Should I Dance Over the Summer?
April 18th, 2024
Have you heard about “summer intensives”?
Both near and far, summer programs are an important and huge part of an aspiring dancer’s training.
If you are new to the dance world, or have seen the recent push for young recreational (and even serious) dancers to take the summer off, I’ll be exploring the pros and cons of your dancer’s training over the summer.
The Summer Study Norm
Much like new parenting trends, teachers try to fix what they feel they missed out on in their childhood - which sometimes ends up swinging too far the other way. For us, as young aspiring ballerinas, summer preparation began in January, taking an abundant amount of arabesque photos, and attending our dream school auditions. This started as early as age 11 or 12. Before that, we attended our home school’s summer program for 6 weeks, and it was usually a half day for the younger ones, 5 days a week.
If we are/were professionals - we didn’t get here by taking the summer off - none of us, especially not in the ballet world, and certainly not when pointe training is involved. Look at all your favorite dancers’ resumes, and you’ll see a lengthy list of “summer programs” listed. We were shipped off to intensives as young as tweens, every summer for at least 6 weeks. And sometimes you went to another one after that.
To be clear, I am not an advocate for sending your young soon-to-be teen off to weeks and weeks of intensives - I am actually of the mindset that they should wait to start auditioning around 13/14 to see what is out there and to be seen, but wait even longer until their mid teens to go away - closer to when they may start to get a professional job. And they should always be accompanied by family.
New Push for Time Off
Possibly a new thing within the past 10 years, and especially in Michigan, I’ve seen more and more families wanting to take the summer completely off. Cottages, cabins, and beach vacations await! And this is sometimes even blessed by their teachers - because we remember what we missed out on. When the whole family went on vacation, we were in the studio, working hard all day. Maybe in a destination tourist location, but how would we know? We were inside!
Yet, I am still an advocate for a happy medium. Yes, by all means, take your vacation and have a childhood. Maybe this means you take your annual vacation before or after an intensive. Because the risk for injury, frustration and loss of muscle memory - which can be dangerous when dealing with pointe work - is too great to take 3 full months off.
Some Considerations:
1. Quick Improvement: If you work hard enough over the summer, I’ve had dancers move up an entire level - and even surpass peers that have taken the summer off - in the fall. Because of the intensive and frequent training, you get better so much quicker than when you have to work around your school schedule.
2. Growth Spurts: Especially when a dancer’s body is growing, to take a full summer off makes training that much more awkward when they get back. When you’re training consistently, with any sport, growth happens gradually, and you barely notice it. When you take 3 months off and many kiddos have a growth spurt, this is going to feel very odd when you come back - not to mention all the flexibility, strength, and muscle memory that you’ll have to gain to get back to square one again. A general rule of thumb is, if you take 2 months off, plan 2 months until you feel back to your usual self.
To get the most value out of their classes, for the dancer and the parents, you don’t want them to have to work on the same things over and over again - you want them to keep progressing on what they’ve learned, and not have to lose time regaining skills learned the year before.
3. Foot/Ankle Strength: If you’re close to going on pointe in the spring - I’d HIGHLY recommend attending summer classes. The ankle and foot strength/stability can be one of the first things to go, and when you’re so close to that goal, you have to stay consistent.
4. Injury Risk: Kids are impulsive and excited when they come back from a break. I see that even when I ask my students to mark (not do something full energy, high legs, or big jumps) if they aren’t very warm yet - they sometimes just get wrapped up in dancing and forget. They may bust into the splits, try a leap their body isn’t used to anymore, or go for their triple turn - and twist an ankle, pull a hamstring, or another sudden injury.
What Do The Experts Say?
Studies show you can take about 3 weeks off without noticing much of a difference in strength, and 2 weeks can go by before you notice a change in flexibility. This is especially true if you’re a recreational athlete, as it isn’t as ingrained in your body as a full time athlete. So, we would actually encourage that amount of a break. You’ll notice we give about 2 weeks when we have a holiday, in between school year and summer, and summer and the next school year. That is purposeful, because it’s actually GOOD and healthy to rest your body and take care of your instrument. But sometimes, too long of a break can just do more harm than good.
Check out this great article by Dance Spirit for more insight.