Well, due to the fact that my current ballet school takes thirty minutes to drive to (and thirty minutes to drive FROM), we tried out a new ballet school that’s super close to our home. It only takes five minutes to drive from our house to the studios. I need the extra time because the classes I’m taking in my high school give a ton of homework, and all the students who took them before complain and whine about having to stay up all night, every night, finishing homework. Although my piano teacher did pry into their personal business and find that most of the students spend a lot of time IMing their friends WHILE they’re working on homework. But I digress.
Unlike my current ballet school, which is rented from a rec center, this one built its OWN studio, with its own front desk and everything. No rent to pay. They built everything entirely from sratch. And the studios were really nice, too. Lots of sunshine, and good floors for turning en pointe or whatever. The students in my tryout class were extremely friendly to me, but that’s probably because most of them were like, eight and know nothing about teenage welcoming (Cold stares, averted eyes, etc.). Yet.
And the studios had SPEAKERS. No traditional pianist, no boombox on a turntable, but wall-ceiling speakers. And the teacher used a sound system control pad!
The class itself was a bit easy. But they said they didn’t want to overwhelm me by trying me out in the highest level, and I’m not complaining. I saw the people in the highest ballet class, and they were like, CLONES. Well, their dance movements were. Not their looks.
So they bumped me up to the second-to-last level instead, because I did nicely in the tryout class, but I didn’t have the technique and skills necessary for the final level.
But my smile was turned upside down almost immediately following the financial discussion. The basic tuition, plus registration, costume rental, and recital tickets, equals two thousand dollars per ten month session! And I’m only taking lessons three times a week! At my current ballet school, the same amount of classes and hours would only cost half as much.
But then there’s the whole time and tight schedules that you have to factor in, so we’re waiting until we know exactly what our full schedules will be before we decide whether to stay with my current ballet school or go with the new one. My dad teaches at the local college, and his classes are at night, which pretty much coincides with my ballet classes. And the two classes going on at the same time = insanity. With the driving and timing, at least.
So, what’ll it be? The new ballet school, or the old one? According to my dad, we’ll figure that out tomorrow.
I have a freakishly sore throat that makes water taste bad. It’s horrible.
