Im in my early twenties; it it too late for me to start a professional career in ballet?
It’s not impossible–it has been done before–but the odds are against it. Leigh Witchel offers more details: The average age of a woman starting ballet is between eight and eleven, of a man, often in his teens. Later is not unheard of; Melissa Hayden began at 15, Igor Youskevitch at 22. A word of warning, however: As you grow older, developing flexibility is infinitely more difficult. If you do not have a natural facility, you will be fighting an uphill battle the whole way and may find the pain too great to be worth it. Also, for a woman, developing the ankle strength and articulation of the feet necessary for pointe work takes around five years, which adds another handicap. Moreover, at the onset of training, you can really only take so many classes a week without risking injury. So the roads of an amateur and professional do not diverge until at least a little way into training. At that point, take a good look at what you are doing, your progress in relation to others, and how happ
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- Im in my early twenties; it it too late for me to start a professional career in ballet?
