About BalletPrep
The BalletPrep™ Method: A Structured Ballet Training and Coaching System, Not Another Class or Tutorial
The BalletPrep™ Method was created from a uniquely rare vantage point: an adult who completed true pre-ballet and pre-professional Vaganova training, experiencing firsthand what happens when the rigor of childhood ballet education is translated into an adult body and mind.
Based on the rigorous (Russian) Vaganova ballet method, BalletPrep bridges the gap between traditional early-age training models and the physiological, cognitive, and experiential needs of adult learners. It builds technique from the ground up — not only intellectually, but physically, by conditioning the exact neuromuscular patterns ballet depends on.
BalletPrep can function as your complete, stand-alone ballet training system or serve as a powerful complement to your regular ballet classes. Its structured progression accelerates your advancement, fills in the foundational gaps adults were never taught, and builds the authentic ballet body from the inside out.
“I remained faithful to the Vaganova method, but I built an innovative, streamlined approach to get the adult body ready to do ballet properly — faster and with far greater awareness.” — C.S. Shabsis, BalletPrep Method — The Book
BalletPrep is designed for:
- Adult beginners seeking a real technical foundation
- Late-entry dancers who began serious training too late for traditional professional pathways
- Professionals & pre-professional ballet dancers looking to fix chronic issues at the root, such as turnout and foot strength and flexibility
- Dancers from other styles who want to learn classical ballet from the roots
- Parents seeking tools to support their children's ballet training at home
The method is built on clarity, technique, and intelligent sequencing — giving adults access to the structure normally available only within elite institutions.
Why Most Adult Ballet Training Fails — And Why None of it is Your Fault
Ballet is one of the most technically demanding art forms in the world.
Yet most adult beginners and late-entry dancers are placed into classes that skip the very foundations professional training is built on.
Children spend years developing alignment, turnout, foot articulation, coordination, and postural strength before ever attempting a true barre. Adults, meanwhile, are expected to begin with pliés, tendus, and even pirouettes — movements that assume years of preparation they never received.
The result?
Mimicry instead of mastery.
Effort without progress.
Passion with a dead-end.
This is the gap the BalletPrep Method was designed to close.
“Adults who want to learn ballet usually get to learn the what but not the how. I designed the BalletPrep method to fill that gap.” — C.S. Shabsis, BalletPrep Method — The Book
The Teacher Gap
Even Talented Teachers Can't Explain What They Never Had to Learn
Most adult ballet teachers were trained as children. They learned instinctively and somatically, under the developmental conditions designed for young children. However, their adult students do not share these advantages.
These teachers often give well-intentioned corrections meant for advanced-level students, such as “deepen your plié,” “don’t sit in your hip,” “extend through your tendu” — while skipping over a plethora of things that need to be in place before these elements should even be addressed. This leads to confusion from piecemeal information.
Serious adult students deserve more.
The Late-Entry Dancer
For the Dancer Who Started Late
Late-entry dancers — teens and adults beginning ballet after the traditional training window — often feel shut out of the system.
They’re passionate, disciplined, and willing to work hard, yet they’re rarely given access to the technical education offered to children on the professional track.
The BalletPrep Method was designed for them:
serious training, explained clearly and logically, without requiring the years of childhood conditioning that traditional programs assume.
Late-entry dancers require more.
Some of the Groundbreaking Concepts Behind BalletPrep:
The Technical Foundation
A five-point alignment and form checklist that corrects the foundational elements adult dancers never received. This is the beginning of true technique; the unspoken rules that separate the professionals from the novices.
The Pillar
The principle that reveals the real mechanical secret to balance and stability. Without it, balance is unpredictable. With it, balance becomes reliable — even effortless.
Induced Resistance
The key to the proper execution of movements. No action in ballet should take place without its application. It ensures the building of the correct musculature and and effective interpretation of movements.
The Pendulum
A breakthrough method for overwriting the ingrained postural habits adults bring into ballet. By exaggerating alignment in the opposite direction, the body finds its true center faster and more naturally.
It encodes alignment so deeply that the body learns to organize itself without effort or overcorrection; once this pattern is internalized, common classroom tips like “don’t sit in the hip," "lift up tall," and “use your core" bcome redundant and obsolete.
“This unnamed thing that eludes so many students and teachers alike in terms of comprehension, I have found is simply the sum of five technical points that I call the Technical Foundation.” —C.S. Shabsis, BalletPrep Method — The Book
What BalletPrep Offers
Learn Ballet Properly — At Any Age and Any Level
The BalletPrep system gives adult dancers the opportunity to train with accuracy, depth, and intelligence — without being funneled into ineffective general classes or committing to child-designed conservatory models.
Adults and late-entry dancers can finally access:
- Professional-level technique training
- Mechanics that reduce injury and optimize performance
- Clear, technical explanations that create true understanding
- Innovative and effective exercises
- Expert, precision-focused guidance
- An opportunity for real ballet progression, rather than mimicry
If you’ve ever felt confused or stuck in a ballet class, if you crave clarity, structure, and a logical pathway into ballet — this method is for you.