My 8 yo just really hates ballet. She loves skating, and she is willing to take a dance class, but NOT ballet.

At this point, I don't want to make it awful for her- I mean she may, at an older age and more maturity, get why ballet is a good thing and go with it but I don't want to make a battle.

She wants to sign up for an afterschool dance program (they do hip hop, jazz and yes even ballet) but the point I think is that they stretch, do moves to music etc.

For now, is that probably better than forcing ballet?

She is working on Pre-juv MIF (ALMOST ready) and currently skates juvenile level synchro and no test freeskate.

Forcing a child to do an activity is never good, even if that activity will benefit the child in the long run.

For now, let her do what she enjoys doing. Like you said, with more maturity and at a later time, your daughter may understand the importance of ballet. Right now, why waste your money on something she's not going to enjoy?

If you think the hip-hop/jazz/ballet class seems beneficial, I say go for it. The stretching will help with her flexibility and the movements to music may enhance her musical interpretation, both of which will carry over onto the ice.

Besides, I know plenty of strong, balanced skaters who have never taken a ballet class. Sure, ballet can be helpful, but it's not a must.

That is kind of what I was thinking. To her defense, her ballet class was boring- it was at the rink with a really strict teacher and I don't think there was any attempt to make it at all fun.

I always thought ballet was kind of a must.

Pretty much all dance is based in ballet, so it is very helpful to start w/ that. But in her case I'd go w/ the jazz class & she'll still get a lot of the same benefits. She might even enjoy a ballroom class, which is great for teaching posture & filling your space. Gymnastics would also be an alternative, IMO.

For boys I usually suggest karate as an alternative, btw.

For older (teen) kids, yoga can also be a decent substitute.

She wants to do gymnastics, but it is very expensive in my area and hard to find. I will keep looking though- maybe a tumbling type class.

My son went to a hockey camp in Canada last summer where they had the kids doing yoga (they didn't tell them what it was though!)
I take a belly dance class and it's been really helpful, especially when I was taking ice dance, because of all the isolations.

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You miss 100% of the shots you never take.--Wayne Gretzky

Ballet is great, but only if they enjoy it or are at least old enough to appreciate what it can do for them. IMHO you should never force an 8 year old into an activity. Kids should be free to experiment. Jazz sound like a great idea and if she really enjoys it and meets some kids who are also taking ballet, she may be more interested in ballet.

There are a few things in ballet that do not translate well to skating though - in ballet you are taught to spot for turns, and in skating you cannot possibly do this. That caused a lot of trouble for my younger DD, and she gave up skating to focus on dance. Also, the spiral/arabesque positions are different. She struggled with that too.

What really helped my older DD with her skating was taking ice dance lessons. Her other coaches saw improvement within a month or two!

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I found a gymnastics program that will take her 4 weeks at a time- perfect!!!! And she has bugging me to take gymnastics - she doesn't even realize it is good for skating and it doesn't really matter if she does!