Comments on: Front Page of The Wall Street Journal: Self-Taught Ballerinas Online

By: Taylor H.

Taylor H. — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 01:33:46 +0000

Online? How can you learn dance online? I just started pointe last year[making this my second year] and it is very difficult and dangerous if you don’t have a teacher to tell you what your doing wrong. I think they should be in dance classes first before even putting on a pair of ponite shoes!

By: Doug Fox

Doug Fox — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 10:29:25 +0000

It’s good Journal covered this topic. Self-teaching has its clear dangers. But proving causation is always difficult. What percentage of young girls would experiment on their own without proper training even if YouTube were not around?

Also, I think it’s unfair to use Anaheim slogan against them. This line could be interpreted to mean many things including passively sitting at pc and watching ballet.

I think important point about learning pointe is that teachers and others should consider how to use YouTube, video and the web, in general, to educate kids about the extra dangers of teaching yourself, especially given high rate of injuries even properly trained dancers get — that’s my 2 cents!

By: Taylor

Taylor — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 21:31:57 +0000

The thing is, I think it’s good and fun that people are getting into dance through what they see online…like maybe copying jazz routines or even ballet exercises…but POINTE is going to ruin their bodies forever! If they do it like that.

By: Evan

Evan — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 19:23:42 +0000

Philip and Taylor,

I hear ya. What these girls are doing is terribly dangerous and will only hinder their progress. Yet another reason why dance cannot survive solely through online videos. It’s a living, breathing, 3-dimensional art form.

By: Taylor

Taylor — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:27:35 +0000

That’s insane. Insane. If you search for some of the videos they mention in the article…insane.