3.4. I'm 35 (or 45 or 55 or...) years old. Is it ridiculous for me toconsider ballet classes?
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This article is from the Ballet and Modern Dance FAQ, by Tom Parsons twp@panix.com with numerous contributions by others.
3.4. I'm 35 (or 45 or 55 or...) years old. Is it ridiculous for me toconsider ballet classes?
This topic has come up repeatedly. The answer is No. We have a
number of dancers on a.a.b. who started in their thirties or later. Many
of them hesitated at first, then plunged in.
It would be ridiculous only if you were contemplating a career
in ballet at that age; most ballet dancers retire in their
forties. (There have been some notable exceptions, however:
Auguste Bournonville [Question 4.8.2] choreographed roles for
dancers in their sixties; in his "Memoirs" Casanova describes
a dazzling bravura performance by Louis Dupr'e, who was then
sixty; and Pavel Gerdt continued to dance until he was 70.)
But if you are 45 or older, you are presumably not looking for
a professional career. The consensus on a.a.b. is that if
your body can still handle the exertion, you can start at any
age. The King of Sweden was still playing tennis in his
nineties. Ballet is tougher than tennis, but if you can
handle it...why not? (Someone on the Net wrote, "Socrates
learned to dance when he was 70 because he felt that an
essential part of himself had been neglected." And one poster
on this group was in a class with a World War II veteran who
started taking classes at the age of 72.)
Much the same answer applies to taking modern dance, with increased
force. Aging affects modern dancers much less than it does ballet dancers;
modern dancers will keep performing almost until they drop.
One of the main problems for older dancers, particularly in ballet,
is getting the teacher to take you seriously, and the older you get, the
more acute this problem becomes. Ballet is the most ageist of the arts,
after all. But pursuing an art as a recreation doesn't preclude pursuing
it seriously and knocking yourself out to do the absolute best you can at
it. Many teachers don't seem to realize this. You should be getting cor-
rections the same as other, younger dancers. You are paying for instruc-
tion, not just for space, an accompanist, and the balletic equivalent of a
square-dance caller. Most teachers will judge your seriousness by how hard
you work in class and how regularly you come to class. But if you are
working hard and still feel you aren't being taken seriously as a dancer,
complain. Don't let them treat you as if you had accidentally doddered
into a ballet class on your way to the nearest Senior Center.
Other observations on this topic from people on a.a.b. follow.
Note that many of these apply equally well to dancers starting in their
late teens or twenties (Question 3.3).
1. Take classes as often as you can. At the very start, it may not be
a good idea to overdo it, but once your body is up to it, try for at
least three classes a week. Learning is much faster then. Two people
on this group report that the brain adapts physically in response to
classes and that this adaptation progresses more rapidly if you take
several classes per week.
2. In older dancers--as well as with younger dancers--many of the big-
gest problems are intellectual, not physical. It takes a great deal of
concentration to remember the steps that go into a given exercise. The
ability to remember how a combination goes does not generally come
naturally; it must be learned. Many newcomers are alarmed at the fact
that their minds are not up to this; but it takes time for the mind to
pick up this ability. It also takes time for the various steps--and
there are so many of them!--to get "into your muscles" so you can do
them and link them together at short notice.
3. Discouragement is the beginning dancer's worst enemy. Many of us
have been dismayed to discover that ballet is much more difficult than
we would have expected. It is particularly disheartening the first
couple of times when you find that you just can't do some combination
at all and have to stand on the side watching the others. And even
after that passes--which it will--you may still feel that you are the
worst klutz in the class. But (a) everybody else will be too worried
about their own performance to notice you and (b) many on this group
have reported that, when they had a moment to look around, they
discovered that the others are doing no better than they were.
4. As an older dancer you have the advantages of greater maturity,
life experience, and motivation. Older dancers tend to listen more
carefully and to make a more serious effort to follow instructions.
Indeed, one of the dangers is that you may try so hard that you forget
that you are here to dance. Occasionally it helps just to forget about
all the technicalities (for a moment), loosen up, and just dance.
Finally, a word from Shannon:
Personally I love teaching adults and would probably quit teaching if
I couldn't have at least one class with them. I always come away from
the studio with a smile on my face.
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