Generalizable aspects of the development of expertise in ballet across countries and cultures: a perspective from the expert-performance approach

Abstract

The expert-performance approach guided the collection of survey data on the developmental history of elite professional ballet dancers from three different countries/cultures (USA, Mexico, and Russia). The level of ballet expertise attained by age 18 was found to be uniquely predicted by only two factors, namely the total number of accumulated hours of dance practice through age 17 and the age of first having the “idea of becoming a professional dancer.” Older starting ages were associated with a more rapid increase of weekly training, so starting ages were not correlated with amount of practice accumulated at age 17 or attained ballet performance by age 18. Different detailed developmental paths leading to elite ballet performance are described and their theoretical implications discussed.