Do you know anyone who gives private ballet lessons?

Do you know anyone who gives private ballet lessons?

I first tried a place where my girls take drama classes called "Center Stage". They are no where near Bishan, but it seems that I always end up traveling for their activities anyway. I thought that place would be accommodating since they mainly cater to ex-pats, but that was not the case.


Then I tried a ballet school that was near to a place where they already go for tuition, by Upper Bukit Timah Rd. But that place did not work out either.

I did find a Crestar location in Thomson Plaza that would give the girls trial lessons this Sunday, Grade 1 for the youngest and Grade 3 for the oldest. So we are going on Sunday, and we will see if my oldest can keep up with the Grade 3 lesson. I wouldn’t mind putting her at a lower level, as long as there were at least one or two older girls in the class along with her. But maybe that is just too difficult to find? We will have to see how how things go at Crestar on Sunday.

Thanks for all of your help.

thanks!

How do you find out who gives lessons at the community centers? They seem like they are all independent instructors who just use the cc space. Do the cc’s keep a list or do I have to try to figure that out some other way?

[quote]LOL - I had to look through all the comments before I found that you'd lifted an old comment by \"ammonite\".


Yes, definitely more to do with the teacher. My littlest started before 3yo and although cute little finger exercises was part of the starting pieces, he also started straightaway with songs. He's now completed Suzuki Book 1 piano already after 1yr.[/quote]Sorry, yes, I guess that was an old comment for this thread. I hope my post still helps somebody and gives some perspective.

I am vary wary of Suzuki. While it's cute to stick a violin in a very young child's hands, what happens when it finally becomes time to teach them to read music and they have to start at the beginning again? Plus, learning to read music gives a structure to learning: teaches them how to think about and understand it. My oldest daughter did a little Suzuki volin when she was much younger, and the whole system just seemed kooky, and the teachers and parents reminded me of a cult. So we quit that.

We switched to sheet-music-based piano lessons, and I found that if I sat with my daughter at the piano every time she practiced, and sang the note names to her as she learned a piece, that she could learn to read music very quickly before she even learned to read words.

When we came to Singapore, I tried setting my girls up with lessons at the local Cristophori music store, and was very disappointed. My daughter says that when they would come to a lesson on theory in the book (in the book series I recommended, songs and techinical exercises and intersperced with pen-and-paper theory lessons), the teacher would ask her the answers to the exercise, and if she got an answer wrong, he would just say \"See, you don't know this\" instead of telling her what the right answer was and explaining the teaching point. What the heck is the point of that? So I quit those lessons and now teach both girls myself.

I don't know whether we've just had a lot of bad luck so far with lessons and tutors here, but many times, the teachers I find are more interested in proving what my kids don't know rather than teaching them things. If the girls already knew everything, I wouldn't be hiring a teacher! Some teachers just have no tolerance for children who came from other systems without these levels and exams.

That would be nice.


So far, it’s been hard to even just get past the secretaries at the couple of ballet schools I’ve tried. Three schools have tried to put my girls with the 5 year olds, and none have let me start them at grade 1. We did one trial class this morning, but my oldest refused to join such a young class. My 7 year old did a good job (better than some of the girls enrolled in the class) but the teacher made us feel very unwelcome anyway.

Does anyone know of a beginning ballet class that has some older girls in it?


Some of the other activities that my girls (7 and 11) do have mixed ages in a class, so my girls don’t feel out of place as beginners. I am thinking of their gymnastics and rock climbing classes. Other classes they take (drama) group the children by age regardless of experience.

My girls would like to start ballet, but we are having a hard time figuring out how to start them out without them having to take a class with 3-5 year olds. My 11-year-old especially would feel too humiliated, and would not enjoy that.

Does anyone have a suggestion for us? We are based in Bishan, but have no problem traveling for classes.

Thanks.

[quote]The 5 year old however has to do boring drills because the hand span is limited and finger strength is not there. My conclusion is unless the child is very talented, 7 is a better age to start. [/quote]
I am very surprised to hear this. I think this has more to do with the teacher you are using rather than your child's age. There are good piano book series that my children started with at age 5, and instead of boring drills they teach through cute songs. I particularly like the Thompson series (starting with \"Teaching Little Fingers To Play\") though some very good teachers I've known prefer to start with the Alfred series, and then switch to the more advanced Thompson books as the child progresses. Both series start out with cute, simple songs straight from the beginning. If your teacher is boring your child, maybe you could mention these book series to her and see her reaction. If that doesn't help, then maybe you should look for another teacher.

On the original question of whether 7 is too old to start, some of the best piano teachers I've known refuse to start kids younger than 7. I worked very hard to get my oldest daughter's piano teacher to start working with my youngest daughter at age 5, and she only agreed because we were already good customers. In the U.S., at least, it is expected to start at 7 or later.

My daughters (age 7 and 11) would like to take ballet lessons, but cannot join classes with girls their own ages because they are beginning level (they each had some classes in the U.S. but no one in the U.S. follows a syllabus or does exams, so U.S. classes don’t seem to count for anything here).


I would like to find a private tutor to teach them individually (or the two of them together) to get them to the right level for their ages, and then I could transition them to regular ballet classes.

Do you know of anyone who offers private ballet lessons? Does this plan sound like it would work, or can children just not dance here if they did not start in Singapore at age 3?

Thanks.