Where are all the ballet teachers?
Saturday, January 3rd, 2009Is ballet becoming a less popular genre of dance? I recently advertised for a ballet teacher for my school and had a very poor response, due to the lack of trained teachers in the area.
The young dancers are no longer taking ballet classes as a basis for their dance training, perhaps believing that hip hop or street classes are more fun.
What they - and their teachers - forget is that ballet should be the foundation of these dance styles, leading into modern, jazz, lyrical and so on.
Today’s kids may think they look good prancing about like Britney but do their parents really want their four-year-olds strutting their stuff like that? I don’t think so. They want to see their pretty little daughters dressed up in tutus and pink ballet shoes, performing graceful steps on the stage.
What will it take to bring ballet back into the limelight? Maybe a strictly come dancing series based on classical or stage dance would do the trick!