The answer to this question depends on what your dancers goals are for their future in dance. There is no right or wrong answer but it all hinges on each individual dancer.

Open/Recreational - Any ages - Dancers who wish to explore dance or continue with dance as a fun activity to keep in shape and to simply enjoy. Dancers may or may not attend classes during the summer months.

Minimum classes for their level of ballet. Many of these dancers enjoy taking once weekly classes in jazz, contemporary, or hip hop.

Focused - Ages 6-18 - These are dancers who enjoy dance and want to continue to improve year by year. Dancers would take at least the minimum number of ballet classes for their level as well as one or two additional styles of dance. Dancers may participate in Nutcracker and Spring Showcase. These dancers will attend classes and/or a couple weeks of Summer Intensives at CDA.

Aspiring/ College/Career Track - Ages 10+ - These dancers have fallen in love with dance and wish to pursue dance to not only the highest levels at CDA but perhaps continue on with dance after high school in a college or career setting (graduates of CDA have gone on to be college dance majors at Butler University, Indiana University, and UMKC as well as professional dancers in Los Angeles Ballet, Ballet West, Colorado Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet, and Contemporary West Dance Theater). Dancer at this level will usually take significantly more classes than their peers. They attend ballet class 3-6 days a week as well as multiple other classes in different styles or in pointe. These dancers will participate in Nutcracker, Spring Showcase, and other opportunities such as our Company or Competitions. These dancers will continue their training year round and will usually attend multiple weeks of Summer Intensives. Dancers that are at an Intermediate level generally attend the Intensive at CDA and those that are in high school usually audition and attend national level programs like those at San Francisco Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Houston Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, and more.

The skills that dedicated dancers learn often serve them very well in school. Young dancers often start with dance one to two days a week and it builds up to more and more each year. They learn that if they want to attend dance class each day they need to focus and get their homework done quickly and efficiently. Dancers learn to focus on multiple corrections and details at once that help them be able to assimilate more information in a school classroom setting. Dancers understand how to take constructive criticism and to push themselves to continually do better. In general dancers tend to be very good students and at CDA we let them know that we expect them to keep their grades up. We have had dancers that have been accepted to UC Berkeley, Barnard College, UCSB, USC, Cal Poly SLO, BYU, Butler, Indiana, UMKC, and more!!! Most all of those students reached our Advanced Level and danced 5-6 days a week while keeping exemplary grades throughout high school!

Gymnastics

Recreational - 1-2 hours a week just for fun and exercise

Excel - 6-9 hours a week with some competition

Development Program (formerly known as Junior Olympic track) - 20-25 hours a week with competition weekends that sometimes include travel

Soccer

Recreational - 1-2 practices a week plus games each weekend during the season. 2-4 hrs/wk

Tournament - 2-3 practices a week plus tournament weekends that include 3-5 games. 4-10 hrs/wk

Club - 2-3 practices a week plus games most weekends along with more travel to larger tournaments - Athletes are also expected to often have private coaching or outside training. 6-12+ hrs/wk

Music

Recreational - Students usually would take a 30 minutes lesson once a week and be expected to practice two to four times during the week

Focused - Students will often take at least a one hour lesson per week and be expected to practice a minimum of one hour per day

College/Career Track - Students will attend lessons a couple times a week for an hour and practice 2-4 or more hours per day on their instrument