Update Post 15: Height of Ballet Barre, Pics added

[turkeymama]

We are installing a ballet barre at home for my daughter since she is advancing fairly well in dance classes. I have looked up this question on google, ask and yahoo, but I get various answers. How high should the barre be mounted on the wall. I have seen anything between 36 and 45 inches. DD is 4'8" tall so 36 inches seems way too low. Any dancers out there have a suggestion? If all else fails, I could always wait till she goes back to class on Tuesday to find out how tall their barres are. DH was hoping to get it mounted this weekend though.

 

[cornflake]

Ask at her class what the height they've got theirs at is (presuming theirs is fixed), as the reason you're finding varying answers is that it varies. Generally, 40 for adults but even then some places will have movable mounts to shift it up and down even on a fixed barre. You also want the correct distance between the barre and the wall, remember, and unfinished wood.

So you might want to both ask what the current height they're using is and do that - as you don't want to throw her off from home to studio - and ask if that differs from the next couple levels and then look to mount it so that you can easily shift it up if need be.

 

[turkeymama]

Ask at her class what the height they've got theirs at is (presuming theirs is fixed), as the reason you're finding varying answers is that it varies. Generally, 40 for adults but even then some places will have movable mounts to shift it up and down even on a fixed barre. You also want the correct distance between the barre and the wall, remember, and unfinished wood.

So you might want to both ask what the current height they're using is and do that - as you don't want to throw her off from home to studio - and ask if that differs from the next couple levels and then look to mount it so that you can easily shift it up if need be.

I didn't think of that until you posted. Thank you. DH will just have to wait. What is the significance of distance from barre to wall? I was a softball gal growing up so I am out of my element with dance.

 

[cornflake]

I didn't think of that until you posted. Thank you. DH will just have to wait. What is the significance of distance from barre to wall? I was a softball gal growing up so I am out of my element with dance.

It's more that it's generally the same everyplace. Lots of studios will use both fixed and mobile barres, so it's not that it has to have a specific distance from a wall to "work" as you can work on a freestanding barre (and those may also be at a slightly different height in the studio from the fixed, but they generally keep them the same) just the same.

However, if you're at a fixed one, if you stretch against the wall, you know where the wall 'should' be when you stretch to it or put a foot on the barre, if you see what I mean. It's just consistancy in that I think it'd feel weird if there WERE a wall and it was in a different place than it 'should' be. Same as if you were at a practice softball field and the mound were, I dunno, ten feet further from the outfield, it'd be like 'wait...'

Same as the height - she could go take a class in a different studio and they could have a barre at a different height than she's used to or use double barres or whatever (some places have two, one for adults, one for kids, so as not to move, like staircase railings with an upper and lower handrail), and she'd just use it fine but if she's going to be mostly at her studio and home, I think it'd be much more irksome if they were off, like if you mounted it adult height and her studio has it 3" lower or whatever.

 

[superme80]

I don't know, but wanna install one for me?

 

[Coconut36]

I agree to ask at the studio. I attended 2 ballet studios (one fed into our professional ballet company) and both always had 2 bars fixed to the walls with 2 heights..at a certain age we used the lower and then moved on to the higher (maybe that is the reason for the varied heights you are reading?). They were fixed one on top, one on bottom with space in between so you had room when using the lower bar. They also both had a moveable bar as well that I do feel like was not the same height as either of the wall bars.

 

[turkeymama]

I'm not sure if they have a double barre at the studio she attends. I'll check on that next week. I do know they have some wall mounted and some freestanding. Oh, and my neighbor is doing some renovations and she is passing a large wall mirror on for DD. Perfect! It's just the right size!

 

[Imzadi]

I agree to ask at the studio. I attended 2 ballet studios (one fed into our professional ballet company) and both always had 2 bars fixed to the walls with 2 heights..at a certain age we used the lower and then moved on to the higher (maybe that is the reason for the varied heights you are reading?). They were fixed one on top, one on bottom with space in between so you had room when using the lower bar. They also both had a moveable bar as well that I do feel like was not the same height as either of the wall bars.

Double bars at every studio I've ever worked at.

I didn't think of that until you posted. Thank you. DH will just have to wait. What is the significance of distance from barre to wall? I was a softball gal growing up so I am out of my element with dance.

The distance is important because there are certain exercises where the dancer, as she is facing the bar, leans forward. You don't want her bumping her head. And if she stands perpendicular to the bar, again, she wants to be able to lean towards the bar, or even move the arm freely without hitting/brushing against the wall.

There are actually standard wall mount brackets for ballet bars. Is DH using one of those?

 

[turkeymama]

No because I didn't realize there was a significance. I'll look into ordering some online. I feel confident we don't have those readily available in town.

 

[Imzadi]

No because I didn't realize there was a significance. I'll look into ordering some online. I feel confident we don't have those readily available in town.

Yes, I thought you might have special ordered one. It would already be adjusted to the proper distance from the wall.

You also need to make sure the bar does not rotate at all. If DD has one leg up on it and she's doing a stretch and the bar turns away from her and she slides, she could pull a leg or pelvic muscle.

Ideally, the barre should not rattle loosely either. I can't stand the free standing bars which were assembled badly & every time I grabbed onto the barre, it rattled. Also, another dancer who constantly jostled the whole frame while we were all dancing, was always quite annoying. There is a reason the barres are mounted to be stationary against the wall. I couldn't stand when I arrived late to class & ended up on the free standing barres.

Maybe, watch some videos on Youtube of ballet barre exercises, to see some of the barre routines. This will give you an understanding of working on the barre and what it has to be able to do.

Ideally, it should also be a certain diameter around, so DD can grab it easily and for the back of her Achilles's tendon to comfortably rest & grab onto the barre easily. You want it to be the same size as her classes, which would be a standard size diameter and fit into the brackets.

These directions, of course, are because you are going to the effort to mount a barre. For those of us who didn't have a barre at home, we simply used the back of a wooden chair, about the appropriate height, tossed on a few old Sears catalogs so the chair wouldn't slide, or simply pushed up against the wall so it wouldn't move. The edges of the chair did hurt the Achilles's tendon over time unless we placed a towel over it. But other than that, it works effectively. So don't stress too much over it all.

 

[Coconut36]

I agree about the bar rotating..I remember someone being hurt because the bar rolled while we were doing some exercises. Nothing life threatening but certainly extremely painful and took her out of class for a couple weeks to heal (strained something in her leg IIRC it has been years since it happened).

 

[emcclay]

SAB and I'm pretty sure Steps on Broadway have triple-beamed barres. There are also companies that manufacture portable barres. Not sure how well those hold up. We always used the heavy-duty metal barres for performance weeks in theatres.

 

[momof1princess]

DD14 took dance for several years (had to quit last fall b/c of marching band), and her studio used portable barres, with one height. i took dance for 10 years as a child/young teen, and our studio had wall-mounted barres, they were wood, and there was a higher and a lower. i have a feeling the instructor's husband made them, as he owned a construction company. they were awesome. the ones used by DD's instructor aren't nearly as sturdy.

 

[turkeymama]

Thank you so much for all the tips everyone. These are things I would have never known to pay attention to.

Hopefully I can get everything done in a week or so. I'll be sure to post a pic when we finish.

 

[turkeymama]

They were able to get the height so he finished it tonight. It was 40 inches. DH found DD's ballet portrait collage from when she was 3 (she is almost 12 now) and hung it over the the top. It came out very nice.