Dance Advantage » dance community

Who Inspires You?

Nichelle (admin) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 13:33:44 +0000

By rough count, I have over 300 dance-related blogs contributing to My Own Dance “Magazine”, otherwise known as my Google Reader.

These display varying levels of activity, of course, but what matters is that people of all ages, abilities, experiences, and walks of life are excited enough about dance to want to write about it.

Inspirational Blogger Award

Recently a young blogger named Melissa created her first blog award, naming 11 of her favorite blogs/bloggers and encouraging them to pass it on. Not all are dance-related but you can see her Top 11 at contemporarydancing.co.uk.

Among these recipients was Jean, of 52 Weeks of Ballet, a relatively new blog which chronicles Jean’s journey as an adult ballet dancer in Sydney, Australia. She’s about 32 weeks in but I encourage you to catch up at www.52weeksofballet.com.

Jean was kind enough to include me in her Top 5 favorite dance blogs and I’m in good company. Check out the others here.

With A Twist and Shout Out

Now, you may know Dance Advantage hosts its own little award showdown, wherein we name Top Dance Blogs based upon your votes. News of our 2011 awards is coming soon so get ready!

Since Melissa’s Inspirational Blogger awards can go out to any type of blog, I’ll be naming my Top 10 inspirational NON-Dance blogs later. I hope you’ll find at least one new blog on the list that will inspire you too.

But first, because I can’t seem to do anything strictly by the book, I wanted to use this opportunity to feature Jean and Melissa, and their respective blogs with an interview. And, because Melissa’s blog award rules originally calls for recipients to give some tidbits about themselves, I’ve added a little twist and asked these two ladies to interview me with 3 questions each of their choosing. So let’s get on with it, shall we?

First a little background:

Melissa splits her time between dance, blogging, and friends.

Melissa is a teenager who loves dance so much she signs off on all her posts as ‘Lover of Dance’. She’s been dancing for roughly 10 years and has been exploring different schools and genres. When she’s not dancing or blogging, she’s socializing with friends, going shopping, or to the cinema. “Friends and family are really important and I love that they are so supportive of me.”

As you might expect, Jean has a contrasting answer when asked what she does outside the studio and the blogosphere. “Previously I would have said – working too hard!” She runs a Procurement Consultancy with her husband but ballet actually seems to improve her work/life balance. “I have found myself more focused at work so I can get out of the office in time for my evening dance classes. I used to play squash, tennis and do lots of bush and harbourside walks around Sydney, but unsurprisingly I’m finding a lot less time for these lately!”

You can bet that like most adult dancers, Jean has a story regarding her path to ballet. She started ballet as a 9 year old and continued until her late teens. She describes it as her greatest passion. “Growing up in a country without full-time ballet schools, it remained an after-school activity for me,” she explains. “Unfortunately, ballet eventually faded into the background as academic opportunities presented themselves and the general distractions of life as a university student took over. For many years, I did very little dancing, always remembering how much I loved it, but I believe I also sub-consciously suppressed my passion for it because I felt I had somehow left things unfinished.”

She threw herself back into ballet 10 years ago, obtaining her RAD Intermediate certification but afterward felt that maybe ballet was too technical and that there was nothing more she would gain. She expected to find joy through other forms of dance. So, for the past few years Jean has been attending Lyrical and Contemporary open classes on a weekly basis. She has enjoyed them, but notices that many teachers view adult dancers as seeking recreation only, rather than continuous improvement.

Jean got hooked on ballet all over again at age 40.

Earlier this year, she was persuaded to join a ballet class ‘just for fun’. “I thought I’d give it a go for a week or two,” Jean says. “I didn’t expect to be hooked again before the first class was over.”

She credits her teacher, Tibor, for this. “He paid a lot of attention to technique, pushed us to our individual limits, worked us very hard but also took time to acknowledge it when we did something well. In that short time, I was reminded of how addictive the quest for perfection and the thrill of achievement can be.”

Within her first few weeks, Jean decided that if she was going to improve, she’d need to do more than one class per week. Before long she’d worked up to five classes each week, mostly with Tibor. “Unlike other forms of exercise like going to the gym or doing yoga,” she remarks, “I look forward to every class and the sessions never seem long enough. Besides getting very fit and toned, dancing ballet nourishes my soul. My passion for ballet has certainly been re-ignited!”

From dancing to blogging

Jean’s return to ballet coincided with her 40th birthday. Though she wanted to share her experience with others traveling a similar path or thinking about beginning ballet, documenting the 52 weeks began as an exercise for herself. “The challenge is to rebuild my strength and technique in 52 weeks so that I’ll be able to stand beside all the other dancers in class and have the ability and vocabulary to dance well with them. I felt that blogging about my first year back in the ballet studio, as a 40-year old, would help keep me honest to my goal, motivate me to be timely with my journal entries,” she explains.

Melissa, on the other hand, set out to express her passion for dance to a much larger audience. She wanted to interact with people with similar interests and as a result has found a community of dance bloggers. “I am so grateful that I am now connecting with people and people are enjoying my blog,” she says.

Jean too has found a large, vibrant, and diverse community of dance bloggers from all around the world. “It has been very heart-warming to find that in general, the participants are very inclusive, dynamic, helpful and passionate individuals and, so far, all my online interactions have only been very positive experiences.”

In fact, Jean never anticipated the feedback she’s received or the bonds she’s formed with other dancers. She recently received a thank you: “…once again as this week i am hitting a high of 5 classes! And I am sure I would not have attempted that without knowing someone has gone before me…,” commented her reader. “I am sure you can imagine how much it just blew me away,” exclaims Jean.

Melissa’s blog, Contemporary Dancing, is her first and only blog. “I started with a very basic knowledge of blogging and technical stuff, and looking back now I am a bit embarrassed of what I started off with in early 2011. Nevertheless, on August the 8^th, I restarted my blog and am proud with my current progress.”

When asked what she felt her best post was so far, she thought a bit and then chose her 10 tip guide to achieving the splits. “Everybody contributed and participated and it was incredibly fun to write. The response was amazing and I hope to go on to do more posts like this in the future. Not only was it useful for me but also for my darling readers!”

Sharing what you know can definitely be useful for your blog audience but blogging can also affect your dancing. “I find that I have become more analytical as a dancer because of my blogging,” says Jean. “Just trying to find something to write about every week makes me look at everything more critically and be more conscious of things around me – whether it’s about a particular step, my feelings, the dynamics in the class, or how our teachers impact my motivation and confidence.”

Dancing through life

Jean points out that there’s a cycle that dancers who are just starting out, or returning after a long hiatus, go through. “First we’re just glad to be dancing, then before long, the better we get, the higher the expectations of ourselves and soon, we are wanting too much, too soon. We look at dancers around us who are so much better, and we start feeling disheartened and feel like we’ll never get there.”

“Patience. Just be patient.” Jean says she went through that whole cycle in her first month, but her teacher Tibor’s words were very comforting and very powerful. He made me realize that if there can be significant improvement in just a month, imagine what can happen in a year and in 5 years, but I needed to be patient and to embrace the process.”

Jean tries to stretch daily

Like patience, practice also pays off. Melissa was more or less an inexperienced dancer when she was granted her first solo performance in ballet, an experience she calls magical. “When you get a main solo part for the first time, you try your best and find yourself practicing all the time – well, I know I did!” For Melissa the reward was the audience members’ applause. She also won a trophy for achieving so much that year.

But what if you’re not performing? Jean says she tries to take each class, one at a time, knowing that everything she does in class is a building block. “I try to stretch and do strength-building exercises once a day at home, without any immediate expectations. But every once in a while, something suddenly comes together unexpectedly – whether an improved balance, or a stronger jump or a higher extension – and it’s these moments that reinforce the need to just be patient and keep working at those building blocks.”

Like most teenagers, when asked about her future, Melissa has many plans. She wants to study dance in college, join a company and perform, go on to teaching, and open a school. “A new contemporary themed dancing school is my ultimate dream and I am hoping for the day where I can be a full time teacher who is teaching others her all time love.”

For Jean, it’s been only 9 months since she returned to class, but she feels she’ll soon be a better dancer than during her teenage years. “Probably due to the greater focus, determination and maturity I now have as an adult student, but mostly because of the amazing guidance I am getting. I feel that I have been gifted the opportunity to finish what I left unfinished, and if the body permits, there could be even more than 20 years of dancing left in me.”

On what the future holds for an adult student, Jean reflects, “I did wonder for a short while if I’d “missed the boat” and whether there was no longer something meaningful to pursue, but I have quickly learned that the pursuit of perfecting the art and enjoying it in itself is meaning enough. That the dreams may have faded but the passion is still fiercely alive.”

Jean and Melissa Interview Nichelle

That's me in my first recital costume.

Melissa: What did you want to be when you were younger?

Nichelle: Dance is the only thing I ever considered, that I recall. For a while, I thought I might double-major in education so that I’d have something to “fall back on.” But during a high school internship at an elementary (primary) school, I realized I was entertaining this out of fear, not because of a strong desire to teach in the educational system. So, my degree is in dance… period.

Jean: You seem to have found have a great balance in life, fueling your various passions through the different roles in your life – as mother, teacher, dancer, writer. Was there a piece of advice or a principle that you live by, that has helped you achieve this well?

Nichelle: I’m chuckling at the word balance because if you shadowed me for a day, I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t use that word. Like most moms, most people for that matter, the day to day can be pretty precarious. But you’re right, I’m able to follow my interests, instincts, and passions, and for that I feel extremely fortunate. If there’s a principle behind it, I guess it might be “to thine own self, be true.” If there’s a rule to guide it, it’s the golden one. And if there are people who’ve made it possible, it’s those who never told me I couldn’t.

Melissa: Do you dance at this current time?

Nichelle: Yes and no. I’m by no means at peak performance level, ultimately since having my son 4 years ago, but I also just had my daughter 3 months ago. These days I’m doing a ton of writing and before kids I was doing mostly teaching. But, I have had the opportunity to participate creatively in some recent dance performance projects, primarily dance film,. Again, I’m very lucky to be able to keep a toe in several dance pools at once.

Jean: Has blogging delivered you an experience or outcome that you didn’t expect at all?

Nichelle: That I”m still blogging is itself unexpected! I had know idea when I began where it would go. I’m still going because, like dance, there’s always something new to discover.

Melissa: What do you love most about DA?

Nichelle: I could probably answer this in a dozen different ways, and I probably have in other features. I mentioned the online dance community in a recent interview at 4dancers.org, for example. (You can check that out for a bit of my own background and blogging story).

Today, what I love most about DA is that I’ve loved it, and watered it, and made it grow. Not without help from others and some lucky conditions. But, it gives me satisfaction to see it thrive and know that others appreciate it too.

Jean: What advice would you give adult dancers who feel regret that they will never become the dancers that they might have been, or disheartened that they haven’t a concrete goal to work towards?

Nichelle: I could say a lot but I’ll try to keep it very concise (and perhaps expound at a later date). The word dancer, is not limited to an occupation. Would you have pursued a dance career and loved it as much as you love it now? To quote a wise owl, “The world may never know.” And so, I think you said it really well, Jean: The pursuit of perfecting the art and enjoying it in itself is meaning enough. In fact, that belief is what makes a dancer in my opinion. Also, I’ll add that if, to you (as in anyone), becoming a dancer means only one thing, you’re not driven, you have tunnel vision. And you’re likely to always be disappointed.

Wow, thanks ladies. Great questions!

Don’t forget to visit Melissa at contemporarydancing.co.uk and Jean at www.52weeksofballet.com!

I love to encourage the practice of blogging about dance. I want to help people do it well and I want to highlight people who do. And I hope very much that Dance Advantage inspires good dance blogging – my columnists and I try very hard to lead by example.

But now, I want to know,

Who Inspires You?

A certain performer?

A family member?

A celebrity?

A blogger?

Tell us in the comments!

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Dance/USA comes to Chicago!

Lauren Warnecke — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 13:50:30 +0000

I’ll be honest, I had never heard of Dance/USA (a national service organization for professional dance) until the social media started buzzing in January about their annual conference coming to Chicago. Maybe this is because the member companies and venues are on a much larger scale (and budget) than me.

Then again, maybe I just wasn’t paying attention.

Thinking, talking, and networking on the national level as a dance community seems a bit lofty to me (the majority of the people I talked to were either from Chicago or Philadelphia, where one of three main branches of Dance/USA resides), but one thing that was made really clear to me by attending a day at the conference was that many of the problems that I see facing the dance world are not specific to Chicago – they are ubiquitous to the dance field as a whole.

The theme of this year’s conference was the rather verbose: Design it. Dance it. Be the architect of your future. Held at the beautiful Hyatt Regency McCormick Place – just south of the heart of my city – Dance/USA’s conference (much like any other professional conference) consisted of key-note speakers, forums, and area-specific lectures.

The attendees (primarily artistic directors, presenters, executive directors and journalists, with a gaggle of choreographers and dancers as well) could pick an area of focus between artist, management, and education-based topics. I went for the second day of the conference on scholarship primarily functioning as an independent artist, though I never able to completely let go of my other professional affiliations as an administrator at the Menomonee Club and columnist right here at Dance Advantage when hobnobbing with “the community”.

Take aways from the conference

In spite of its forward-thinking theme, the opening speech from Pico Iyer was decidedly reflective, and, at times, only vaguely related to dance. The discussion that followed was primarily focused on the idea of “stillness”. (...)

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What Do They Mean By ‘Contemporary’ On SYTYCD?

Nichelle (admin) — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 13:28:44 +0000

What is contemporary dance?

How is it different from modern dance, or jazz dance?

Nicola Ayoub - Fete de la Danse 2010 | Photo by pixieduc.

Good questions that get asked a lot! And not just by newcomers to dance.

It seems the entire dance community is trying to sort it all out…

Four months ago, I got an e-mail from a reader who e-mailed me wondering if I had written anything on the topic. Seems she had been to some workshops and asked around, hoping for some clarification on the term. She came up empty.

Our new columnist, Heather Vaughan-Southard recently called describing contemporary dance ‘The Next Verbal Challenge‘ on her EducatingDancers blog.

And that was expounding on a conversation happening on Twitter (in 140 characters) and mentioned by Jordon Cloud on her blog about the differences between contemporary and modern dance.

And fellow dance writer and Houstonian, Nancy Wozny, penned The Contemporary Conundrum for Dance Spirit Magazine. It’s not a new article but the questions sure are familiar.

The point is, this is an ongoing conversation. I’m sure none of us were the first and we are obviously not the last thinking, processing, and scribbling about it.

EDITOR’S UPDATE: More scribblings

So you think you can tell me… what contemporary dance is? (Sarah Linstra)

How do you define Contemporary Dance? (Dance Studio Life)

What Is “Contemporary” Dance? (Dance Doc’s Think Tank)

What Is Contemporary, According To Nigel Lythgoe (Wet Paint – SYTYCD)

‘Contemporary’ Dance, My Take On It (MaryJane O’Reilly)

What is the difference between “Modern Dance” and ” Contemporary Dance”?

I’ll add more interesting articles as I find them.

I’ve been sitting on this post really, picking at it until I felt like I’d nailed it. Problem is, it refuses to be nailed. The subject really should be (and probably is) somebody’s Master’s thesis.

BUT it deserves to be talked about among undergrads and younger students as well. Students need to hear the perspectives and some of the history and experiences behind them.

And so I throw my thoughts into the fray. A scholar I am not, but let’s see where they go and what you do with them, shall we?

I’ll start with my Bottom Line first…

(you’ll forgive the language, I hope)

Labels suck but we kind of need them.

Can ‘contemporary’ be taught?(...)

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Dance Where?… Dance Here!!

Nichelle (admin) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:59:55 +0000

Just thought I’d let everyone know about a new dance blog/community that’s entered the scene called DanceHere. The blog has already featured some great and informative posts which seem to have a similar focus to my mission here at Dance Advantage. I want to support sites that produce quality information for an internet audience. This is my philosopy: When artists and educators learn, share, and show support, everyone wins. Those that fear competition don’t have confidence in their product. This is not to say that I regard DanceHere as competition – just the opposite really, we’re on the same team! I hope that other dancers and artists will consider this message. Just something to think about.

Anyway, currently DanceHere is asking that Studios, Companies, and Groups submit their information for a new series entitled This Season. Please check out this new resource.

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Dance Advantage Interactive

Nichelle (admin) — Sat, 10 May 2008 03:16:16 +0000

I’ve been working on some exciting new ways of reaching out to dance students, teachers, and parents online and getting the word out about the Dance Advantage blog. In addition to creating pages on Facebook and MySpace, I am releasing updates and other information on Twitter, and use StumbleUpon. If you utilize any of these online networks or tools, I would be honored if you added Dance Advantage to your list of connections.

In addition, I have recently launched a companion site to this blog called Dance Advantage Interactive. (...)

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Celebrate National Dance Week

Nichelle (admin) — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 18:37:09 +0000

National Dance Week is approaching ( April 25-May 4, 2008 ) and if you haven’t already, now is the time to decide how you’re going to celebrate! Obviously if you’re visiting this blog, you probably have an interest in dance and may already feel like you are immersed in its practice. However, there are lots of ways you can observe this special week that will enrich your own or your school’s dance experience. And who knows, they may even spill over into the rest of the year, too!!

Sometimes in movement classes we are so focused on learning dance that we forget that appreciating and understanding the art form is just as important. Of course, we learn to appreciate through doing, but here are some other ways to discover and embrace dance during National Dance Week and beyond.

See dance – Attend or watch videos of professional performances (it doesn’t matter if it’s a style you are studying) or view video biographies of dancers/choreographers. If there are no opportunities to attend a professional performance, try a local university with a dance program or a community group that performs ethnic dance forms.

Discuss dance – Share observations about a performance, dance artist, or a significant event in dance history with your class, your friends, your peers, or your family. An in-class discussion is great if you’ve experienced something as a group.

Write about dance – Write a review or report about what you observed about a performance or learned about a particular dancer, company, or choreographic work. You could share these with your dance class, in school, or even on your own blog.

Read about dance – There are lots of books and online resources on dance history, dance vocabulary and technique, biographical texts, and dance criticism (reviews of dance performances).

Make dance – Try your hand at your own choreography, guide your students through the basics of composition, produce your own dance performance (don’t forget to consider costume, makeup, and lighting if available), or share your knowledge of dance with someone else who has never experienced it.

Another important way to celebrate National Dance Week is to reach out to the community. Many dance studios perform at local festivals, parades, and other events in honor of NDW. Some other methods of reaching out would be to hold free classes or an open house at your dance school, perform at nursing homes or hospitals, or give workshops at public schools or boy/girl scout meetings. Perhaps you could also organize volunteering opportunities for your dance studio during this week. Activities like road clean-up, serving at a soup kitchen, or collecting canned goods for a food bank, reflect that dancers, in addition to giving the gift of their art, seek to improve and strengthen their communities in other ways.

As we lead up to NDW, I want to discuss in more detail how teachers can celebrate by incorporating a little dance history, performance, and discussion into their classes; help you build a dance library for your school; and address why all of this is worth the effort.

What are some ways that you have celebrated National Dance Week? Is there anything you’d add to my list above?

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Dance Instructors and the Internet Community

Nichelle (admin) — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 06:37:27 +0000

I just discovered this post about how dance instructors might use the internet and thought it was a timely topic for one who is just recently discovering the possibilities of blogging. I am a dancer and teacher who has just become a full-time mom. Finding a way to use my skills in a new environment that doesn’t take me too far from home is now a goal for me and I am slowly learning the ins and outs of the weblog culture that I never had time for while I was out making a living as a teacher.

In the post (if you haven’t read it already), Doug Fox at Great Dance suggests some marketing strategies for teachers that are relatively easy to implement. He asks, however, for some pros and cons about his ideas. As a teacher I see the logistics of regularly videotaping classes as a con. Generally, videotaping is tedious and distracting for the instructor and the students, particularly without an assistant or partner to help out. Participating in a class that is regularly videotaped would be annoying at best and may actually cost the teacher students. After all, students are there to improve themselves and should not have to be concerned with how they appear on camera at the same time. Plus, it is important to consider the safety of any students who are minors if images are truly going out to a wider audience. Something to remember is that most dance instructors are not solely independent or freelancing, they have regular dance students who are their priority. Creating a video of a class for distribution should probably be (as most videos of this type are) a developed product, so as not to intrude on the work being done in class. From there, it can be marketed online as suggested in this article.

I believe that time constraints have a lot to do with why many teachers don’t utilize online technology. Teaching dance as a means of supporting oneself requires many in-class hours, not to mention preparation outside of class. Also, many dance teachers and artists that I know are quite behind in their knowledge of the internet, perhaps because of their tireless work ethic in the studio, or because many dancers are not interested in spending much time in a static state in front of the computer, or because the techie stuff is a little too right-brained, or all of the above.

It is worth mentioning that students are generally from the same locale in which the teacher resides. Therefore, physically getting out into the community and teaching or performing is not only what will generate the most traffic for their business, but more importantly, enrich the lives of people within that community. Teachers can benefit from an online presence because, like it or not, that’s where their students and customers are hanging out! There are meaningful ways of enhancing the dance experience of both students and teachers through information and inspiration via the internet. That’s what I hope to bring to those that access this site.

© Nichelle Strzepek for Dance Advantage, 2008. | Permalink | Category: Blog, Studio Admin, Teaching | Who's talking about this article?

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Dance Advantage » dance community

Who Inspires You?

Inspirational Blogger Award

With A Twist and Shout Out

First a little background:

From dancing to blogging

Dancing through life

Jean and Melissa Interview Nichelle

Wow, thanks ladies. Great questions!

Who Inspires You?

Dance/USA comes to Chicago!

Take aways from the conference

What Do They Mean By ‘Contemporary’ On SYTYCD?

What is contemporary dance?

How is it different from modern dance, or jazz dance?

I’ll start with my Bottom Line first…

Labels suck but we kind of need them.

Dance Where?… Dance Here!!

Dance Advantage Interactive

Celebrate National Dance Week

Dance Instructors and the Internet Community