Adult Student asking about Pointe
Hi! I’m a ballet teacher. I currently teach an Intermediate Foundation (RAD) class at my studio. This class is a combination of 12-14yrs who have done the traditional RAD route, late starting adults, and experienced adults.
Because of the varying stages about 6 of 8 of the students have started pointe within the last 2 years. We have one last starting adult in this class whose goal is to get onto pointe soon.
Myself and the studio director have explained that this may be a long process considering she has only been dancing regularly for a little over a year. She lacks a lot of the foundations for ballet (turn out, strength to hold posture, balance etc).
She came to me this week asking what specifically we are looking at to give the go ahead. I told her it was nothing specific but more of a holistic overview of technique, strength, alignment etc. I told her I’ll have a proper think about it and give her a better answer. She said she’s feeling really discouraged being behind everyone else (as in not being on pointe)
I’m struggling to find the words to explain this to her that a lot of foundations come before getting into pointe work, and not being on pointe doesn’t make her behind (for example if she was doing grade 6, which is more or less the equivalent to IF, she wouldn’t be on pointe anyway).
I’d love any advice to help encourage this dancer but also give her meaningful advice and expectation.
TIA!