16 Audition Basics and Pointers For Keeping A Positive Perspective

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.

Guest Post: Insight Into ABT’s National Training Curriculum

Deb 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).”

Ready, Set, Stop: How To Teach Mind-Body Skills By Not Moving

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.

Summing Up The Summit

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.

New Continents — From Royal Ballet School To Boston Ballet

“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.”

Lightbulb Moments: Pas De Chat

Every jump in ballet is preceded by a counter-movement, namely, a plie, and this is exceedingly effective in getting more height out of a jump (try jumping from straight legs and see what happens), not to mention protecting the achilles tendon from injury. In fact, people have studied jump height and found that maximum vertical height in a jump is higher using a counter movement than not (3). So it makes sense that we bend our knees before jumping.

5 Scholarship Opportunities for Dancers

The Worldstudio AIGA scholarship program, which aims to increase diversity in the creative professions, is an excellent opportunity for minority and economically disadvantaged dancers. Each year, AIGA provides scholarships ranging from $200 to $2,000, which are based on need, merit, and applicants’ demonstrated activism in social justice issues. The scholarships are available to students who are or will be enrolled in a full-time 4-year undergraduate degree program studying dance or other fine arts.

Muscles 101: Comparing muscles to a rubber band might be stretching it….

While the image of a rubber band is useful in demonstrating the elastic nature of muscles in the stretch reflex, it’s not always as simple as the stretch/recoil and stretch-farther/less-recoil that we gain from thinking of muscles simply as rubber bands.

5 Must-Dos Before You Apply For A Creative Graduate Program

There are many graduate programs that take traditional art areas and tailor them to specific career goals and interests. For instance, there are programs in Dance Education, Dance Performance, Acting, Directing, Television Studio Management, Music Production and Arts Administration. Think creatively when deciding what to get your Master’s degree in. There are endless creative possibilities waiting for you!

Guest Post: Body Image — Are You Looking For Perfection In Your Reflection?

“As dancers we face our reflection so much that you would think we know what we look like. We spend hours every day in front of a mirror in nothing more than skin tight clothing and a skirt if we are lucky. But I have found that the opposite is true. Most of us have a distorted idea of our image.”

Sunday Snapshot: America Swings

wing Dance was born out of American jazz in Harlem in the late 1920s through the 40s and is now being cultivated in more than fifty foreign countries. Capturing the peak moment in dance is a challenge for photographers. Being a dancer myself, I listen to the music and know when that split second will occur.

Why I’m Psyched For The Dance Teacher Summit

The line-up of dance artists, master teachers, and presenters. Every single one has contributed so much to the dance world and to dance training. Legends and long-time educators like Frank Hatchett, David Howard, Bill Evans, Finis Jhung, Zena Rommett, Denise Wall and my former professor at Slippery Rock University, Thom Cobb. Plus luminaries like Sean Curran, Mandy Moore, Travis Wall, Mike Minery, and Andy Blankenbuehler.

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