Recreational dance studios vs pre-professional studios ???

There is a tremendous difference between the training you receive at a preprofessional studio vs a recreational. And honestly at 12 if you're only talking a couple times a week, I'm not sure you really appreciate the training involved in a dance career. At 12 my daughter was easily doing 4 days a week of classes not counting rehearsals at a preprofessional studio. Now arguably ballet is more demanding career wise than many genres, but the vast majority of genres appreciate a strong ballet foundation. If your daughter is already noticing that her training isn't competitive, it's just going to be exacerbated in the years ahead.

Multiple people from my daughter's studio have gone on to dance careers in both ballet as well as more contemporary companies - it's a tough, demanding field that requires a ton of sacrifice. I'm going to tag melissa as I know her daughter continued post high school. And perhaps she can offer additional guidance. I'll also say, it's extremely hard to know just how serious your child is at 12. My daughter was all in at that age and slowly prioritized academics to the point where her choice was to double major in college versus pursuing an internship or company position despite spending 20-30+ hours a week in the studio all during high school and having pretty good success with summer intensive auditions and ballet competitions.

My kids went to/go to a competitive dance studio in our town. It's pretty much recreational, but a few girls go on to a top university for dance majors. The Dance Moms show is from a dance studio about 45 from us! My 3 girls all danced at the same studio and enjoy it.

My middle daughter is on a Dance Team in college (ACC university) and loves it! Of course it's sad this year because they can't do anything. She is a senior and seniors get to travel to all away football games. She is so sad that she didn't get this opportunity this year.

My youngest is a senior in high school and is trying to decide whether to try out for a dance team in college!

My daughters attended a serious dance studio. Now days it probably would be called "pre-professional". They had classes 6 hours a week plus rehearsals for programs and the like. They did not have true recitals but instead performed parts of ballets like Swan Lake or Nutcraker with the younger students performing in little episodes between the portions of the ballet. Professionals were hired to perform with them as well as other dancers who were semi-professional were given parts to fill out the program.

The studio also took the girls to seminars and to New York to dance and participate in classes to compete for major scholarships. The girls who were going forth in their training took classes in New York living away from home at an early age, some as young as 12. Their parents paid for them to board with the school they were in and to fly back and forth for the holidays. (No summers off of course.)

By 12 years old your daughter should be already be working on-point or pre-point classes and perhaps having classes with male dancers learning the lifts and how to dance with a partner. Hopefully she has had an orthopedic doc take xrays and look at her feet to be sure bones are good for this.

Ballet is something that takes up a whole lot of time and effort and there are no shortcuts. Perhaps your daughter is not so much interested in ballet as much as another kind of dancing.

Ballerinas start young and reach their peak early in life. It is hard on the feet which are disfigured and permanently stressed. I used to be friends with a lady who danced in the corps in a major company in New York and her feet never recovered. You and your daughter need to determine just what kind of career she wants now, before it is too late. Do some research to help her decide just what kind of dance she wants to be involved in. Look into how much dancers make and how what they need to do to reach their goals.

Plus, another thing to consider is how she plans to earn the money to start or take over her own studio. She will need to be realistic about this. The lady I mentioned above did not have a fall back plan and had to support herself promoting and selling various items at trade shows and fairs. It was a precarious living. It is good that your daughter has a plan for what to do when she can no longer dance the night away.

My daughters were pulled out of dance when it became time for them to go on point. They knew they could not make enough money to support themselves and we did not have enough money to support the training they needed to become professional. So, it made sense to take them out before their feet were permanently damaged and to give them a chance to find other intersts. Both girls were good, very good and received a lot of training for free, but still we could not pay for them to train in New York, or to live apart from us as was needed for them to continue a career in dance.

Why not interview the pre-professional school? It will give you an idea of what they have to offer vs your local studio. I would also think that they could give you an assessment of her skill level and if she has a chance at making it her career. Is it possible for her to take classes at both studios? Perhaps technique classes at the pre-pro school and a fun class or two at the local studio? I’d give it a year and if the drive and distance doesn’t work for you, you can always go back to the local studio.

As for her future, is she doesn’t have the skill for a cruise ship or stage, she may find satisfaction in working as a teacher or assistant locally and participating in community theatre. That may give her the outlet for dance.

I would hope, that after all of these years of dance, that my older dd would pick a university that has a dance team. It would be sad for her to throw away her skill and she gets so much joy from dancing.

My little dd loves it but she has a first love in math. This is the first year she’s had trouble keeping up in both areas so we have decided she needs to choose next year. I am pushing her with dance. It’s too expensive and takes a lot of time but I feel she can do math things at school and will always have math class. I like the creative / movement outlet.

I hope your dd finds a dance team if she wants one. They aren’t as common at our Canadian universities.

If your dd isn’t interested in dance at university then I’d for sure move studios for her and encourage her interest in dance.

Our dance studio owner took that route - professional dance studio to company, cruise ships for a few years, then back to open a studio. She started working for another studio and then broke free after creative differences. She’s doing well now but it’s a constant struggle and I find her very emotional in front of clients. I think she would have done better had she had some type of business degree or management course. She’s a wonderful dance teacher but a terrible business woman. She’s awful with the clients but good with the kids in the studio. I know her hours are crazy.

I find the dance teachers tend to be transient. I don’t know if they move studio to studio always looking for something different or seeking out new opportunities, but over the last 12 years there have been many changes. Some stay a good 6-8 years , others 1-2 years. I don’t know if our owner is hard to work for or if they want to move on. From what I hear this is common and isn’t just happening at our studio.

My 15 year old started pointe this year. She did pre pointe back when she was 11/12 but we never allowed her on pointe and she was ok with it. Being a pedi my dh didn’t want anything going on with her feet. This year, with Covid / no competitions or performances I could see she was looking for something new at dance. I suggested the pointe and she was thrilled with the idea. This is the first year pointe is necessary doe the ballet exam so it means she can continue with exams. She only does 2 1/2 classes per week but she’s really enjoying it. My other dd started pre pointe this year at 11. She also loves tap. She finds it very methodical and mathematic with the counting and the rhythm. We did not allow solos this year because there are no performances and I didn’t want to pay for extra but tap is her solo or choice.

Good luck with your decision. I think trying out the studio is a good idea. Let her do a few classes there to see if she prefers it.