I feel some implied criticism here among some posters may not be warrented. Many people don’t live in a community that offers pre-professional dance classes (or have the money to afford them). We don’t know OPs circumstances or where he/she lives. We don’t know anything about OPs other activities. You seem to be taking for granted that the “heightened committment” of taking more than 3.5 hours of dance is even a possibility for this student.
I live in a small town. My daughter took ballet from the age of three until the present. The BEST studio in town (and I mean the classes taught by people with some credible training) had other full-time jobs and offered only ballet classes of 75 minutes twice per week in the ADVANCED classes. For several years we enhanced this schedule by driving 90 miles over twisty mountain roads through fog, high winds and snow to the closest studio that approached pre-professional standards (around 15 hours per week at age 13, including the local classes she could get). We spent every weekend in that town, for rehearsals as well. Went to summer intensives, the whole thing. She didn’t do homework well in the car, got carsick, I was terrified of the slippery/black-ice conditions in the mountains driving at night, and it all became too much. We would have had to leave home (and her dad) to keep up with ballet peers. That’s a LOT For an EC, when there’s no intention to make it a career.
Right now, my daughter takes classes…twice per week (ONLY in the winter/spring because her marching band schedule conflicts with the only days those classes are offered. Her technique is WAY above the others because of her past, but she does it for fun anyway.
REAL dance studios (that offer 15+ hours per week, let alone the 25-40 hours per week, @Knowsstuff talks about) usually only exist in large metropolitan areas. Don’t know what kind of dance OP is talking about, but pointe shoes alone cost $100 a pop, and a pre-professional dancer can go through a pair of these in a few days (a professional, one or two per day/performance).
I felt sick for months when we had to give up daughter’s ballet. I railed against it, and the fact that my husband accepted a tenured job in a small town away from cultural opportunities. But, you know, my daughter is happy as a clam with marching band and small-town school activities. I have a lot more time in MY life.
We’re always talking on CC about countering elitism. We’re always saying how student ECs should be what THEY enjoy, what enhances their lives, that ECs should be a choice, not a race to impress colleges, that high school should not be a time of high anxiety. OP said nothing in this post about getting into T-20-schools or dance programs, so we shouldn’t assume or imply that s/he is somehow sub-par for enjoying 3.5 hours of dance and walking to the classes.