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5 Quick Tips for Better (and Easier!) Dance Lesson Plans
Dance teachers often fall into two camps when it comes to their dance lesson plans - there are...
#MonthlyMessage: Saying No as a Sign of Wisdom, Not Weakness
It's been a while since my last #MonthlyMessage post - over three months, to be exact. March,...
8 Things Your Dance Students Need to Hear From You Right Now
The beginning of March 2021 marked one year since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. It was a remarkable year, and a difficult one, in so many ways. Whether your dance students had an extended time off due to studio closures, pivoted to online...
4 Creative Ways to Use Dance Improvisation in Technique Class
If you follow my blog or social media, you'll quickly see how much I love dance Improvisation! That wasn't always the case - but you'll read about that in a later blog post. Suffice it to say for now that my love of improv as a teaching tool was sparked by seeing how...
#MonthlyMessage: Love in Action
I did something that felt a little bit radical back in January: I bought a day planner. Yes, even in the midst of the continued uncertainty of these "pandemic times," I stepped out in faith and spent $25 on a fancy calendar. Things are returning to normal-ish here in...
A Letter to My Dance Students in 2021
To My Dancers, Hi, it's me. Your Dance Teacher. Maybe it's been a while since we've seen one another face to face in the dance studio like old times. Even if we have been fortunate to gather for in-person classes, you may not remember what my smile looks like behind...
#MonthlyMessage: The Only Way To Do It…
We are 15 days into the new year, and I've already found my mantra for 2021: "The only way to do it, is to do it." When I sat down to write lesson plans, and got caught in a flashback to January 2020. I thought about how much had changed in the last year,...
How to Motivate Your Dance Students in 2021
It's no secret that some (if not most!) of our dance students are struggling as we enter into the new year. The last 10 months have been hard on everyone, children and teens included. For many students, dance class has been an escape, a release, a relief from the...
5 Surefire Ways to Crush Your Dance Goals This Year!
The countdown is on to 2021, and I think it is safe to say that most of us are ready to grand jete far away from 2020 and shim-sham-shimmy into the new year. Of course, none of us know what the coming year has in store, but the changing of the calendar still offers a...
Dance is/as Protest
I believe that dance is the ultimate form of protest, especially in our modern world. In a world that seems to unfold behind screens, dance is conscious physical embodiment. In a world that seems increasingly isolated in spite of our digital access to one another,...
3 Simple Dance History Lessons for Online Classes
It’s still hard for me to wrap my head around this, but dance programs in many parts of the country are facing the prospect of online or hybrid classes into the fall. Since I’m an optimist by nature, I’ve been trying to view the this messy COVID-19 situation as a way...
Why We Still Need to Dance – Even If It’s Online
Like author Alice Walker, I believe that “hard times require furious dancing.” I have written, time and time again, that dance has the potential to empower individuals, unite communities, and be a force for good in the world. But when I first learned that schools and...
5 Dance Activities to Support Your Students’ Emotional Health
If you’ve followed my blog or used one if my resources, you know that I believe social-emotional learning should be an important part of any dance curriculum. (Read more on that here.) Now more than ever, with the world in the midst of Covid-19 outbreak and most...
21 Choreography Adventures to Foster Resiliency
Dancers are nothing if not resilient. We walk confidently into classes, rehearsals, competitions, auditions, and performances, knowing that no matter how difficult the combinations or how stern the choreographer, whether we get platinum or get cut in the first round,...
How to Help Your Dance Students Improve Their Performance Skills
Have you ever watched a dancer who was just stunning technically - extensions to to the ear, super coordinated, gorgeous use of weight and space, incredible jumps and turns - but just doesn't make you feel anything? It happens all the time, especially in the age of TV...
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