Little Girls Dancing; Too Young to 'Put a Ring on It'?

[Holley Calmes]

and you see the most god awful bad habits on the younger children - sickled feet, supporting leg turned in while they are trying to force the working leg to turn out too much at that age, etc.

And then when they turn 12-14 and go to audition for big name company summer intensives, they aren't chosen and the parents scream "What have I been paying my money all these years for?" Our company just focuses on Nutcracker, which has some really challenging choreography for every level (it's unique in that way-different from most Nuts) and each year the kids progress up another level to the next "step" if they have advanced enough. So we use Nutcracker for our "spectacle." Then for Spring Concert we focus on a combination of classical and contemporary choreography and emerging choreographers so the girls get to do something more contemporary....and they all have to take tap, modern, jazz and hip hop.

I feel it is our job to shelter, nurture, and yes, even protect our dancers to an extent. We have produced a Princess Grace Award winner, have a principal at NCDT, a soloist at Houston, six dancing in corps de ballet around the country, a young man who just launched his own contemporary company (had been with Ballet Arizona), and we just sent a 14 year old off on full scholarship to SAB year-round. We also had a finalist go to NYC this year for Youth America Grand Prix (the right kind of competition....) So I do feel like I have a position to stand on. This kind of "dance" is just worthless. And I'm not just getting on my soapbox to promote or hold up classical ballet as the only type of dance form! I'd be saying the same thing about keeping the excellence and standards of tap, jazz, hip hop and especially modern, which seems to be becoming overshadowed by contemporary. Pure modern is fabulous.

But I want to know where are the fathers of these little girls? Are they out in the audience hooting and screaming? How sick is that?

[Holley Calmes]

Those girls were fantastic dancers, though, for their age.

No, they are fairly good athletes who can mug to the audience. The tricks they are doing don't require much dance training. Pretty much any cheerleader could any of this with little effort. But I hold cheerleading to a higher standard than this.

[NeilJLeonard]

really talented girls! eys, the costumes were a bit in bad taste...

I agree. The kids put their heart and soul into it & can dance up a storm. Still, the whole thing, especially the costumes, was a decade or more beyond them.

NJL

[Anita18]

My first thought was, "Hey, these girls really CAN dance!" and the other stuff didn't really register for me past that.

Clearly I'd make a terrible parent.

[marbri]

I've seen the Chippettes video. Interesting they claim they are doing that version when it's Beyoncé I hear singing and the moves and look have more in common with her video than the white tees and skirts the Chippettes wear

I've seen it time and time again in dance and skating shows. Coaches pick some top 20 song and make a routine to it borrowing dance moves from a completely different age group and sticking them in sexy little costumes. Check out a lot of online clothing store for these sorts of dance classes and they are all bearing their midriff in something I'd expect to see on a NFL cheerleader and not my 8 yo.

Speaking of 8yo when my youngest was that age and they were getting ready for the spring show their coach picked some song. Can't remember the title, was some hit that year roughly 5 years ago, and I sat with my mouth open when I first the song at the first rehearsal and heard them discussing costumes (fishnets, short shorts). So I asked her afterwards whether she'd really listened to the lyrics of that song and did she really think it's a good idea to stick 3 8yos in fishnets and shorts gyrating to a song about masturbation.

Her solution was to let the three young ones do their own separate number and let the rest, average age 11/12, gyrate for the audience.

Find those numbers lazy and unimaginative and are usually the most boring of every show I've been to. There is plenty of music out there and ideas if you take the time to find them. How nice would it have been for those little girls who worked their little butts off on that routine to have had adults give them something that didn't turn their shining moment into a debate topic for tabloid talkshows. Just laziness all around, it is absolutely commonplace and not out of the ordinary but lazy.

[jenny12]

My first thought was, "Hey, these girls really CAN dance!" and the other stuff didn't really register for me past that.

Clearly I'd make a terrible parent.

Then I'm right there with you!

However, I do agree that the outfits were bad. I think if they were more covered up the routine would have been fine. I like their routine a lot better than the actual Single Ladies dance. But yeah, take away the squats/hip thrusts and change costumes.

[my little pony]

My first thought was, "Hey, these girls really CAN dance!" and the other stuff didn't really register for me past that.

I thought it was adorable.

[KCC]

Well, here's another take on the song. It's called "Wrinkle Ladies".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaruN...ayer_embedded#!

[cruisin]

No, they are fairly good athletes who can mug to the audience. The tricks they are doing don't require much dance training. Pretty much any cheerleader could any of this with little effort. But I hold cheerleading to a higher standard than this.

Holley, essentially I agree with you. These girls are not the calibre of the dancers you work with. They also don't seem to be trained in academic ballet (which I think is essential before they do any other sort of dance - basics!). But, for the kind of hip hop dance they were doing, I thought they were talented. I also think that with the right program the one dark haired girl could be very good. I thought the outfits were atrocious, but I didn't get the cringe factor from them. I've been through a bunch of concerts/recitals where there was no budget for costumes and you do with what you have. Of course that begs the question - why did they have those costumes in the first place . But, realizing that this was not a show for the general public, I don't think anyone thought the girls would come off as trashy. It's unfortunate that it went so public via the internet. I suppose that in the future all dance concerts, done by dance schools, will have to keep in mind that you never know who is filming it and what they'll do with it.

[immoimeme]

I read about this on other forums but today is the first time I watched the video.


What can I say? How about "garbage in, garbage out."

The parents of those girls should be ashamed of themselves.