3 Reasons Why You Should Let Your Teen Start Taking Ballet Lessons

If you have a teenager at home, you are likely well aware of the excess energy that teens today always seem to have. If you are looking for a constructive outlet where your child can burn through some of that energy, you might be thinking of signing them up for a sport or extracurricular. While your teen may have ideas of his or her own, if he or she comes to you for guidance, one particular activity you might want to suggest if you think your teen is up to it is ballet. Here are three ways in which learning ballet can be beneficial for your teen.

1. Encourage Discipline and Structure

To be a successful ballet dancer, you have to learn a very specific routine. If you are performing in a group, the exact moves you have to make are very specific, and if even one person deviates from the plan, it could torpedo the entire performance or even get someone injured. As a result, ballet is an outstanding way for your teen to learn the value of maintaining discipline within a structured environment while working toward a goal. Who knows, maybe this newfound discipline will start paying off in other areas of your teen's life.

2. Learn Public Presentation

When you are a ballet dancer, you are a performer. While ballet obviously will take many hours of hard work where no one but you is watching, your teen will eventually have to go in front of an audience and show off his or her skills. If your teen is shy or gets nervous prior to public presentations in school, ballet can be a great way to help them overcome stage fright and learn how to present in public in multiple different aspects of their lives.

3. Ballet Dancers Are Athletes

While ballet puts a heavy focus on the artistic presentation, every ballet dancer must learn to become quite flexible and strong to pull off many of the moves that are seen as routine during any ballet performance. Your new ballet dancer will likely gain muscle strength, flexibility, stamina and all the other physical attributes and benefits that athletes gain from more traditional sports. In addition to putting them on a path towards a healthier life, a better-looking body could also help boost their self-confidence during these critical formative years. 

If you want your teen to get out of the house and be more active, but he or she isn't up for a traditional sport, you may want to bring up the idea of considering ballet. Ballet dancers learn discipline while sculpting their bodies into fit machines just like any traditional athlete and after a few public performances, your new dancer will likely have all of the confidence in the world. For more information, reach out to a school or program that offers classical ballet for teens today.

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