Archive for the ‘2009 | 02 | February’ Category

Departments
Mail | February 09    
Teacher in the Spotlight | Karen Frantz   
Thinking Out Loud  

Features
Ballet Scene | Summertime Study by Lisa Traiger  
Higher-Ed Voice | Male Dance Majors: An Increasing Trend by Doug Risner
Parents from Heaven by Nancy Wozny     
In Defense of Boys by Anne L. Silveri
Secrets of a Perfect Fit by Nancy Wozny  
Homing In on Hip-Hop by Gregg Russell
Catching a Wave Brian McCormick
Teaching the Teachers by Steve Sucato

Advice for dance teachers

Dear Rhee,
For more than 25 years I have been teaching at the studio where I trained as a student. I loved working for the school owner, who was my teacher and a tremendous mentor. Last year she had a stroke and has been in a nursing home for several months. It does not look like she is going to become well enough to return home or back to the school.

For the last several months I have been working for the school owner’s son, who has been put in charge of his mother’s estate. The problem is that he knows nothing about dance, the business, or the people who have been loyally working for his mother all these years. He arrives every night to collect the day’s deposits and continually makes remarks about how he doesn’t trust those who are working for him.

Last week, he told our studio manager (who has been working there longer than I have) that he suspected her of stealing from the business. He said this to a woman who is closer to his mom than anyone in the world; they are best friends. That was her last night at the studio. After he had expressed his views she walked out, never to return. I have spoken with her several times and she is devastated over losing her best friend and the fact that anyone would accuse her of stealing. She just isn’t that kind of person.

Now our studio manager is the owner’s daughter-in-law, who had only been to the school once in her entire life. She is not friendly to the staff or the clientele, and the atmosphere of the school is very dark. There is no more camaraderie or laughter. Everything is serious and the focus seems to be on how much money is coming in.

It is hard for me because I know that the school owner would be humiliated to know what has happened to the school she loved so much and that her faculty is being treated the way it is. I believe that it is time for me to leave. I taught all these years for the joy of it, not because I needed the money. My issue is that I don’t want to let my teacher-mentor down. I have tried to hang in there, but each day at the school has become heartbreaking to me. I don’t want to work for the son and daughter-in-law any longer. Can you offer some words of wisdom? —Melody

Hello Melody,
What a unique situation! I can’t help but think that your circumstance is really about how life changes and nothing stays the same. It took me until my early 30s to accept that change is inevitable and that we can’t live our lives wishing things could be the way they used to be. All we can do is cherish the memories and move on to making new ones.

For more than 25 years you have been a loyal employee to your former teacher and boss. Let go of any guilt that you may have over making a decision about your own future. If this school is not the same as the one you started working for, then this is your curve in the road that leads you in a new direction. That is not something that should cause you guilt. Everything happens for a reason, and that means that there is a new door for you to dance through. All you have to do is look for it.

Get yourself out of the toxic work atmosphere and let the studio owner’s son and daughter-in-law do things their way. They will learn that loyal employees are vital to running a successful business or they will fail. But whatever happens, you will have nothing to do with it. All you need to remember are the good experiences you had working for such an awesome teacher. And realize that you will always have her with you in your heart, because you have those memories of the good times. Let go of the old and get ready for the new. I wish you all the best. —Rhee

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Hi Rhee,
Thank you for being such an inspiration and role model for dance teachers everywhere. I have a question about studio managers: What should the wages be? I recently moved to a new location, and my studio manager/bookkeeper (who used to work out of my home) now has a full presence at the studio. She works the desk while doing the books. We also have senior girls who work the desk and get paid minimum wage. My husband (who handles the budget) is concerned that my studio manager/bookkeeper is getting paid $25 per hour to work the desk, compared to the senior girls who get paid minimum wage. Thank you! —Karen

Hello Karen,
My thought is that you are right on track with how you’re handling the wages for both the students and the studio manager. Your husband needs to take into account the fact that your studio manager is doing more than merely staffing the desk; you are paying her for her bookkeeping work, too. The average studio manager makes $15 to 20 per hour, so you are above average on that one. I think minimum wage is right for the students. If they were to work outside of the school, in many cases, they would receive the same compensation you are offering them. By the way, many school owners do not pay students to work the desk but instead exchange lessons for their work time. I wish you all the best. —Rhee

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Dear Rhee,
What are your thoughts on joining one of the organizations for dance teachers? I have been avoiding becoming a member because I have heard that there is a lot of petty jealousy and politics in the groups in my area. I have a friend who was expelled from one of the organizations because another member lost a student to my friend’s school. The organization accused my friend of soliciting the student, which wasn’t true.

I am interested in joining because I want to take the classes and workshops they offer. I know I need to stay on top of my teaching skills and going to the big city to take class is not an option for me. I also think I would enjoy networking with other teachers, but I want no stress in my life. And I don’t want any part of the politics. Is it possible to be a member without getting involved in the pettiness that I hear about? Thanks for your input. —Jane

Dear Jane,
I am a second-generation member of a few of the dance teacher organizations and I have witnessed and experienced the politics you describe. However, I feel that I have benefited from being a member. The classes and workshops offered have enriched my teaching skills, and the lifelong friendships I have made with other teachers (even my competitors) are something I wouldn’t trade for anything.

One of the things I discovered a long time ago is that much of the politics has its roots in the competition end of the organizations. My suggestion is that you join with a focus on continuing your education and not getting involved in the competition side of things. The original intent of the organizations was to bring teachers together to share and learn. If enough of us join with this as our philosophy, we will eventually get back to a place of respect and camaraderie among dance educators. Who needs the politics when we all share the same passion for our art? So yes, I do recommend that you join for the right reasons and I am sure you will benefit tremendously. Good luck! —Rhee

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Hi Rhee,
A parent at my studio has been talking in the lobby about how she can’t wait for next year, when her daughter will do the dance team at school and take dance at my competitor’s studio. (My competitor coaches the local middle and high school dance teams and requires the dance team kids to take class at her studio, which I feel is a conflict of interest.)

I would like to give this parent a refund and tell her that she can just go to that studio right now. Is that wrong? And what should I do if she backtracks and says she doesn’t want to leave, and then next fall she is gone? I would love to know what you would do in this situation. —Denise

Hello Denise,
Any negativity being expressed in your lobby needs to be confronted as soon as you know it’s happening. I would have no problem sitting down with this parent in my office and letting her know that it is time to move on. As for the possibility of her backtracking and telling you that she wants to stay, explain that she needs to go to the competitor’s studio now because it is |obvious to you (and other parents at your school) that she is not happy with your school, and let it go at that. Wish her and her child all the best, and then focus on all the other students who do appreciate your school. Good luck! —Rhee

Words from the publisher

Last year, after I sent out an email to promote the 2008 DanceLife Teacher Conference, I received the following response: “I’ve been teaching dance for 20 years—what more is there to learn?” I wrote back and politely expressed my opinion that no dance teacher should ever cease to learn because dance is an always-evolving art form. This teacher decided to attend the conference, and afterward she wrote again, explaining that she felt overwhelmed with all that she had learned and was excited to get back to her classroom to teach all the new curriculum ideas she had discovered. She added that it was her intention to go to some sort of continuing-education event every month from then on, because she had never been so inspired in all the time she had been teaching.

As far as I’m concerned we do an injustice to our students and to the field when we decide that we know all there is to know. There is no degree, certification, or one-time teacher program that offers dance educators an “everything you’ll ever need to know about teaching dance” certificate. Nor are there programs like that for doctors, lawyers, schoolteachers, or anyone else who considers herself a professional. Can you imagine being under the care of a doctor who finishes medical school and never bothers to learn the new breakthroughs the field has to offer his patients? 

It doesn’t matter which classes or programs you choose in order to educate yourself and stimulate your mind, as long as you know that continuing to learn is critical. There are training schools, college programs, choreography intensives, conventions, and even performances that will offer you education and inspiration. There is something to learn from every teacher or class. Think about it—even if you take a class from a bad teacher, you will learn what you would never do in your own classroom!

Another part of the continuing-education equation that I think is vital is the opportunity to network and share with other teachers. Many in our field find themselves feeling lonely or frustrated because they don’t have a support system of people who truly understand the “real life” of a dance teacher. We are a unique (but fantastic) breed of folks who need to communicate with like-minded individuals. Dance people who get together to exchange ideas or brainstorm usually have to be dragged away from the dance talk.

Finally, and most important, is that teachers are givers. They will always put their commitment to their students and their families before their own needs. You will be a better giver if you offer yourself the same respect as you do to all those around you. Get out there and learn something new. You’ll feel good about yourself, guaranteed.

By Mignon Furman

Tip 1
How do you get students to keep straight lines when dancing in a group or ensemble for a competition or recital? It’s simple: Teach them to look directly at the back of the head of the dancer in front of them (right at the bun, if it’s a girl).

When turning and moving the lines in a sideways direction (i.e., toward the wings), the focus of each dancer’s eyes needs to be on the side of the head of the dancer in front of her.

Tip 2
When dancers are moving in a circle, often the circle becomes smaller or elongated, like an egg shape. To maintain a good shape of the proper size, the dancers must keep their eyes on the outside shoulder of the dancer in front of them.  

Food tips for a hectic lifestyle

By Suzanne Martin, PT, DPT

Staying healthy while being in a studio all day and eating on the run is one enormous challenge. And wouldn’t it be great to go beyond maintenance by achieving optimal health?

People who live the performing-arts life prolong their youth by being so active in their 20s and 30s. Yet what an effect it has on the body. Dancers who start at age 8 or 10 and pursue a teaching or performance career have packed in a lot of mileage by age 30. And just think about 40- and 50-somethings! So if you’re going to go into the sunset in your dancing shoes, how can you stay the course?

Any worthwhile project requires R&D, research and development. Knowledge is powerful. But a little knowledge plus the plethora of trendy eating diets, articles, and supplements can be dizzying. Thinking simply, life boils down to three physical requirements: water, food, and rest. How do you regulate, and enhance, all three while multitasking?

When it comes to being on the go, strategy pays off. One of the biggest pitfalls for even the most dedicated health nut is being caught off guard. Plan, plan, and plan some more, so that you not only have nutrients and water within your grasp but also time for rest. Let’s look at water and food. Being nourished and hydrated are two great ways to boost your energy level and keep up with a busy lifestyle.

All-essential water
Drinking plenty of water is one of best ways to stay afloat. Your body is 75 percent water; losing as little as 2 percent of that can cause foggy thinking. Physical performance starts to decline. Slowness can be dangerous when you need to be mentally alert: driving, crossing the street, bicycling. Slurring words impairs your ability to command authority and confidence. Slowed reactions make preparing a class, organizing, and doing analytical tasks take longer than necessary.

To make sure you get enough water in your busy day, drink one tall glass in the morning and one before bed. Have another glass if you get up during the night. In general the advice is to drink eight glasses per day, although the new thinking is that consuming water-rich foods such as fruits and vegetables contributes to this amount.

Try keeping a pitcher of water available with sliced lemons or strawberries in it for an extra lure. When traveling, fill your own big bottle or buy one after you pass security at the airport. We often mistake thirst for hunger, so next time you feel a hunger pang, reach for a water bottle before heading to the fridge.

Dancers lose a significant amount of water when performing under the lights, and they feel it in their legs. But it doesn’t happen only onstage—that heavy-leg feeling you sometimes get from teaching and rehearsing means you’re getting dehydrated. Another way to stay hydrated is to take Epsom salts baths. Mix about a half-cup of salts in a warm bath to hydrate and soothe muscles. They’re especially helpful after a flight.

We often mistake thirst for hunger, so next time you feel a hunger pang, reach for a water bottle before heading to the fridge. 

Hydrate and energize
Another quick energy/hydration tip for morning jumpstarts, afternoon lows, and jet lag is Emergen-C®. A combination of vitamins and minerals available in health food, drug, and grocery stores, each packet has 1,000 milligrams of Vitamin C. The Joint Health formula includes glucosamine, recommended for dancers because it may protect joint cartilage.

Emergen-C’s carbonated formula fizzes up in water, which gives it a quicker entry into the gut. (That’s why champagne gets you high so much more quickly than wine.) The minerals potassium and magnesium replenish electrolytes, which are essential to recovery after exercise. If you can refrigerate it, try adding it to a homemade carrot juice smoothie. The carrot juice stabilizes blood sugar and the fruit gives a quick jolt of energy.

Meals
What about solid food on the go? Again, it breaks down to three categories: home packaging, pre-packaging, and restaurant food. With food, there’s truth to the adage that if you want anything done right, you have to do it yourself.

Strategy pays off when you crave a meal. As I mentioned in the January issue, preparing food—chicken, salmon, or tofu for protein, plus veggies and a dressing—in containers for the upcoming week will ensure lean, healthful meals. Taking a salad with you is easy. Combine the salad and eat it with green tea, which contains antioxidants and is a safe metabolic accelerator (weight-loss agent). It also has caffeine for a boost of energy. If you can’t mix the ingredients on site, fix a single-serving salad in the morning and take it with you. Try cottage cheese, fruit (strawberries, papaya, avocado), walnuts, and low-fat crackers for a quick, easy-to-digest lunch.

Energy bars
What about the darling of pre-packaged food, the energy bar? There are a staggering 900-plus bars on the market, ranging widely in nutrient content, ingredient quality, and calories. Select a bar that has protein, carbohydrate, and fat in a ratio of, respectively, about 40/40/20. It should be high in fiber and low in saturated fat, with no trans-fat. A bar with 200 to 300 calories can substitute for a meal, especially when combined with a glass of dairy or soy milk and a piece of fruit.

But should bars make up most of your meals? Registered dietician Nancy Clark, in private practice at the Boston area’s Healthworks Fitness Center, has plenty to say about energy bars: Look for quality bars made from whole foods such as fruits, nuts, and fiber. Analyze the name—some bars may be dessert substitutes rather than healthful, compact nutrition. Remember, by law the first ingredient listed is the most plentiful.

Choose a bar that is as unprocessed as a processed food can be. My favorite does have a dessert name: “Cherry Pie” from Larabar. However, this brand is all fruit and nuts, with no added sugars, fillers, supplements, or flavorings. They are gluten- and dairy-free and kosher to boot. Even the most discerning vegan (but not those with peanut allergies) can partake of these raw bars. Clif® is another high-quality brand that is organic and trans-fat free, although it’s higher in fat content than others.

Another pre-packaged fast food I cannot live without is oat cakes (often confused with hockey pucks). I carry them on trips for an inexpensive breakfast or quick meal when stranded at airports. Listed as having 2 points in the WeightWatchers® system, they might be sweet for some tastes.

Variety: key to good nutrition
Clark cautions that eating bars on the run is one thing and good, wholesome nutrition is another. She advocates consuming 20 to 30 different foods per week. Variety ensures that we get the nutrients, vitamins, and minerals necessary for optimal functioning. And don’t forget those five portions of fresh fruit or vegetables each day.

Eating a variety of foods also ensures that we don’t develop allergies over time to cultural favorites like wheat. Counting on energy bars to regulate your caloric intake will get you into a nutritional rut, and eating them in lieu of desserts or whole foods will take away the skill of portion control when navigating social events and emotional highs and lows.

The restaurant trap
One surefire way to double your weight is to eat every meal in a restaurant; think the freshman 20, or as my relatives in New Orleans say, the Katrina 40. When you’re traveling, or even just busy, it makes sense to eat out—but restaurant fare can pack in all kinds of hidden calories, saturated fats, and other enemies of healthy eaters. Restaurants have improved their listing of heart-healthy meals, but they may add calories, salt, and sugar to enhance flavor. Another difficult ingredient is MSG, which provides flavor but can cause headaches and water retention.

The best strategy when dining out is to not eat all the bread on the table. Instead, order a bowl of soup—the warm liquid feels good in the stomach and the volume helps you feel full. Avoid cream soups unless you’ve really got to have that chowder on a wintry day. For entrees, choose grilled meat or fish and vegetables over combination foods such as lasagna, cream dishes such as fettucine alfredo, or even pizza.

What to eat when
The order in which you eat makes a difference in literally trimming the fat. Eat meat and veggies before baked potatoes, rice, and french fries. The starches are the fillers of nutrition, depending upon your caloric needs. If you are a farmer, or an endurance athlete like Lance Armstrong, you should eat pancakes, bread, eggs, bacon, and grits for breakfast—easily a 1,000-calorie meal.

Yet for most people, filling up on starches prevents you from eating the foods with the most nutritional value, such as fresh vegetables for vitamins and roughage, protein for building muscle and bone, and minerals. Another mind-blowing fact, according to performance researcher Dr. Clyde Wilson, is that the liver can metabolize only small amounts of food at a given time. The rest gets stored away for future use—read: fat.

Vitamin D
Next month’s column will focus on the crucial role of Vitamin D for a strong musculoskeletal system and in helping our bodies cope with cancer risk and autoimmune disorders. So stay tuned for more on Vitamin ‘D’ancing!

I have faith in you.

Quick Tips for Healthy Eating

• Keep hydrated. Drink a glass of water first thing in the morning and again before bed. Aim for eight glasses a day. Make water more enticing by adding sliced lemons or strawberries. Try Emergen-C for an energy and nutrition boost.
• Use energy bars sparingly, and choose those with a 40/40/20 ratio of protein, carbohydrate, and fat. Opt for the least-processed bars on the market, such as Larabar and Clif bars. Oat cakes are another good option.
• Prepare healthy meals ahead of time to grab and go: Proteins (salmon, chicken, tofu, cottage cheese), nuts, veggies, and fruits make good salads and snacks.
• In restaurants, choose lean meats, soups, and veggies. Eat the protein and vegetables first to avoid filling up on carbohydrates like bread and potatoes.
• Take a good-quality multivitamin that includes 1,000 milligrams of Vitamin D.

Words from our readers

Thank you for allowing Diane Gudat to express her phenomenally hysterical ideas in “Terpsichorean Calendar” [DSL, August 2008]. I sat at my computer cracking up, reading it and then rereading it over and over again. I have known Diane for years and she is still able to make me laugh with her quick wit and brilliant, oftentimes wacky humor! I look for her stories each month to add laughter to my life.

Your magazine is such a great contribution to the dance world. We are very fortunate to be able to read about celebrations, challenges, humor, inspiration, and lives of other dance teachers and choreographers throughout the world. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all you do!

Sandi Duncan
Hudson, NH

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I really liked the story with ideas sent in from other teachers [“Collective Wisdom,” DSL, August 2008], especially the ideas that concerned classroom things (like creative movement ideas, dance games, etc). Could you think about publishing a book of everyone’s ideas? It is true that sometimes we have an idea, use it for years, and then stop doing it until another instructor reminds us of the success it can bring. Plus creativity in the classroom with the young ones ages 2 to 8 can be tough at first for some people who have just gotten off the professional dance wagon or the college degree program.

Another request is for an article on dance fitness programs and certifications. I am a certified Zumba instructor and would love to see an article about Zumba, Jazzercise, and Hip-Hop Hustle.

Your magazine is so great. It is the highlight of my month. It makes me grow so much. Thank you for contributing to my success as a teacher and businesswoman.

Shananne Lewis, choreographer
Uniontown, OH

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Thanks so much for this one [“Wish They’d Stay, Wish They’d Go,” DSL, October 2008]! Although we all think that way, it’s nice to see the words in print to confirm what we are feeling. This year, for the first time in over 30 years, I suggested that a parent find another school after only one week of evaluation. I stated that it was quite clear to me that she felt she knew better than my staff in what level her daughters should be placed. If she was that insistent, hardly knowing me, what would she be like in a year? That was not something I wanted to experience! It’s a hard decision to make but better for all in the long run!

Tracy Davenport
St. Charles, MO

Karen Frantz-owner, instructor, and choreographer, Karen’s Dance Academy, Hannibal, MO

NOMINATED BY: Carol Cummins, her mother: “After Karen purchased her building, it was condemned because of an unstable wall in an attached building and she lost everything she had put into it. She finally took root in an old church, where the love and energy Karen puts into each child are amazing. As her office manager for 20 years, I have seen her pull through the hard times and laugh through the good.”

AGES TAUGHT: 3 to adult.

GENRES TAUGHT: Jazz, tap, ballet, hip-hop, gymnastics, and musical theater.

TEACHING DANCE FOR: 20 years.

WHY SHE TEACHES: I was a professional entertainer for five years, but my real passion was in creating choreography and bringing it to life through young talents. Sharing that love of the art through my students was the piece I was missing.

GREATEST INSPIRATION: My mother. She put aside her dream of becoming a Rockette in order to raise a family. I was born with severe club feet and [my parents were] told that I would not do much physically. My mom put me in dance and gave me the push I needed to overcome that obstacle.

PHILOSOPHY OF TEACHING: I believe that in each of us is the ability to dance. There is no “wrong way” to dance. If we teach our children to express themselves through music it can be an incredible life lesson.

WHAT MAKES HER A GOOD TEACHER: I’ve been told I’m a good listener and counselor and a very patient teacher. I get the kids hooked on performing and then draw them into perfecting that performance with technique. I’m a stern teacher but quick with a hug and a smile.

FONDEST TEACHING MEMORY: I had a student who was so stiff and awkward that she could barely touch her toes, but I saw something in her and put her on the competition team. When I went to see her as she began her professional career as a dancer, she thanked me for believing in her. She kept a picture of herself trying to do the splits as a reminder of what you can do if someone believes in you. I was so touched and so proud.

BEST PIECE OF ADVICE FOR STUDENTS AND/OR TEACHERS: Have fun, and don’t forget the real reason you dance. It’s a privilege; never let it become a job. I advise teachers to sit in the audience and take in how your creations make the spectators feel. Let them lose themselves in the beauty of the art that inspired you.

WHAT SHE WOULD DO IF SHE COULDN’T TEACH DANCE: Something with stage production or children.

MORE THOUGHTS ON DANCE AND TEACHING: If I can teach one little girl to be proud of who she is or one little boy to say with pride, “I love to dance,” then I have done what I was put here to do.

DO YOU KNOW A DANCE TEACHER WHO DESERVES TO BE IN THE SPOTLIGHT? Email your nominations to David@rheegold.com or mail them to David Favrot, Dance Studio Life, 10 South Washington St., Norton, MA 02766. Please include why you think this teacher should be featured, along with his or her contact information.

By Theresa Corbley Siller

“If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it.” So says the poster of the gorgeous dancer that’s on the wall of our studio. I’m not so sure. There’s Jordan standing at the barre. We haven’t even begun ballet class yet and I can already see three technical “crimes.” I glance at my coffee cup. Is there enough liquid inspiration left to get me through yet another day of this?

Week after week, class after class, correct technique is just not sinking in. There’s got to be another angle I can try, some witty imagery that might give this type of student an epiphany. There are days, after 23 years of teaching, when being a ballet teacher is so arduous that I don’t know how I can go on.

With some students, I feel like I’m endlessly adding fuel to a dying fire. I march around the room, tweaking arms, feet, and backs that “untweak” the second I let go. A fellow teacher and professional dancer in Virginia put it well: “It’s like you’re working in a factory to create something that won’t sell.” Our task is to sculpt bodies, but some bodies will never execute correct ballet technique.

These students aren’t lazy. They have an outstanding work ethic—they always show up, ready to tackle anything, with great attitudes. But life dishes out injustice. These dedicated students are endowed with few physical assets to assist them with the demands of ballet. Their bodies forbid them from advancing, let alone aspiring to a professional ballet career.

We painstaking teachers of ballet hope to see some important traits in our students: legs that turn out from the hips, feet that can assume a three-quarter relevé, backs supple enough to allow a nice arabesque line, coordination. Luckily, most of the other tools of a good dancer can be taught: strength, stamina, and style.

I’ve always believed that in order to achieve a professional ballet career, students must possess three attributes: talent, drive, and the ability to implement corrections. What about those students with one lonely trait—drive? I correct their technical problems, but there’s no improvement. I can’t beautify their line.

I march around the room, tweaking arms, feet, and backs that “untweak” the second I let go. Our task is to sculpt bodies, but some bodies will never execute correct ballet technique.

Jordan has been in our lowest level for three years. Most students breeze through there in a year. Every fall I am disheartened to see her there once again. Her sister has the same issues: tight hips, almost zero turnout, legs that don’t straighten, and sickled feet. It’s so unfair that I want to cry.

I remember taking classes at a professional company school as a teenager where the director informed my friend’s mother that she didn’t have what it takes; she shouldn’t waste her time anymore. I was appalled. At a community studio like the one where I teach, the mission is to develop the whole child, not just his or her physicality.

Pediatrician Timothy H. Daley once explained to me why some hardworking children can’t improve in ballet. He cited a spectrum of genetic conditions and in-utero and birth-related deficiencies that could cause a lack of coordination, a lack of proficiency and precision in movement. As teachers, we often don’t know what we are dealing with.

So I need to keep a mental list of the positives that come out of a quality dance education, even if it doesn’t produce a professional career. I know we instill poise and fitness for life, that we teach alignment and body awareness, a way of presenting oneself that might lead to future successful job interviews, in any field. We are developing appreciative audiences for ballet and potential benefactors. No one can deny the importance of these things.

Knowledge of ballet technique will also help struggling students excel in other dance disciplines. And, as Dr. Daley said, “There are trillions of nerve connections in our brains, and they are forming throughout our lives. Physical and mental exercise”—like ballet training—“prevents senility and aids in the formation of new connections in the brain. The positive reinforcement from a teacher or a coach also helps young people with all degrees of physical impairment, too.”

Keeping in mind that all students, even those with little aptitude for ballet, benefit from taking class gives me the strength to continue doing what I’m doing, week after week, class after class.

Navigating the ballet intensive options for your students

By Lisa Traiger

Summer ballet intensives are big business. Some company-affiliated schools take in hundreds of students each summer, and with tuition starting near $300 a week, plus room and board, parents are footing hefty bills for their budding ballerinas. Auditioning can cost more than $20 per intensive. Then there’s travel to a new city, housing, meals, shoes and leotards, and incidentals. A few weeks away from home for a serious ballet student can be a huge commitment. So how do teachers help their students navigate the competitive, complex, and often confusing world of summer ballet intensives? And is there real value in such programs?

“An intensive helps children,” says Marcia Dale Weary, founder and director of Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Her school runs two summer intensives for more than 600 students: five weeks followed by a late-summer two-week program. “It doesn’t mean they’re going to be dancers, but it helps them with discipline, focus; it helps them tone their bodies and muscles. These days, when children hardly get any exercise, [an intensive] really makes a difference.”

But must every student go away from home, even for a short summer program, to study ballet?

School owner Jeanne Maddox Peterson believes so strongly in the importance of summer intensives for some children that her school, Maddox Dance Studio (located 100 miles north of Portland in Warrenton and Seaside, Oregon) offers scholarships that make it possible for promising dancers to attend one.

“You cannot keep these kids in your little confines,” says Peterson, who has been teaching for 59 years. “I know a lot of teachers are surprised when I say I want my students to go away, but I think it’s important. They need to go away if they want to be a dancer, or even a businessperson or something else in life. They need to find out if there is somebody better than them out there and how hard they will have to work.”

Veronica Moretti Niebuhr, a 20-year teaching veteran, operates a small studio in Savannah, Georgia, and is gung-ho about encouraging her serious ballet students to audition for and attend intensives. With only about 50 students at her school, The Studio, she realizes that she can’t compete with large-scale professional company programs like those in New York, San Francisco, Houston, Miami, and Boston, which offer competitive summer training for top-tier students.

Instead she provides one-week intensives early in the summer and at the end of August, bringing in guest faculty from New York to enhance her program. But Moretti Niebuhr makes sure that her students have opportunities to see what the ballet world is like outside of Savannah. Sometimes she even accompanies them to auditions. “It’s important for them to be around other kids who are like them,” she explains. “It’s not that I don’t think they’re getting the instruction that they need [at home]. It’s the experience of being with other dancers who are like you, and learning and preparing yourself to move on and, hopefully, start with a company and understand what it will be like dancing all day long and not just dancing after school.”

‘When they become better dancers outside the school in the summer, they come back as better dancers to represent the school.’ —Malu Rivera-Peoples

Parents especially need to understand that an intensive isn’t summer camp. That’s the teacher’s job to make clear. “We don’t go out and swim, play, and make crafts. It’s very different and we get a different kind of student, very serious, very focused,” says Victoria Leigh, who retired from The Washington School of Ballet in 2006 after helping shape that company’s well-regarded summer intensive program. She also saw countless young dancers while running the school’s audition tour for 13 years.

Leigh, now living and teaching outside of Atlanta, sees the summer intensive experience as a must for serious students considering a ballet career. “In a five- or six-week program in the summer,” she says, “a student can accomplish what will take five or six months during the regular school year because of the intensity, but also because of the total focus. They’re not in school. They’re not having an outside social life, an outside family life. They’re in a dorm and at the studio every day, and they benefit from that.”

Some teachers encourage all their top-level dancers to audition for summer intensives. Others suggest the intensive for a rare few only. Either way, teachers must keep abreast of the changing world of these programs. Thompson takes a week or more each summer to visit various distant programs to learn which to recommend to parents and students. She’s found some that she really likes and others she won’t endorse. But she emphasizes that she makes most of her recommendations from firsthand knowledge.

Another school owner, Malu Rivera-Peoples, has seen many of her 400 to 500 ballet students attend top intensives. Her school, Westlake School for the Performing Arts in Daly City, California, has sent students to programs across the country. “I recommend the intensives I like. I don’t stop anyone [from going],” says Rivera-Peoples, who notes where her students get in to extrapolate on where she should encourage students to audition the following year.

Like Peterson, Rivera-Peoples isn’t concerned about losing students to other schools. “When they become better dancers outside the school in the summer, they come back as better dancers to represent the school.”

But there’s often a delicate balance in the auditioning and intensive process. “When they go out there, especially the older kids, they compare themselves to the other kids, and they can come home either empowered or with the reality that ‘I don’t think I can do this,’ ” Rivera-Peoples says. “Ninety-nine percent come back very empowered, very enlightened, and they say, ‘Everything we learned in WSPA is actually being taught out there.’ That gives me validation as well.”

Many ballet intensives, especially those affiliated with professional companies, favor older, advanced students and look at the top-level summer classes as a way to fill in the ranks of their year-round schools and apprentice companies in the coming year or two. So dancers on a ballet career path, and their teachers and parents, should carefully research their options to narrow down appropriate choices. If possible, they should see the company and apprentice company in performance, check on the stability of the faculty from year to year, and determine whether an end-of-summer performance or audition is part of the program.

Dancers as young as 11 or 12 are welcome in some intensives, which often focus more on building technique than on a performance. “We look for a dancer who’s driven, who loves ballet, and who is taking enough classes to have strong pointe work at age 13,” says Melissa Allen Bowman, director of American Ballet Theatre’s summer intensives. With nine programs in seven cities, the intensives draw nearly 1,200 students. “We are very careful and make sure that we don’t take kids who would not be able to handle it physically.” Bowman has seen focused 12-year-olds thrive, improving their technique and making lasting friendships. The two-week programs in Los Angeles and New York are geared to young dancers.

One problem Bowman encounters is students who aren’t in shape at the start of the summer because they took time off at the end of the school year. The other issue she deals with perennially: homesickness. “It’s so individual,” she says about determining when a child is ready to leave home. “A lot has to do with emotional maturity. Some kids are ready to go away from home and they don’t look back. Some get really homesick. Some may be ready technically and not emotionally, or the other way around. Parents and teachers need to be in on the discussion.”

It’s OK, too, for very good students to choose to stay home. Weary notes that New York City Ballet’s Ashley Bouder, once a year-round student at CPYB, went to the School of American Ballet’s program only at the end of her training. Within a year she was invited to join the company. Other students might seek out an intensive program closer to home at a nearby studio, if one isn’t available at their home studio. The new teaching style and repertory can expand their ballet foundations and they still have the benefit of living at home.

Moretti Niebuhr agrees that intensives aren’t for everyone. “I don’t think every kid has to go away. I have a student who is a phenomenal dancer and she doesn’t do summer intensives. She has no interest in going away for the summer. She has one month off; she wants to have fun, and that’s fine, too.”

Summer Ballet Intensives: Important Questions to Ask

Longtime teacher Victoria Leigh, formerly with The Washington School of Ballet, has watched summer intensives grow into a profitable industry for many ballet companies. (For example, ABT’s net income from its nine intensive programs in summer 2008 was more than $500,000.) “The intensives have become so huge,” Leigh says. “Some are so large that the kids go to New York with no housing, no dormitory; it costs a fortune, and they’re taking classes that are very big, with lots of different teachers. And while it’s very exciting to be in New York, it’s not the best in terms of educational value.”

Leigh, who is a moderator on BalletTalk.com, a popular chat room that collects information on intensives (among other topics) based on personal experiences, encourages teachers, students, and parents to do research before they make a decision. Just because a company has a brand name doesn’t mean it provides brand-name summer intensive training. Look into the faculty. Is there consistency throughout the summer or are stars booked to teach one or two days, then leave?

Verify class sizes. In some programs classes can be as large as 35 or more students. While class sizes often depend on the size of the studio used, the smaller the classes, the more attention individual dancers get.

Look at the length of the program. Leigh says, “I think two-, three-, or four-week programs are better for the younger students, 12 and 13, and those going away for the first time. But after that they need to dance all summer and if they don’t have a program available in their home [ballet] school, then they need to go to an intensive if they want to be a dancer.”

Parents should explore living arrangements and how the programs are chaperoned. Leigh points out that some programs might not provide room and board, leaving teenagers to fend for themselves in a big city. Other programs offer dormitory-style living, resident assistants, and a dining hall for meals.

Leigh notes how important planned activities can be during off-hours on the weekend and evenings. If students are left to roam the campus or city without regulated activities, that’s trouble waiting to happen.

Parents should also investigate how injuries and illnesses are handled and the options for medical treatment nearby, facilities for physical therapy, if necessary, and other services and amenities for injured dancers.

While price can be a make-or-break factor, if a student with strong technique is accepted into more than one program, negotiating a financial aid package might be an option.

For anecdotal information on various ballet intensive programs, visit Ballet Talk for Dancers at dancers.invisionzone.com/index.php? and look for the intensives thread. Other sources of information include regional and national dance organizations, regional and national ballet companies, and dance publications that run listings of annual summer intensive audition tours. —LT

A study explores what keeps them there—and why it’s a rough road

By Doug Risner

Bryan Strimpel began dancing when he was 10 years old, after following his sister to her dance lessons. During his middle-school years he studied hip-hop and danced for his studio’s competition team. Later in high school he began to dance more seriously, adding ballet and jazz classes. A straight-A high school student, Bryan, now 19, didn’t hesitate to pursue dance at the university level.

Strimpel’s choice is part of an ever-increasing trend for males in the United States. An analysis of data from the National Association of Schools of Dance (NASD) shows that the number of young men who choose dance as an academic major at the 65 accredited NASD institutions in the United States has increased 56 percent since 2004. This trend is an important aspect of research I am conducting with my research team at Wayne State University in Detroit. We’re interested in learning more about the reasons behind this trend and what it means for professional dance training.

Trying to find answers is often complicated because very little research has been conducted on males in dance. Most of what we now know comes from a few small research studies of 10 to 20 male students and from anecdotal information that doesn’t provide an accurate picture. While male dancers have often fled their hometown studios for New York City training and fame, young adult males increasingly get their professional training at universities and complete dance degrees before beginning their careers.

My three-year national research study focuses on 100 male students, ages 13 to 22, in pre-professional training. We want to learn more about males in dance training—what they want, what attracts them to dance, why they continue, and the obstacles and challenges they face, even though dance for men has become more socially acceptable.

Adolescent boys and young adult men today are in a very different time in our society, when dance is becoming more acceptable for them. Teachers and directors need a more comprehensive understanding of the social complexities that men in dance encounter, because males are often looking for different things. Initial research reveals that males may look more carefully at multiple career options, with dance playing a primary or secondary role. (Parents, who frequently don’t support boys in dance training, emphasize the need for bankable careers for their sons.) Identifying what men are looking for is one of the central points of this national study.

It’s important to realize that for males seriously pursuing dance in higher education, the sports/dance analogy is ineffective at best.

Clues from professional companies
At the outset, our research team looked at 471 professional dancers in 30 leading U.S. dance companies in 2008. It found that although males comprise only about 10 percent of all higher-education dance students, professional male dancers are just as likely as their female counterparts to hold a degree in dance, and actually outpace them by a small margin. In ballet companies, males with degrees in dance outnumber degree-holding females by nearly 50 percent.

Why would this be? Part of the answer, we believe, lies in the significant development of professional dance training in higher education over the past two decades, as well as economic concerns. In these economic times, moving to New York right out of high school no longer makes sense for many boys, especially when some college programs offer them exceptional dance preparation, as well as additional academic opportunities and a supportive environment. This change has occurred because dance for males in higher education is more socially acceptable now. (Majoring in dance has always been socially acceptable for women.)

Additionally, males can bankroll their undergraduate education through sizeable scholarships that often exceed those granted to equally (if not more) talented females. Also, studying dance while receiving a college degree may “legitimize” dancing for young adult males, especially in parents’ eyes.

Returning to Strimpel’s story—one reminiscent of the character Mike in A Chorus Line, who found dance through his sister’s interests, “shoes and tights and all”—males in dance nowadays appear to have larger goals in their professional training. Strimpel wanted different kinds of opportunities as part of his professional university dance preparation, like experiences in dance technology, undergraduate research, and his own choreography.

Looking for variety
Like Strimpel, 21-year-old Michael Susten wanted a comprehensive dance education that would provide many different learning opportunities. After reviewing many institutions, he chose a university conservatory program because, he says, “I was looking for a number of things—diverse technique, outstanding facilities, a well-rounded curriculum, and immediate opportunities to choreograph.” And he wanted a dance faculty that would provide skilled career guidance—in his words, “faculty who’ve been there, done that.”

From our initial research findings, including survey data and in-depth interviews, we believe that Strimpel and Susten may represent a new kind of male student of dance in higher education. To understand male dancers’ experiences and ambitions more fully, we ask participants in the study’s survey to complete the sentence, “I dance because . . .” The survey gives a variety of answers based on previous research findings on male student dancers, from which participants can choose those that apply to themselves. By statistically significant margins, males say they dance because: they like to perform (96 percent); dancing is one place that allows them to be themselves (79 percent); and dance is a creative outlet for them (75 percent).

Misguided sports analogy
While the drive to perform makes sense as a leading factor for boys pursuing pre-professional training, their other prominent responses bring up some new questions about boys’ interests in creativity, self-discovery, and expression in dance. Previous efforts to explain and encourage male participation in dance have frequently centered on drawing close parallels between sports and dance, often emphasizing competitive athleticism rather than expressive artistry.

Psychologist Deborah Williams’ 2003 research study of 33 male adolescents enrolled in summer intensive ballet programs revealed male dancers’ frustration with misguided sports and dance analogies. “I’m an artist, not a football player!” one of her participants said. “Why does everyone keep insisting on comparing me to a sports star . . . as though that should make it all right to dance?” Our research findings confirm Williams’ data and raise the question: Why is dance for males so often linked to sports?

Strategies over the past 50 years that have promoted the idea that “dance is sports” for male students may still be effective for general-education male students in K–12 programs or in studios; however, research indicates that it’s not only unfounded for boys in pre-professional training, but also alienates them. As Susten, in this study, states, “Dance is nothing at all like sports, and male dancers know it.”

It’s important to realize that for males who seriously pursue dance in higher education, the sports/dance analogy is ineffective at best. Recruiting males to college and university programs will likely be far more effective when the creative and artistic aspects of the department’s programs are highlighted.

The importance of support
I’ve studied student dancers’ experiences in rehearsal, training, and performance for 20 years, and the data my research is gathering involve many larger issues about how dance and dance training are perceived by the general public: Only girls dance; boys who dance are sissies; dance isn’t serious. It is impossible to talk about male dancers without also acknowledging the female status dance holds for the rest of society and how anything seen as feminine is judged to be inferior. In the university setting, males often encounter a more equitable environment where it’s not only acceptable for boys to dance, but also where males in dance are respected and valued to a larger degree.

Having grown up in an environment where dance wasn’t socially acceptable for boys, 19-year-old Aaron Smith, a former gymnast, was interested in university dance study where he could also pursue his interests in theater and Japanese language and culture. Smith says that his life at the university is a very different world. “Dance faculty are so supportive and there’s no competition between the students,” he says. “It’s always about learning and growing. Not having had much support before, this makes a huge difference for me.”

Dance study has always been seen as an appropriate and viable career path for girls, but often not for boys. Knowing more about males’ social support, or lack of it, plays an important role in understanding males considering dance study in higher education.

Using a revised version of Williams’ Dancer Social Support Scale (2003) of important people who provide emotional support to the student dancer, our data find that just over half (58 percent) of male student dancers report that they are “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the support they receive for their dancing. Nineteen percent of males report that they are “somewhat satisfied,” while nearly one in four males indicate that they are “dissatisfied” or “very dissatisfied” with the support their dancing garners.

Where are the dads?
Digging more deeply into the study’s ongoing findings, males report that those people whom they consider “very supportive” are their best friend in dance (79 percent), favorite dance teacher (75 percent), and mother (67 percent). By comparison, females overwhelmingly report that they receive the most support from their mother (92 percent) and father (62 percent). Also, when male students were asked to complete the sentence, “I think more boys/males would study dance if . . .” males overwhelmingly choose the answer, “Parents were more supportive and encouraging” (79 percent).

What’s important about the social support data we’re gathering is that although males sometimes have the support of their mothers, the level of support from their fathers and siblings appears to be very low. The overall amount of support that men receive from mothers and fathers (52 percent) appears to be much lower than that for women (77 percent). This is troubling. Male students will obviously internalize this lack of support in negative ways. While males are choosing to major in dance by increasing numbers, they appear to be doing so without the level of parental support enjoyed by their female counterparts. The social hurdles that boys in dance negotiate remain a central concern.

Because this research is ongoing, only tentative conclusions can be drawn at this time. Still, what we’re finding provides important new information for college and university dance programs, especially for those programs interested in renewed and more knowledgeable recruitment efforts of male students—information on the reality of their social worlds and their interests, both in traditional dance training and thereafter.

Although boys are repeatedly socialized away from dance training, the field would be far better off if boys felt free to pursue serious study from an early age. Dance, as an artistic and humanistic discipline, should be available and accessible to everyone. Given the rigid ideals of masculinity in American society, there is a need for increased research on male students of dance in order to understand the larger picture of their aspirations, goals, and needs.

For more information or to enroll your male students in this study, please email research@dancingboyslives.org.

Celebrating the ones who sew and bake—and touch our hearts

By Nancy Wozny

Dance teachers love to complain about the nutty things they have to put up with from parents. Venting is a natural way to ease frustration, and it’s easy to remember the parents who made your blood boil. Does that sound like you? But what about the parents who were there when you needed them, who shuttled the competition team to that high school at the end of the universe, who sewed, built sets, moved floors, answered phones, and glued on rhinestones through the wee hours of the night? Isn’t it high time we heard their stories?

When Dance Studio Life asked you to share your stories, you responded with a barrage of emails. It turns out that you love your students’ parents and are full of stories about those who go above and beyond. If only we could include them all since each told a heartfelt tale.

Volunteer extraordinaire
Sometimes one person makes all the difference. Jeanne Maddox Peterson of Maddox Dance Studio in Seaside and Warrenton, Oregon, remembers one stellar parent. Although it’s been 50 years since she taught this special parent’s two daughters, she has never forgotten her kindness.

This woman was the kind of parent whom teachers dream of—one who will do anything. “She always supported every student in the school just the same as her own children,” says Peterson. “She was always the first to volunteer to do anything that was needed. She made cookies, hosted parties, worked backstage, sold tickets, and did cleanup.” One year she sewed 35 pink Romantic tutus. “She had them stacked on her bed so they almost touched the ceiling,” Peterson says.

That star parent, who still keeps in touch with the studio after all this time, celebrated her 80th birthday last fall, and Peterson was there to celebrate with her.

Competition-season angels
Every dance teacher knows that running a dance team translates into tons of work. There is a multitude of costumes, transportation, and other logistical concerns to deal with. Dana Hanes, director of the tap and jazz department of Canadian School of Dance in Nepean, Ontario, brags about the moms who get her smoothly through competition season so that she can concentrate on the dancing.

With a team of 100 students, the details make all the difference. “I have an absolutely great team of moms who organize all of the props for our studio’s competition team, and we always have a full truckload of props. They fully take that on and arrange for all parent volunteers to set up onstage, tear down, and all transportation for regional and nationals,” says Hanes. “They make the teachers’ lives so much easier and enable us to do our jobs, which is spending more time with the kids.”

And that’s not all. Hanes has another team of parents who throw “rhinestoning parties” at the studio. Why not make sewing fun? It’s a “have glue gun and 3,000 Swarovski crystals, will sew” situation during competition season at Hanes’ studio. “It takes countless hours to do this, and it saves our seamstresses and the teachers so much time,” says Hanes. “I even made T-shirts that say ‘CSD Stoner’ for some of the moms to wear.” All the work parents did paid off: The studio won high honors at the regional ADA awards and first and second place at CanDance’s Diamond Dance-Off.

‘Parents and dancers allowed me to fall into a soft cloud, a cocoon, where I felt safe and protected. . . . I quickly realized that not only was my own family behind me, but my dance family as well.’ —studio owner Karen Clark

Supers and stagehands
Some parents help out by joining the students onstage. How are you going to have a party scene in Nutcracker without a few brave parents to fill the adult roles? Sheila Sumpter, now a teacher at MusicWorks! Studio of Performing Arts, in Waynesville, North Carolina, remembers one can-do couple from her school-ownership years. They played Clara’s parents for seven years straight in her annual Nutcracker.

And when they weren’t doing that, they were busy moving sets, working on costumes, and chaperoning students at competitions and conventions. “Most of this was done without us having to ask them first. They just planned on doing it in support of their daughter and her studio,” says Sumpter. The student has since moved on, and so have her parents. “Now that their daughter is grown, they are missed.”

Devoted dads
Melinda Shaner of Conservatory of Dance in Silver City, New Mexico, told a heartwarming story about a gaggle of dads who took ballet classes at her previous school in California so that they could dance with their daughters in her annual Nutcracker. “One athletic dad became so hooked on ballet class that he not only played Drosselmeyer for both of his daughters, but also danced the role of the Cavalier for his daughter and many other girls,” she says. “We talked him into many other parts, including being one of the wicked stepsisters in Cinderella. [His performances have] always been special moments for not only the family, but all of us, and something none of them will ever forget.”

Scholarship donors
Personal difficulties can bring the best out in teachers and parents. Kathy King of Kathy’s Dancenter in Laurel Springs, New Jersey, remembers a young dancer who had a rare neuromuscular disorder. She danced until she was required to use a wheelchair, then helped out with shows. “She was a dynamo and taught so much to so many of us,” says King. The girl died in 2003 at age 18, and the studio sponsored an annual spring flower sale to help the family with its catastrophic medical bills.

Today that family contributes scholarships to the studio in honor of their daughter’s spirit and memory, including a $1,500 college scholarship to a graduating senior and a $500 scholarship for dance tuition, called the Spirit Award.

“As sad as this story is, it really spotlights the good in people and how life comes full circle. We were there for the family when they needed a boost. Now they are giving back tenfold,” says King.

Stand-in school owners
Karen Clark of Victoria, British Columbia, faced serious challenges when she was diagnosed with lymphoma four years ago. When the daily chores of running her studio, Karen Clark Dance Studio, became too much for her, she turned to her students’ parents for help.

“Parents and dancers allowed me to fall into a soft cloud, a cocoon, where I felt safe and protected. I was very worried about my business when I found out I was sick, but I quickly realized that not only was my own family behind me, but my dance family as well,” says Clark. “The support for the faculty, to my own family with the dinners, the baking, the cards, the prayers, and the way they all pitched in was amazing.” After the recital that year, Clark thanked the parents onstage while they gave her a standing ovation. “To this day I am overwhelmed,” she says, “and, after owning my studio for 20 years, I don’t overwhelm too easily.”

Clark’s luck with parents predates her illness. In 1997 she remarked at a dress rehearsal that she wished she had added a vest to a costume for one number. The next day a heroic mom showed up with 15 plaid tartan vests, which she had spent all night sewing.

Helpful parents are still a familiar sight at Clark’s studio. Last spring, one dad made a carriage for her production of Cinderella. The mom and daughters painted and decorated it. Clark remembers the parent reassuring her, saying, “Don’t worry; it will be done on time and be beautiful.” And it was. And there’s more: They are storing it for her as well.

Clark is so grateful to her parent helpers and hopes that they know that. “I write thank-you notes; I say thank you,” she says. “I really don’t know if they realize how much these acts mean to me.”

Floor wranglers
Need a floor moved? Call the dads, and sometimes a few moms, too. Debra Spoulos of Broadway Dance Center in Tracy and Waterford, California, tells of a group of mostly dads who donated two full weekends in November 2007 to move a floor from her old studio to her new one. It was a particularly difficult time for Spoulos because her husband was suffering from a brain tumor. Since he was unable to do his usual amount of work, these parents made all the difference.

“I have a great group of parents who stepped up when my family needed help,” says Spoulos. “My husband has since passed, and many of those same parents still check in with me on a monthly basis to see if I need help.”

Movers
Nancy Alvey of Planet Dance in Summerville, South Carolina, faced quite a challenge when she moved from a 2,000-square-foot building to a 7,000-square-foot one. Alvey was overjoyed when two parents and one grandparent volunteered to help with the move. And move they did, along with building walls and closets, painting, laying a floor, and numerous other tasks. “If it weren’t for them we would be dancing in the parking lot,” says Alvey. “But they didn’t stop there—they were there constantly, doing little jobs like taking out the trash, changing filters in the air-conditioning unit, even vacuuming. They were definitely heaven sent.

Creators of keepsakes
For Melissa Peterson of Downstage Dance Company in Joliet, Illinois, it was a gift that touched her heart. Her terrific tribe of moms arranged for each student to pick a charm to add to a bracelet as a special present at the end of the studio’s first year. Each dancer wrote a note explaining why she had chosen the particular charm. The moms gathered the stories, along with pictures of the students, into a beautiful scrapbook. “Not only do I have this beautiful bracelet, but I have a keepsake from all of my dancers,” says Peterson, who was thrilled to have her school’s first year documented in such a loving way. “It was such a nice gesture, and it made me feel like all of the hard work it took to get through year one really paid off.”

Spur-of-the-moment helpers
Sometimes it’s a spontaneous act of kindness that rocks your boat. While Loretta Sramek of Spiral Dance Company in White Rock, British Columbia, was joking with some parents who were waiting for their children to finish class, she happened to mention a new rug she had bought for the office. One parent asked if she needed help taking it out of the car. Another parent suggested that they go ahead and put it in place that very moment. One thing led to another, and pretty soon an entire fleet of parents turned into rug-and-furniture movers.

Clad in their dresses and high heels, the women installed the new carpet, which Sramek referred to as “a 10-foot-by-6-foot beast.” Jokes about how many women it takes to replace a carpet kept everyone in good spirits. “The children finished class and I graciously thanked my impromptu group of rug movers,” says Sramek. “I strolled to my car with a big smile on my face and a giggle at how much fun that was—and gratitude at how lucky I am to have such wonderful and supportive parents.”

Boys who dance have it rough—here’s how to smooth their path

By Anne L. Silveri

With Billy Elliot packing them in on Broadway, it’s a good time to think about how boys treat each other when some of them choose dance as a pastime or career. Even the popular 2006 film Happy Feet addressed a similar issue, albeit from a penguin’s perspective. Why do so many men have trouble accepting that their sons are born to dance? In both of these films the fathers were the problem, but boys’ peers can be difficult too.

Why are boys who dance fair game for ridicule? Is it because boys will be boys, as the saying goes? School is tough enough on boys without the extra burden of dealing with friends’ harsh opinions about their decision to take dance classes.

Understanding the teen psyche
Adolescence can bring out the best and worst in developing young men. “It’s a time of extreme emotional fragility,” says James Hollis, author of Under Saturn’s Shadow: The Wounding and Healing of Men. “Young men often avoid anything that doesn’t seem macho.” Artistic expression is often thought of as a “girl thing”—and wrongly so, according to Hollis.

The combative nature of boys’ style of verbal communication adds to the complexity of the situation. Michael Gurian, the go-to expert on the male gender, explains in his books The Wonder of Boys, A Fine Young Man, and numerous others why boys communicate through insults. “It’s hard-wired into a boy’s brain to communicate through competition,” Gurian says. “Males establish the pecking order and hierarchy through language; and remember, they have half the verbal brain centers that women [have].”

So when a guy bops his buddy in the head with the greeting, “Lame hair, dude,” it’s a sign of attention and endearment. Most of the negative comments that boys throw at each other are meant in a loving way, but those exchanges can reach a level of verbal violence that makes boys feel threatened. When language crosses the line into destructive territory, Gurian urges young men to take some control of their peer circle by choosing whom they want to hang out with.

Brain chemicals also factor into the bully scenario. Hormones going at high blast can also fuel insults. “Testosterone kicks in during this time,” says Kathy Stevens, co-author with Gurian of The Minds of Boys: Saving Our Sons From Falling Behind in School and Life. “This is the hormone of aggression, striving to compete and succeed.” According to Stevens, boys like to win and be recognized as competent, even in dance. So it makes sense for them to get some technical chops before they invite all their friends to a show. Still, there’s no getting out of some rough spots during those testing years. Stevens also thinks that being in a culture of homophobia doesn’t help matters. “During adolescence, boys have enough identity issues with their own sexuality without adding something else into the mix.”

Boys who faced the challenge and triumphed
Neil Haskell, a past heartthrob on So You Think You Can Dance, broke the “dance is for girls” barrier during high school, by showing off on the lawn. “One day I did a bunch of flips outside and my friends thought it was cool right away,” says Haskell. “If you want to get respect, show your friends what you can do, and they’ll respond. Once they saw that I was actually good at dance they left me alone.” According to Haskell, boys respond well to difficult tricks, so it helped that he had a strong background in gymnastics.

During Haskell’s months on the road with the SYTYCD tour, he talked to many a young dancing lad, making a point of meeting with those who came to the after-show meet-and-greet. “I’d high-five them and say, ‘Hang in there,’ ” Haskell remembers. “I realized I was probably a role model for a lot of young male dancers, and I took that job seriously.” Haskell, who has since acted in the MTV movie The American Mall and is currently appearing off-Broadway in Altar Boyz, also credits the support of his mother, father, and twin brother in the development of his dancing career.

Caleb Teicher, 15, studies ballet, jazz, and hip-hop at The Pulse Performing Arts School in Bedford Hills, New York; for tap, he trains with David Rider in Hyde Park, New York, and Jimmy Tate, who danced in Jelly’s Last Jam, The Tap Dance Kid, and Bring in da’ Noise, Bring in da’ Funk. According to Teicher, hip-hop is a “guy thing” to do because the general public sees it as a more masculine dance form. The same can be said about tap.

Teicher, who kept mum with his chums during his first year of classes, found it difficult to be the only boy in a sea of girls in jazz class. Early on he considered pursuing ballet, but, he admits, “I wasn’t strong enough to stand up to, well, everybody.” He adds that not meeting any boys his age in ballet class played a role in his decision to avoid ballet. “I really tried to deny that ballet technique was essential and ultimately helpful to my training,” he says. “I think as I got older I cared less about what people thought and more about what I could do to better myself as a dancer. It was quite a hurdle to overcome at the time, though. I kept my ballet participation to myself until I thought I could handle whatever my friends would say.”

When Teicher finally told his friends about taking ballet, they didn’t make too much of it. And once they saw him perform, things really changed. “After they saw me dance they thought it was cool,” he says. “My friends have become some of my biggest fans. They’re always asking me when I am performing next.”

Teicher’s eventual lack of fear of being judged made it easy for his friends to accept his choices. But he still finds it annoying to be the only guy in dance class, because he never could find a male role model to make him say, “I want to dance the way he dances. It’s so masculine.” But, he adds, “as I’ve gotten better and older, I don’t mind it as much. Also, what teenage guy minds being in a room with a bunch of girls?”

Teicher makes a point of broadening his training and getting seen; he attends Tap City, Tap Kids, and Tradition in Tap and participated in a summer intensive with Dwight Rhoden and Desmond Richardson at Complexions Dance Company. “It’s all about confidence. If you don’t think there’s anything wrong with being a male dancer, then neither should anyone else. [Having confidence] makes you much less vulnerable to other people’s opinions. If you have a passion for dance, then not much should stop you.”

Thomas Kilps, 26, weathered many a crude comment from his peers to get to where he is today, a professional dancer with Texas Ballet Theater, now in his sixth season. Facing slings like “Are you going to put on your tutu?” was the norm for the football-player-turned-dancer. He responded by educating his chums, who had no idea what a dancer’s life is like. “Ignorance is at the root of most negative jabs; don’t take it personally,” advises Kilps, whose favorite role is Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet. “Eventually they will get tired of bothering you and accept you. It gets better when you get older.”

For Kilps, seeing other male dancers at a summer program proved a turning point. He knew then that dancing was well worth withstanding the sometimes difficult path, although he admits that it takes a combination of verve and courage. “If you want to keep dancing, don’t let anybody take that away from you,” Kilps says.

‘If you want to get respect, show your friends what you can do, and they’ll respond. Once they saw that I was actually good at dance they left me alone.’ —Neil Haskell

The teacher’s role
How can teachers help boys fight the kinds of battles that Haskell, Teicher, and Kilps faced? One way is to follow the lead of Jennifer Dell, 38, co-owner of The Pulse. She has a unique way of making life better for the boys who study at her studio: She runs a special boys-only program for the first few years of training. “Girls progress faster sometimes and boys can get discouraged,” says Dell. “In our program they are learning and making vital mistakes without being in front of girls.”

It helps that men teach the ballet and tap classes, providing strong role models. Dell has found that the interaction between the staff and her male students makes all the difference. “Having male teachers helps combat the negative and shows boys that it’s OK to dance,” she says. “It sends a message that what they are doing is a great thing.” Once the boys get more advanced, they are integrated into coed classes.

According to Dell, a boy’s home life makes all the difference, with support from his father being particularly significant. “It’s a double-whammy when boys don’t get support from their friends or fathers,” she says. “Often the father’s number-one concern is that his child will ‘turn gay’ just by exposure to a dance environment.”

Dell goes out of her way to create a welcoming atmosphere for boys. She gives them their own dressing room and is sensitive to costumes, preferring that the boys wear street clothes selected from their own closets rather than costumes that might seem overly feminine. Also, she brought an in-studio convention, taught entirely by men, to her school and added a boys-only hip-hop class two years ago, taught by a male teacher. “This year it has just exploded,” she reports.

Like the fathers in Billy Elliot and Happy Feet, a boy’s peer group will eventually come around and accept what he does, but it’s up to teachers to tell male students to hang in there. When they’re going through rough times with peers, remind them that this too will pass. For boys who want to dance, asserting some control of a social circle, getting technique down before announcing their dancer status, educating sometimes “dance-dumb” dads and buddies, and self-acceptance are the keys to surviving—and thriving—in the dance world.

Barry Kaufax aims for that ‘dancing on a cloud’ feeling

By Nancy Wozny

Barry Kaufax is co-owner of Barry’s Capezio in Scottsdale, Arizona, with his wife of 26 years, Cheryl. He’s most known for the design and concept of the Capezio Coppola jazz-tap shoe. Barry’s Capezio Dance Theatre Shop, a third-generation family business that originated in New York City, has been in operation more than 50 years and is a hub for the dance arts community in Arizona. He has worked with and serviced many of the dance world’s greatest names, including Ann Miller, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Donald O’Connor. He loves to talk about dance shoes. Dance Studio Life visited him between fittings at last summer’s DanceLife Teacher Conference in Phoenix.

Dance Studio Life: Do you remember when you first got interested in the dance shoe biz?

Barry Kaufax: Since I grew up in the family business—we just celebrated 50 years—I guess I didn’t know anything else. But I got hooked when I was 18. I went to L.A. and learned from Ralph Hadsell, and there I got interested in creating something, working with my hands, and making it right for the dancers.

DSL: Talk about your mentors. What pearls of wisdom did you learn from them?

BK: The main theme is “You can discard your shoes but you cannot discard your feet, as they carry you through life,” words handed down to me by Craig Coussins [a designer who has made shoes for Irish dancers]. [The late] Ben Sommers [a former president of Capezio] always talked about the arts bringing down the barriers between countries. My parents said that not every dancer would be a star but they would learn how to be a great audience. Ralph taught me to work on theatrical shoes and how to make a dancer’s dream shoe become reality.

DSL: So, a dancer walks into your store and wants a pair of pointe shoes. What’s the next step?

BK: Well, they usually make an appointment. We need an hour to make sure the fit is correct and to go over the care of the shoes so that the shoes will take care of their feet. I take a mental snapshot of their foot, like a 3-D rendering, and then I run through all the models of shoes that I carry and I get a picture in my head of the actual shoe as it might look on the foot. When I am “on” I can be right on the first shoe. When I fit I try to keep my head as clear as possible for the dancers.

‘If the shoe is fitting and working correctly on the dancer, then the foot and the shoe are one, fitting like a glove and giving the dancer the feeling of dancing on a cloud.’ —Barry Kaufax

DSL: How do you think about pointe shoes?

BK: As athletes’ equipment! After all, a dancer is an athlete first and an artist second; they are involved in one of the most beautiful forms of art on earth, at least in my opinion.

DSL: Dancers want their feet to look beautiful. Can they look great in the right shoe too?

BK: With most fittings, if the shoe is fitting and working correctly on the dancer, then the foot and the shoe are one, fitting like a glove and giving the dancer the feeling of dancing on a cloud.

DSL: What do you need to know about the dancer?

BK: Age, number of years in ballet, their teacher. If applicable, number of years on pointe, types of pointe shoes used (likes and dislikes), number of hours per week in pointe, and type of padding they use. I usually can tell if they have had any injuries or problems once I get them on pointe.

DSL: From time to time manufacturers send you shoes to try out before they release them. You give them to some dancers to try and then you tear them apart. When you tear a pointe shoe apart, what can you tell?

BK: Type of materials used, paste quality, how the perspiration/heat affects the components, how well the shoe held up for the number of hours used. How well the dancer was on center pointe. How well the dancer took care of the shoes, drying period, where they were stored when not in use, how long they were drying between usages. I can also tell if the shoe was right for the dancer just by looking at the shoe before I tear it down.

DSL: How do you consider the health of the foot in your fitting and selection process?

BK: Even a blister is an injury. The health and strength of the foot/leg/body are very important. Put simply, how can a dancer give 100 percent if their feet hurt? Also, the age of the dancer—if they are too young their growth plate is not fused, they can be injured if they are doing center work; hence the development of the pre-pointe shoe. This shoe was introduced to us by Craig Coussins in 1988 and should be used between 10 to 12 years of age.

DSL: I understand that Russians have different ideas about how shoes should fit.

BK: Yes, because their choreography usually revolves around pirouettes (no pun intended), which needs a smaller platform (pointe) to spin faster on. They also like their shoes to fit small in length, so as the shoes break down they fit better. I am not in total agreement with that. Too often by the time they fit the shoes will be dead.

DSL: I understand that you broke in a pair of shoes for Baryshnikov. Tell us more.

BK: I actually was called upon to re-pleat a pair of his old ballet shoes for a benefit performance; he was dancing in an Arizona Ballet benefit. The stitching gave way and I needed to restitch it. He had plenty of new shoes, but he wanted me to re-pleat an old pair instead of trying to break in a new pair.

DSL: Talk about the jazz shoe you pioneered.

BK: It is a jazz-tap shoe that I designed with and for [master tap teacher] Tony Coppola in 1988. I made about 500 pair by hand, with the assistance of a couple of other cobblers, which Tony sold at the Tremaine Conventions. While that was happening Capezio saw some prototypes that I was working on with an independent factory and called us to see if we would be interested in letting Capezio manufacture the shoe under their label with Tony’s signature. The shoe lasted through 2004 and set the standard for all jazz-tap shoes that followed.

DSL: I understand that you have a famous mom. What was her claim to dancewear fame?

BK: She designed and developed stirrup tights, which were handed over to Ballet Makers [Capezio] to make for the modern dancers. My parents’ store was the second Capezio affiliate—now we are the oldest—which allows us to use the Capezio name behind mine. The color Pearl Gray was named after Mom. Also, the Ultimo and Contempora pointe shoes were designed by my parents for Leslie Brown, a famous dancer from Phoenix who danced with New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre.

DSL: How do you see yourself as a partner in the dance education process?

BK: The way I see it, if the fitters do their job right the teacher’s job is easier, because we do the fit for the feeling of dancing on a cloud.

DSL: Can you imagine the pointe shoe of 2030? What will it look and act like?

BK: It would still look the same, but the shanking system would be more resilient to heat and moisture and be able to withstand the pounds per square inch that the dancer applies to her equipment upon landing. A dancer lands on this equipment with 10 times her body weight. The boxing would still need to allow the dancer to feel the movement and motion of the floor. I am working on a new kind of shank, but it’s top secret. The shoe still won’t fit itself, though, so dancers will still need people like me. In an ideal future world, the staffs of dance retailers will be much better educated on fitting. Ultimately, it’s up to the dancer to make the shoes perform.

Clue in to the culture to get the party started at your school

By Gregg Russell

Do you remember back in the 1980s, when break dancing/hip-hop became popular? Everyone called it the “next disco” and said it would fade away like the hustle. Well, here we are almost 30 years later, and the style has evolved and become a mainstay. Just look at Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance or MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew—you could say that hip-hop is more popular today than ever before.

Many dance studio owners today are scrambling to hire qualified and reliable hip-hop teachers. But do you know what to look for? If you are not familiar with this free-spirited culture, it can be overwhelming and intimidating. Here are some insights and guidelines to help you find a hip-hop teacher, fill those classes, and get this “party” started!

Where can you find hip-hop teachers? Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just go online, or if you are Old School, look in the Yellow Pages? The first places I would search are local colleges. If you go to the dance or arts department, you might get some leads on people who are new in the area and familiar with, if not living, the hip-hop culture. They usually need money and work and would jump at the chance to do something they love for some extra cash. I would also try local high schools, or ask some of your competition students for suggestions. Every high school or college these days seems to have a hip-hop crew or students who love to show off the latest moves. There are no guarantees, and you will have to mentor and guide them extensively if they don’t have previous teaching experience. But it’s worth a shot at finding a diamond in the rough.

I would also ask for recommendations from surrounding dance studios (depending on your relationship with them). In my experience, at least in the tap world, once you find a good specialized teacher, most studios are pretty generous about sharing. Just make sure to negotiate and set parameters regarding your policies for competition and choreography.

Many people perceive the hip-hop culture’s attitude as one of discontent and lack of respect toward society, but in reality the beauty lies within its chaos.

If you attend dance conventions regularly, try asking the resident hip-hop teacher if he or she knows of anyone in your area. You will be surprised at how small the hip-hop community is—many teachers know each other.

The interview
All right, you have found a possible hip-hop dancer/teacher. What’s next? The best approach is to set up an interview. But first I need to explain one thing, so that you have a better understanding of whom you are interviewing. The hip-hop culture is probably one of the most committed yet free-spirited communities in the dance world. Many people perceive this attitude as one of discontent and lack of respect toward society, but in reality the beauty lies within its chaos. Consider the amazing choreography and individual movement that have been created over the last 15 years—hip-hop has grown from obscurity to worldwide popularity in a short amount of time, which never would have occurred without this spirit and attitude.

To start the interview, ask about the teacher’s daily routine. It might seem trivial, but I believe you can tell a lot about a person’s personality (patience, persistence, etc.) from these questions. For example, during a recent interview for a dance job I asked the dancers what they do in their spare time. Most of them stuttered and said, “Nothing, because dance is my life.” One individual stood out, though, because she said she loves to dance but enjoys music, movies, and traveling, which enhance her dancing experience.  She brought something unique to the choreography that helped her get the job.

Next, home in on whether the potential teachers have worked with kids. If they haven’t, explain your process and what your studio stands for. I have found that many studio owners assume that the teachers understand what they need. Never assume that they know.

If they have worked with kids, then ask them to describe the last event or recital they worked on. You will be able to tell in a heartbeat if they like kids by the way they light up (or not). Be careful, though—I have met teachers who are great with kids, but when something goes wrong, they do nothing but complain about how their students don’t pay attention or work hard. You want your teachers to like the kids, but they must also respect them.

Most important, explain that this is a legit job and your teachers need to be reliable. The hip-hop community has a very laid-back timetable when it comes to creativity and work, so be clear about the job’s responsibilities. It might seem obvious to you, but saying it up front will protect you legally and emotionally. Be clear, and even write it in a contract so that the teacher understands the magnitude of what you want.

The decision
So, let’s say you had a good interview but you are still on the fence about whether to hire this teacher. There are a couple of things you can do to help you decide. First, ask to see his work via DVD or on the Internet, or you could monitor one of his classes or performances. You could also set up a master class and have some of your better students work with the teacher. This would give you insight on how he prepares and runs a class. If feasible, also have him teach a class of younger students, to see how he handles adversity and youthful energy.

If you are considering teachers who are young or have never taught, I would suggest having them monitor one of your classes. As they watch, go over all aspects of running the class, including injury prevention, taking attendance, warm-up, and appropriate choreography. This can help them find a structure and see what you expect from them. Another suggestion is to take them to a convention so that they can see how a professional handles a class. Overall, you will be able to make a smart and well-thought-out decision on a hip-hop teacher you can work with for years to come.

The class
Now the million-dollar question: What is a good structure for a hip-hop class? Unlike ballet or tap, there is no set curriculum. Hip-hop is a passed-down-and-around style of dance that is always re-creating itself. Each week new songs and popular dances pop up, and you can get overwhelmed with keeping up. So I say keep the structure loose. Consider it an outline and not a detailed map.

Each teacher is different, but I start off with a good 5- to 10-minute warm-up. A lot of your hip-hop students will be recreational dancers, so get them some exercise! Here are some ideas:

• Opening warm-up: Stomach crunches and push-ups, along with some light stretching.
• Second warm-up: A simple-to-follow but continuous warm-up including step touches, slides, and one or two popular moves.
• Third warm-up: Break down and do isolations including heads, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hands, ribs, hips, knees, ankles, and feet.

All of these are essential in training your students’ coordination and stamina. Consider them your basics.

From there, I would do an across-the-floor exercise, putting 8 to 16 counts together, using isolations and/or new steps. This is a wonderful way to develop the students’ confidence and style. Most teachers jump straight to choreography, which doesn’t give the students the opportunity to stand out individually, unless they are the best in class. Also, if you are into break dancing, this is a fun way to introduce it. I like to do basic drills, such as “bear crawls,” “ninjas,” and “Super-Marios,” across the floor. You can also make it fun and do relay races. Nothing unites the class like good, healthy competition.

After that I jump into a choreography combination, and then, if there’s time, a hip-hop circle at the end, when each dancer comes out and freestyles. Within the hip-hop community, freestyle is an expression of who you are and is essential to your voice on the dance floor. Encourage this as much as you can. (Yes, even the shy ones.) If for some reason no one embraces it, have them go out in duos or trios, and then eventually work them down to solos. You will see how they develop confidence doing this, along with your choreography looking better in the process.

Keeping current
How do you stay current with the latest moves? If I had an answer for this, I would be rich! No one can keep up with hip-hop, which is always updating and re-creating itself. I find the best ways are YouTube.com, dance videos (MTV, BET, iTunes), and dance conventions. The hip-hop teachers at dance conventions are usually professional dancers who have worked with the popular singers/rappers of today. If all that doesn’t work for you, go to your high school students and pick their brains for about an hour. You will be amazed at what you learn.

Music
Which music to use? Hip-hop music is very accessible these days, so finding it should not be a problem. Just be careful about lyrics and content when purchasing songs. For example, “radio versions” don’t exclude certain bad words and often don’t have edited content. The best rule of thumb is to listen to the song first. If you are short on time, go to lyrics.com or do an Internet search for the lyrics to a specific song. What is brilliant about hip-hop is that some of the most creative routines have been choreographed to non-hip-hop music. The Jabbawockeez, a popular hip-hop dance crew, recently tore up the house with a routine to a mix of songs from the movie Chicago! Don’t be scared to explore and dare to be different.

Hopefully, you now have some insight on the culture of hip-hop and what makes it go. Remember, it is a dance style that is still in its early development, so embrace its uniqueness while being smart about how you present it to your students. One of the original rap duos, Eric B. & Rakim, said it best: “It’s not about where you’ve been—it’s about where you’re at.” Peace!

Dance Masters of America celebrates 125 years of excellence

By Steve Sucato

One of the age-old questions in any area of education is “Who teaches the teachers?” For more than a century in the field of dance education that question has been answered with “Dance Masters of America.”

The international organization of certified dance educators (founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1884 as the American National Association, Masters of Dancing) has been at the forefront of dance education and standardization ever since. The group was renamed Dancing Masters of America in 1926 after merging with the like-minded International Masters of Dancing. It adopted its current name in 1948. Today DMA boasts more than 2,000 members in 4 countries, and its 33 active chapters provide a myriad of dance education programs for its members.

This year Dance Masters of America celebrates 125 years of helping countless individuals become better dance educators as well as scores of dance students to realize their academic and professional aspirations.

Standards
Since its inception DMA has recognized the need for a professional level of teaching standards in the dance industry. Its mission has been to develop that set of standards, providing its membership with a comprehensive curriculum and syllabuses they can benefit from and that provide a means to measure themselves and become certified.

“Anyone can put up a sign and say they are a dance teacher,” says former DMA president and 30-year member Mimi Costa-White. “We are trying to make sure students are taught correctly and not in a harmful way.”

That sentiment is shared by fellow DMA member Debbie Davenport from St. Charles, Missouri. A dance instructor for more than 30 years, Davenport feels that “there needs to be some kind of control over what is being taught in America.”

Membership
To become a DMA member, applicants must adhere to its set of standards by testing in the disciplines they teach, such as ballet, tap, or jazz. Having passed their tests, new members become certified and can take advantage of a number of member benefits, including: reduced ASCAP and BMI yearly rates, the use of Dance Masters of America’s emblem in their advertising, group health insurance, dance workshops, member periodicals, and competitions and scholarship opportunities for the members’ students. 

What does membership actually mean to its members? For many of the people interviewed for this article, being a DMA member gave them a sense of validation in their teaching skills and a sense of personal accomplishment in passing the membership process.

One such member is Dee Buchanan from Middletown, Maryland, who says, “To me the name of the organization is really astute because many of its members really are master dance teachers. For a number of years I attended workshops as a non-member, until at one workshop I was encouraged by senior members of the organization to take the certification exams. It felt like I had hit the lottery—the teachers I had looked up to for so many years now considered me a peer.”

Teachers Training School (TTS)
In 1918 DMA began perhaps its best-known dance education program, the Teachers’ Normal School, renamed Teachers Training School in 1970. The program that epitomizes the organization’s mission, it began as a four-week intensive held in advance of the organization’s annual National Convention. Over the years it has developed into a four-year certification program in which participants spend a week each year learning from master teachers. During those weeks they gain experience in the how-tos of teaching various disciplines, from ballet, tap, and jazz to modern, lyrical, and theater dance.

“DMA Teacher’s Training School gives teachers a real understanding of their core curriculum and offers them a road map to teach by,” says Tom Ralabate, DMA’s chair of education strategy and one of the driving forces behind the annual TTS in Buffalo, New York. “It addresses many idioms, offering multi-level training—historical, technical, philosophical, and aesthetic—that participants are then able to translate into their own classroom experiences.”

Last August I spent a day at DMA’s annual East Coast Teachers Training School at the University at Buffalo’s Center for the Arts in order to get a sense of the organization and those who belong to it.

At 9:50 a.m., classical jazz master teacher Jon Lehrer, a former associate director/dancer with Giordano Jazz Dance Chicago, led a class of 30 through a series of arm movements he identified as having regional ties, such as “California” and “New York” arms. The bubbly Lehrer was teaching a class in Giordano technique that had the participants sweeping across the studio floor at varying speeds. He called out to them, “Jazz has a tendency to forget the past. Let’s keep it alive today.”

In a modern dance class, UB faculty member Melanie Aceto said, “We’re tree hugging,” as she instructed the students how to shape their arms in an exercise. Later, while Aceto demonstrated a routine—and looked a bit like an Old West gunslinger, telling her class to “send the hips to the back”—some members of the class slipped off to the side to jot down some quick notes. It was a practice that went on in several of the classes I visited, including Kathi Halbert’s Cecchetti-based ballet class.

One of those bouncing between taking Halbert’s ballet barre and taking notes (as well as videotaping) was 10-year DMA member and Buffalo native Cathleen Lista. “For me Teachers Training School can be a nice brush-up on what I already know,” says Lista. “Often though, the training introduces me to new dance techniques and styles that I can take back to my students.”

How can McDonald’s “Happy Meal” toys help teach 5-year-olds to dance? I found that out in Ginny Durrow’s class on teaching children, where several young-at-heart participants were asked to pretend they were children and imitate the movement quality of a specific kids’ toy. The exercise was designed to offer the assembled teachers new ways of engaging younger students that would indirectly teach them a skill used in dance technique classes.

Durrow’s class was one of several non-core subject classes offered at TTS, which have included, over the years, acrobatics, alignment, ballroom, choreography, costume design, dance history, dance notation, folk dance, kinesiology, music theory, nutrition, and studio business.

The culmination of TTS’s four-year, multilevel training program is its certification exams. I caught up with 22-year-old Michelle Godin from Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, coming out of the first of her exams. She described the testing process: “For each discipline you test in, you go into a room and choose four random cards with dance steps on them. Then you decide what part of a dance class in the subject you are testing you want to teach. You then have 10 minutes to prepare a lesson, choose music, and another 5 minutes to teach your class to a group of your fellow test takers.”

Many of the participants I spoke to attend TTS annually and view the school as a form of continuing education as well as a place to renew friendships and network. Paula Davey from New Liskeard, Ontario (who drove seven hours to take her exams), perhaps summed up best what TTS is all about.

“You can go to workshops in your own town that give you an overview of a particular subject,” says Davey. “Here the training is much more in-depth. A subject like ballet or tap is broken down to where you are taught its terminology, history, and how to teach it to others. By your fourth year here, you are so well prepared that you go into your exams with the confidence that you really know your stuff.”

Postgraduate program
In addition to its standard teacher training, DMA offers the Certified Masters in Dance Direction postgraduate program. This program is for candidates who already completed the TTS program and have the technical and pedagogical proficiency and understanding to support graduate work. The program delves deeper into the areas of performance, choreography, education, re-creation, production, and research through the following:

• Graduate Seminar I: An overview of dance and dance education that delineates differences between the dancer and the dance educator.
• Graduate Seminar II: Research courses in the candidate’s field(s) of specialization or interest culminating in a written paper.
• Master’s Program Special Studies Courses: A three-year program that offers specialized courses in ballet, jazz, tap, modern, choreography, and creative movement theory, history, aesthetics, and practice.

Student programs
As far back as the 1930s and ’40s, DMA began to include classes and programs for members’ dance students. “If we don’t nurture our students we are not going to end up with quality teachers in the future,” says Costa-White. “We feel that offering class opportunities and scholarship opportunities not only helps them evolve as good dancers and fine entertainers, it also helps them become fine educators.”

Currently DMA offers four main programs for students:

• Intensive Ballet: a four-day intensive in classical ballet and related subjects for the serious ballet student ages 13 to 18.
• Student Honors Intensive Program (SHIP): a weeklong program geared toward the college-bound student or the student who wishes to take a professional track. In addition to classes in a wide range of dance techniques and styles, students ages 13 to 18 are given instruction on putting together a resume and preparing for an audition, as well as seminars on dance injury prevention and nutrition.
• Scholarship and Performing Arts Competitions: Each year at the national and chapter levels, DMA gives out a plethora of awards and scholarships to dance students, including the coveted Miss and Mister Dance Title Scholarship Awards.
• Junior Membership Program: At the chapter level, DMA offers budding dance teachers under age 18 an initiation into DMA’s teachers training program with a nuts-and-bolts approach to becoming a dance teacher and/or studio owner.

Evolution
Throughout its history, DMA has taken the pulse of the industry and made strides to initiate or keep up with changes. “We are continually offering new educational opportunities for our members and students,” says Costa-White. “You can never stay static. You always have to keep growing.”

For 50-year DMA member Noreen Rhode, owner of Noreen Londregan School of Dance in Mayfield Village, Ohio, the past half-century has seen a lot of changes in the organization, from the updating of its curriculum and syllabuses to adding classes in new styles like hip-hop, lyrical, and musical theater. “The caliber of dance instruction has advanced since I joined in the late 1950s at age 16,” says Rhode. “The dancers too are so much better than we were at their age. Overall, there is a much broader range of learning opportunities than when I first joined DMA.”

Conventions
Apart from a postponement during World War II, DMA’s National Convention has been in continuous operation since the organization’s founding. It unites under one roof all of DMA’s components, from teachers training to student competitions and scholarship programs.

Each year the convention honors the organization’s long-term members and presents awards to individuals who have positively influenced the dance world. Past recipients of DMA’s awards have included Bruce Marks, Dennis Nahat, Jacques d’Amboise, Gus Giordano, David Howard, and Robert Joffrey.

This year DMA will embark on a yearlong celebration of its 125th anniversary with numerous special events at both the regional level and at its National Convention, to be held July 4–10, 2009, in the Washington, DC, area. The convention will commemorate the organization’s past pomp and circumstance with the return of the “Grand March,” a ceremony that in the organization’s opulent early years saw its officers arrive at the convention’s closing banquet in tuxedos and gowns and riding in Rolls-Royces.

Legacy
A forebear in the pursuit of excellence in dance education in the United States, Dance Masters of America continues to be a respected place where dance instructors turn for training and to become better dance teachers. For the virtually all-volunteer organization, that strong commitment to excellence in dance education has been its greatest achievement over the past century and a quarter—and will be its legacy going forward for the next 125 years.

For more information, visit www.dma-national.org.

There’s a lot to learn about performing on board world-class luxury liners

By Brian McCormick

For school directors looking to expand performance education opportunities for their students outside of the studio, competitions often provide the means. But these can be fraught with challenges—rushed rehearsals, long hours spent sitting and waiting—and not every school is competitive. Among alternative favorites, programs like Disney Magic Music Days and Broadway Dance Center’s Rockette Experience are top choices for many schools. But another popular and evolving option is the performance cruise experience, in which schools head for the seas and put on a show for the passengers.

Established programs like Dancin’ at Sea®, Royal Caribbean International’s Stars at Sea, and Carnival’s Dancin’ on Deck have led the way, though enterprising teachers can organize their own cruises. These programs wrap family vacations and performance education into one experience, with all the added amenities a cruise has to offer—exotic travel, great food and accommodations, and activities for all ages.

Stars at Sea
Alvina Kline, artistic director and owner of Encore Dance Center in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, has been cruising with Stars at Sea since 2000. After taking her students to Disney, where they learned what it’s like to audition to be a Disney dancer, she began looking around for similar performance education opportunities. “The kids loved it,” she says. “It made me think of other possibilities. We had done the Rockette Experience; we’re always looking for new opportunities for our students. While our school is non-competitive, we’re taking them in the direction they need to go for their own development.”

When Kline saw an ad for Stars at Sea, which began operating in 1995, she submitted a DVD, required as an audition the first time around to ensure suitability. She says that when she first brought up the idea to her students’ parents, she wasn’t sure anyone would be interested. But they loved the idea.

“Our first cruise was awesome; we went to Bermuda. But we had horrible seas,” Kline says. “The first performance had to be cancelled, but the evening performance went on. I thought it was an important lesson for the kids to learn: This is life at sea. They talked to some of the dancers who worked on board, but they didn’t do any workshops. This kind of cruise is presented more as a performance opportunity.”

Those horrible seas didn’t dampen her students’ enthusiasm. “We’ve done four cruises, including our most recent one this past July—which had 120 people in our group,” says Kline. “We had a full audience for the half-hour show and the girls have learned how to work it.”

At Stars at Sea, the student performances are on the cruise schedule, “but they are not the main show,” Kline explains. “They won’t promote us like they do their headliners and hired talent.” The students have learned how to market their performances by handing out cards to passengers while walking around in their costumes.

Kline prepares the room and table assignments, rehearsal schedule, payment plan, and other details. Her staff teachers help with the performance, but she handles everything else. Flights to the port of departure are left up to individual families. Kline takes over once they get on the boat.

“The first cruise was overwhelming in terms of organizing,” Kline says, “but there were lots of positives, especially for the students. You have to have a system. Parents will have lots of questions.”

Before she met with the parents, Kline researched different cruises and looked at the pricing before deciding on Stars at Sea. “The cruise line makes payment fairly easy,” she says, with a deposit and installment payment method. Kline gives the dates to the parents with costs broken down for each installment, and makes sure they understand about fees and cancellation charges.

“There’s not much of a discount for the group,” says Kline, “but the school director can get a free room, and depending on the time of year, there are discounts associated with seasonal prices. But prime sailing time avoids the hurricane season and potentially rough seas,” she advises. “We now book 18 months to two years in advance. The Voyager Class has the best and largest stages.”

On the school’s last trip, the students gave two 30-minute performances on a 20-by-40-foot stage on the ship Mariner of the Seas. “Once we were on the ship,” says Kline, “we had a one-hour rehearsal on the stage with sound and basic lighting, plus our shows. The rest of the time was leisure time. This really is a vacation for the entire family with the bonus of getting to perform.”

Dancin’ at Sea
Dancin’ at Sea has provided performance opportunities aboard cruise ships for 15 years, for dance studios from all over the United States and Canada. Park City Dance directors Trish Ryland and Sandy Flury have been cruising with them since 2003; last April they took their fourth trip. The 12-year-old Utah-based competitive school was looking for other performance opportunities for its students and found Dancin’ at Sea through Robin Smith, the founder of the program—a travel professional, dancer, and instructor.

“The cruise program has been a very positive experience for our studio, dancers, and parents,” Flury says. “It’s grown from a mother-daughter/mother-daughter-aunt experience into one with extended families, and mini family reunions are now happening.”

The cruise line handles room and table assignments as well as marketing. They bring ads for the school’s performances, which the kids hand out to passengers, says Flury. All groups are escorted by a Dancin’ at Sea staff member who has knowledge of the cruise line industry and dance studio world. “When it came to the performances, our group was accommodated in every possible way,” says Flury. “We work directly with the cruise director on promoting the shows, but it’s their job to market our show and get people to come.”

The program also provides an escort for each group. “The on-board escort is a director’s dream,” says Flury. “We’ve taken between 60 to 90 people on each cruise with up to 20 dancers. We have time to enjoy the cruise. Our job is to put together a half-hour of upbeat entertainment.”

In addition to performing, students participate in 60- to 90-minute master classes in a style of the studio director’s choice, most often a combination of jazz, Broadway, and hip-hop. In addition to technique, the students learn a short routine. At the end there is a Q&A forum.

Flury and Ryland don’t require that all of the school’s dancers go on the cruise, so sometimes some of the pieces selected to be part of the show end up missing a cast member. In these situations, a new dancer has to learn the part or the piece has to be adjusted or omitted.

Another important thing they’ve learned is what kind of dance not to take on a ship—which includes anything with pointe shoes.

Learning to adapt to the situation is one of the benefits of the cruise experience. “The kids love it,” says Flury. “They feel really special. They are working with professional tech crews, lighting, and sound people. And the stages are also very nice, but they can also be a huge challenge. They are not all rectangular, and some have an apron. We have to play around with the space and the staging. But these are exactly the kinds of things that we want our students to learn—how to think on their feet.”

Do-it-yourself cruises
“Twenty years ago there was no Stars at Sea; there was no Dancin’ on Deck—we just took the kids,” says Hedy Perna, owner/director of Perna Dance Center in Hazlet, New Jersey. One of the lessons she and her students learned years ago is that you have to be able to market yourself, sometimes just to get into the show.

“We are always performing for the community and always looking for other opportunities to perform,” says Perna about her school, which has 520 students and 12 teachers and doesn’t do competitions. “We brought [the students] on a cruise, but there wasn’t a show. In the old days, the cruises had passenger talent acts. When we got there, they already had their full 10 acts. So we basically had to talk our way into the talent show.”

Perna, who takes her students on a big trip every two years, says, “Parents love the cruises because they are all-inclusive. The dancers get real experience. The more they perform on the fly and adapt to all kinds of conditions, the better they are.”

After trying some of the cruise experience packages, Perna decided to put together her own gig, expanding the program to include multiple schools. Last November, during New Jersey Teachers Convention week, 400 students from five schools from various counties in New Jersey took part in Perna’s “SunDance Festival” on Carnival Destiny. “What’s great about this,” said Perna last fall, “is that there are kids coming from all different parts of New Jersey, all these other schools, and they’ll get to meet each other.”

Some of the participating schools are competition oriented, but the event was designed to be non-competitive. “We’re programming the show like a festival,” explained Perna, who described the trip as “a great opportunity for networking, and experiencing what other kids are doing.” She also hired two Carnival dancers to give two three-hour workshops on a dancer’s life at sea.

“Like the Rockette Experience,” says Perna, “it’s not a bad thing for the kids to know how the dancers came to be there, or what’s involved with signing a contract. It’s good that they’re hearing it from all walks of life, that they know there are options.”

For more information:

• www.starsatsea.com
• www.dancinatsea.com
• www.dancinondeck.com