Blog
5 Ways to Use Play in the Dance Studio
Why should you use play as a teaching method in the dance studio? Incorporating play as a…
21 Ways to Manage Distracting Behaviors in Dance Classes
What are distracting behaviors in the dance studio? Distracting behaviors can happen in any…
Recommended Reading: Dance Memoirs and Biographies, Part 1
Add some dance inspiration to your reading list Dance inspiration can be found in many places, especially in this digital age. But for me, the greatest inspiration often lies within the pages of a good book. Growing up as a hopeful ballerina-in-training, I lost…
Dancers’ Wisdom: The Only Way To Do It, Is 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.” This quote from Merce Cunningham has been on my mind often in the last two weeks …. When I sat down to write lesson plans, and…
6 Ways to Motivate Your Dance Students
Even beyond the strange events of the 2020s thus far, there are times when students are unmotivated for a variety of reasons. They may be going through a difficult time at school, having trouble with friends, facing romantic disappointments, or be burdened by family issues. For us on the other side of adolescence, it might be tempting to write these struggles off. We lived through them, and so will our students, right? That may be true, but giving our students some extra support when they are going through difficult times for any reason can go a long way in helping them feel motivated to succeed in their dance training. In this blog post, I will share six strategies for motivating your dance students, no matter what difficult times they may be facing!
5 Ways to Achieve Your Dance Goals
Having visionary dance goals – along with a realistic plan to achieve them – is vital for dancers of all ages and at every stage of their careers. Dance is hard work – there is no way around that! Dance training can be tedious, strenuous, and require lots of sacrifice. You often have to deal with rejection, frustration, and imposter syndrome, and can easily experience burnout and fatigue. Goal-setting can keep you motivated and making process, even when things get challenging or overwhelming. In this blog post, I’ll share 5 ways that you can achieve your dance goals, no matter what they are.
Dance is/as Protest: A Protest Dance Activity to Use in Your Classes
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, dance is meaningful connection. In a world that seems to hide behind filters and photoshop, dance is raw. In a world that loves the 20-second soundbite, dance is persistent and eternal. In a world that is always looking to what is new, dance is primal and innate. In a world that seems to encourage division and disagreement, dance is universal. In a world that only sees in black and white, dance is vibrant. In a world that forces yes or no, dance holds and honors multiple perspectives, voices, and modes of thinking, moving, and being. This Protest Dance unit is a great way to tackle important issues through dance education. It works well in middle and high school programs, college dance appreciation, history, and culture courses, and conservatory style choreography and composition classes.
3 Simple Interactive Dance History Lessons
These interactive dance history lessons will help your students understand and appreciate a little bit of the rich, complex, and nuanced history of the art of dance. They are designed to help students learn more about important time periods, figures, or masterworks in dance, and also to think about how dance history can relate to what they know of dance today. Students will watch, move, create, and discuss as they complete the activities in each lesson.They are specific to the dance genres I teach: ballet, jazz, and modern, but I believe that you could adapt the main idea of each to other dance styles. They can be used in dance technique classes, dance history classes, or dance appreciation classes with students of all skill levels.
5 Dance Activities to Support Your Students’ Emotional Health
Now more than ever, with the world recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic and an uncertain future before us, it is critical that we address our dance students’ emotional health in their dance training. As we continue to navigate the effects of the pandemic, our students are likely experiencing lingering feelings of fear, anxiety, and a major sense of disruption. Some will be facing additional trauma at home, having struggled immensely without the safe zones of school or the studio or dealing with loss of loved ones during the pandemic. Right now, all of our dance students need us to support their emotional health by using dance to provide tools for coping and resiliency, far more than they need technique exercises or choreography drills. This blog post features five dance activities that will support our dance students’ emotional health.
21 Choreography Adventures to Foster Resiliency
This series of choreography prompts, affectionately known as #ChoreographyAdventures, are designed with resilience in mind. It is my hope that these prompts for choreography or improvisation remind you how incredibly persistent, empowered, and amazing you are. I invite you to share them with your students and use the questions provided to engage them in discussions of grit, determination, and hope for better days to come.
Dance Games to Help Your Students Improve Their Performance Skills
Why performance skills matter in dance training 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…
5 Strategies for “Bring A Friend” Dance Classes
Why I love “Bring a Friend” Dance Classes Confession time: I absolutely LOVE introducing new students to dance. I am the teacher that eagerly signs up to teach the beginner dance classes. There is something magical about welcoming a new dancer into…
Making Dance Now: Errant Movement
“Making Dance Now” is an occasional blog series profiling choreographers and small dance companies to explore the challenges and rewards of creating, producing, and presenting choreography in today’s culture and economy. It’s my hope that this series will spark a…
What to Do When Your Dance Students Need to Sit Out and Observe Class
Dance students may need to sit out and observe class for all kinds of reasons, including non-contagious illnesses, aches and pains, major injuries, not being prepared to dance, or even at times for behavioral issues. With technology like Zoom now widely available to dance teachers, dance students can also observe class online from home when needed. No matter why dancers may ned to sit out and observe class, it is important for us as dance teachers to ensure that they continue to learn even if they cannot physically dance. In this blog post I will share 5 activities to keep dance students learning when they need to sit out of dance class.
Tax Basics for Independent Artists, Part 2: Business Expenses
This is the second in a guest blog series by Jonathan Cain, Chartered Financial Consult®, cellist, engineer, and (if I may add) husband extraordinaire! The goal of this series is to provide basic information on taxes for independent artists, such as performers, dance…
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