Ballet exercises are excellent for many reasons.
Yes, they head you toward dancing in pointe shoes, yet there is so much more.
The ballet barre is a calm, configured total body workout.
Core muscles, legs, feet, and mid back muscles are strengthened, amazing.
The neck, shoulders, upper back, head and arms - hands and fingers even! - are lead to a grace unequaled by most other dance forms (can we all agree to exclude Indian, Balinese and Cambodian hand/wrist/finger movements and positions)? Music appreciation is included, as the music detracts from the exertion and sometimes mild pain.
It helps you rise above the "grunt work".
For those of you who simply MUST move to music, and be it ballet music at that, classical technique exercises will lift your soul.
Before Pointe Shoes Get Mentioned I know that you are not often thinking "soul" when you are trying to get your leg higher and your quadriceps muscles, or the top of your thigh, is cramping and you want to yelp.
You suppress the urge to drop the leg, although once in a while you just have to.
This may not occur because you are too weak, but because you have not learned to release muscle tension during or after ballet class.
Tense muscles are weaker because the muscle tone has been compromised.
Easy to fix! Classical dance exercises refine your reflexes, and build neural pathways.
Whether you are a child or are an adult ballet beginner, ballet work will challenge your brain.
Its unusual approach to movement will sharpen and hone those neurological functions, which will enhance your balance and response time to unexpected day-to-day moments.
If you are over forty, over fifty or over sixty - go ahead! Choose ballet! The exertion it offers will increase your bone density and relieve your heart muscle's work as it strengthens your leg/hip/back muscle groups.
In other words, you will be able to run for the bus! I may seem to be wandering from the point here, but no...
ballet class exercises are for the many (anyone who loves it) AND the few (those whom ballet calls - to entrance the rest of us).
Ballet syllabus exercises, be they R.
A.
D.
, Cecchetti, or Vaganova, are configured for the ideal ballet body type.
Yet, an experienced teacher can take various body types and show you - "this is how YOU will do this, to get the same visual result".
Is this cheating? No! It's called technique.
With a little of the art of illusion thrown in.
Every dance student will have their own problem with ballet.
Whether it is turnout, getting higher leg extensions, getting more flexibility in the ankle joint - whatever - everyone has a problem with ballet - that can be resolved! So When Can I Start In Pointe Shoes? Your years in dancing, age, natural ability, foot strength and talent will determine this.
Every ballet exercise you do contributes to you eventually dancing in ballet toe shoes.
Every single battement tendu is a pre-pointe exercise.
Every rise, releve or saute done with correct posture (nothing different than the normal) is a pre-pointe exercise.