Passionate ballet teacher Ilse de Bruyn helps little ones learn this artistic dance like no other.
Ilse is a 29-year-old ballet teacher at Dance Inc Randfontein and teaches ballet for children aged two years and up on Saturdays at the NG Kerk Randfontein-Noord. She started dancing at the age of eight but stopped when she was ten due to transportation issues when the studio relocated.
“At age 15, despite being in poor health, extremely unfit and overweight after having had my thyroid removed, I started ballet. I was not shaped like your typical ballerina.”
The love that was cultivated in her teacher’s studio is what kept her dream alive and inspired her to become a teacher.
Ilse danced with Dance Inc and The Mogale Youth Ballet until she went to study dance at the Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria.
According to Ilse, ballet is a great form of exercise where you can burn between 500 and 800 calories during a one-hour class. This is due to repetitive movements, bending, stretching, lifting the legs and arms. You also stimulate your muscles to flex and stretch, which will result in long, lean and strong muscles.
“Ballet is one of those timeless art forms you could start at the age of two or 20, and you will still love every moment of it.”
If a professional ballet career is what you want, she advised that starting early is best because of the short professional career that dancers often have, but she added there are many professional principal dancers who started late and still made it to the top.
She explained class structure teaches discipline, how to wait your turn, to work together, how to listen to and follow instructions.
“We always have a time in class for free dance where we allow the children to just move to a beautiful piece of music and allowing them space to express their emotions freely – this is incredibly healing and in my opinion, necessary.”
Ilse explained the importance of dancing on pointe, which is dancing on the tips of your feet. It is something she focuses on early on in her lessons.
Only at the age of 15 the bones one’s feet are strong enough and set in place for this technique, but children who attend art schools and do several ballet classes a day might go on pointe sooner.
“We teach our dancers how to take care of their feet once they do go on pointe. By wearing the right type of shoe and toe covers you can prevent severe blisters.”
They always invite girls to attend a free class to see if ballet is something they would enjoy before investing in clothes and classes.
If you would like to find out more about ballet please contact Ilse de Bruyn on 082 888 8113.
