Ballet or Gymnastics as an adult male?

@twins4heaven Ballet will give you core strength, body awareness, flexibility, agility, and coordination that will support all the other possibilities. 45 minutes is about right for a very first class, your brain is going to be full. Go for a brisk walk ahead of time, get changed early, and stretch a bit beforehand, then do some sort of cool-down after.
 
@twins4heaven i think do what draws you in the most. but i REALLY recommend silks if you ever find a decent place. my local place offers classes for less than $20AUD and imo it is so worth it.
 
@twins4heaven If you live in a city with a professional ballet group, they may offer classes. Many years ago, I went to classes with the Oakland Ballet members and it was amazing to dance/train with the professionals. They also offered beginner classes. It was a way to boost their income.
 
@twins4heaven I'd recommend gymnastics. Ballet is primarily an art form- physically demanding, yes, but that is secondary. Do you like classical music, and ballet, as a means of artistic expression? Or do you just admire the physical skill involved?

If the latter- definitely gymnastics.

(Also, it would take a LOT of courage for an adult male to turn up to ballet classes. Basically, your fellow beginners would all be 6 year old girls, who would be more flexible, lighter, etc.. If you wan to learn it, just by some book or DVD's, and do it at home).
 
@twins4heaven Hi! This will probably be swallowed in the comments but I might aswell give my two cents.

Ballet is a sport that is very well progressed, and since it is not so intensely physically demanding on the entire body, I'm sure you can progress quite well! Not to say people who do Ballet are weak, my older sister does ballet and sometimes lifts with me and can match my squat pound for pound.

Gymnastics is a very time consuming sport, especially men's gymnastics, and I honestly believe an hour a week will not suffice for any reasonable progress. As a certified coach and competitive athlete I've noticed the sweet spot for recreational male gymnasts is 4-6 hours, while for competitive gymnasts moreso around 18-30 hours a week.

From my experience growing up with my sister and my own training it seems ballerinas are extremely comfortable on their feet, while gymnasts moreso in the air. If you take gymnastics you will almost certainly run into minor/temporary skeletal aches while the worst I've seen ballerinas have are ankle-feet-toe issues. Men's ballerinas usually supplement upper body work with some sort of external training, but men's gymnasts are usually disporportionally muscular on their upperbodies.

I don't have any experience with aerial silks.
Dancing is fun
 
@nicolewood1981 Yup, basic gymnastics moves seems like things you can learn from progressing in BWF and tricking but ballet is definitely more technical. Thank's for the information, I think I'm pretty decided on doing Ballet at the moment. Dancing is fun :D.
 
@wonjunisdown I ended up doing ballet. The teacher there was real cool and helped me with other general physical stuff (posture, injuries, etc). Stayed for a couple years, did a bit of on and off classes cause I went travelling. But I've stopped this year, just haven't got back into it.

I improved a bit, but I got to the point where I need more then one or two small classes a week to improve. It's that way with most things really. Commiting to doing it as my primary hobby/excercise method to continue improving seemed too much cause I still enjoy doing other things.
 
@twins4heaven Youre not gonna get ugly dancer feet doing a 45 min class in ballet flats. I did 90 min of pointe a day and my feet were gnarly but that didnt happen until I started getting that serious about ballet. You wont be able to use pointe shoes for a while so you can build ankle strength, your instructor will tell you when its ok. Takes about a year for most people. Men almost never do pointe anyway.
 
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