Amateur Ballet is classical ballet for adults and teenagers from age 16, in Szczecin, in the studio at ul. Mariana Rapackiego 3B (Joy Dance). Adults train in an open group on Sundays at 10:30 - two hours, no experience required - and teenagers 16+ on Monday and Wednesday evenings. Classes are taught by Olga Kuźmina, a dancer at the Opera na Zamku in Szczecin; enrolment is online on this page.
Ballet has no upper age limit.
The classical technique that dancers all over the world have studied for three hundred years orders an adult's body just as it does a child's: it lengthens the line, teaches breath, balance and precision, and gives something a gym does not - music, form and a piece of art history you dance with your own body. Many of our adult students dreamed of ballet as children and never had the chance to try. This is that chance.
Ballet for adults from scratch - the open group on Sundays
The open adult group meets on Sundays from 10:30 to 12:30.
"Open" means there are no levels and no prerequisites: next to people who have never stood at a barre train those coming back to ballet after years. Lessons run at a calm pace - everyone works in their own rhythm and the teacher corrects individually. It is the largest group in the school, and the fee is charged per session, not for the whole season.
Teenagers 16+ - Monday and Wednesday evenings
The group for teenagers from 16 who have danced before - with us or at another school - or who want to train more than once a week.
Classes last 75 minutes, on Mondays at 19:30 and Wednesdays at 20:30. It is an intermediate group: technique at the barre and in the centre, simple combinations, work on strength and flexibility. The group has up to 15 people and a monthly fee.
What a lesson looks like
Every lesson follows the order that has held in every ballet studio in the world for two hundred years: a warm-up, exercises at the barre - plié, tendu, battement - then the centre: port de bras, balance, turns, small jumps, and stretching at the end. The Sunday group adds simple pieces of choreography. You do not need pointe shoes: adults dance in soft ballet slippers.
What to wear and bring
Comfortable, fitted clothes that show the line of the body - leggings and a top, or a leotard - and soft ballet slippers or socks. Hair tied back, a bottle of water. Barres and mats are in the studio.
Where and when
The studio at ul. Mariana Rapackiego 3B in Szczecin (Joy Dance). The adult season runs from September to the end of June. The first class is free for teenagers 16+; the Sunday open group for adults is paid from the first class. Current times, free places and prices are on each group's card in the enrolment form on this page. The Sunday group combines ballet with elements of Body Ballet, Pilates and stretching - if you come first of all for flexibility and posture, we describe that side of the same class on the Stretching and flexibility page; if you prefer one-to-one work, see private lessons.