What age should a child be to start ballroom dancing? I have a 3 year old who loves to dance and he watches "Dancing With the Stars" and when they are dancing he wants to dance like they do? How can I help him out?

Boys who dance are a rarity so you shouldn't have much trouble finding a little girl to dance with him.



jj

Midget. There are always exceptions. For Ballroom Dancing four is a bit young. Seven would be a good age to start. A girl of four would fit into a Ballet class that specialize in the very young. I started very young but not in classes. My parents were both dancers. My earliest memories were dancing around the dining room table with my mother who knew what she was doing. Not every one would be so advantaged. Good Luck.

It depends on the child.. I began at 4 yrs of age, and 4/5 is quite common in the UK .

We generally begin with a basic Waltz ( and back then, Sq Rumba ).Check your ph book for dance schools .

Is this young boy exposed to any live dancing in his home or at family parties and such? The only reason I ask is that dancing at family parties was the only thing I could possibly remember at that young age. I would say I was around 7 or 8 when I had to actually join in at my grandmother's weekly Sunday family parties in which drinking and dancing apparently were a norm. But this kind of exposure simply set it in my mind that this was a fun skill to have, and that it was quite normal to be able to do it fairly well ... the same as being good at baseball, basketball or other sports I enjoyed as a kid and even later as an adult. I would agree with Polished that age 3 or 4 is a little too young. But I only go by what I see in our studios here in the Chicago area. I do not see too many boys that age participating or learning. It's a little closer to 7,8 or 9 years old from what I can tell. But I would go by your gut feeling after visiting studios near your home and determining what is offered and how many kids are involved. Another decent starting point is a "social skills" class of some sort. These were more common in the 1950s and 1960s, but some communities still offer it. You learn manners, dancing and other social skills at these sessions -- often held at country clubs and places like that.

The American approach to dance ( mentality wise ) has still not evolved.

SPORT dominates the male psyche.

this has much to do with culture than anything else. Europeans and the English, have never looked down on dance with the same critical eye, that the average american male( under 18 ) does and the male parent, to boot.

And, I dont foresee that changing anytime soon !

You are probably correct, terence, for a certain segment of Americans would view dancing as a sport. I'm a freelance sportswriter as one of my numerous jobs, so I view any physical activity as being along sports lines, including my fondness for ballroom. Gene Kelly was the first dancer I knew of to demonstrate the physicality of dance in relationship to other sports through his instructional films in the 1940s. I think the fact that our version of Dancing with Stars over here tends to feature professional athletes each season, and they tend to do very well, if not win the whole competition, is going a long way toward interesting more men in the benefits of dancing -- again mostly from the standpoint of staying in shape and having fun doing it. Not so much from the social skills or cultural aspects that are equally as beneficial and important.

I think Terence and lluv2Dance will bear me out on this one. In the UK in the early 50's there weren't many who couldn't manage a Quickstep and a Waltz, this included the grand parents as well as parents. Most of us, this is what we did of a weekend. We went to a dance and to go to a dance we learnt to dance. So the attitude towards dancing is different for you poor unfortunates who live over there.
This I was told. A young guy was getting criticized for going to Ballroom dance classes. He said. I dance with girls. You chase other guys around a field dressed in shorts diving at their bodies.. He has a point there.

Another point there, if you score a goal you have to run for your life, if you don't like being kissed by team mates.

There were numerous Public ballrooms in the UK in the 30s 40s and 50s, and most were packed on Fri and sat nites, And yes, everyone danced a basic Q.Step and waltz, with nary a lesson in sight!.

These venues were the breeding grounds for future competitors in some cases .

if many of todays " dancers " were to visit the Hammersmith Palais in London on a wed (?) aft.in the 50s ( which i never missed for yrs ), you would have seen many of the current world class Prof,s sitting by the stage ( Amats were the other side of the room ! ) Not uncommon to see len and Nellie, Bob Burgess et al just " visiting ".