16 Audition Basics and Pointers For Keeping A Positive Perspective
Be prepared for your next audition! 10 Audition "basics" that you'll need to do or keep in mind, plus 6 more suggestions that will get your head in the game.
Do Your Communications With Parents Pass The Scan, Scroll, Stroll Test?
It's frustrating when parents don't seem to get the messages we send home, email, or plaster throughout the studio. If this is a frequent problem, make sure your communications pass these tests.
How Do You Define “Dolly Dinkle” Dance Instruction?
Most of you have an idea about what it means to be a "Dolly Dinkle" (or Dolly Dingle) dance instructor or dance school. Weigh in with your definition of insufficient dance education.
For Students
Expecting a certain outcome puts your mind in a place and time other than the audition and you’ll need to have your head in the present tense to do well. Clear your mind and dance because you love dancing, not because of the pot of gold that may or may not be at the end of this rainbow.
Maybe you are a dance student who just loves to move at a fast pace and find it difficult to slow down. Perhaps you are eager to try the more advanced or faster version and don’t like it when your dance instructor holds you back.
Possibly it annoys you. You wonder what’s wrong with you or what’s wrong with your teacher that you have to work through things so slowly. Maybe you even begin to think he or she is just being mean or controlling.
“I once took six months off from ballet when I was 14. My school commitments were growing and it was becoming seriously difficult to juggle everything. It reaffirmed for me, however, that ballet was my one love and out of everything what I should have been doing.”
Read More Posts From This CategoryFor Teachers/Studio Owners
Guest Post: Insight Into ABT’s National Training CurriculumDeb describes her own productive and exhilarating summer adventures as a participant in American Ballet Theater’s National Training Curriculum program in wonderful detail. “The Training is organized as week-long intensives; candidates are asked to obtain certification in Primary Level through Level 3 of the curriculum before being allowed to continue certification in Levels 4 and 5, and then 6, 7, and Partnering (taught as two separate intensives).”
To illustrate this, I ask my students to become aware of how their body feels as it works against gravity. I ask them to put their hands above their heads and then to be still. I remind them, “you are in charge of your body,” “your brain tells your body what to do,” and then we wait.
Instead of actual snapshots I’m sharing some of the thoughts and impressions I picked up along the yellow brick road. I hope you’ll use, think about, or act upon these little nuggets from the Dance Teacher Summit. I had a great time collecting them for you.
Read More Posts From This CategoryFor Parents
Possibly the worst thing dancers can do when there is a strong desire to improve is make negative comparisons of themselves to other dancers. Sometimes comparisons help us create a realistic picture and provide awareness of where we are and where we still have to go. However, comparisons must stop there.
Experience and exposure in a variety of dance styles is important for creating versatile dancers and may even be a necessity for aspiring professionals. Being well-rounded in dance is a good thing. Exposure to different dance forms, starting at a young age, is a great thing. So where’s the myth? It lies in the misplaced emphasis on experience and omission of training.
End-of-year performances dominate dance studios between April and June. It is a busy time and parents and students are often left scrambling to find just the right thank-you gift for their teacher. Gifts for teachers need not be expensive. In fact, I don’t know any teacher who would not cherish a simple thank-you letter from the heart! However, there are plenty of cute, easy, and useful craft ideas online.
Despite that the path is sometimes painful and frustrating with prolonged and hard-won rewards, young dancers spend much time and thought getting ready for pointe work. But how will your teacher decide if you are ready? Why might she decide you are not? And what can you expect if you are prepared to bear a pair of toe shoes?
What I liked most about JAM is that it is lightweight like street makeup but “reads” well onstage and doesn’t absorb or sweat off as easily as street cosmetics. The pigments are much stronger than street makeup, meaning you need less to pull off a more intense look. JAM cosmetics are mineral-based, hypoallergenic for sensitive skin and non-comedogenic, which means it won’t clog pores. They are completely talc and paraben free and, as a company that does not test on animals, the company is on the PETA “friends” list. Technical jargon aside, it just feels better on my skin.
Read More Posts From This Category















