--- title: Childhood Obesity: Ballet Class Isn't Exercise, But Hip-Hop Dance Is description: When ranked against other forms of dance in terms of how much exercise it provides, ballet class didn't even come close to first position canonical: https://time.com/3882486/ballet-class-exercise/ author: Mandy Oaklander article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-18T19:01:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:41:08.615Z article:section: Health og:title: Ballet Class Isn't Good Exercise for Kids, but Hip-Hop Is og:description: When ranked against other forms of dance in terms of how much exercise it provides, ballet class didn't even come close to first position og:url: https://time.com/3882486/ballet-class-exercise/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaa89b2ee68f3dbc0/69884cfc55a8593565a8baf0/ballet-class.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: ballet-class.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ballet Class Isn't Good Exercise for Kids, but Hip-Hop Is twitter:description: When ranked against other forms of dance in terms of how much exercise it provides, ballet class didn't even come close to first position twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaa89b2ee68f3dbc0/69884cfc55a8593565a8baf0/ballet-class.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ballet Isn't Good Exercise for Kids — but Hip-Hop Is, Study Says > Sponsored content. 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Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=740e1cef-e4b9-4d17-add6-ed3afcb01cb5&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: We Tried This: Aerial Vinyasa Yoga [Watch (HLS stream): We Tried This: Aerial Vinyasa Yoga](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/68PN7sJl.m3u8) (1:28)  _Published 2012-08-20. A total body workout while you hang from a hammock._  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. May 18, 2015 7:01 PM UTC  Close up of teenage ballerinas feet poise Close up of teenage ballerinas feet poise Getty Images  by [Mandy Oaklander](https://time.com/author/mandy-oaklander/)  ## Mandy Oaklander Oaklander is a senior editor at TIME. May 18, 2015 7:01 PM UTC Signing up your kid for ballet class might seem like a great way to get them some exercise. But when ranked against other forms of dance in terms of how much exercise it provides, ballet class didn’t even come close to first position. “People are very aware of the obesity epidemic but not as concerned as they should be about the low levels of activity in our country,” says study author James Sallis, distinguished professor of family and preventive medicine at the University of California, San Diego, and author of the new study published in the journal _Pediatrics_. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends that American children and adolescents get an hour of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity each day, but many fall short — especially girls, who are consistently found to be less active than boys, he says. But most kinds of dance aren’t helping close that gender gap, Sallis and his team found. Researchers studied the activity levels of 264 girls in two age ranges: children ages 5 to 10 and adolescents ages 11 to 18\. The dancers were outfitted with accelerometers to measure the intensity of their movements. In total, the researchers measured levels in 66 dance classes of a wide range of styles: ballet, jazz, hip-hop, flamenco, salsa, tap and partnered dance like swing and ballroom. Only 8% of children and 6% of adolescents achieved the 30-minute recommendation for after-school moderate-to-vigorous exercise.  Graphs showing percentage of dance-class time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity for children and adolescents. Percentages based on averages. UC San Diego School of Medicine In children, the type of dance really mattered. Hip-hop was the most active kind of dance, with 57% of class time being devoted to moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Jazz took second place, followed by partnered class, tap, salsa and finally ballet, where 30% of class is spent in moderate-to-vigorous activity. (The rest of the class, as any once-tiny dancer will remember, was spent stretching, standing and listening to the teacher, the study found.) Flamenco class came in last, with 14% of class spent in substantial exercise. But in adolescents, dance forms were much more similar in terms of the exercise they provided. Ballet actually rose in the ranks to first place, matching hip-hop in intensity. About 30% of both kinds of dance classes are moderate-to-vigorous for adolescents. “Dance is a golden opportunity to contribute to the health of girls while they’re enjoying moving and being with their friends and building their physical competence and all the other things that dance does,” Sallis says. He and his team found that when kids are just learning a skill or a step, they’re not particularly active — until they put multiple steps together in a routine. “That’s when most of the activity takes place,” he says, and by teaching fewer steps and practicing more combinations, instructors can really make dance class count. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] This is Aerial Vinasa. Using the strength of your thighs to control. A type of fusion yoga that combines traditional Vinyasa Yoga, with the art of aerial dance. [ MUSIC ] One of the things about the hammocks is that you're gonna be using muscles in different ways than you would in your regular Vinyasa class. And exhale right. I'm Alexandra Sifferlin for Time. I decided to visit the OM Factory in Manhattan, and see how these hammocks add to the yoga experience. So say for a warrior three pose, right, which is usually a challenge for a lot of people. So with the hammocks we can actually use it as a tool to stabilize the upper body and that way we can work on squaring the hips towards the ground. This fusion still maintains the basic elements of Vinyasa Yoga, letting your breath guide the movement. And as you exhale, just release, sink into the fabric and let it help you stretch. The result is better controlled movements as you strengthen your core muscles. Pull yourself all the way up to stand. And as I discovered, using a hammock adds one very important element to a yoga class. In a regular yoga class sometimes you forget to have fun and to smile, and the hammock really brings out the kid, in, in the yogi. You guys are troopers. I like it. 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