My 11 year old started ballet this year for the first time. She was told she has natural ability and placed in upper level classes right away. She wants to be a professional ballerina and go to one of the best dance schools in the country but all auditions require her to be on pointe for even their summer programs as she will be 12 next summer. She is no where near ready to go en pointe. She wants to work with multiple teachers to be able to audition en pointe by next fall. Any help appreciated.

If this isn't too late to be useful ...

I would be careful about letting her rush into pointe work. It needs to be taught well or the student can injure herself. She can also get into bad habits which are difficult to break and will prevent her from ever becoming comfortable on pointe.

It's not unusual for a student to do 6 months to a year of demi-pointe work before she goes into full toe shoes. Most students go onto pointe around 11 or 12, but a top school won't allow them to do a lot of dancing in toe shoes for several years.

If your daughter wants to audition for a school that requires pointe work int he audition, you should talk to the school director and explain the situation. The director will advise you on what to expect and what she (or he) would like to see from your daughter.

My daughter started dancing at 3 and was accepted into a small professional company at 13. Her schedule included several hours of pointe a day, six days a week. And she was still growing. It was too much, and she injured her leg. She recovered, but she stopped dancing with the company and went instead to a top school in the area as part of their release time program, "only" doing about 25 hours a week (it was double in the company). She was fortunate; she was a strong dancer and very well trained, so her injury recovered fully. But she had to be careful; pointe work isn't something you want to rush.

Some of the more elite summer programs do look at students on point around that age. But not all. She has a lot of options. One possibility is Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet (CPYB). They have have an excellent intensive summer program that includes classes for all levels, and they accept most serious students into their program. Here is a link to their web site:

www.cpyb.org . . .

Good luck! I wish her the best.

It is unlikely she will be able to audition en pointe in a year. It takes time to build the required muscles. Even if she were able to go en pointe within a year, she would be doing very basic exercises. Not all schools require experience en pointe at 12. Both the National Ballet School of Canada and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet require no formal training for children under 12, so obviously they do not require pointe work in their auditions. I don't know what country you are in, but it is not unusual for girl to start pointe at 12 or later.

I'm in the United States and thank you for the good advice. She wanted to audition for the American Academy of Ballet and they require girls 12 and up to bring pointe shoes to the audition. Instead she will audition for only ballet schools that do not require her to be en pointe too soon.

Check the requirements carefully. ABT, which in my opinion, is about as good as you can get in this country (or this planet...) says "pointe shoes if you have them" on their scholarship audition forms. ABT has satellite schools as well as the JKO school in New York, and they have a wonderful summer intensive.

One of my teachers was not able to go en pointe until she was 16 because her bones were too soft. Many teachers, myself included, require clearance from a child's doctor before starting pointe. Additionally, I NEVER start a student before the age of 12. It is unrealistic to think your daughter could become proficient in such a short time.

Start here... www.abt.org . . ..

You might be surprised at what your research reveals.

Keep On Dancing*

i'd go with schools who do not require pointe shoes too soon, as you have suggested, you dont want her to rush into things and for something to go wrong.

she can always go to other intensives or even another full time school if thats the route she wants to take, and then once she is comfortable en pointe she can audition for her "ideal" school.

What i would suggest is just that she get the best quality training she can whether that be pointe or demi somewhere that wont put her up before shes ready, or push her to hard too fast, somewhere that will develop her natural ability so that she is much better placed for auditions when she is en pointe.

it is unlikely that if she quickly gets pointe shoes and then rushes off to audition for her preferred school within such a short time that she will be able to keep up with others who will likely have had more time to work on it.

(usually the best professionals are put up at a reasonable age... those up at 6 and other ridiculously young ages wont have the same career span)