Did you do dance, gymnastics etc as a child?

Dudess

I was watching an episode of The Simpsons earlier in which Lisa starts ballet classes (Springfield Ballet Academy - "No fat chicks" and right next to it: Springfield Opera Academy - "No thin chicks" ) and unsurprisingly, the school was depicted as an awful bitchy place. It took me back to my own ballet/modern dance days when I was a kid in the 80s - I remember getting slapped, my friend got shook, students were constantly shouted at and borderline verbally abused. Then I started attending gymnastics classes at age 11 (late 80s) - awful snide comments from the instructors again. I did well at exercises demanding flexibility of limbs, and rhythm, but co-ordination, balance and strength were my downfall (literally sometimes ) and they had no patience with that, so they could be awfully nasty with the comments. I just thought it was the norm at the time and it didn't particularly bother me, but looking back, what a way to behave towards a young kid (I wasn't the only one).

Of course that was nothing compared to the horror stories doing the rounds about girls being encouraged not to eat etc - whether these are true or not, I don't know. Anyone else got experiences of these type of competitive environments to share? I'm not just talking about dance - it's just the first thing that comes to mind.

I was watching it too Reminds me of that amelie nothomb book but then I suppose it's a common occurence.
Did saturday morning ballroom dancing classes in primary school and we did competitions but I hardly remember much about it, and it was more fun than ever competitive.
I wanted to do ballet but I had enough going on with music and chess so it never happened...

Dudess

Oh yeah I did music too - piano in Cork School of Music. Phenomenally competitive there but I just kept away from all that... The Feis - what a load of tripe. Forty students playing the same two pieces each - no entertainment, just literally a competition.

Dudess

Dudess wrote: »

Oh yeah I did music too - piano in Cork School of Music. Phenomenally competitive there but I just kept away from all that... The Feis - what a load of tripe. Forty students playing the same two pieces each - no entertainment, just literally a competition.

Yeah I did the feis each year in piano (I don't think I was asked, it was just my teacher entering all students I think) but I never really cared all that much. I was disappointed if I didn't win but I wasn't really interested enough in it. Never did the feis on my cello, I've always played that for myself. Only time I considered it was to have another goal to work for but nah.

Chess was pretty competitive (though I stopped playing after primary) and we had all the matches internal and external. We were all encouraged to be good sports though, more like friendly rivalry than anything else.
I was pretty intimidated at one tournament I went to (when I was the only girl) and all the lads kept sitting around watching my game and making all sorts of comments :mad:

Lia_lia

Yeah I did gymnastic for oh, 10 years? Can't remember there being any bitchyness. I usual hung out with the lads anyway. I did Irish dancing for about 12 years. Was all grand. It was competitive, yeah, but nobody fought over it or anything. School is where all the bitchyness was for me.

Dudess

bluewolf wrote: »

I was pretty intimidated at one tournament I went to (when I was the only girl) and all the lads kept sitting around watching my game and making all sorts of comments :mad:

Yeah I remember experiencing the same at a table quiz. Thinking back, I got involved in a lot of stuff at primary school level, next to nothing in secondary though - your typical couldn't-give-a-sh1t teenager... :pac:

liah

Come to think of it, I'm kind of surprised how I turned out. I did a lot of girly stuff as a kid-- horseback riding, girl guides (like boyscouts), cheerleading, gymnastic, piano, choir.

Now I'm about as much a tomboy as anything.

In all of those I don't really remember much bitchiness, the majority of the stuff was from years I can't recall, don't remember much of my childhood.

Horseback riding, though.. That is one hell of a bitchy environment, at least in North America. The amount of rich kids who actually know nothing about horses but only use it as a status symbol and looked down on the "barn kids" like me who were there because we enjoyed the animals, not the competition.. It's a shame, I had a talent in showjumping at a very young age but dropped out of it because it was just too catty. Everyone gossips and bitches about their competitors. It takes the fun and sport out of it.

Dudess

Dudess wrote: »

Yeah I remember experiencing the same at a table quiz. Thinking back, I got involved in a lot of stuff at primary school level, next to nothing in secondary though - your typical couldn't-give-a-sh1t teenager... :pac:

Same here Did keep up the music but the dancing, horseriding, chess etc stopped (well the horseriding was due to an accident but meh), did a bit of basketball though. I'd love to do basketball again sometime

liah: that's a shame

SeekUp

I had dance and music lessons growing up, and for a short while I was taking classes at the Kirov Academy of Ballet in addition to my regular training. There was never any abuse though! At most, a teacher would should out of frustration, but never anything severe. Even at the Kirov, I would never call anything abuse, although they were very strict. You expected that, though . . . they were Russian.

metaoblivia

I did both gymnastics and classical vocal music.

Gymnastics can get ridiculously competitive, especially in the States. I was really bad at it and got made fun of for being so bad once in a while (and for being taller than everyone else), but was spared a lot of the real bitchiness and pressure because I wasn't a threat to anyone. One time, the coach did accuse me of rolling my eyes when I hadn't. I refused to apologize for something I hadn't done and got kicked out of practice.

Also, I was prone to injury because of a cartilage disorder. Not only am I more likely to suffer a sprain or fracture, but they can be intensely painful. Anyway, I sustained a really painful ankle fracture and got yelled at for crying. I also got told not to be such a baby about not training on it while it healed.

I can tell you that the girls at the top - level 10, junior and senior elite - have a lot of pressure put on them. I can share some terrible stories about the kind of public humiliation some gyms and coaches in this country engage in, but they aren't personal stories. They're just what's known and kept quiet about here in the US gymnastics world.

Novella

My mum is crazy into Irish dancing so pretty much as soon as I could walk, I could dance. I never really felt there was bitchiness or whatever from the class itself. I felt an intense pressure to do well in competitions though, never for myself, but for my mum. I think after a while, dance classes and fittings for dresses and wearing curly wigs became so much a part of my routine that I did fall in love with it.

Faith

I did everything, briefly. I had an awful attention span, so I gave everything up fairly quickly in the end.

SeekUp

Sorry, I got stuck on the verbal abuse bit.

Competitiveness = absolutely. There wasn't too much of it at our local studio, simply because a) there were always favorites and 2) we were around each other so often, that a lot of the bitchiness was squashed by the owner.

At the Kirov though, it was definitely a different environment. Most of the students lived there, so it was probably a lot like boarding school. You were around both the people that you liked and didn't like almost all of the time. When it came time for auditions for certain parts in shows and the like, of course the competitive levels were incredibly high. I heard stories of girls sabatoging each other, although I never knew anyone who was involved personally. I got the feeling as if the non-favorites were looked down upon, although, again, I never really felt more than that.

Lollers

God this takes me back, I remember wanting to be Nadia Comaneci when I was a
kid, I absolutely loved gym. My lifes ambition at 7 years old was to be able to do the splits or even better a backflip. Anywhere my friends and I could practice we did, using the beds to somersault on or the garden wall as a beam. I was a member of the local gym club where I enthusiastically turned out every week in my shiny blue leotard. Trouble was, I was absolutely useless. I used to trow myself into cartwheels and tumbles which such suicidal abandon that I always over rotated, nearly breaking my neck and making a horn rimmed spectacle of myself in the process. I was so bad the instructors just ignored me, no bad thing judging by some of the comments here. But still, them where the days. And I'd still love to be able to do a backflip.

MissIT

I did ballet when I was small left cause I was scared of the teacher. She was ancient then and still teaching now i think!!

Did Gymnastics for years but I was so so shy I refused to enter compititions. I wanted nothing to do with the competitive side of things!

I did modern dance for a few years too there was no bitching or anything just good fun!!

Dudess

My primary school was obsessed with sports - I was totally useless at all of them (well I wasn't bad as a camogie goal-keeper when forced into it, due to putting my hands up in terror every time a sliotar came near me, and the sliotar bouncing off my hands - again, not unlike Lisa Simpson when she took up ice hockey :pac:). But yeah, you almost felt inferior if you weren't sporty - it wasn't great for the auld self esteem. When my talents for music/singing, writing and acting came to the fore though, that kinda "saved" me in a "Well you may not be good at sports but I suppose you're good at something" way...

rainbow kirby

I was one of those kids who tried absolutely everything, but nothing really stuck until I took a karate class at age 10 and absolutely loved it. I could never stick with dance or gymnastics for more than a few months, it would always end up getting on my nerves because I have no natural rhythm or flexibility.

There was no parental pressure in terms of going for particular activities, though I think my mum would have really loved to have had a girly girl daughter rather than her two tomboys (my 17 year old sister is into both Gaelic football and soccer, and has been from a very young age).

chocgirl

I did Irish dancing for a while when I was really small, can hardly remember it now though.

I did gymnastics for quite a few years and absolutely loved it, I couldn't wait for the weekends to practice. It was a pretty relaxed environment and it seemed to be the parents that were more competitive than the coaches or students. I don't know how I didn't seriously injure myself though, I often went around doing flips on walls and leaping from any height.

My Mum really wanted me to do Piano which I hated at the time. The lady who taught it was so so cross and shouldn't have been anywhere near young children. I never practiced, I just forgot every week and she slapped your hand for every note that was wrong more than once. It was a long half an hour.

Truley

Did gymnastics, ballet, Irish dancing and am still doing tap dancing at 22 I absolutely loved doing these activities but definately remember the teachers being very cross. I remember being roared at in Gymnastics and my Irish Dance teacher threatening to 'throttle me'. Sounds horrific now looking back but we accepted it at the time. I still enjoyed doing them and have mostly very happy memories.

Xiney

I did ballet, gymnastics and something called rythmettes (kind of like dance + tumbling) when I was very young, like, 6. But in the next few years the classes all turned out to be on the same day of the week (or something) and so I had to pick one... I picked rythmettes and of course that's the one that got cancelled after two years :rolleyes:

Then we moved away and my parents had "no money" for activities.

When I was 12 they promised to let me take tae kwon do as long as I agreed to go back to piano lessons. Of course, they immediately denied making this promise as soon as I was signed up for the goddamn piano crap again. Oh, and they used some of my trust fund to pay for the piano lessons, which I only found out after I turned 18. Nice.



Sometimes I wonder why I still speak to them :rolleyes:

Snowie

I had to Irish dance when i was in primary school I hated it :mad:.....

Oh and worse still I was made to learn how to line dance tho when i busted my knee that kinda end my hole dancing thing i was in cruthcs for 18 weeks which was worse i had to watch...

Silverfish

Snow-Monkey wrote: »

I had to Irish dance when i was in primary school I hated it :mad:.....

Oh and worse still I was made to learn how to line dance tho when i busted my knee that kinda end my hole dancing thing i was in cruthcs for 18 weeks which was worse i had to watch...

You were a young girl? :pac:

Snowie

Silverfish wrote: »

You were a young girl? :pac:

yep but then i ate a worm and turned into a boy....

Twee.

I did ballet for 15 years, gave up about 18 months ago. I do long to go back to it, but with college and work it's hard. I'll hopefully be doing a ballet or modern class during the summer.
Apart from that I did tap, contemporary and jazz, all of which I loved. Tried Irish dancing but bloody hated it, it's basically the opposite of ballet so that didn't go down too well.
I had bass lessons for a year when I was 15, still play every now and again, but I'm rubbish!
Never did any sports, had absolutely no interest.

Alicat

I did ballet for a few years as a small child. Mum says I was like an elephant :pac: I was skinny but not very graceful. Surprisingly my ballet career never took off!

rebel girl 15

I did Irish dance for about a year whn I was six cos we had it in school, gave it up. Was in girl guides for about nine months until I ahd a very bad experience, which to this day I have never told any of my friends about. I found that a bit elitist tbh

I started Tae Kwon Do when I was about 11, but had to give it up three years later when GAA came along! Great fun, and I was very fit, won quite a few trophies from it - huge competitiveness during competitions

Started soccer for a year, scored two goals from midfield but gave it up because it clashed with football training, think that was my JC year. I was really a ball girl, be it soccer, football, camogie - when I was about three I had a small pink ball I used to kick around the house, and as I grew up, I would always have had a couple of soft balls in the house to play with. Made a load of friends through the GAA, way more than anything else

I'd refuse to do gymnastics, but I'm qualified to teach them in a PE context

SeekUp

rainbow kirby wrote: »

There was no parental pressure in terms of going for particular activities, though I think my mum would have really loved to have had a girly girl daughter rather than her two tomboys (my 17 year old sister is into both Gaelic football and soccer, and has been from a very young age).

chocgirl wrote: »

I did gymnastics for quite a few years and absolutely loved it, I couldn't wait for the weekends to practice. It was a pretty relaxed environment and it seemed to be the parents that were more competitive than the coaches or students.

This was often the case for a lot of the other moms* in our studio. Granted, they essentially gave up their spare time to shuttle us around to competitions and rehearsals and classes every day of the week, so it must've been incredibly hard not to get involved -- especially if their kid was particularly talented. But more often than once I remember our dance teacher having to tell someone's mother to back the eff off. (She wasn't one to mince words.) There have got to be so many kids that would enjoy their extra-curricular activities so much more if their parents would let them -- or even become much more enthusiastic about a different activity.

*There were some dads around, but for the most part, our realm was very estrogen-laden.

Jaxxy

I did piano, voice, ballet, Irish dancing, tap (Billy Barry :rolleyes:) and Latin American. I think my mother thought I was going to be famous or something. Anyway had no issue with bitchiness/abuse with any of them apart from the Irish dancing. The teacher was from Kerry and she used to pull the girls around by the ear. I don't remember much else because I was only about four or five at the time, but I do remember telling her I'd get a gun and shoot her if she didn't stop shouting at me. I got kicked out.

Also hated the Feis.

NoDice

I did gymnastics, irish dancing, something along the lines of disco dancing or something, ballet and piano.

Gave all that up when I came to Ireland funnily enough and took up hockey, camogie, skating (:o) and did a bit of fencing and yoga too. Only thing that lasted was the hockey I guess.

Never came across any bitchiness until I came over here tbh so that's why I gave up the dancing I'd think. Not saying that bitchiness only happens in Ireland or anything, might just have been where I went for lessons.

princess-lala

I was useless and still am at all that dancing malarky

I was into sports and still am, my niece and her mother are both big Irish dancers! My niece is only 5 next week and loves it. Wants to start the ballet too

SarahMs

got put into gymnastics at 3.... my mam lied said i was 4 and bribed me with power ranger jellys. retired when i was 17 and have been coaching since.

it was the only sport I did as it took up so much time....... but I have been to Russia, America, Estonia, UK because of it.... Luxembourg next month woah woah woah!

rannerap

i did balroom dancing and karate for a while,always wanted to do piano lessons but was never allowed

Dudess

Sarannewrap wrote: »

i did balroom dancing and karate for a while,always wanted to do piano lessons but was never allowed

I love how you couldn't get two more opposite hobbies!

Michellenman

I did pretty much everything as a child. I used to go in to school on a Thursday with Ballet slippers and a pair of football boots :P

I did girl guides, ballet, GAA, Olympic handball, Arts and crafts classes, after school french classes, basketball, recorder classes, drama and soccer. They were mostly throughout primary school and the start of secondary school until I got a foot injury and then I was out of action for anything physical until 5th year.

rannerap

Dudess wrote: »

I love how you couldn't get two more opposite hobbies!

i never really thought about it ha:p it does seem a bit odd!

LenaClaire

Yeah, I did ballet and jazz from 8-12, modern from 13 to 21 and Tae kwon do from 14-18.

The teacher I did ballet with was very strict. She was from the Royal Australian Ballet and it was obvious that the top two or three girls were being groomed to go there and so she was harder on them than the rest of us that were just for fun kids.

Most of my modern dance teachers were pretty awesome and my tae kwon do instructer was great too.

I would love to get back into dancing but feel a little old for it.

cowhands

I did gymnastics and sports acro for about 14 years. started off when I was very young and worked very hard, trained every day and competed at national and internation level. Yep my coaches were hard on us, they shouted, screamed and pushed us exertemely hard but it taught me alot of self control, self respect, confidence and to work hard to achieve my goals.
I have to say it made a huge impact (for the good) on my life and hey I can still do the splits, and back flips today - always a good party trick!

Daisies

Hmmmm lets see from a very young age I did Irish dancing (4-18), swimming (4-18) and tin whistle (4-17). Then I pestered my Mam to let me play another musical instrument so when I was 10 I started piano and the trad fiddle. Then in secondary school I started classical violin.
Then there was the sports: Gaelic football as soon as I could stand, soccer all through school, attempted basketball but retired due to my all round crapness (although to be fair I was medicore at everything I did).
Then there was Youth Orchestra and No Name Club and doing my Gaisce awards in secondary school. (sometimes I wonder when I did my homework)

WanderingSoul

I did 8 full years of ballet, 4 years of hip-hop, 2 years of gymnastics, 4 years of Tae Kwon Do (though I mean to start back), 2 years of piano/music theory, 6 years of girl guides, 2 years of swimming, 3 years (so far) of horse riding.

Stheno

My parents were mad into us having hobbies.

So I did Irish Dancing (I was a heavy set child, think of a Monkey doing riverdance), Gymnastics (same comparison), Piano, Drums, and recorder in the school band. Also did hockey, basketball, football, and camogie. Got to Grade 2 in Piano, and sang in the local choral society

The only one that lasted was lifesaving I qualified as an instructor when I was nineteen, and I played Badminton a lot in Community Games. I liked Squash too.

Do nothing these days tbh, never got into the bitchy thing as it wasn't around tbh.