Is it true that those who start ballet late (say in their early teens) can catch up with their same-age peers with intense study?
by 
Namida
ANSWERS: 6
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Yes, it is very much true. Starting ballet in your early teens is very helpful also! Your advantage is that you are able to understand techniques and moves a lot faster than if you were to start as a 7 or 8 year old. If your peers are a few levels ahead of you, it is best to go through each level carefully and understand each move. Do this so that you can easily perform as well as your friends and move up levels in a breeze. Good luck!
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Yes it is! Believe me. I started ballet training at 13 and a year later was already taking classes with intermediate/advanced level students. Of course it look a lot of lessons and a lot of practice at home to achieve so much. My advise is that you absorb as much as you can in class, go over it at home, and focus on the small stuff, like, for example keeping you back aligned, or pointing your feet.
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I have seen it happen quite a few times. Young kids usually start ballet at around the age of 3 or 4 years old, as a teenager you could easilu condense what is done in several years at this age into a year or so. It would take hard work and dedication, a passion for ballet and a bit of talent however.
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Not really true, unless the 7 or 8 year olds are studying at a lesser studio. If you wish to be a professional ballet dancer, you must not start later then 10 or 11. Boys can start later. By age 13 you would be taking around 20 plus hours of class a week. Your training is done by age 16. At that time, you attend an affiliate school of a company you wish to join to learn their style and repertory, if you are not already attending their academy. By 17 or 18 you become an apprentice if asked, and dance with the company for about a year before being asked to join as a corps de ballet member or asked to leave. If you are talking about a casual dancer who takes 1 or 2 ballet classes a week, then the teen could catch up with intense study. But what level have they have caught up to? If that amount of intense study was started younger, it is possible to have a professional level dancer.
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It depends what you mean by "catch up" If you mean catch up and be competent for personal growth and pleasure, sure. If you mean catch up and be possibly be professional/world-class, then the answer is probably not. In the excellent book "Why Michael Couldn't Hit"... http://www.amazon.com/Why-Michael-Couldnt-Harold-Klawans/dp/0380730413/ ...neuroscientist Harold Klawans discusses how certain athletic/artistic/musical skills *must* be strongly developed by early adolescence, or a person has almost zero chance of being truly superior at those skills. It's simply a case of brain development that *cannot* be done later in life. Michael Jordan was one of the world's greatest athletes and an intensely hard worker. Yet all of his talent and work could not enable him to hit Major League Baseball pitching, because he didn't play enough baseball as a child. I suspect that being a top-notch ballet dancer is similar. You can be very good with practice, but you cannot be top-notch unless you start before adolescence. Good luck.
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You could become a proficient dancer but unless you were already very fit and very pliable it would be very difficult to reach the levels of a top Classical dancer. Modern dance is probably a better option.
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