Operation Unmask: 7 myths about children's ballet. In one of the articles, we already talked about the myths associated with classes. rhythmic gymnastics. Now it's time to talk about children's ballet. Most myths about ballet have a right to exist only when the child is preparing for a professional career as a ballerina and is going to enter a higher educational institution.
And they can hardly be attributed to ballet in amateur studios. What are these myths, because of which parents are afraid to send their children to choreography? Ballerina Ksenia Belaya, head of the Choreographic Studio of Ksenia Belaya, tells. 1. All ballerinas have injured legs. I believe that ballerinas have the most harmoniously developed and Beautiful legs. A dancer standing on pointe shoes is something magical, light, flexible, floating in the air. Of course, for professional ballerinas, pointe shoes can cause foot deformity in the area thumb- a small bump is created in order to make it more comfortable to stand.
But for these changes to take place, you need to make ballet your profession, and lessons in an amateur studio do not lead to such a result. From the point of view of the state of joints, ligaments, muscles, ballet legs are not spoiled even by professionals. And the legs of gymnasts, for example, suffer more than the legs of ballerinas.
BALLET FOR GIRLS 6 YEARS
2. Ballet is drill and character breaking. Ballet, like any sport, helps to develop character, develop willpower and hard work. The same effect is given by any other serious sport school, regular physical work.
Ballet classes require a certain discipline, adherence to diet, training and sleep.
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Form for classes. Form for children. White leotards (elastic tights), Gymnastics leotard with a skirt (up to 7 years of white or Pink colour, after 7…
IN early age ballet for children can be fairy tale, a dream. Once having come to the performance with his parents, the kid falls under the spell of this majestic and impressive art. Luxurious scenery, bewitching music, light dancers in magnificent tutus, as if hovering over the stage, courageous graceful dancers ... Do not be surprised if the baby tells you: “I want that too!”
Indeed, ballet as an art is a classic of dance. Those who achieve heights in it become the favorites of the public, they are applauded by the best halls of the world.
Inspired by the desire of the child to take up ballet and their own ambitious dreams, the parents immediately go with him to the ballet school.
The benefits of ballet
The idea of sending a child to ballet is tempting, because in addition to being passionate about the most beautiful of the dance arts, the child has the opportunity to improve his physical performance. Ballet classes correct the curvature of the spine, train grace, flexibility, endurance, coordination of movements. The students of the ballet school are not in danger of flat feet and other problems with the figure.
It is a pleasure to watch how ballerinas move: even in everyday life they have a proud head posture, noble posture, smooth gestures, restraint. But the load in ballet is no less than in sports section, so, having given the child to classes, do not expect indulgence towards him.
- these are three types of education: physical, spiritual, aesthetic. Child with early years learn to understand musical masterpieces, to reveal their beauty in choreography, emotionally experience the conflicts of the plot.
How is the selection of children
Do not set yourself up and do not set up your child that as soon as you appear before the selection committee with burning eyes, you will be taken for nothing but a selfless love of art.
There are more and more people wishing to practice ballet every year, and the selection is getting stricter. Frankly speaking, only for us, parents, our children are beautiful and talented. But the masters of choreography, although they won’t say it directly, they won’t take an ugly child to the ballet.
Each applicant (these are children from 3 to 12 years old) is checked for physical data: body proportions, foot elevation, dynamic characteristics (for example, the ability to sit in the “lotus” position or twist the feet at a certain angle), etc. Also important is the sense of rhythm, the ability to show emotions in the dance.
Of course, the subjective opinion of the master who recruits children is also essential. Even if the child does not have all the desired features, but at the same time the choreographer finds him promising in other respects, he can make a positive decision.
Such a serious selection is carried out in specialized ballet schools, which "forge shots" for the country's leading theaters. In amateur ballet circles, the requirements are much softer.
What do you want ballet for?
An odd question, many moms and dads considering a ballet perspective for their kids will think. Actually, nothing strange. If you want your child to work out "for general development”And don’t dream of a stage, then an amateur ballet circle will become for him a place where he will do art for his own pleasure. Today amateur studios have their own reporting concerts, so that your little one will inhale the smell of backstage more than once. But he will not have a heavy load and a catastrophic lack of time.
But if you are seriously focused on a ballet career and you see the makings of this in your son or daughter, then experts recommend that from 3-4 years old you first do gymnastics, which is close to ballet in terms of loads and style. There, your child will be given posture, stretching will be trained, they will be given an understanding of rhythm - in a word, they will develop those qualities that will be key when entering a ballet school.
In general, ballet for children is not only a business that you can do, improving in it every day, but also a worthy pastime alone with choreographic art in the theater.
The main school of Ilze Liepa is located on the Rublevo-Uspenskoe highway, more chamber studios are on Solyanka and in the Pavlovsk gymnasium. Teachers use the author's methodology famous ballerina Ilse Liepa. This technique is based on a combination of gymnastics and Pilates. Ilze herself also takes part in the preparation of training programs. The school program includes: ballet gymnastics, the basics of classical dance, choreography and the basics of acrobatics. The groups at Ilze Liepa's school are 2.5-4 years old, 5-6 years old, 7-8 years old and 9-12 years old. The smallest begin with the basics - they are engaged in rhythm, dancing and outdoor games. Serious ballet training starts at the age of 5. Several times a year, students demonstrate their skills in reporting concerts.
2. Choreographic Studio of Ksenia Belaya
Age: from 2 years
Studio on Patriarch's Ponds / on Frunzenskaya
The Choreographic Studio was opened in 1999 by Ksenia Belaya, a graduate of the ballet master faculty Russian Academy Theater Arts(GITIS). Ballet is taken seriously here, which is confirmed by the regular performances of students in the Grand Kremlin Palace, Concert hall named after Tchaikovsky, House of Music. They teach classical and modern dances, dances of the peoples of the world and demi-classical performances. In the classroom, children get to know folk art, learn to feel music and rhythm, do gymnastics, acting skills, study the history of world dance, etiquette and even art history. The youngest are engaged in choreography, after which they can choose a course to their liking: classical dance or jazz modern.
3. Egor Simachev's ballet workshop
Age: 2 to 11 years old
22 branches in Moscow
The Yegor Simachev Ballet Workshop can be considered an important promoter of children's ballet in the capital. The first studio was opened in the Hermitage Garden in 2011, and today there are already 16 branches of the Workshop in the city. Ballerinas of the Bolshoi Theater work with children. There are three age groups- from 2.5 to 4 years, from 5 to 7 and from 8 to 11 years. Depending on the age, level of training and abilities, the child is helped to choose the necessary load so that training does not harm health. Among the studio's unusual services are ballet lessons in French or English language, and both ballet and languages can be started from scratch.
4. Studio of classical ballet "Akter"
Age: 3 to 13 years old
4 branches
The ballet studio "Akter" works at the State academic theater classical ballet, and its pupils actively participate in theater productions. Students also perform at international venues. Artistic director studio - Tereshchenko Oksana Georgievna - graduated from the Moscow State Ballet School at Bolshoi Theater and is a theater soloist. Ballet art in the studio is taught to children from the age of 3 years, there are age groups for boys and girls 3-6 and 6-8 years old. In the classroom, children learn classical dance, folk-character dance and acting skills.
5. The Nutcracker Ballet School
Age: 3 to 10 years old
School on Leninsky pr., 32
Branches in the clubs "Ribambel" on Kutuzovsky pr., 48 and in the Botanical Garden
Founded a respected school in Moscow in 2000 People's Artist RSFSR, famous ballerina Natalya Chekhovskaya. The Nutcracker School has a preparatory department for children 3-10 years old and professional classes for children from 10 years old (1st ballet class). Taught at school according to the program " classical dance» S.N. Golovkina, approved by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. At the disposal of students: spacious dance hall with mirrors and comfortable changing rooms. You can come to view on any weekday from September to May, as well as on certain days in June.
Ballet is a special, elite form choreographic art, the secrets of which begin to learn from childhood. At the same time, not all parents who would like their child to go in for dancing choose ballet, because they have heard about how unsafe classes can be and how many injuries dancers get in the process of them. At the same time, there are many judgments about the undoubted benefits of ballet, and therefore the time has come, what is more in ballet, benefit or harm.
Let's start with the last one. If anyone can harm you in ballet, then only you yourself. Arguments about the increased traumatism of this type of choreography are not speculation, but injuries here are mainly associated with carelessness and inattention of people who practice ballet. In the same way, we can call other types of dances traumatic, and indeed any activity that involves performing sharp, unnatural for ordinary person movements. If you correctly follow all the instructions of the dance teacher, if you do not strive to do everything here and now, if you conduct a high-quality warm-up and dance in proper clothes and shoes, the risk of serious injury will be minimal. Well, light sprains and bruises - you can’t do without it even in everyday life.
Now let's say a few words about the benefits of ballet. It makes our body flexible and graceful, and our movements plastic. Ballet classes help strengthen the muscles of the body, make the ligaments elastic, and also improve the functioning of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems of our body. This, in turn, improves health. In addition, ballet contributes to the development musical ear and introduces a person to world culture, i.e. has educational value, which is especially important for the younger generation. Ballet strengthens the back, forms the correct posture, develops a special, very attractive gait, and also prevents the appearance of excess fat deposits on the body.
Ballet is more than tight clothes, tight tights and wearing a special ballet shoes. It's about about developing dance skills through the dedication and perseverance of a person. The article describes the various benefits of ballet for your health.
Improves posture
Ballet - undoubted benefit for posture. It helps you achieve postural alignment. Each movement requires care in its execution. You move yourself from one position to another. Dance techniques contribute to correcting the wrong position of the body, pulling the shoulders back and lengthening the neck.
Inspires confidence
Ballet begins with an innate desire to practice professional dances and achieve significant goals on this hard way. The study showed that learning dance technique increases the variety of foot placement. You will be amazed at yourself when you get great posture.
Increases flexibility
Flexibility is not prerequisite for ballet. You get it through numerous trainings. Because ballet includes both static and dynamic stretching, doing these types of exercises will help keep your body flexible.
Builds muscle and improves agility
Believe it or not, ballet is a combination of Pilates and endurance training. It also involves breathing coordination. Performing squats and jumps, a person helps to strengthen his body. As the dancer continues to practice more movements, he will maintain the integrity of fine coordination and motor skills.
Burns extra calories
Your body weight affects the number of calories you burn in a 90-minute workout. A person weighing over 120 pounds can burn about 200 calories in just 30 minutes, which is about 600 calories per session.
Provides healthy nutrition
Whether you take ballet as a hobby or a serious activity, you don't want to feel fat. Therefore, being aware of what you are eating will have an enormous impact on you. A well-balanced diet will support your health and appearance.
Improves sensorimotor performance
The ability to balance yourself and respond to external stimuli indicates how developed your sensorimotor skills are. Participation in ballet or dance program increases them, including both hemispheres of the brain.
Boosts Cognitive Function
Mastering dance technique challenges your brain to synchronize your movements. A meta-analysis has shown that ballet and other dance interventions are useful measures to limit age-related nervous system pathology such as dementia.
Relieves stress
Ballet is supposed to be fun and a workout for your body. Learn a few movement mistakes and focus on improving your technique and you will stop worrying about external problems which you cannot change.
Creates social connections
Joining a ballet class and interacting with dance group contributes to more healthy lifestyle life. This is a great opportunity to make friends with new people. Building strong social relations reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases and diseases associated with them.
Very often, choosing extra classes For small child, parents have to make a choice between sections according to physical training and circles related to aesthetic education: music, drawing, dancing. Sometimes it is quite difficult to organize out-of-school visits to several sections and studios at once, therefore, priority is often given to one direction - either sports training or aesthetic education.
At the same time, there is a great way to fully combine both sports and aesthetic development child is choreography, or ballet.
Ballet classes for children will provide a wonderful opportunity to lay the foundation for the full development of the child's body, provide the child with the correct posture, make his movements plastic and coordinated. Moreover, choreography classes contribute to the formation of the right aesthetic tastes, musicality and good manners.
Boys or girls?
Historically, the advantages in ballet dance have been given female gender however, this is more of a stereotype. Boys involved in ballet, moreover, who have achieved serious success in this form of dance art, are not uncommon, especially in recent times.
Therefore, you should not give up the prospect of trying your child's possibilities in choreography, operating with familiar patterns. If the boy is musical, actively manifests himself in dance and other forms creative pursuits, then, perhaps, ballet classes will be not only useful to him, but also interesting.
Best age to start ballet
As a rule, choreography teachers are ready to work with kids who have reached the age of four. At this age, children can already consciously approach the tasks given by the teacher, perform certain sets of exercises that help stretch and develop the muscle corset. The training of children of the age of four does not include work on complex ballet steps and dance compositions.
In a standard choreography lesson, kids learn various types dance step, learn the basic positions of the arms and legs used in classical ballet dance, practice correct position corps during the dance, work on the development of ear for music. All these tasks are carried out in a playful way, while classical musical works are used.
Pointe shoes, when?
Most of the girls who expressed a desire to do choreography, as a rule, are fascinated ballet dance, heroines musical fairy tales and performances. In their view, choreography lessons are a wonderful opportunity to put on Nice dress and pointe shoes (ballet slippers) and turn into a little fairy. Therefore, it is very desirable, before you decide to introduce your daughter to the world of classical ballet, to explain to her that in order to dance as beautifully as a fairy does in a cartoon or in a fairy tale, you need to study diligently and for a long time under the guidance of a teacher.
And pointe dancing, which future ballerinas dream about, will begin no earlier than 10 years, this is due to the peculiarities of the formation of the musculoskeletal system of young children.
Ballet, profession or hobby?
It is no secret that many of us attended ballet school or choreography lessons in childhood, however, not everyone was able to achieve this. dance art significant success. This is due to the fact that not many people decide to professionally connect their lives with ballet dance, and there are many reasons for this. This is a busy training schedule, and heavy loads during performances, which do not leave time for life outside the framework of ballet - studying in general education school, hobbies, communication with peers.
That is why many, after studying for several years at a ballet school, stop classes. Is it worth getting upset and saying that the time spent on ballet classes was used irrationally? Of course not!
After all, ballet classes in childhood almost for the rest of their lives they will provide the child with a beautiful posture and graceful gait, they will give an impeccable musical taste and love for art. Moreover, the choreographic skills acquired in childhood will make it easier and easier in the future. enjoyable learning any other types of dance - be it folk dances or modern jazz-modern dances.
We can safely say that ballet lessons in childhood will be very useful, and will fully justify the costs of parents for organizing these classes.
Lecturer, child development center specialist
Druzhinina Elena
An expert says about the benefits of choreography for children:
Ballet is a kind of art for which you have to be born. No matter how talented, diligent, executive a girl is, if she was born with the wrong physical data, the road to classical ballet closed to her. When applying to a choreographic school, they look at everything - the figure, the length of body parts, the size of the head, not to mention the mobility of the joints and stretching. For example, there is such a standard - the ballerina's legs should be at least 52% of the girl's height. If this figure is less, then the child will be rejected, like a dog at an exhibition.
Therefore, the data for ballet in a child should be from birth. If they really are (and if experts confirm this), then you need to start working with a child at the age of three or four years. Such little girls are not taken to schools, but for them there are ballet schools and studios where they are taught stretching, basic positions and movements. For a child who has seriously decided to do ballet, constant training is very important.
A child who has devoted his life to ballet will not do well in a comprehensive school - that's for sure. Therefore, if something goes wrong later and you have to leave the ballet, then the child simply will not have sufficient education.
At one point, the girl will have to pass the entrance exam to the choreographic school. The ballet school is very strong in Russia, but not all cities have good schools. More precisely, they are only in a few cities - in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Perm, Vladivostok, Novosibirsk. If you live in another city, you will either have to move the whole family to one of these centers, or send a child there alone. Fortunately, such schools provide hostels. But imagine that your child at the age of 9-10 years will be forced to start an independent life.
Or it may happen that the child will not be accepted into the school. And if before that the girl has been raving about ballet for more than one year and cannot imagine her life without it, then imagine how she will feel at the same time.
But even if your girl meets all the requirements of ballet, then think about what you can doom her to. The competition in ballet is simply monstrous, out of thirty girls who came to see the school, they can take only one, out of the thirty girls who entered the school, fifteen will finish their studies, and only one will dance the leading roles. Incredible physical labor, emotional exhaustion, constant diets and restrictions, constant competition instead of friendship - this is what awaits the ballerina girl. Do not forget about the specifics of teaching ballet. teachers, - former ballerinas– are usually incredibly demanding, and can be quite rude to students. This is due to the peculiarities of ballet art.
A ballerina's toes in braids (the professional name for pointe shoes) are rubbed into bloody calluses every day and almost never heal.
Very often, girls who are expelled from a choreographic school start having problems with nervous system- they are experiencing severe depression and stress, which will have to be treated with a psychotherapist.
At the age when you should start doing ballet, the child still cannot adequately assess whether he needs it. The decision is entirely up to the parents. Think about it, are you afraid later to hear from the girl a reproach that she was deprived of her childhood and her life was broken?
After all, there is choreographic studios and dance schools. Everyone will be accepted there, regardless of physical data. There, the child will be taught to keep his posture, and stretch his muscles, and move beautifully, gracefully. After such a studio, let the girl not become a soloist of the Mariinsky Theater, but she will realize her desire to dance, while leading a full life and being a versatile person.
Do not try to embody your unfulfilled dreams and ambitions in your child. He must have his own life and his own choice.
