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Friday, 21 August 2015

Arts & Humanities: Dancing: “Question: Buying Toe Shoes; Is it common to pay extra fee for a toe shoes fitter?” plus 5 more

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Arts & Humanities: Dancing: “Question: Buying Toe Shoes; Is it common to pay extra fee for a toe shoes fitter?” plus 5 more

Question: Buying Toe Shoes; Is it common to pay extra fee for a toe shoes fitter?

Posted: 20 Aug 2015 07:50 PM PDT

I bought my daughter her first toe shoes.
We went to this store that her teacher recommended.
I had to pay another $25 for a shoe fitter.
I did realize that this person was hired by the store and $25 was possibly his hourly rate (I was told that it would take 1-hr, even though it took less than half an hour)

As far as the store carries toe shoes, I think they must know how to fit without hiring a toe shoes fitter...?

Question: I was wondering what the maximum age a ballet will hire you at ? And do you have to be an apprentice to be hired ?

Posted: 20 Aug 2015 07:31 PM PDT

Starting at age 15 and if you are female you will not be hired by any ballet company as an apprentice at 21. You also won't be ready at 21. Many corps de ballet are let go at that age to let younger girls showing more promise apprentice at age 16 or 17 as they have their whole career ahead of them at that age. Most ballet careers are at their peak at 21. There are no 21 year old apprentices. While Misty Copeland did it in 7 years ( making her 19 not 21.) I don't think even she could have done it starting as late as 15. While I think Misty is a wonderful expressive and exciting dancer born with so many gifts for ballet, she too has her limitations because she started so late at 13. When she finally got to dance Swan Lake, there were no traditional 32 fouttee turns. There has never been a female dancer who has started at 15 and made the professional ranks of a ballet company in spite of some misinformation on the Internet. Not knowing if you are male or female that can make a difference. 15 is late for a male dancer but it has been done. Men have different requirements in ballet and don't dance en pointe. I am surprised your teachers at Atlanta Ballet have not told you that for a career your age is a major problem. As a beginner in ballet, what makes you think that you even want a ballet career? Are you in their Teen division as a beginner there? That is open to all and not the same as their preprofessional training. Dancers your age are just finishing their years of study. That is years of taking 20-30 hours of ballet technique training year round. They have been en pointe for at least 2 years and are perfecting their pas de deux ( partnering) classes. Pointe is still years away for you. There aren't enough hours in the day to catch up let alone working too much in a day is counterproductive as your muscles need down time to repair. You should know that there are dancers born with the right body, facility and musicality for a ballet career, who get to train full time in world class ballet schools where they are screened for having all of that or they won't train them, who start at a young enough age who still don't make the professional ranks. There are so few jobs in ballet.

With good training you could eventually teach ballet in a recreational school. Professional schools only hire professional dancers.

Edit: @kate-there are some companies that have "second companies" and pull dancers from that instead of having apprentices. Untried dancers need to learn the company repertory and that is either done as an apprentice or in their second company if they have one. The only other way into a company is by already being a professional dancer in another professional ballet company. That usually comes after being guest artist with the company. Generally that would be for well established professional dancers and done by invitation not audition.

Question: HOW TO DANCE LIKE BARACK & MICHELLE OBAMA!!! AKA BARRY SOETORO AND MICHAEL!?

Posted: 20 Aug 2015 06:48 PM PDT

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