Even if you weren't a pro ballerina yourself...?

Question:...can you still form a successful ballet school? Or is being a pro a strong requisite?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: ...can you still form a successful ballet school? Or is being a pro a strong requisite?

Of course you can start a ballet school and even make decent money doing it without professional experience, if that is your definition of "successful." But if you measure success by preparing your own students to become professional ballet dancers, then no, you won't be able to do that without professional experience yourself.

My daughter has trained in ballet on the east coast, the west coast, and a bunch of places in between across the U.S. and has met hundreds of dancers. She started her training at a small, local ballet studio where the teacher had earned the highest teaching credentials for the Cecchetti method, but had never danced professionally. My daughter would tell you from personal experience that the training she got from all those former professional dancers across the U.S. compared with her home studio teacher is vastly different. I can also tell you that we have yet to meet anyone who has made it into a ballet company without being trained by someone with professional experience.

The qualities that make a professional ballet dancer are very rare. And some of them are only honed by BECOMING professional. It takes a teacher with all that "right stuff" to nurture future dancers with the same right stuff. If you open a school without making it as a pro, yourself, then at least recognize your limits when it comes to mentoring promising dancers. Don't bill yourself as offering pre-professional ballet training and encourage those who aspire to dance professionally to seek true, pre-professional training elsewhere.

Nope, My teachers, although great dancers were never professionals! And some great people have come out of our school....LOL

I think it's obviously a benefit, but not a neccessity!

I think it'd definitely be a strong, good thing to have under your belt, the experience, and all. But it's not necessary, I don't think. All of my teachers danced with a company at one point in their careers, but I don't think you HAVE to.

yes you can still form a successful ballet school!however, you might want to consider doing a couple of summer intensives that feature choregraphy classes. also, definitely get a bachelor's degree in dance/dance education. when you start your studio one day, you can hire a couple of pros to make your studio even look better!

Of course you can! If you have experience in ballet even if it was not on a professional level, you can still open a school. When I took ballet, none of my teachers were professional ballerinas but they had several years experience combined.

Not necessary. The vast majority of successful studio owners danced for a long time, but never pursued a pro career

No, you don't have to... A lot of programmes (eg: Certificate in Ballet teaching studies by the Royal Academy of Dance) will only require you to have a decent level of ballet (RAD grade 8, or preferred, Intermediate). With this, you do 2 years part time learning about anatomy, music, the syllabus, children's development and what is appropriate to teach at what age, then there is a practical element in year 2, where you are studying as a trainee teacher under a 'mentor').
It's really worth doing as you'll be taught HOW to teach. There are (I'm sure) other worthy programmes run the same as RAD (in the UK, RAD is prominent of course; meaning it's good business-wise, as everyone knows it).

A pro ballerina doesn't necessarily have teaching skills!! The only thing she/he will have, is great skills to demonstrate (which you must have whether you were a pro or not -not necessarily lifting your leg high for eg, but be accurate in your demonstration).

I think opening a dance studio without ANY experience as a teacher though (unless you're not the teacher and only deal with the business side and recruit other teachers) is a failure waiting to happen. Same thing if you've never danced in your life and want to open a studio while you're the teacher.

Those things (having no experience as a dancer, being basically bad at teaching) could cut it 20-30 years ago, but it can no longer be possible (due to internet and basically people being more aware of what's acceptable -all good things really!)