands and exercises of ballet. It is actually possible to delay training until the age of 10 or 12 and still have a great future in ballet.
Pre-ballet classes are often offered to dancers between the ages of 4 and 8. Most teachers believe that the attention spans of 3-year-olds are too short to deal with, and prefer parents to wait until a child is at least 4. Pre-ballet classes have become quite popular in private dance studios. The classes are loosely organized and simple. Children may be encouraged to move around the room to the rhythms of different styles of music. Some pre-ballet classes may even introduce students to the five positions of ballet, stressing the importance of proper posture.
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I own a dancewear shop. Some schools let them start ‘baby ballet’ at age 2, nearly 3. The other new trend is to have a combined 3/4 – 1 hour combination class which includes ballet/tap/jazz. Some of the children are so young, I don’t actually have tap/jazz shoes small enough to fit them. This is OK for my business, but not for the parents having to buy 3 pairs of shoes for growing feet. The other trend is putting young girls of the age of 11 & up into pointe shoes (the problem with this is that their feet haven’t finished growing – and I’ve seen some damaged feet as a result over the years.