OT Competitive Cheerleading Vs Competitive Dancing

[Pebbles49]

My daughter I s 12 , has been dancing since she was 3, and cheering sine she was 7. She does 9 hours a week of dance and about 7 in the gym. She does pointe work, along with pretty much every other genre. I was a dancer for 20 years. We don't compete, but are at a studio that is very technique focused, particularly in ballet. I have only skimmed the thread, but my perspective on the situation is:

1. What the instructor is telling you about ballet is true. She needs to be doing all the ballet she can get. It is the technical foundation of all other forms of dance. It is vital for technique improvement.

2. Cheer/ tumbling and dance can compliment each other, but it is often a balancing act. Muscle mass gained from tumbling is not the same as the lengthened muscle development they are looking for in a competitive dancer. The instructor is likely looking at it from the perspective of why potentially compromise her dance technique for skills she will never use.


Eta: just saw your post about her helping instruct the littles, frankly this is a bit of a red flag for me. Our studio would NEVER allow a child who has been dancing less than a year to instruct in any capacity. I am sure your child is very talented and it's no reflection on her, but I cannot believe an instructor would trust a child with less than a year of dance training to consistently demonstrate proper technique.

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No, I am sorry if I miscommunicated and put out any false info... My daughter by no means is teaching any dance classes to anyone... She is strictly working as the dance instructor's assistant, which from what my daughter tells me, she primarily help the minis and tinys with properly putting on shoes, leotards, etc..., taking them to the bathroom and she jokingly, told me that some of the 3 year olds are runners and she chases and grabbed them and bring them back into the classes...

She is not in charge of any dance classes at only 13, but she get a chance to lead warm ups, which again is strictly under the dance instructor instructions...

 

[cheer25mom]

No, I am sorry if I miscommunicated and put out any false info... My daughter by no means is teaching any dance classes to anyone... She is strictly working as the dance instructor assistant, which from what my daughter tells me, she primarily help the minis and tinys with properly putting on shoes, leotards, etc..., taking them to the bathroom and she jokingly, told me that some of the 3 year olds are runners and she chases and grabbed them and bring them back into the classes...

She is not in charge of any dance classes at only 13, but she get a chance to lead warm ups, which again is strictly under the dance instructor instructions...

Even leading warmup a isn't allowed in our studio without being in high school with lots of experience because they have to lead barre work with proper technique. It still bothers me that an instructor would allow that with less than a year experience. At that point you still don't have the muscle memory to be sure you are demonstrating proper technique while paying attention to what the students are doing as well.


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[Pebbles49]

Even leading warmup a isn't allowed in our studio without being in high school with lots of experience because they have to lead barre work with proper technique. It still bothers me that an instructor would allow that with less than a year experience. At that point you still don't have the muscle memory to be sure you are demonstrating proper technique while paying attention to what the students are doing as well.


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This is what is happening... I really doubt if any of the warm-up entails her to do barre work, probably stretching exercises with the 3-4 year olds... Tbh, I don't even think at this dance studio they start ballet classes to children this young... What I see the children doing at this age is mostly creative movement classes... Btw, I remembered my daughter starting dance at 4 and stayed with it for 2 years, before quitting to do gymnastics and this studio refused to sign children so young for ballet classes... I think the ballet classes started at around 6.

Additionally, the Director of this studio is probably helping her to get into the performance arts HS she wants to get in next year... My daughter will have galore of things to place on her application next year... Wow, however, I never realize 3 and 4 years are taking ballet classes at other studios. I am still learning!

 

[SL&AM]

This is what is happening... I really doubt if any of the warm-up entails her to do barre work, probably stretching exercises with the 3-4 year olds... Tbh, I don't even think at this dance studio they start ballet classes to children this young... What I see the children doing at this age is mostly creative movement classes... Btw, I remembered my daughter starting dance at 4 and stayed with it for 2 years, before quitting to do gymnastics and this studio refused to sign children so young for ballet classes... I think the ballet classes started at around 6.

Additionally, the Director of this studio is probably helping her to get into the performance arts HS she wants to get in next year... My daughter will have galore of things to place on her application next year... Wow, however, I never realize 3 and 4 years are taking ballet classes at other studios. I am still learning!

My CP did a true ballet class from 2-4 before switching to cheer. It's taught that young. As a dancer I specifically sought out a class that wasn't just creative movements. Their current studio starts at 4; anything younger is combo classes with a creative movement focus.



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[Pebbles49]

@SL&AM, what style of ballet your daughter was learning?

 

[astaley22]

I started at 3 years old with a true ballet class. It really is the base of any and all types of dance so most studios are going to start offering it very young.

 

[cheer25mom]

My CP did a true ballet class from 2-4 before switching to cheer. It's taught that young. As a dancer I specifically sought out a class that wasn't just creative movements. Their current studio starts at 4; anything younger is combo classes with a creative movement focus.



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This is our studio's philosophy. Ballet is the foundation so that is where they start. They do really simple basics in preschool, and the idea is to start building good dance habits for body placement, turnout, ect.

There are some studios that don't start ballet until 6 because they believe that preschoolers won't retain anything they are taught at that age anyway and aren't developmentally ready for the structured environment of ballet.


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[omgitssydthekid]

I know nothing about dance considering I was 8 when I quit, but I know that when I started dancing at age 2, I took ballet and tap since you weren't allowed to take jazz until you were in first grade and had a certain amount of experience.


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[Pebbles49]

The dance studio my daughter is a part of teach the RAD method of Ballet - They have 2 tracking system, which both are graded - Vocational and Recreational... This ballet method, generally start at Pre-Primary at 5 and at 6- Primary...Anything dance related does not start at this dance studio before 5 and is called Creative Movement and I also heard these early dance classes called Pre-Ballet too.

So, After reading some of the comments on here, I became curious again, as to why my daughter was not allow to take ballet classes when she was 4. The Dance Director told me that generally a child, younger than 3, bone structural is too soft and not capable yet of holding ballet positions and definitely, working at the barre...(I am paraphrasing), she also mentioned between 3- 4, they noticed many of the children's attention span is too limited and not ready to follow directions or focused for extensive time... At this dance school, I remember my daughter at 4/5 started taking Pre-ballet (~30minutes) and a Tap (~30 minutes) class, but that's it.

 

[Helen uk uni cheer]

See also: re: dance v. cheer:

I am not a dancer or dance teacher, but I have found that dance JUDGING involves a level of greater subjectivity than cheer does.

Yes, I know that cheer is subjective, but my dance coach friends (or friends who have coached both) have said that dance competition scoring encompasses more subjective judgements.

For example: Score sheets have included commentary on how the judges liked/disliked the costuming or makeup.

Agree so much with this. I learnt the hard way last weekend while I probably wouldn't of placed anyway my latin dress ( I do ballroom and latin) for introductory apparently was too bland so I blended in.
Also level wise I was intro 1 I was up against people dancing in intro 6 which means some may have been dancing 6+ years, I had been dancing ballroom 4 months but I didn't stand out ion a bad way.

There was also a girl who was amazing and in one category didn't even make the first round which was shocking but it is very subjective

 

[SL&AM]

This is our studio's philosophy. Ballet is the foundation so that is where they start. They do really simple basics in preschool, and the idea is to start building good dance habits for body placement, turnout, ect.

There are some studios that don't start ballet until 6 because they believe that preschoolers won't retain anything they are taught at that age anyway and aren't developmentally ready for the structured environment of ballet.


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That is a good philosophy to have! I'll say that even though CP has been out of dance for about 3 years now, there are still things she's teaching her sister that she learned when she was a preschooler. Preschoolers are definitely capable of a lot more than most think, sadly, not everyone realizes that.