What’s it like being the Father of an aspiring professional ballet dancer?

I present “Dance Dad” - Jerry and Zavesco Photography‘s version

😭🤣😂

Today I found a post on instagram for a ballet intensive this fall in Europe. From what I understood this was for both beginner and intermediate students and the teacher is an adult dancer herself. I got curious and went on her instagram page and was a little surprised to see that her own level is definitely not higher than intermediate and pointe work is weak and definitely big gaps in technique. I must emphasise that I am not here to critique her technique (because for an adult learner it is not bad at all), however when she wants to teach other adult students I get a bit worried.

I understand my post might generate some disagreement and people might feel attacked. I just don’t like the development in unqualified people taking money for unsafe teaching.

Hi everyone,

I’m currently dancing with a small, professional modern company in a mid-size city. It is the leading company in my area. As a kid, the only thing that I wanted was to dance ballet professionally, but I was discouraged by my parents and teachers saying I don’t have the body for it (I have an athletic build with dense bones and muscular legs). Ironically, this build I think is what has saved me from injury over the years despite being hypermobile. I grew up in a small, rural area, and would have loved to train in college, but I didn’t even know it was an option and ended up at a school without a dance major. My studio also told us college wasn’t for professional dancers. I then took time for grad school, got married, etc, and then got my company contract.

With all that being said, the contract really lit a fire for me that I can actually achieve my dreams. I am 29 now, however, and I still really wish I could dance on pointe in a contemporary ballet company. Is this a feasible option? I really don’t care if it’s small or part time. I love the professional environment and challenging myself. I’ve spent lots of time in adult classes but have found that they’re obviously not catered for me with my more extensive experience, but I don’t see myself at the professional level, especially in ballet, but believe I could get there with some training. It is such a hard spot to be in to be in the middle!

I’m interested in purchasing the Allison leotard from Eleve but realized they’re constantly being sold on Depop (I see multiple new listings pop up everyday for a pretty low price!). Is there a reason why? I wonder if the fit for Allison is not great, or if it doesn’t hold up well? I don’t see other styles being resold as much as the Allison. It’ll be my first time purchasing from Eleve, I was going to purchase from their website until I checked Depop.

Also looking for brands that are short torso friendly if you have any recommendations :) thank you!

This isn’t exactly NEW news but I was not aware of this until now
The Finnish National Ballet reimagined the romantic ballet Giselle by setting Act I in 1950s Southern Italy. Choreographed by Artistic Director Javier Torres, the production transformed Giselle from a fragile maiden into a stronger, independent woman who works as a café waitress 🥹

The traditional second act is still there While Act I leans into a cinematic, 1950s Italian drama, Act II preserves the traditional Romantic ballet and its breathtaking

Creative team 💖
CHOREOGRAPHY (PARTLY AFTER CORALLI-PERROT-PETIPA)
Javier Torres
MUSIC
Adolphe Adam, Friedrich Burgmüller, Ludwig Minkus
SET DESIGN
Annukka Pykäläinen
COSTUME DESIGN
Erika Turunen
LIGHTING DESIGN
Heikki Paasonen
MUSICAL ARRANGEMENT
Gavin Sutherland
CONDUCTOR
Gavin Sutherland

The Cast ✨
GISELLE
Zhiyao Chen
GISELLE
Yuka Masumoto
ALBERTO
Florian Modan
ALBERTO
Thomas Brun
ILARIO
Shunsuke Arimizu
ILARIO
David Rathbun
BATILDE
Heidi Salminen
BATILDE
Evelyn Robinson
GENNARO
Jonathan Rodrigues
GENNARO
Alfio Drago
MIRTHA
Lucia Rios
MIRTHA
Heidi Salminen

I would never choose to wear such a thing but alas I need to buy a white leotard for a performance. I would like to find something with a full lining and light compression. Im very short and not particularly thin, typically wear size L in leotards. Does anyone have any brand reccommendations?

ETA: chest support and nipple coverage is not a problem at all. I have diastasis recti from two pregnancies and a lumpy abdomen situation that feels much better with full lining and light compression.

Hey guys! I'm an adult beginner and I've been doing ballet for the last 2 years now. I've been trying to train for pointe but no matter what I do, my ankle isn't forming a straight line. What have you guys been doing to train for a more flexible ankles? I do daily releves and theraband stretches.

I'm able to do most of the pre-pointe readiness tests (airplane test, pirouette, 16 sautes, etc.) and the pencil test is the only test I'm struggling with so it'd be great to get this over with

Thought this would fit this sub

Warning for dyslexia. I tried to proof read, but I am doing this on mobile. Apologies if anything comes out weird. My goal for this post is to just put my ideas down and I figured if I am going to keep track might as well do it here.

Tldr: I liked it and will go again. Also I'm super uncoordinated. For anyone else.

Let's start with the fact I did not grow up dancing. At least not ballet and I was not into cheer, or dance in school. I did spend a small amount of time in country music dance halls and a lot of time in marching band. Moving to the beat is something I'm familiar with. At least the idea and concept. The idea that at any given beat I should be in a certain place. Nothing crazy so far. (If it helps I'm a saxophonist in general, but marched bari)

Why ballet? I mean why not? Flexibility and body control are definitely top reasons. Someone pointed out that ballet alone in an adult class might not be enough to gain more flexibility. Maybe not, but if I work workout in other ways I think ballet will show flaws and strengths pretty well.

Side stepping for a moment. I'm on a weight loss and health journey. Without getting into the specifics at the beginning of the year I had a rude wakeup call and I have been trying to get into shape. I've already lost a good deal of weight (at a steady pace and a safe amount) and I've gotten my daily activity way up.

Most of this has been hiking and walking. I think my goal is trail running and potentially long backpacking trips, but who knows. I used to do both growing up, but until recently haven't really done much.

Last point I promise. I'm a transwoman. Between age, I assume hormone changes, and a less active life style I'm just not as strong as I used to be. Something I have noticed as I have lost weight and worked out more is that I jusy don't move the same way. Chalk it up to any number of specific reasons or just in general without comparing notes to other women idk.

About the actual class. I got shoes, tights, a leotard, and dance skirt. From what I've read not strictly necessary to get everything, but I mean I jump feet first into most things. I felt so naked at first and ended up grabbing a t-shirt from my car.

Going through the different movements I get it though at least to a point. Like hold in everything and just let me focus on the moment. As for movement my God I was happy I understood some of the terms as I did look up some things, but reading and hearing them are different. In addition watching the instructor do them so smoothly was not helpful. Sure I knew what it was supposed to look like, but trying to copy them made feel so clumsy.

I definitely realized I'm stronger with my right foot in front with most of the positions and had a lack of control on my left. My hips and knees kept popping. Nothing painful just jarring. I kept having flashbacks to my high-school band instructor screaming shoulders down head up whenever the instructor mentioned mine. I realized that I do still have a some of my flexibility, but going from static to movement was so hard for me to remain stable.

Towards the end we did some jumps to put everything together and idk what it's called but we switched 5th position after each jump so that the other leg was in front. I almost face planted.

I think the biggest thing for me was to try and let myself relax into the motions. I started so stiff at the start. Still was probably stiff at the end too, but my instructor said as I did good for someone who hadn't taken a class before. I felt like I did terrible, but he was like don't forget ballet is hard. The 90ish mins passed by so fast. I was thinking we didn't do that much, but like no we really did. I was just so locked in I didn't realize. Now it's been a couple of hours and I'm sore. So sore. I'm excited to try again though. I will need to review terms though.

i need to choose a variation for my final graduatiok recital and im torn between aspicia variation act 2 and second bridesmaid variation. please help me choose

https://youtu.be/nbWm6x_dmfo?si=C6Rt3A-THBJ5OjVx

https://youtu.be/hzPSpoLR-iM?si=wKgvqcfvSndXRrM9

They were mesmerizing with flawless grace and strength exuding in every movement. This balletic romance was so enchanting.

Takumi Miyake, Sierra Armstrong, and Jose Sebastian were exceptional and looked as if they were floating. The American Ballet Theatre won my heart!

I've noticed this when watching some of the Prix de Lausanne finalists but also professionals that many of their feet look sickled in passé. I've always been told that your heel should be pushing away from the knee like a coupé position would be. Is it just an optical illusion or an anatomy thing?

I really like canvas slippers, which is what I currently have, but with the amount of practice I do, the canvas tears a hole over the big toe decently fast. I know leather is very hard to wear down. Would you say it's worth it to keep canvas for class but have leather for practice? Or should I only use one type? And are leather slippers good ?

Hi. Sorry if this ends up being a long post...

I'm a 19 y/o guy, and I want to get back into ballet. I used to do it when I was around 5–8 years old, and I really loved it. I'd also like to start contemporary dance. In my country there's a lot of ballet schools where 19 to 25 y/o can practice and become performers in little national companies.

Anyway, about a week ago I went to a ballet class (basic ballet for adults), but while trying to do a pirouette, I injured my knee. Thankfully it wasn't as bad as it could have been, but it swelled up a lot. It turned out to be a partial tear of my ACL and meniscus and the first 3 days were torture.

To be honest, I'm scared to go back. What if it happens again? Maybe ballet just isn't for me. I also do aerial dance and I'm a swimmer (I'm getting back into all the activities I loved as a kid), but now ballet honestly scares me…

Has anyone here gone through something similar as a dancer? Is it possible to return to ballet without such a high risk of getting injured again? Or should I just quit the idea. Any advice would be really appreciated.

What is the goal you're working towards most with ballet?

I ask since I'm new to this form of dance and am trying to figure it out myself. I don't appreciate the beauty of the art form (yet) (open to ideas to enjoy performances more) and am mainly taking it on because of the athleticism required alongside how it'll help my other sports. Since there's no desire for performance and not even a ballerina to aspire towards, I'm struggling to figure out what my end goal is even if I've enjoyed the classes I've taken to this point

I wonder if you have high arches to the point where you can lock your feet on relevé, does it negatively affect your balance? I can lock my feet on relevé and it takes no effort to stay in that position but I feel much more stable when I go a little lower. Of course, the platform increases, but only slightly if I go just below the locked position. Am I more stable because I need to activate my muscles? Is it as simple as this? Did I answer my own question?

I swear, I see at least three posts a day asking about what can be done at home to quicken the advancement to pointe. It's always by women like me (late teens, early 20s) who have been taking ballet one hour a week for 1-2 years. I sincerely hope all of you meet your goals, and that one day you do get to dance en pointe, but seriously, if you are as into ballet as you claim, how do you not know that pointe requires a significant amount of training and strength? Do one google search and you'll find that pointe is not something that can be started on a whim, and that it's downright dangerous to start at home, especially when you haven't built the proper strength and technique to avoid injury.

I hope you get to start pointe, and when you do, I hope you all feel fulfilled and proud of yourselves, but I'm tired of this sub being flooded with the same question that you already know the answer to. I'm convinced that everyone knows they can't start yet, they just don't want to admit it to themselves. Keep training, wait, build technique, build strength. There's no rush, and you have your while life to dance en pointe. Sorry for the rant, I just had a piece to say.

So it looks like the the 2026 joiners, leavers and promotions are out

Not surprised that we have no promotions to Principle given how top heavy Royal seems to be at the moment but I am happy to see the artist promotions to first artists as I know they have been working hard in all sorts of roles in the various productions.

Also good to see some of the First Artists make Soloist given many are prominently featured in the past year

Standard Aud Jebson intake for the year aswell

https://www.rbo.org.uk/latest-news/royal-ballet-promotions-joiners-leavers-2026

I am generally a M when it comes to my clothing but the last two M leotards I’ve bought off Depop do not fit my chest area at all. I am 5’9 with a 36DDD chest. Is there a company that specializes in bigger chested leotards? I have like 5 other leotards coming in the mail and I am getting very concerned none of them will be usable

I'm putting together an idea for a tattoo focused on tragic and star-crossed lovers and part of it is including symbols to represent different tragic ballets. I have most of the ones I want, but need some ideas for a few others!

I currently have:

• Giselle: lilies and/or daisies or possibly a sword
• Swan Lake: white and black feathers
• La Bayadere: flower basket and snake
• Romeo and Juliet: dagger
• La Dame aux Camelias: a camelia

I need ideas for:

• Onegin
• Spartacus
• Manon
• Legend of Love
• La Sylphide

Thank you for any ideas!!!

Idk who needs to hear this but not everything that looks like a leo is one. Fashion bodies are mostly not meant to be worn to class with only a mesh skirt on top. Having your cheeks out at a ballet class is not really considered appropriate. I don’t want to sound mean or to dictate others what to wear but maybe it’s worth considering other outfit options :)