All About Ballet

[vfong1]

How much are the ballet dresses and shoes? Do they need to go exam every year? How’s the ideal age for them to start ballet?

[J2mum]

Vfong1,


$80++ for the attire. Whether to go for the exam will depend on the teacher. She will determine if ur ger is ready for exam.

[schellen]

My DD goes to Crestar CCK. She has gone for exam last year and will be going again this year. Exams are in April and it’s usually a weekday. Before the exams, the teacher will start prep classes to get the girls ready for the exam itself. This is on top of normal ballet lessons. I don’t know if any parent has chosen not to register their child for the exam but if you register, you have to attend the prep course.


For my DD, normal ballet lessons are every Sat evening. The prep lessons are on every Sun evening. The prep lessons started either in Nov/Dec 2008 or Jan 2009 and will stop the Sat before the exam. You will need to pay for prep class fee and exam registration fee. Note that you will have to make sure that your girl has standard exam attire as well, which the ballet teacher will inform you.

When you buy the attire, don’t go for the cheapest becos they won’t last. This is especially important for the shoes as badly-made and/or ill-fitting shoes will harm and hurt your girl’s feet.

As for ideal age to start ballet, my DD started at about 3. She joined the Bebe ballet class. Then at 4/5, she joined the Pre-ballet class. Now, at 7, she is in the Primary ballet class.

[vanny k]

Has anyone got any feedback on this dance school?

http://www.dancearts.com.sg/

My 3 yo girl has recently been asking for ballet lessons and I was looking around for somewhere central. Crestar's branches are abit to out of the way for me.

[alee]

… the standard of the teachers is not very good. And…

They have a policy that if you want to take the exams, extra coaching lessons are compulsory regardless of how good/ready your daughter is. We found this out after we found out too late that our daughter is not registered to take the exam even though she is ready. Reason being that she didnt sign up for extra coaching lessons! According to the instructor, it wouldnt be fair to other parents who signed up their kids for extra lessons if they allow her to take the exams without extra coaching. Hence it all boils down to how much money we spent on lessons and not whether your girl needs those lessons or not. Further when i queried the teacher that if she thought that our daughter would have done well for her exam why didnt she contact us when she realise that our girl was not registered for the exams? Her excuse was that she has too many classes and too many students for her to keep track. In other words, she doesnt know! nor bother to check.
It came as a shock to us and a dissapointment to my daughter who has diligently gone for her lessons every week and practice on her own at home. she was so looking forward to taking her exam and the certification. Now she has nothing to show for her hard work. The entire episode left a very bad taste.
If you are serious abt ballet, please give this school a miss !

[vanny k]

That’s not too professional. Sounds like they’re more keen to make money out of you than to promote dance. Thanks for the heads up, alee! Guess I’ll have to search around for some other central place.

[dingdang]

Hi,


You may want to consider Dance Castle at Bukit Merah Central.
http://www.dancecastle.com/

I'm totally impressed with their Ballet teacher, Miss Nicole. She may be young but she really teaches the kids with heart. She's always caring and has her way to pacify the kids or get the shy ones to participates in the dance class.

'branded' dance school may not be the best. My girl is shy by nature, and she tried a few 'branded' ballet schools but none of the teachers are able to let my girl overcome her fear and shyness in 1st few lessons.

The cost fee is quite reasonable too. You may call n enquire.

[vfong1]

Any more recommendations for the ballet schools?

[georgewong22]

Hi, my 5yo daughter wants to try ballet. Not sure if it’s the best for her. My 7yo son wants to learn hip hop. He loves dancing.


Why do parents of most girls think of ballet for their daughters? Is there any apparent benefit? Are there physical dangers? Some say it’s painful.

I reside around Bishan’s Junction 8 and I sought help from RAD for a list of their registered teachers around this area. This is what they came back with:

1. Moving Arts @Bishan CC
2. Crestar @Thomson
3. Sylvia McCully Dance Studio @Thomson

Others which I got from this website are:

4. Jitterbugs
5. Ballet & Music Academy

Some recommended:

6. Singapore Ballet Academy

Please help with advise, thanks.

[ImMeeMee]

just want to understand whether having coaching classes is a standard practice across all ballet schools.


My girl is in crestar, and we have signed up for coaching classes recently to prepare her for the exam. its not cheap, about $190 for 3 months, and the fees get more steep with the progression of the grade. this is on top of the normal ballet classes that the child is already having.

isnt this equivalent to accelerated learning, ie. actually the child may not be ready for the exam, and the teachers are pushing for them to be ready within the year.

am not certain whether this is a school policy, or whether it is a common practice for all ballet classes.

anyone with experience from other ballet schools to share? TIA