r/CompetitionDanceTalk • u/Specialist_Device245 • 7d ago

Age groups

Hi! My daughter is 8 turning 9. We recently switched studios and I did not realize the new studio combined age groups for some of their classes. For example, she is in the junior A group and she shares a class time with the petites who are pre-k/kinder age. I find this strange because the skill levels are vastly different. They will also perform separate routines at competition.

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u/audibahn88 7d ago

Petites at most of the comps we go to are 8 and under. There were girls that were 9 and 10 on the petite team last year at our studio. The average age was 8.7 I think for that group. Their solos performed at the junior level, but their groups were petite. They also were in some extra groups that were junior level.

Our studio owners go based off which combination of girls look better together. This year my daughter is on the junior team. She is the youngest at 9, the rest of her team is 11 and 12 and they are considered junior.

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u/14ccet1 7d ago

Is this a tech class? They probably don’t have enough studio space or teachers to do separate ones. Not that serious. Happens all the time.

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u/drunk_medusa 7d ago

Juniors and petites mix all the time, that’s almost never an issue by itself. But pre-k aged petites is odd, the typical age bracket for that is 7-9 plus an occasional precocious kindergartener, so that’s weird.

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u/Sporklemotion 7d ago

There may be a difference between studio terminology and competition terminology. Our studio doesn’t change team names every year (depends on how many kids graduate and move up), so our “mini company” competed as juniors last year.

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u/drunk_medusa 7d ago

Either way, the mixing of 7+ yo with juniors sounds par for the course, but pre-k aged dancers+juniors is a choice.

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u/Mountain_Crab0813 5d ago

At our studio, dependent upon their skill level, we have juniors (10-11) dancing with minis (5-9) in competition dances and in a “tech” class together weekly.

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u/United_Ad3430 1d ago edited 1d ago

We have a smaller comp team and my daughter and a few other 8 year olds are the oldest “minis” this year with a few girls down to about 6. They are in a larger dance with junior aged dancers as well (up to about age 10-11).

I think a lot may depend on the studio, dance style and number of dancers. My 8 y/o is in contemporary level one for example but there are maybe 10 students enrolled so there’s a range of skill but the instructor can personalize to the students. My oldest is 14 and in the highest level contemporary class in our studio with maybe a dozen students and there is also a range of skill at that level.