Blog
How to Give Dance Students More Effective Feedback
The challenge of giving students feedback on their dancing During my conversation with Joe...
How to Teach Social Skills in Dance Class
Do your dancers struggle with social skills - or are they overly social? Time and time...
How to Teach Social Skills in Dance Class
Social skills are the skills we use everyday as we interact with the people around us, and our vital for success and happiness. They help use have positive interactions with those we encounter through the day, develop strong friendships, and maintain appropriate relationships with peers and authority figures. When we have strong social skills, we are able to effectively resolve conflicts, speak up for ourselves when necessary, and demonstrate empathy for others. In this blog post, I’ll share six easy ways to teach social skills in your dance classes, as well as make the case for WHY these skills are so important! You’ll find fun activities that will improve your dancers’ social skills – and possibly solve some common behavioral issues as well!
Dancers’ Wisdom: A life lived for purpose yields more joy than a life lived for pleasure
I'll admit it: I love creature comforts. Dinners out, spa days, hotel stays, flannel sheets in the winter, margaritas by the pool in the summer ... I'm here for it all. But I'm also deeply committed to my career in the arts, which of course does not exactly yield the...
5 Ways to Become a Better Dance Performer
If you would like to become a better dance performer, it is important to develop your skills in four aspects of dance performance: musicality, character development, connection, and expression. This blog post include strategies that will help you improve your skills in each of these areas, allowing you to become a better dance performer. Follow these tips to become the best dance performer you can be!
Recommended Reading: Jazz Dance Books
Find 8 must-read books on jazz dance that can transform in how you teach jazz dance! These books honor the Africanist roots and aesthetics of the form, while recognizing its evolution over time. Jazz dance students, teachers, and choreographers should add these book to their reading list.
Dancers’ Wisdom: Respond with More Grace Than Necessary (Especially to Yourself)
Somehow, we've made it to 2022. And unfortunately, we're somehow still ... here. In whatever this is. I think we all know, all too well, the myriad problems in the world right now - no need to elaborate, is there? But what we don't always seem to know is how to...
Simple Ways to Improve Your Dance Improvisation Skills
In this blog post, you’ll find 10 strategies for improving your dance improvisation skills. These strategies will help beginning dancers overcome anxiety or fear related to improvisation, and allow experienced improvisers to find more depth, specificity, and originality in their improvisation. Help your improvisation stand out by using these 10 strategies for improving your dance improv skills.
10 Choreography Adventures that Explore Social Justice Themes
This set of social justice themed Choreography Adventures are designed to help dancers deepen their understanding of some of the terms, themes, and concepts related to social justice issues, while also encouraging their creative growth and personal expression. These choreography prompts are great to incorporate into your personal creative practice as a choreographer, but you can also use with your students in dance composition, choreography, improvisation, or dance technique classes. The Choreography Adventures can be used as prompts for student informal choreography assignments, formal projects, or as dance improvisation prompts.
Simple Ways to Celebrate Fall in Your Dance Classes
Fall is, for sure, my favorite season – and I know I’m not the only one! Even here in Southern Arizona, there is a special magic to the fall season. The air becomes crisper, the nights cooler, and an overall feeling of coziness prevails…despite temperatures that still reach the high 80s on the regular! Our dance students pick up on the fall vibes, too. You can feel their excitement grow stronger and stronger as we slip into October. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Hanukkah, and winter break start looming large in their minds. Planning some special fall dance activities in your classes is a great way to tap into their excitement and focus their energy, keeping them engaged and learning through the season.
8 Easy Ways to Make the Most of Back-to-Dance Season
The start of a new dance season is one of my favorite things in the world. The energy is electric and the possibilities feel endless. I love the potential that a fresh start holds: the potential for my students to meet their individual goals, for my class to come together as a community, and for myself to establish good habits that can preserve my work-like balance and reduce burnout later in the year. In celebration of the potential that the season holds, here are 8 of my favorite ways to make the most of back-to-dance season, along with tips and resources for implementing each in your dance classes.
Dancers’ Wisdom: The World Needs More You
One of my favorite things about being a dance teacher is helping my students develop their own creative expression through improvisation and choreography. My entire relationship to dance changed when I discovered these two artistic avenues, and I know first hand how...
My Favorite Team-Building Games for Dance Classes
Team-building dance games help students develop collaboration, communication, and creative skills as they work together to meet a shared challenge. Not only are these skills important in the dance studio, but they will also serve our students well in their lives outside the studio. When students tap into these skills sets and learn to be part of a community, they grow as artists and individuals. Making time for team-building dance games is an important way that we can set our students up for success in their art and in their lives. In this blog post, you’ll find 3 of my favorite team-building dance games that will help you create a strong and supportive community in your dance classes, as well as other resources that will make your back-to-dance season a success!
Your Ultimate Guide to Dance Lesson Planning
In this blog post, you’ll find essential things to remember when creating dance lesson plans, as well as some tips for making the lesson planning process easier for dance teachers of all ages, skill levels, and dance genres. By following the tips in the post, you’ll be able to design more effective dance lesson plans that keep your students engaged in their training and improving their skills!
Dancers’ Wisdom: 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, April, and May passed in a blur, busy with commitments including choreographing my first full-length musical, teaching my regular workload, assisting with the staging of La...
Join My Newsletter
Sign up for my newsletter for updates, coupons, and free resources.