Giving students, teachers, and parents an edge in dance education
Readers, it’s time to choose your favorite dance blogs for 2011! The nominations for Round One have been counted. Now it’s up to you to choose which blogs will come out on top in our Top 20 and in six categories. VOTE NOW and discover new dance blogs in the process! HURRY, the polls close January 4.
From Nichelle and all of the writers and contributors at Dance Advantage, we wish you a joyous and safe holiday season. May it be filled with dancing!
It takes more energy to break down and store processed foods. The last thing you want to do before a performance is waste energy on eating! This fresh, light salad is great to eat before you hit the stage and the mint will help calm your pre-show jitters.
To those who aren’t dancers or teachers, all the little rules and details we observe and require of our students may seem silly or pointless. But we have our reasons and they’re illustrated in Melanie Doskocil’s final entry for the year in Ballet’s Un-X-pected Lesson Files.
Never fear, the digital age is here! These online or downloadable gifts are a procrastinator’s dream. Give these gifts to the dancers or dance teachers in your life.
A dance career is not for everyone. Even those who’ve spent many happy years training, with dance classes every night, rehearsals, competitions and performances every weekend, formed deeply bonded friendships, and had amazing dance mentors. But after all the blood, sweat, and tears, what do you do now? Jessica Shoop Williams has been there… and back again, and shares her advice with you.
A recent TEDxBrussels Talk by John Bohannon reminds us of the usefulness of movement to express complex concepts or explore and understand scientific ideas while making a satirical statement about the state of the arts in the United States. Watch and learn more about the presentation and its creators.
DanceStudioOwner.com would like to give away one boxed set of their super-cute, dance-themed Holiday Collection Note Cards to FIVE Dance Advantage readers. Simply comment to enter and you could be a winner. Plus learn a little greeting card trivia, when you visit!
When working with students on choreography it’s possible to get them thinking beyond steps to a more robust concept of creative process that encourages thoughtful choices about all areas of production. Heather demonstrated this with her previous article. This time, she goes a step further, showing you ways to connect these ideas with dance history to enrich students’ understanding.
Many contenders could claim to be “the king” of paddle and roll (also called paradiddles) but no other dancer is identified more with the tap step than tap icon, Lon Chaney. Bunny Briggs has also made his mark with the step, as have others. Learn more about paddle and roll and its origins.
Fresh from her Grade III Cecchetti teacher’s exam, Lauren Warnecke reflects on why, despite that she’s not actively teaching ballet, she continued to study the Method. Purely editorial, her musings are a peek inside the exam process and tip of the hat to the man behind the Method.
Co-Director of The Ailey School, Co-Chair of The Ailey/Fordham B.F.A. program, and former Dance Theatre of Harlem ballerina, Melanie Person answers ten questions: on leg extension, encouraging ballet students, what studios could do to better prepare students for college, and what she knew when she was twelve.
