XPost: alt.arts.ballet, alt.answers 
 From: twp@panix.com 
  
 Archive-name: dance/ballet-modern-faq/part2 
 Posting-frequency: bimonthly 
 Last-modified: Nov. 17, 2002 
  
 ================================ 
 Part 3 of seven parts 
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     Copyright (c) 1995-2002 by Thomas Parsons; all rights reserved. 
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     FAQ may not be distributed in part or in full for financial gain.  No 
     portion of this FAQ may be included in commercial collections or 
     compilations without express permission from the author. 
  
 ================ 
  
 Contents: 
  
 PART 3. BALLET, MODERN DANCE, AND YOU 
  
     3.1. When should I start taking ballet? 
     3.2. When should I start taking modern dance? 
     3.3. I'm in my early twenties; it it too late for me to start a 
      professional career in ballet? 
     3.4. I'm 35 (or 45 or 55 or...) years old.  Is it ridiculous for me 
      to consider ballet classes? 
     3.5. I'm thinking of returning to ballet after --- years; how should I 
      start?  Are there videos I can buy? 
     3.6. I'm a man.  I feel funny about taking ballet classes.  I mean, 
      isn't it...er...a little...? 
     3.7. Okay, I'm starting ballet.  What equipment do I need? 
     3.8. I'm a guy!  Do I *have* to wear tights? 
     3.9. Where can I buy dancewear? 
     3.10. How can I make a tutu? 
     3.11. How do I find/choose a school or teacher? 
     3.12. How can I tell if a teacher is good? 
     3.13. If the teacher makes me feel good, won't I become overconfident? 
     3.14. I live in ----; where can I take classes? 
     3.15. I don't know a thing about ballet and I'm trying to select a 
      school for my child.  What should I look for? 
     3.16. What is this "Dolly Dinkle" business, anyway? 
     3.17. What about studying in a university dance department? 
     3.18. Where can I find out about Summer dance programs? 
     3.19. I took my first class and I couldn't understand what was going on! 
     3.20. I keep getting mixed up! 
     3.21. What is "B-plus"? 
     3.22. How can I learn to raise my leg over my shoulder, the way I see 
      other dancers doing? 
     3.23. When can my daughter start toe dancing? 
     3.24. I'm an adult beginner.  Am I too old for pointe? 
     3.25. I'm 5'7" (or whatever) high.  Am I too tall for ballet? 
     3.26. What is a career in dancing like? 
     3.27. My daughter's gym classes are interfering with her ballet 
      training.  What can I do to make the school listen? 
     3.28. How can I build a proper floor for dancing? 
     3.29. How high should a ballet barre be? 
     3.30. I'm job hunting.  Any tips for preparing a resume? 
  
 ================ 
  
 3. Ballet, Modern Dance, and You 
  
  
 3.1. When should I start taking ballet? 
  
  The answer to that depends on how old you are.  Children must wait 
 until their bones are strong enough to stand the strain that dancing will 
 put on them.  Opinions differ as to exactly when that happens, and it 
 depends a great deal on the individual, but it seems to be somewhere 
 between ages six and nine.  Younger children will often profit from special 
 dance classes, in which the emphasis is on rhythm, spatial sense, musical 
 sense, and placement. 
  
  If you are older than that, the answer is, right away.  The sooner 
 you start, the better.  If you start in your teens, you may be able to 
 dance professionally, or you may not.  Igor Youskevitch didn't start until 
 he was 22, and he became a star; but he was Igor Youskevitch.  By that age, 
 most people can look forward to ballet only as a recreation.  (But it is a 
 *wonderful* recreation!) 
  
  
 3.2. When should I start taking modern dance? 
  
  Opinions vary; some say, Right away; others say, After you've had 
 a year or two of ballet to lay a foundation.  A great deal depends on the 
 individual.  Ballet teaches a vocabulary of movement which has largely been 
 rejected by modern dance; and some people find that ballet inhibits the 
 kind of movement favored in modern dance.  But ballet is unparallelled for 
 strengthening your body and for teaching you to think of it as an instru- 
 ment of dance.  For many people, the ideal may be to take ballet and modern 
 concurrently, if that's feasible. 
  
  
 3.3. I'm in my early twenties; it it too late for me to start a 
 professional career in ballet? 
  
  It's not impossible--it has been done before--but the odds are 
 against it.  Leigh Witchel offers more details: 
  
     The average age of a woman starting ballet is between eight and eleven, 
     of a man, often in his teens.  Later is not unheard of; Melissa Hayden 
     began at 15, Igor Youskevitch at 22.  A word of warning, however:  As 
     you grow older, developing flexibility is infinitely more difficult. 
     If you do not have a natural facility, you will be fighting an uphill 
     battle the whole way and may find the pain too great to be worth it. 
     Also, for a woman, developing the ankle strength and articulation of 
     the feet necessary for pointe work takes around five years, which adds 
     another handicap.  Moreover, at the onset of training, you can really 
     only take so many classes a week without risking injury.  So the roads 
     of an amateur and professional do not diverge until at least a little 
     way into training.  At that point, take a good look at what you are 
     doing, your progress in relation to others, and how happy it is making 
     you.  Are you ready to play a game of catch-up that may be sisyphean? 
     It may be worth the struggle. 
  
 See also the following question. 
  
  
 3.4. I'm 35 (or 45 or 55 or...) years old.  Is it ridiculous for me to 
 consider ballet classes? 
  
  This topic has come up repeatedly.  The answer is No.  We have a 
 number of dancers on a.a.b. who started in their thirties or later.  Many 
 of them hesitated at first, then plunged in. 
  
  It would be ridiculous only if you were contemplating a career in 
 ballet at that age; most ballet dancers retire in their forties.  (There 
 have been some notable exceptions, however: Auguste Bournonville [Question 
 4.8.2] choreographed roles for dancers in their sixties; in his _Memoirs_ 
 Casanova describes a dazzling bravura performance by Louis Dupr'e, who was 
 then sixty; and Pavel Gerdt continued to dance until he was 70.)  But if 
 you are 45 or older, you are presumably not looking for a professional 
 career.  The consensus on a.a.b. is that if your body can still handle the 
 exertion, you can start at any age.  The King of Sweden was still playing 
 tennis in his nineties.  Ballet is tougher than tennis, but if you can 
 handle it...why not?  (Someone on the Net wrote, "Socrates learned to dance 
  
 [continued in next message] 
  
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