Hi — three years into adult ballet.
If you’re looking at studios in Korea, or you’re curious how adult ballet is structured here, this is the post I wish I’d had. Three things:
- How to find out what a studio charges without having to ask
- The embarrassing worries I had before signing up
- What Level 0 through 3, repertoire class and private lessons are actually like
Finding out the price without asking
Let’s start with the awkward part.
You’ve found a studio you like. Now you have to ask what it costs. And that is somehow the hardest step in the whole process.
My problem was that I might ask and then not sign up. I wanted to compare prices calmly, on my own, without a conversation. Asking felt mortifying.
If you’re in Korea, there’s a site called 학원비알리미 (Hagwonbi Allimi) — a public academy fee lookup. Search by area or by studio name and you’ll get an approximate tuition figure.
Now, when a studio catches my eye, I look it up like a ninja first.
If you’re outside Korea: this is a government-run transparency service for private academies. Whether your country has an equivalent, I don’t know — but it’s worth asking whether one exists before you make the awkward call.
The worries I actually had
“Level 1.5? Level 2? Which class am I?”
I’d done one or two years at a studio in another city, and then I moved.
Every studio names its levels differently. If I’d been starting from zero it would have been simple — Level 0, done. But I was somewhere in the middle, self-taught in patches, and I genuinely could not work out where I belonged.
“What if I take a higher level and can’t keep up?”
If you’ve been at it a while, ambition creeps in.
I worried about this constantly. I still do, honestly.
“Everyone who does ballet is thin. Can someone like me do this?”
This was my very first worry, before anything else.
And now I think it was completely unnecessary. I’m having too good a time to care.
How I choose a level now
Most 60–80 minute classes run in the same shape:
Mat work (stretching — often skipped at higher levels) → barre → centre
So here’s my trick. Before I sign up anywhere, I check whether their Level 1 uses a double barre or a single barre. That one detail tells you roughly how hard the class will be.
Level 0 — Beginner
- Completely new to ballet
- The vocabulary for arms, feet and legs still sounds foreign
- Even the stretching is a struggle
Level 0 isn’t easy. You can follow along, but your movement will look nothing like your teacher’s, and that’s the point of the level.
Level 1
- Wants to know how hard a studio really is
- Starting centre work
- Roughly six months to a year in
Careful here: some studios run Level 1 on a single barre rather than a double. Always ask.
This is where you meet pas de chat in centre. It’s also where I first thought about quietly leaving mid-class.
Level 2 (sometimes called Level 1, or Level 1.25)
- Starting single-barre work
- Wants a wider range of centre work
- First encounter with préparation
From Level 2 the balance tips clearly towards centre. If a curriculum still includes mat work but gives centre a decent share, it’s usually labelled around here.
This is also the level where you start caring about leotards, start visiting other studios, and get greedy. I started both préparation and repertoire class at Level 2.
Level 3 (sometimes Level 1.5 or Level 2)
- Noticeably more turns and jumps in centre
- Wants variety
- Wants a class weighted towards both barre and centre
- Already knows how to stretch for injury prevention
Level 3 is where you meet the lifers.
I floundered here. Steps I didn’t know, I simply could not follow. I bought single trial passes at other studios and went in thinking please let me take away just one step today. I’m still not good at it. I’m still going.
One practical note: mat work is usually dropped at this level, so you need your own reliable warm-up and injury-prevention routine.
Repertoire class
- Your leotard collection suddenly multiplies
- Your affection for ballet goes up sharply
- Finishing one is pure dopamine
Some studios run repertoire as a one-day intensive, three or four hours in a single sitting. I have never dared.
Look for studios that run repertoire over at least one to two months. Unless the piece is very difficult, you’re memorising a set sequence — so repetition is exactly what makes you better. Hard at first, then suddenly not.
Finish the run if you can. Said as someone who has dropped out of plenty.
Private lessons
- Wants to understand a step properly
- Has a goal: repertoire, pointe work
- Needs corrections on their own movement
I took my first private lesson at the start of Level 2.
A waltz step, a pas de bourrée — one tangle and I’d panic, and then I couldn’t follow anything after it. So I explained my situation in advance and said exactly what I wanted to work on.
It was worth every won.
Pricing at the time ran around ₩80,000–90,000 per session.
If you take one thing from this
Level names are meaningless across studios. Ask about the barre. Single or double, and how much of the class is centre. Those two answers tell you more than any number in the class title.
And take the level slightly below where your ego wants to be. You’ll learn faster, and you’ll still be going in three years.
Questions about any of this? Leave a comment.
Leave a Reply