Ballet?

MKSizzle

So as some of you may know, I am still relatively new to Sims 3 and only have Generations and Ambitions for EPs. I say this to defend my stupid questions LOL. So here goes: I have signed up a couple of my children for after school ballet classes but nothing comes of it. Is there supposed to? I have read in places that they are supposed to gain the ballet skill but I'm not seeing anything like that. I think it would be awesome from them to do ballet! I have even seen pictures of sims dancing and I even downloaded some CC of ballerina stuff. I was so excited! But....nothing. What is going on here?

KhemKat19

If I'm remembering correctly, ballet is a hidden skill. As they level up in it, you should get new self-interactions to do different ballet moves, or I believe you can show the moves off to other sims. I don't remember how long it takes to gain the first level of skill

igazor

Children's Ballet is a hidden skill that is acquired through the after school activities (Generations). You don't actually see sim children learning ballet, the activity takes place in the school rabbit hole for 2 hrs, 3 days/wk immediately after regular school so that's 3-5pm on Mon, Tues, Fri. As they gain the hidden skill, they should be able to show off some dance moves to the adults by way of social interactions. There should be a recital scheduled towards the end of the child stage. You might want to make sure your sim kids are actually attending the club at the scheduled times instead of just leaving school at or around 3pm.

You can check on the hidden skill to see if your kids are making any progress with MasterController (MC Cheats) as it will appear there along with all of the others.

Regular, on-screen Ballet is part of the Dancing skill for teens and older (although I believe children can learn it this way as well). It requires this store set or the Skylight Studio for the Performing Arts.

MKSizzle

@igazor Ok so first of all, thank you. I did notice the rabbit hole part of it. I knew about all that, but I thought it would go beyond that. I have yet to see the option to show others a dance move. Wonder why? I did download the Skylight studio just now. For some reason I was unable to access the Light As A Feather set. One question, though... If it is usually just for teens and up then why do they have children in the picture??

suzses

@MKSizzle Not sure what you mean by "unable to access," but if you got the Skylight Studio, you have the dance equipment already as part of the venue set. And kids can use it. Not sure about who gains what skills because I haven't really paid attention to that part.

MKSizzle

@suzses I had tried to download the Light As A Feather set first, but it sent me to a blank page No idea what was up with that. Then I found the Studio and got that instead. That's all I meant.

coco

I'm 90% sure that it just goes towards the athletic skill.

igazor

I'm pretty sure that the ballet barre builds athletic while the dance floor builds at least the dance skills (or maybe both). Not the hidden kind in this case, I mean the full Dance skill that shows up on the sim's skill tab.

It's fun to use regardless and I don't think there's much a high-skilled dancer can do that a low-skilled one can't except maybe step on their partner's feet less often.

Amphora

If I remember correctly (and like Igazor said) there is a Dance skill that the ballet after school class gives you.

However, I’ve only recently discovered the dance barre in the bowels of the Buy Mode catalog so all I know is what I’ve discovered as I’ve played.



From what I’ve observed the ballet barre gives the dance skill to children and athletic to Teens and Adults but I could be wrong.

suzses

MKSizzle wrote: »

@suzses I had tried to download the Light As A Feather set first, but it sent me to a blank page No idea what was up with that. Then I found the Studio and got that instead. That's all I meant.

Ah, OK. The venue is nice to have anyway, especially the roof pieces.

IreneSwift

The after school ballet class has three levels. As your child reaches each level, they get a new dance move they can show off. Somewhere along the way at a random point, they will get an opportunity to participate in a dance competition, at which they can win a trophy for being the best. After they reach level 3, they will get the opportunity for the awards ceremony/recital. Both the competition and the awards ceremony are done on their own time, but there is a time limit to get them done. For the awards ceremony, they will have to go back to the school that same night as their final after school meeting, or the next day.

Learning ballet using the dance barre is for everyone from child aged and older. They will learn the same dance moves as at the after school club, and if you have them in the club and use the dance bar, they will reach level 3 for the club very quickly, which kind of spoils the whole after school thing. However, it takes 3 after school meetings to reach each level, so a total of 9 to master the hidden skill. So if my children aren't going to make it to enough club meetings before they age up to teen, due to missing meetings because of illness or field trips, I will use the dance barre to make up for those missed meetings.

Edit: One other thing - while your sim is exercising at the dance barre, they will get athletic skill and strength training time, but it takes much, much longer to master the dance skill. And once they have mastered athletic, there will be no skill progress meter above their head while they work out at the barre. But the skill they've gained will be added, and you'll get notifications as they gain levels, but not until they've finished the workout that gained the level for them. So it looks like nothing is happening, but it is. You just have to be patient.

jillbg

The dance school is a hidden skill, but the kids can show off their skills, doing pirouettes and stuff!

The barre interactions are fun to watch! But they are terribly difficult to coordinate.





Luckily you can always use poses...






All the pictures are from the story about the little witch Taïga, just click on my banner to see and read more!

MKSizzle

@jillbg Those are great!!! I love the cat trying to attack her in the last one when she is mid leap. Hahahaha

bklienhart

From my experience with the Ballet Class after school, it takes about 2 weeks worth of classes to max out.

IreneSwift

Maybe how long it takes depends on the lifespan. But when I've done it with shorter lifespans, they never reach the top level for the after school classes.

jillbg

@MKSizzle Thanks! Poses are really fun to use!