Find The Right Class for You
FINDING THE RIGHT CLASS
Finding the right class is vital to your success! Many factors are important when considering a studio to chose:
- Geography: the distance from the studio to your work or home. The closer it is, the more likely you are to attend consistently. Adults lead busy lives and cannot spend a lot of time commuting to a recreational activity. So consider this first. Do a Google search for "adult ballet classes near me", and you should get a list of what is available in your area. Then call the places that are within an acceptable distance for you to drive every week. If you live in a city, chances are that you will have more than one choice. If you live in a more rural area, you might have to settle for a longer drive. For those that live in areas where there are no adult classes available, you can always call the studio and ask if they will allow you to take classes with the younger students or give you private lessons. You can also drive to a bigger city a couple of times a month, and then supplement with practice at home. Otherwise, the exercises shown in Module 3 are designed so you can do them at home on your own. After the current events we are experiencing as of March, 2020, I believe we are all getting more comfortable with taking virtual classes.
ALSO, IF YOU SIMPLY ARE NOT READY TO ATTEND A GROUP CLASS, USE MODULE THREE TO PRACTICE ALONG AND BUILD YOUR CONFIDENCE!
- Studio Type:Dance studios can be focused on classical ballet, Others are more focused on competition, and teach more different dance styles. Ideally, you want a studio where ballet is the primary focus, and other dance styles are taught as a compliment. They will likely have better ballet teachers, and are more likely to offer adults-only classes.
- Schedule:The times that adult ballet classes are offered will be a huge factor in your choice, since you need to be able to attend without interfering with work or other commitments.
- Instructors: To find out if you like the way the instructor teaches, you will have to try the class out. Instructors have different personalities and teaching styles, and not all will be right for you. The best thing to do is try a few different ones before you commit. Most places will let you try a class for free, or at least without committing to an extended contract. In fact, most adult ballet classes offer drop-in (meaning that you pay as you go) and also, unlike fitness classes, most of them do not require you to pre-register online, which can be a hassle.
- Quality of Instruction: You should be able to tell pretty fast if the instructor is professional and qualified: you want someone that gives good explanations, corrects you when necessary and does it respectfully, knows how to keep you safe, and provides a friendly and inviting environment.
- Quality of Facility: To dance ballet safely, ideally you want a studio that has a proper dance floor; this is a floor that has a subfloor, creating a space in between the t0p floor and the foundation floor to allow for ease of jumping, and is covered by a vinyl top usually called a Marley floor, that provides the best surface for turning. At the very least, you want a wooden floor. Any other surface is not ideal for dance, since a hard floor with no sub layer might prove to be very hard when you start practicing jumps. For absolute beginner classes this is not a major concern, because you will not be doing a lot of big jumps, and a lot of classes are held at recreational centers in communities, and they might not have an ideal floor. But is something you want to keep in mind as you progress. The best quality studios always have a proper flooring, mirrors on at least one wall and plenty of barres, either attached to the wall or portable.
Consider all these elements when choosing a studio, and pick the one that has the best options for you. You might have to sacrifice one or two of the factors mentioned, but you should never chose a place where the level of instruction is poor. You do not want to learn things wrong because then is harder to unlearn them!.
If you want to attend more than once a week as an adult and if you do not live in a large city, you might have to take class at a couple of different places. Many adult students I know do this. Any studio that has a problem with this, is something you want to stay away from. I have ran into a couple of places that discourage their students from taking class elsewhere, but this goes against the student's best chances for growing and improving if the studio doing the criticism does not provide them with more classes in a given week. That said, keep in mind that the standards and guidance you get, may vary from studio to studio and even between instructors. But usually this is not a problem; ballet might be very structured, but there are times when there is more than one way to do a step.