It's a familiar scenario for many parents: forking over big bucks for your kids' dance lessons only to discover they don't seem to like it.
While it may be that they just don't like to dance, it could be they just don't like a particular style of dance.
This summer, Seymour Dance in North Vancouver is offering a junior summer sampler program for kids ages six to 12. The course will feature sample classes of every style of dance course the studio offers during its regular season, including ballet, tap, Irish, jazz, and hip hop.
Owner Sonia Ellis says it's a good way for kids to try different styles of dance offered in their age group. Recently, the studio added breakdancing to its lineup of classes, but Ellis says the most popular classes are still ballet and jazz.
During the regular season, September to June, Seymour Dance offers programs for kids ages three to 18. There are also adult classes. Ellis explains that the three and four-year-olds start with ballet.
"It's more of a creative movement/ballet base, so it's getting them familiar with music and moving around the room and then a bit of technique in there too," she says, adding ballet is the best base for all styles of dance because "it gives you the technique and the body awareness."
As kids get older, Ellis says it's common for them to want to branch out into other styles of dance, and she says hip hop and lyrical are popular styles for the older set.
Lyrical dance is a cross between ballet and jazz, and features slower music.
"It's more about emotion and expressing the meaning behind the song through dance," says Ellis.
The students perform in a year-end show at Centennial Theatre as part of the regular season (not the summer camps), and this year they will be performing an interpretation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on June 9. The performance will feature students from all the different classes of dance at the studio, and it is open to the public.
Ellis says she believes dance is suited to any kid, they don't even have to be naturally co-ordinated or outgoing.
"There are so many different styles that there's a style out there for everybody," she adds.
