Looking Back, Stepping Forward

I began Dance Advantage in April of 2008. It has been a great eight months and quite a learning process for me. When I began I knew next to nothing about blogs or blogging. This has been a year of learning, watching, reading, writing, trial-and-error, hard work, and TIME (lots of time)! I’ve tweaked the look and the layout of this blog. I’ve tried all kinds of social media forms. And I’ve gotten a really good response from readers and other bloggers. So, I’d like to take a moment to say thank you to a few people/websites that have been a great help.

Thank you!

Some folks that have been especially kind, helpful, and supportive…

Leslea at NJ Dancers and Uptown Dance

Suzanne at Dance Studio Owner

David at Movmnt Magazine

Nancy Wozny at Dancehunter

Angie at Blog Coach

Cammie at Stripes and Velour

Some sites and services that have been a great help along the way

WordPress.com

ProBlogger

Twitter

BlogCatalog

Google

The Body Series/Dancing Smart Newsletter

My Tweeps and other dancebloggers

Selly at DanceOutlook

Tonya at Swan Lake Samba Girl

Deborah at Dance in Israel and DanceBloggers.com

Maria at A Time to Dance

M. Butterfly at Notes from Upstage Left

… the many others who have been kind enough to add Dance Advantage to their blogroll or links, most of them can be found on my blogroll (so please check it out).

And a huge THANK YOU to my readers!

Readership has increased over 300% since that first month of blogging. Dance Advantage has come a long way, and I recently published my 100th post! Just for fun, let’s look back at the most popular posts this year.

Top Five Posts for the Year

  1. Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Turnout (Part I)
  2. What Is Modern Dance?
  3. Creative Dance
  4. Encouraging Boys to Dance
  5. Improving Pirouettes

Goals for 2009

I have many goals for Dance Advantage but I thought I’d let you in on the biggest one. Plans are already in motion for making the switch from WordPress.com to WordPress.org. For readers who have no idea, this means that I will have more control over the look and design of the blog, which will translate into a new look and layout, new features, options for navigating the posts, and more. I am very excited about this transition as I believe it will support my mission to provide a quality and useful resource for those involved in dance education.

If you are a regular reader of the blog, I encourage any suggestions or feedback that will improve this site. I’d love to hear from you!

To all of you visiting this, my first post in 2009, I want to wish you a wonderful, prosperous, and…

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About Nichelle (admin)

Nichelle Strzepek began Dance Advantage in 2008, equipped with little more than passion for movement education, curiosity, and an intuitive sense that the Internet could bring dancers together. She has written about 100,000 words on dance and dance training each year of its existence. Nichelle holds a BA in dance and is an instructor with more than 16 years experience. She continues to perform as a contemporary dance artist, covers dance in the Houston area as a freelance writer and critic, and balances daily life as a full-time mom of two young children.

Comments

  1. Maria says:

    Thanks for the kind mention Nichelle, and congratulations on all the great things you have done with the blog this year. Here’s to a fab 2009!

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