r/BALLET

I've never known where to put my body.

I forget to swing my arms when I walk. I forget to put my hands out when I fall. I flap my arms when I'm stressed and jump up and down when I'm excited and I've been bullied so much for all of those things.

I love that ballet tells me exactly what to do. It's so precise and prescriptive. I know where to put my arms. I know how to turn my legs. The transitions are prescribed--it's like my dream.

I've struggled in other styles of dance because it's all "Feel the music! Do what your body wants!" I don't know what my body wants. That got trained out of me when I was in elementary school. But I know I'm doing ballet right. The fact that there's a clearly-defined 'right' is great.

(Caveat: I mean like a healthy ballet class where the focus is on learning. Obviously abusive and body-shaming ballet schools are not safe spaces for anybody)

Many ballet performers look very flexible to me, and I'm wondering how have they build such a flexibility. One lady who studied ballet since childhood told me that, for example, all children in her year have learnt to do a full split withing max 2 years, including the boys.

I started doing stretching only in adult age, and I'm completely inflexible naturally. I found yoga as the main discipline that actually helps me to progress - each year I can fold/bend/stretch more and more, and I am able to do more and more difficult poses.

I think I'm practicing yoga well overall: practicing almost daily, never lazy in classes, always trying to go deeper when I can, listening to instructors for technical advice, and always scouting for more difficult classes when I feel that the current class is getting easier.

But after 5 years of such Yoga, I am still quite far away from doing a full split.

So now I'm wondering:

1. Either what my friend told is not true in general

2. Or ballet dancers have a completely different approach to stretching that is actually more effective

3. Or being a child in stretching puts you at a significant advantage.

4. Or it's just my body and not much to be done to speed up the progress

Any thoughts?

If the answer could be (2), maybe someone could explain the difference? Ideally someone who is also practicing Yoga.