The Ballet Bible

how to be better

i’m a new dancer and i am constantly reminded of how im not as good as everyone in my class’, so i woul like to know some ways on how i can make my exensions better, how i can get higher, and how i could get my extension better, also how i can get better arches?? please please help me!!

Can I still get into the School of American Ballet (SAB)?

Hi!

I am a 12 year old girl who will soon be en pointe. When I started ballet (at age 3), I did it for fun and never really thought of it professionally. However, I took some interest in a professional career about 2 years ago. My dream ballet company is NYCB and consequently I would like to go to SAB.

I have 2 questions concerning this. Firstly, I do four 1-hour classes a week at my dance school and practice for about 2 hours a day at home. Of these four classes, I do an intermediate one (RAD syllabus). Recently, I visited SAB’s site and browsed through everything. I know I have roughly the same technique as the girls i have seen, but I am still unsure and tentative as to whether I should apply to SAB. I’m not even en pointe yet, and the girls there went en pointe earlier! Is intermediate level good enough for SAB?
Apart from this, I would say I’m quite flexible (I’ve got my front splits down and my side splits about an inch from the ground, and I have warm up and stretch routines which I do each morning). I weigh about 102 lbs, and I am 5 6″ (is that too tall?), and I seem to have stopped growing (in terms of weight, height, shoe size etc.)
I used to aim for the Royal Ballet School but my teacher said they wanted high arches (I have what I call half arches, because my feet are not highly arched but they aren’t flat either) and their students went en pointe around 9 or 10. I know it seems silly, but the only school I would really like to go to is SAB.
Everyone must think I talk a lot because I’m sure this post is very long! In addition to all the problems I have, my teacher just resigned with very short notice to the school. Apart from the fact that we all miss her, it means the school now has to get a new teacher and they don’t know when they will get one. Our end of school year performance has been postponed as well. I have done pre-pointe work and would have probably been en pointe this week or the next. I have tons of book on pointework, so i was wondering if I should use these carefully to break my pointe shoes and do rises and releves?

Your help would be much appreciated!