Archive for the ‘2009 | 10 | October’ Category

October 2009 cover

 Columns
Ask Rhee Gold
2 Tips for Teachers
A Better You
On My Mind

Departments
Mail
Teacher in the Spotlight | James William “Bill” Garney
Thinking Out Loud

Feature Articles
Ballet Scene | Calling All Men by Jennifer Rienert
Collective Wisdom
From Stage to Screen by Sophia Emigh
Smart Ideas for Small Dances by Larry Sousa
Unemployment Tax Two-Step by Vanina and Dennis Wilson
Kid Choreographers by Kelly Cannone
Private Eyes by Steve Sucato
Tapping From the Heart by Gina McGalliard
Higher-Ed Voice | Balancing Act by Tom Ralabate
Common Ground | Dancemaker Debuts by Joshua Bartlett
Constructive Cueing by Kerry Ring
Exploring Creativity by Sarah Sass
Dance Studio Lingo by Diane Gudat
One-Woman Shows by Jennifer Kaplan

Advice for dance teachers 

Dear Rhee, 
I am a studio owner who is starting to see the effects of the economy in my area, and I’m worried that this will be my last year due to financial pressures. I have been in business for seven years. I just took 17 kids to Dance the Magic in California and had a great time. My clients are happy, but the numbers are just not there. If I can’t get out of this debt, then I will have to close, and I really don’t want to do that. I’m doing everything I can, but with seven dance studios in a five-minute driving radius, I just don’t think I will survive. 

I have asked my landlord for a rent reduction, and I did get a little reduction but not enough to really help. My rent for 2,356 square feet is $7,000 a month. I can’t afford to buy a lot and build, as land here is $2 million and up.

What sets me apart from my competitors is that I have 20-plus preschool classes every week. I have only 185 students, and the classes that usually fill are not filling this year. We offer preschool classes for ages 2 to 5 years, classes for kids 6 to 18 years, competitive opportunities, and 12-week programs for those who don’t want to take class for a full year. I think I have a nice variety of classes for all ages and commitment levels.

I’m disheartened because I have goals for my studio and it has been a success, but with $12,000 of debt last year and possibly more for the upcoming year, I don’t know what to do. I have no idea how the other studios nearby are making ends meet.

I love my students and my studio, but my heart is breaking because I don’t see how the school is going to be open a year from now. Thank you for helping me figure out a solution. —Jacqueline

Hello Jacqueline, 
Thanks for sharing your story. Your love of teaching dance comes through in your email.  You write about the many participation options that you offer, which is good, but one thing that stands out is that you have so many preschool classes. You also know that those classes set you apart from your competitors. It sounds to me like the path you need to follow is already there: the preschool market, especially during this economic downturn.

Some school owners want to emulate the school up the street because that’s what they think they need to do to stay in business. Knowing what sets you apart from the other schools in your area is a grand realization. The real secret is to be unique among all the others who are the same. Preschool dance is a huge market, and it’s the base for a school owner’s future success. Keep all those preschool students loving dance and they’ll stay with you for several years. And just imagine how many students you will have five years from now.

I realize that the Disney trip and the competition aspect of the school are important for you (and for many school owners), but look at it this way: If you are focused on 17 of your 185 students, that’s a little less than 10 percent of your school’s population. If all your energy is directed at ways to bring in the preschool population and keep them for years, and you are a success, then you can afford to focus on the minority population. But right now that is not the case. 

One way to begin to build your enrollment is to offer your current preschool parents coupons for free classes that they can distribute to their families, friends, and neighbors. This is an inexpensive way to attract new faces to your preschool program. 

Also, as a follow-up to your September registration, think about adding a mid-October or November registration that focuses on bringing in a new crop of preschool students. The holidays are also a good time to offer special promotions for preschool options—and they’re an excellent time to market to the grandparents who would love to see their grandchildren in a dance class. 

Bottom line: Go nuts coming up with concepts to attract the entire preschool market in your area. Don’t stop until you’ve reached your goal. Gaining 50 new preschool students this year would probably get you out of the hole; working to keep at least 30 of them next year and then bringing in 50 more would set you ahead by 80 students. Think about the possibilities if you could accomplish this goal every year for the next five years! 

Don’t spend another minute worrying about what is going to happen down the road. Take that energy, along with your passion and creativity, and use it to make your secret weapon—your preschool program—and then your school one of the largest in the area. All the best to you. —Rhee 

Hello Becky,
My best advice is to simply go for it without any fears and with confidence. It is not unreasonable to let the choreographers know that you don’t want the choreography set on your students used at another school. In my mind, you are paying them for their creativity for your students. Don’t think about whether you’re being offensive; this is really you standing up for yourself and your students. You have nothing to feel guilty about. I wish you all the best. —Rhee 

Dear Rhee, 
I am going on my seventh year in business. I started in July of 2003 with a friend as my business partner. She controlled more of the business side and I did the majority of the classes. This past year, she decided to leave and sold her portion to another friend/teacher who I was more than happy to take on as a partner. 

Now things have spiraled out of control. The studio has grown and continues to grow; however, I am only making enough money to cover the cost of running the business and have not been able to receive a steady paycheck. I don’t feel knowledgeable enough to take over the entire business part of the studio, but how can I afford to get an accountant to take care of it when I can’t pay my partner or myself?

I also feel that there are things that my past partner did that might come back to haunt me. I do not want to lose my business or my sanity and I am scared that I might end up doing both if I don’t do something.

I feel like I need time to stop and fix the problem, but of course that can’t happen. And I feel that things are getting worse. I don’t know where to start to get control and how to do it without putting myself in a hole (which I already feel I’m in). Do you have any suggestions? —Tory 

Dear Tory, 
You can’t afford not to go to an accountant. The issues that you are concerned about are far beyond what you can fix without the advice of a professional. If you see your business growing, yet you cannot draw a paycheck and you don’t know why, then you need and deserve answers right away. Living in fear that actions taken by your former business partner may come back to haunt you is all the more reason to get the help you need. It’s time to put yourself and your future first and get to an accountant right away. If you are worried about financing the accountant, tell your business partner that you want this to be an expense for the school and don’t take no for an answer. Good luck! —Rhee 

By Mignon Furman

Tip 1
Often parents live their lives through their children. I have frequently heard a mom say, “We have started pointe work,” as if the mother were also in pointe shoes. Children will progress more in their studies when parents are not so involved.

Parents should be able to view classes only at designated times. (I suggest once a semester.) All contact with parents should be through email or mail, and discussions with the teacher or director should be by appointment only.

Tip 2
When parents feel that their children are superior to their classmates, you must help them learn to trust your judgment. Explain that class placement is determined by what is best for the child and that students make more progress when they are comfortable instead of struggling to keep up. Parents must learn that progress in ballet is measured not by the number or complexity of the steps but by the training of the body to perform more demanding technique later.

Look beyond your talent to find wisdom

By Suzanne Martin, PT, DPT

Got talent? Of course you do! If you didn’t, you wouldn’t be in the position you are with a dance studio. Is it a blessing that allows you to soar above your peers, or a curse that blinds you to the need to follow through with vision and passion?

In defining talent in the dance world, we tend to think of the extremes. For example, when I taught dance in the San Francisco Bay Area, I had a 9-year-old student who, in her first class, not only demonstrated perfect second position pliés but could do a développé à la seconde on the first try, with turnout, above her shoulder height.

But what’s more interesting is what people do with their blessing or curse. Take the real case of a boy who could perform multiple pirouettes and cover a full stage with jetés en tournant by age 11. In spite of his promising talent, self-sabotaging behavior ended his rise to the ranks of a major professional company. Unable to understand the precarious nature of his gift, he acted out by mouthing off to his teachers and finally succumbed to emotional problems and drug addiction.

These extreme cases bring to mind the highs and lows of talent. Often, we learn what works and what does not only in hindsight, and over time. Yet one thing is certain: It takes more than talent to stay the course. It takes drive and initiative.

Taking tips from Talent Is Never Enough by John C. Maxwell, a minister who has written more than 50 books, can help us address not only how to stay in the game but how to thrive in it. The disparity between what talented people expect from life and what they actually get (its realities) provides the friction of a perfect stress storm. Let’s look at some of the basic truths Maxwell expresses and consider how they apply to dance teachers.

• Talented people often get frustrated with the mundane aspects of life such as paying bills and dealing with people; after all, focusing on their talent is so much more engaging.
• It’s not enough to have knowledge; it’s what you do with it that counts. That’s called “wisdom.” Wisdom involves prudent decision making.
• The biggest stress buster is acting with what Maxwell calls “wise thoughtfulness”: attempting to listen, allowing others to be heard, and yet allowing them to take the consequences of their actions, such as letting a student who waited too long to sign up for a class miss out on a performance.
• Successful talented people don’t act alone; they value interpersonal relationships. We don’t live in a vacuum and we need other people to help us carry out our visions, serve as receivers of our talents, and mirror our contributions (the fulfillment of our talent) to others. Taking the help and admiration of others for granted may work for a while, but following the one-way streets of self-centeredness can send us circling in an eternal vortex. Making the most of your talent means developing enough strength of character to last past being the flavor of the month.
• It’s important to find balance between the all-consuming, outward focus of using one’s talent and the inward focus needed for restoration. A busy life may not necessarily provide a productive life and can actually quell the development of a person’s full potential.

So what does all this mean to you?

Overcoming the mundane
Another helpful book, Your Own Worst Enemy, by psychologist Kenneth Christian, founder of the Maximum Potential Project, offers insight into how to reach the point of commitment, of not turning back on yourself and your goals. Christian asserts that gifted people often expect that they will breeze through an exceptional, almost magical life due to the ease and accolades they have grown accustomed to. As artistic souls, they may bristle at the thought of being ordinary or leading a structured life.

One of the pitfalls here is that boredom and lack of interest can create a tendency to skip the details that ultimately might lead to memorable work. Christian identifies the underlying problem as a fear of failure. Gifted people who realize their potential put themselves in the position of taking risks; they learn from trial and error, correcting themselves as they go. The price for avoiding details and taking the path of least resistance, he says, is a life of shallow activities and limited interests.

Finding wisdom
How do teachers and school owners demonstrate wisdom? With prudent decision making and by delivering messages without tarnishing their talent with bad manners. Being mindful not only of what you say but how you say it can create a make-it-or-break-it moment. The talented often forget that they do have choices in how they demonstrate their talent, which touches all areas of their lives.

Teaching and running a studio both involve many moments of interpersonal interaction—from registration days to the start of each class to year-end performances—which, when handled with wisdom, hopefully turn into years of ongoing relationships.

How many times have you seen talented people show, through their behavior, that they just don’t get it? Here’s one example: A studio owner friend of mine described a Pilates studio in which the instructor was militant, admonishing people (like my experienced friend) not to “cheat” by modifying a move. When the instructor asked my colleague why she thought the class was losing students, my friend cheerily answered, “Maybe you could try being friendly!” Ouch.

Wisdom means understanding that although you need to convey a message, it’s best to do it when you can add value to the relationship. Talented people are used to acting quickly and instinctively. In potentially confrontational situations, train yourself to take a couple of breaths or a few moments (or longer) before taking action. Reflecting before interacting can lead to a positive resolution instead of escalating tensions. Ask yourself: Will I be happy tomorrow with how I handled this situation?

Wise thoughtfulness
The wrong timing exacerbates difficult confrontations. Some confrontations call for privacy, an appropriate location. Taking into account the fatigue level of the person to be confronted and yourself can be a deal maker. On the other hand, thoughtfulness goes both ways. One responsibility of the talented is to be a good representative of what that talent gives you. If you constantly complain about how tired and busy and stressed out you are, why would someone want what you have?

We need each other to succeed. Take the example of a ballet studio owner whose senior ballet master wasn’t included in the studio transfer when she sold her business. He had had one personal drama after another, losing focus in his classes. Despite the man’s talent, the new studio owner wanted nothing to do with him. The ballet master needed the new owner’s acceptance to remain at his job, and he failed to get it.

Character formation
Character formation is critical to gifted people because it occurs through experiences over time, whereas their talent has probably been there all along. Will they have enough character, avoiding shady business or dubious shortcuts, to carry out the passion of their talent when life gets difficult? This goes along with acquiring a taste for the mundane details of life.

Carrying a vision to fruition means taking risks but correcting choices along the way, as well as developing a lifestyle that ensures lasting success. The paradox for the talented is that focusing on only the giving aspect of their talent may leave little time for the restorative necessities of life. They may try to avoid burnout by using drugs or alcohol—but that’s a choice; it’s not inevitable. Even the best thoroughbred has to be groomed and fed and rested.

Balancing inward and outward focuses
The introspective activities of thinking, reflecting, and meditating take time. Wise choices often come to us in times of introspection, and those choices play a big part in making a happy, fulfilling life. The gifted may need their eyes opened with the help of professionals, such as mentors, a business advisory team, or a therapist. I find that answers and direction often come intuitively through meditation and journaling. During my Stanford Hospital internship, years before I began to write professionally, I followed my 40-minute commute with a cup of tea and 10 minutes of writing. Only then did I turn to my patient load for the day.

Deflecting stress with words
While the talented love an artistic challenge, too much stimulation and stress can turn smooth sailing into choppy seas. One trick to ease the burden is to pay attention to language that gives personal power and that reverses negative statements. For instance, try replacing “I would like to get it done today” with “I am doing it today.” Say it out loud and notice the change in the tension in your chest. It works for dealing with mundane tasks as well. Try saying, ‘There’s still time to . . .’ in place of ‘It’s too late to . . .’ and again notice that the altered intention gives a bit of ease. It may take practice, but deflecting stress by simply changing the words you use can be a powerful ally in getting through those long days.

Staying the course
Christian offers one final exercise for staying on track. Try adding it to your meditations or to that final five minutes in bed before you begin your day. For just a few minutes, focus. Imagine yourself gathering the materials and resources you need for that day, or for a particular project. Then see yourself in your mind’s eye as beginning the work and then going on to complete it. Create a self-fulfilling prophecy, and meet the potential of your talent.

I have faith in you.

Words from the publisher

By Rhee Gold

The stunning image on this month’s cover has a message behind it. It conveys how art, in all its forms, crosses the boundaries of joy and sadness in every aspect of our lives—in this case, the personal struggles of so many women who have battled with breast cancer. The image, created by photographer Curtis Brown, was part of a gallery exhibit and YouTube video called “Weight of the Ribbon,” from which half the proceeds of print, postcard, and DVD sales went to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure NC Triangle Affiliate (see “FYI,” Dance Studio Life, August 2009). As soon as I saw Curtis’ photographs, all of dancers with Carolina Ballet, I knew I wanted to use one on this month’s cover.

As many of you know, since 1985 October has been designated as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. No one is more cognizant of that than Dance Studio Life’s publisher, Rhee Gold, whose mother died of breast cancer in 1994, at a youthful 59. This disease strikes young and old, in startling numbers. According to “Breast Cancer Facts & Figures 2007–2008,” a report by the American Cancer Society, “an estimated 178,480 new cases of invasive breast cancer in women will be diagnosed in 2007, and approximately 40,460 deaths will be recorded. Only lung cancer accounts for more cancer deaths in women.”

But there’s some good news. The report goes on to say that between 1990 and 2004, on average, the number of deaths due to breast cancer decreased by 2.2 percent.

What does all this talk of illness and death have to do with dance? Nothing, and everything. With women dominating the dance-teaching field, it’s probably safe to say that breast cancer has touched nearly every dancer’s or dance teacher’s life directly or indirectly, or both. So educate yourselves, and in the rush of everyday life and career challenges and personal stresses, remember to take care of yourselves too.

In my mind, there’s a direct tie-in between health and this issue’s theme of creativity. As we’ve shown in so many stories over the years—stories about how dance therapy helps children cope with illness, about dance teachers who find the strength, both physical and mental, to persist in their art even in the face of life-threatening illness—the power of art is not to be underestimated. It plays a tremendous role in maintaining health and promoting emotional well-being. As any creative being knows—and we are all creators in some way—we experience a rush of joy when we’re doing what we love. And the feeling of fulfillment that lingers afterward, whether for hours or days, is the perfect antidote to the negative effects of stress, which can destroy both our health and our happiness.

In this issue of Dance Studio Life, you’ll find many ways to explore creativity, for yourselves and for your students, through choreography, improvisation, imaginative ideas for the classroom, and more. Turn the pages, set aside your worries, and find the joy.

This October, we urge you to create.

Words from our readers

Roslyne and I just received the August 2009 issue of Dance Studio Life. Roslyne is a good friend of Mignon Furman; in fact, she was her sponsor to the board of the International Committee for the Dance Library of Israel, located in Tel Aviv. Roslyne was remembering that she first met Rhee when he was 20. We both agree that your magazine looks great and its success is very evident to the experienced eye. In fact, I am glad not to be competing against you. All good wishes for your continued success.
Bob Stern
Santa Fe, NM

I just read your “On My Mind” blog in the August [2009] issue of Dance Studio Life. Very well put, brother—sweet and to the point. Talk about hittin’ the nail on the head! I hope people know true wisdom when they read it. Respect always.
Ryan Foley
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

I’ve just opened my August issue of Dance Studio Life. I’ve only gotten as far as “On My Mind” and already I must stop to comment. The studio I work for has classes for special-needs students, and every time I see them perform, my heart is so overwhelmed by how much they try and how delighted they are to be doing something that “regular” kids do. Those students, along with the toddler classes, always get the biggest round of applause at recitals. It’s so very precious.
April Mosher
Mary Ann Studio of Dance
Springfield & Agawam, MA

Owner and teacher, The Academy of Theatrical Arts, Washington, DC

NOMINATED BY: Elia I. Fuentes, student: “Mr. Garney has devoted most of his life to dance in the Washington area, and many of his students have danced professionally. Many others have been inspired to become teachers and carry on the ‘Garney style.’ He has also donated many hours of entertainment to organizations like the Red Cross, the DC Department of Parks and Recreation, the USO, and churches, retirement homes, and nursing homes in the Washington area. Well into his 80s, he continues tirelessly to teach, create, and pass his knowledge to his students, helping them ‘be all that they can be’—and more. I know that I speak for many of those who have been touched by his teachings, discipline, humor, and love of life when I say, ‘Thank you, Mr. G., for being part of my life.’ ”

Bill Garney (in red, with students in his advanced tap class) cites Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire as his greatest inspirations. (Photo courtesy Bill Garney)

AGES TAUGHT: All ages.

GENRES TAUGHT: Ballet, tap, jazz, and pointe.

TEACHING DANCE FOR: 52 years.

WHY HE TEACHES: I was a professional dancer for years—I danced in summer stock, and then I had a touring act that I did with a partner in nightclubs and hotels. Finally I got tired of running around and living out of a suitcase, and when I gave up performing I started teaching. I’ve been at it ever since.

GREATEST INSPIRATION: Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire. They both had a lot of style, and they made what they did look easy. Believe me, it wasn’t. It took a lot of hard work in the studio to be that smooth.

PHILOSOPHY OF TEACHING: To train dancers to be professional dancers. I insist that my students take dance seriously. So many students nowadays don’t seem to take it seriously—they don’t understand how much work goes into being a professional, and they don’t seem to want to take the time to make the most of their talent. A lot of these young people are in it for the money and they just don’t care about technique.

WHAT MAKES HIM A GOOD TEACHER: It’s the fact that my technique is very thorough. In my studio we stress the fundamentals—without those, you can’t hope to make progress. I’ve had students come in who have taken years of dance classes and I’ve had to tell them, “You need to start from the beginning again.” I had a child who had taken classes with another studio for four years, and she couldn’t name a single step they had done.

FONDEST TEACHING MEMORY: Teaching students to be professional dancers.

BEST PIECE OF ADVICE FOR STUDENTS AND/OR TEACHERS: Be sure you are teaching or learning good technique. How do you know that your teacher is teaching you the right things? That’s the hard part for a student.

WHAT HE WOULD DO IF HE COULDN’T TEACH DANCE: I’d probably be doing office work. I did it for 11 years for the Department of the Army, starting back in the 1940s.

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 Cara Iuliano

As long as I can remember, I have loved to dance. When it was time to attend college, like many aspiring dancers, I headed to New York and spent my freshman year as a dance major at Marymount College. One day, I happened to sit next to a little deaf girl at a ballet, who was signing “dance” to her mother. I knew then that both dance and communication were meant to be in my life.

Today I work as a speech-language pathologist in a preschool near Philadelphia for deaf and hard-of-hearing children who wear hearing aids and cochlear implants. These technologies provide them with enough access to sound that they can learn to listen and speak. My job is to help them develop the listening and spoken-language skills they need to be successful in a mainstream school setting by the time they are in kindergarten.

I also teach dance classes for hearing children ages 2 to 18 at The Dance Academy in Holland, Pennsylvania. Now, you might say, “Wow, these are two very different jobs,” but in fact they have a lot in common. Both require a fundamental knowledge of anatomy, movement, rhythm, sound, and using the human body to communicate meaning.

My deaf and hard-of-hearing students meet with me individually for 30-minute sessions, 5 days a week. I introduce them to new language, vocabulary, and concepts that children with hearing learn incidentally, including receptive and expressive language, articulation, and auditory skills. We don’t use sign language because acquiring listening skills is critical to the children’s ability to develop natural-sounding speaking voices.

It’s amazing to see these profoundly deaf children listen to the music, follow directions, learn dance routines, and move fluidly to music as they use technology to access the sound and rhythm.

Many of the techniques I use are similar to those I use to teach dance. In both cases, I present concepts or ideas that require the children to listen, and I encourage them to imitate what I do with my voice or body. I ask them to pay attention to pitch, rhythm, and melody and to bring those skills together to produce sound or movement.

About two years ago I developed a dance program at the preschool. It’s amazing to see these profoundly deaf children listen to the music, follow directions, learn dance routines, and move fluidly to music as they use technology to access the sound and rhythm.

The most rewarding part of both my jobs is witnessing each child’s progress. Some of my deaf students start the year with little or no language at all. While the work we do seems like play to them, they are challenged every day to learn spoken language that, for most of us, is effortless.

For the last two years, I have been working with a little boy, now 5 years old, who has a severe disorder that makes his speech unintelligible. Because he was fully aware of his challenges, I did not want his speech to become a negative for him. One technique I use is to search on YouTube for interviews with his favorite athletes and talk to him about how hard they practice. He loves the expression “Practice makes perfect” but has had trouble producing the T sound, which comes out sounding like a K. We kept repeating, “Practice makes perfect,” and then it clicked. The look of accomplishment on his face is a special memory that I will keep forever.

What I teach my preschoolers is the same thing I teach my dance students: All you can do is your best. What you put in is what you get out. You have to focus and accomplish your goals. If shuffle-hop-step is difficult, keep practicing; if you can’t do a triple pirouette, get in the kitchen and practice every night. I try to help them understand that trying is what’s most important; the end result is just the reward.

I love being a facilitator of language and dance. I am able to see children who are born deaf or hard of hearing learn to access the world of sound as well as share my love of music and movement with them. It is one of the coolest things to see these children singing, dancing to music, and learning how to communicate through the arts. And when I reflect on what they have learned, I too am reminded to enjoy the music and dance!

Need partners for your girls? Look no further than dads and boyfriends.

By Jennifer Rienert

Partnering class is an important step in your dancers’ training, especially for those who wish to pursue a career in dance. In traditional ballet partnering, male dancers must develop the strength to gracefully, confidently, and reliably lift, catch, and carry a female partner.

Unfortunately for many dance schools, finding the manpower for partnering classes presents an obstacle. Many schools do not have enough male students to provide an entire adagio class of girls with partners. And if a school does have a reasonable cadre of boys, often they are too young or have not developed sufficient strength to safely support another person. All too often, schools are faced with an uneven ratio of female-to-male dancers. How then can teachers provide students with the opportunity to develop this important skill?

(Photo courtesy Jennifer Rienert)

Here at New Hampshire School of Ballet, over the past 40 years, we’ve adopted an interesting way to offer a weekly adagio class to our advanced students. When the former owner, my aunt Suzanne Taylor, started the school in 1962, she noticed that the brothers of her students sometimes came to the studio with their parents to pick up the girls.

“I would challenge the ones who seemed to be into sports to lift one of the girls—usually the cutest—and would tell the girls not to jump when the boys tried to lift them,” she says. “Of course, they got them about an inch off the ground and I would say, ‘Oh, not as easy as it looks!’ I would then tell them that lifting one of my girls is a lot more fun than lifting weights or a football.” 

A few boys were brave enough to come to the class, but then my aunt did the choreography for a high school musical and went through the same scenario with the dancers’ friends from the wrestling team. She had them hooked. They were nervous at first in this unfamiliar environment, but it helped that they knew some of the girls.

Once the girls in the other advanced ballet classes saw the partnering class, they went recruiting, and the brothers, boyfriends, and friends kept on coming. “As long as they did not have to wear tights or do any real dancing, they had a good time in the class,” my aunt says.

When I was a student in her class, I couldn’t wait for my turn to be in the adagio class. It was only for advanced students, by invitation only. When I joined the class in my junior year of school, my serious boyfriend was not thrilled with the thought of my adagio partner maneuvering me about. I explained the importance of the class and added that I had no intention of quitting it. But, I said, if he would like to, he could come to class and become my partner—and so he did.

This jealous boyfriend, Shawn, turned into one of the best partners ever to have come out of our school—and he also became my husband of the past 19 years. He partnered me for the remaining years of my dance training, and since I took over the school, he has continued to partner and helps train the new men entering the class.

Shawn admits that partnering was harder than it looked. “When I used to watch the dancers onstage, it seemed so easy. When I finally tried it I couldn’t believe how hard it was just to promenade a girl on pointe! I played every sport competitively through high school—basketball, football, baseball, and tennis. Partnering is as mentally and physically difficult as any of those sports.”

Safety is a big concern and an important factor in how we run the class. The boys must be 15 or older, but since we’re dealing with all types of men—some who work out regularly and some who don’t—we need to be cautious about our expectations. Every class starts with the men stretching on one side of the room while the girls do a quick 10 minutes at the barre. We encourage the men to stretch their arms, backs, and legs.

Then everyone pairs up and we start with some easy warm-up lifts. The girls do four changements with the men bending their knees on the fourth plié and lifting them in sus-sous. Gentlemen who are new to the class are shown the correct posture, how to hold their hands on the girl’s waist, and how to plié at the same time as she does so that they lift with their legs rather than their arms or back. Sometimes it takes a few weeks for the men to get comfortable doing this, and they laugh at how something that seems so simple can be so difficult. Sometimes counting to four is the hard part!

As the year progresses they become familiar with all the terminology. We also practice balance by having the men promenade their partners on pointe in positions like passé, arabesque, and front attitude.

We make the class fun and laugh a lot. Pirouettes are always a fun time. The guys’ efforts not to let the girls, rotating on pointe, get away from them can be quite funny. Only the more advanced guys are allowed to do doubles or triples with their partners, and they like to challenge each other to get three or four turns in. Of course accidental grabs happen, and sometimes they’re so funny that the whole class goes to pieces. And a few times a guy has gotten clipped with a foot in the wrong place.

I always start the men off with the girls they know to put them at ease; they seem more comfortable getting used to the class that way. But everyone rotates partners every few minutes so that the girls get equal time with the new guys and the experienced men. The girls are great when working with someone new, giving him tips and helping him learn. I pair them up permanently, primarily by height, only when we’re getting ready for a show.

All the men in this class perform in the school’s annual show. The number of new guys who joined that year will determine how hard the choreography is. Often it consists of a few lifts, fish dives, and carries. The experienced men who can handle more difficult steps are given featured roles that could include overhead lifts, shoulder sits, and triple pirouettes.

Often, due to a lack of male dancers, the girls are not allowed to come into the class unless they bring a partner. In those cases, the girls usually plead with a brother or father to enter the class, and usually the men continue in the class until the girls graduate, enjoying the process. Most of them don’t get hooked enough to take other classes, though a few have tried the adult jazz/tap classes. The guys take the class for free, and the girls pay the regular rate for a one-hour class.

Having enough partners for all the girls offers another benefit: Whenever male dancers in the school are ready to join the class, the presence of other men makes them feel at home there. They thrive in this environment rather than feeling isolated and overwhelmed, as one might if he were the lone boy in a class of girls.

These non-dancer good sports come into the partnering class for various reasons. A second-year father in the class, Jay Mazurowski, says, “The partnering class allows me to connect with my daughter on a different dimension [than I would otherwise have] and gives me an inside glimpse into something she’s passionate about. As parents, our role is to teach and mentor our children to help them understand their world and become responsible young adults. In this scenario, my daughter is the expert and I am the underling; it’s an interesting twist of events that I believe she finds as gratifying as I do.”

Another veteran adagio father, Phil St. Laurent, first joined the class “to help out the studio,” he says. “However, after the first year my reasons were a bit more selfish—I had a lot of fun! I also found out that I have a little Walter Mitty in me. I began to think that if I had been exposed to dance when I was younger, maybe things would have been different. That’s just daydreaming, of course, but the idea did encourage me to try my best and not disappoint my dance partner. Without a doubt, though, the best part of becoming involved is that I have been very lucky to dance onstage with my daughter, Kiera. I only wish I were a bit younger so that I might try some of those overhead lifts with her.”

This unconventional way of partnering has endured at our school for more than 40 years. Many fathers, brothers, and boyfriends have enjoyed a good workout and fun times while providing a necessary service to the school. And it’s a great way to show those men what dance is all about.

How to Get the Guys

1. Send out recruiters.
If girls want to take partnering class and you don’t have enough boys, make it a rule that they need to find willing guys who are old enough, strong enough, and willing to commit to the class.

2. No dress code.
Requiring non-dancers to wear tights is practically a guarantee that you’ll scare them off. Even sneakers are OK, at least in the beginning. But make sure they know what you expect them to wear in the recital.

3. Teach the guys to stretch.
Some of the boys and men you’re likely to encounter probably aren’t on intimate terms with their hamstrings. Help prevent injuries by leading them in stretching exercises while the girls do a quick barre.

4. Teach basic posture and techniques for lifting.
Safety should be your priority, not whether the guys have a decent line. Focus on mechanics first and artistry later.

5. Laugh a lot.
A sense of humor goes a long way toward helping dance neophytes relax. Make the class fun!

Dance teachers share their great ideas for the classroom and office

Check out these great ideas from your fellow dance teachers and school owners. You just might find that a few of them fit you and your school perfectly.

Sticker charts
I used to give out stickers at the end of every class, but I found that they would end up on the floor. Then one day a mom brought in her daughter’s sticker book, and I thought, “What a great idea.” Now I give the students ( ages 3 to around 8 ) sticker charts with their names on them. Each week they get to pick out a new sticker. They love to count them and show them to their moms and dads. I keep the charts with me so that no one forgets them at home and feels bad. Just before the recital, they take home their full chart. It is an accomplishment to see all the stickers they have earned.
Tina Vittorioso
Centerstage Dance Academy
Seekonk, MA 

Magic stamps
I always give out inked stamps on the right hand at the beginning of the 3- and 4-year-old classes. We call it the magic stamp, and it’s magic because it helps them remember which is right and which is left. I also use little stickers of something cute, like ladybugs or pretty flowers, to put under their heels in tap. I will then play Laurie Berkner’s song “We Are the Dinosaurs” and we march around the classroom. Telling the students not to squish the ladybugs or flowers helps them remember to keep their heels off the floor.
Suzanne Citere
Realdance
Lighthouse Point, FL 

Cure for stage fright
About three or four months before recital, we start to do “class solos” in our 3- to 6-year-old classes. We use a variety of music, but a popular request is “Everybody Dance Now.” (Kimbo released a dance version of this song.) We ask the entire class to sit against the wall. Then, one or two at a time, the girls get up in front of the class and strike a pose to begin. The class cheers them on as they improvise a dance on their own (with the help of the teacher, if they draw a blank). While they dance, the other students clap to the music and cheer.

Once the girls are comfortable dancing in front of the class, we ask parents to come in to watch. We do this every other week or so. It is a huge treat to the dancers and a great way to build their self-esteem. Since we began this exercise several years ago, I have not had a child cry from stage fright or refuse to perform onstage.
Suzie Baxter
DanceArts Studio
Hot Springs, AR

Dance calendars
One of the best business tools I have used for the past eight years is a dance calendar. I had one made up at a local printer; we use it every year and just change the content. We have 12 spots for information, pictures, and ads from local businesses and pages for each month (September to August). The ads help pay for the calendars, so we can give them to our students’ parents at no charge.

The calendars include all the school’s information: when we are open; when we close for holidays; registration dates (early, summer school, and fall); exam dates; extra practices; competition dates; recital and dress rehearsals. The front page includes important phone numbers: our school, fax number, local dance shops, the theater, our photographer, etc. I also post the information on our website.

We hand out the calendar at the beginning of the year. Everyone loves it because we follow it to a T and do not change any dates unless something major happens. And it helps me when I do the newsletter every month—I check the calendar to make sure my dates are correct.
Irene Booth
Tempo Dance Academy
Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada

Documenting your dances for maximum impact

By Sophia Emigh

Dance is the most ephemeral of the arts, with no simple or effective means of reproducing its full impact. It’s easy to enjoy a piece of music long after it has been recorded, or to hang a painting on your wall for indefinite appreciation. Because of video’s tendency to flatten choreography beyond recognition, recording dance is difficult and often less than satisfying. However, advances in technology, combined with a few simple tips for shooting, can ramp up the impact of your documentation to help you share beautiful, fleeting moments with a wide audience.

Almost anyone can set up a video camera and film a dance performance, but it takes real art to re-create the feeling of the performance on film. Former dancer and choreographer Austin Forbord has documented dance for years; he’s the owner, primary videographer, editor, and documentary filmmaker of Rapt Productions in Oakland, California. His creative tips will help you take the film of your performance to the next level.

Set your intention
First, you need to figure out why you’re making your video. Do you want to capture every step of a dance for archival purposes? Use this footage to market your school? (If so, to what audience?) Are you seeking to meet the specific requirements presented by a grant-funding panel? Do you want to deliver the visceral experience of being in the audience? Creative video documentation can provide a more direct experience than you could get as an audience member in a formal theater setting.

Shooting this close can be controversial because you lose part of the line and sometimes even some steps, but the results can be dramatic. Pictured: Guest artist Muriel Maffre (second from right) and Alonzo King’s Lines Ballet dancers Keelan Whitmore, Meredith Webster, and Ricardo Zayas (far right) in King’s Rasa. (photos by Austin Forbord)

Detail-oriented archival documentation requires either a multi-camera setup or the ability to shoot a performance more than once (ideally in a dress rehearsal setting), while a more experiential, up-close marketing video might not even require a tripod if you’re going for dynamic impact. Judging the scope of your project and the degree of creative camera work needed will tell you whether to shoot it yourself or hire a professional with a creative eye.

Equipment to get you started
Before you can get started, you’ll need to decide which equipment to work with. Forbord recommends asking yourself a few questions before you buy. Will you be documenting work on an ongoing basis? Will a high-quality camera pay off in the long run, or should you hire a
professional for a one-time performance?

Camera formats
If you decide to buy your own equipment, Forbord suggests sticking with the “solid” mini-DV format camera. This means that your camera will record directly onto a small DV (digital video) tape, which you can easily digitize by plugging the camera (with the tape inside) into your computer and opening your video editing software. For less than $1,000, you can buy a high-definition video (HDV) camera that will still record onto standard mini-DV tapes with incredible image quality.

Many new cameras use hard-drive or flash-drive format, which skips the need to digitize your footage; the camera records in digital file format rather than onto a tape. Forbord says to hold off on this seeming time-saver, however, at least for now: The technology is still young, the files are often proprietary (meaning they’ll work only with the specific equipment or brand you used to record them and might be unreadable by less expensive editing programs), and with hard-drive formats, if your computer crashes you have no backup of your footage. If you do opt for a hard-drive camera, make sure you regularly back up your footage onto an external hard drive for safekeeping.

First, you need to figure out why you’re making your video. Do you want to capture every step of a dance for archival purposes? Use this footage to market your school? Do you want to deliver the visceral experience of being in the audience?

Extra gear
You’ll also need a quality tripod that will pan in every direction without a hint of jerkiness. Try out various models before purchasing one. The best fluid-head tripods, however, require the weight of much more expensive cameras to function correctly—another reason to hire a professional.

Consider buying an external zoom grip for $80 to $120; the zoom function included in most cameras can shift abruptly from a distant shot to a close-up, disrupting the flow of your work. An external zoom grip attaches to your tripod, eliminating any shakiness in the shot since you don’t touch the camera while zooming.

If you have the budget, invest in a wide-angle lens adaptor to capture more of the space from a shorter distance, as well as a high-quality external microphone. Standard on-camera mics won’t reproduce the rich sound of music in performance, so either record with better equipment or be prepared to dub in music post-production.

Auto vs manual
A few final details if you’re into technical talk: Avoid using an “auto-iris” or “auto-focus.” An auto-iris tries to keep the level of light consistent regardless of the lighting conditions, which often produces blobs of light dancing across the screen rather than dancers in sharp focus. In a performance setting, an auto-focus will search for a point of focus whenever there is low lighting or darkness onstage, causing blurriness before your image sharpens. If you have the time to learn your equipment, manual settings will deliver a more professional result.

Forbord recommends not using a lighting kit; even a basic setup can cost upwards of $10,000 to light a basic stage or studio. He recommends hiring a professional in lieu of renting expensive equipment; you pay for their artistic eye rather than equipment rental fees. Most new cameras function well under low light, so available light in your studio or stage lighting should be sufficient, he says.

However, according to veteran TV news videojournalist Jonathan Bloom, a lighting kit can be very helpful for filming in a rehearsal context (not during a performance). Bloom, who also runs a San Francisco–based videography business, says that where the lighting is overhead and fluorescent, a lighting kit set at eye level or slightly below can fill shadows on the face and make the bodies and the space look warmer and softer. He recommends the “workhorse” lighting kit made by Lowell, which starts at around $1,000.

Shooting for full impact
Back when Forbord was running two dance companies, he chafed at typical grant panel regulations that required him to submit work shot from the back of the house. “On a flat screen that’s 20 inches wide, how does that give you a sense of the visceral nature of movement in dance?” he says. “I really don’t think it can. It’s much more important to actually have an experience in the viewing.”

Dress rehearsals
Forbord encourages his current clients, including San Francisco’s ODC and Lines Ballet, to give him the freedom to shoot dress rehearsals; the lack of an audience lets him get up close and shoot tight. Although this sometimes means he cuts off a dancer or doesn’t include every entrance and exit, he’s able to capture elements of the dance that translate powerfully during small-screen viewing. Sacrificing a few moments of visible choreography seems a small price to pay in exchange for conveying the thrill of the dancers’ momentum and intensity. Forbord’s clients have embraced the resulting work, though Forbord sometimes sets up a wide-shot camera as well to cover his bases.

Points of view
If you have more than one camera or can shoot a piece more than once, consider shooting from different points of view (e.g., downstage left corner, upstage right corner, or 10 rows back in the audience or from a box seat); this will give you the most options for crafting your piece once you get to the editing stage.

Again, your style of shooting will boil down to your intention and logistical considerations. If you’re covering a large school show, you might need to stick with a wide establishing shot, large slow pans (lateral movements across the stage), and shooting a “follow-wide”: staying in as tight as possible while getting every dancer in the shot to please the parents.

If you have the freedom to shoot during a dress rehearsal or in the classroom, try placing your camera in the corner of the studio or stage rather than downstage center; the angle will give you greater depth of field and a sense of dynamic play rather than the feared flattening effect. You’ll have more room to shoot across the dance while lending greater dimension to the stage and dancers.

Shoot tight
From there, follow Forbord’s credo: “Tighter is better.” Keep the camera’s frame as close to the dancers as you can to maximize the ratio of moving bodies to empty space and increase the sense of immediacy in the shot. And unless you’ve opted for the back-of-house archival shooting style, don’t be afraid to miss an entrance or exit or let a bit of choreography move offscreen in order to zero in on the heart of the dance. “None of the same rules apply when you’re trying to create something that will be interesting to watch on the small screen,” says Forbord.

While shooting tight can lose the context of the dance onstage, Forbord says something more important emerges: “What I want is that visceral connection to the performers. Ultimately, what you can do is provide the viewer with an experience they can’t get [from the audience].”

Prep first
If you’re not the choreographer, ask ahead of time if there’s a crucial pas de deux to catch or who the main characters are so you can prioritize the focus of a shot if you need to. That said, Forbord emphasizes the importance of not planning specific shots: “My goal when I’m videotaping is to always be in the moment, but always knowing what decision I would take, depending on what’s presented to me. If you have [to take time] to think about it, then it’s too late.”

Keep your eye on the action and respond accordingly; anticipating the next shot might rob your attention from the movement at hand. Ultimately, just stay present and let the dance shape its own documentation. The best videography is inseparable from the dance; as Forbord says, it’s his “goal as a videographer to be unnoticed.”

Using video to market your work
Creating a promotional video for your school or company brings up a new collection of considerations. Ultimately, crafting your image is all about matching your style and intention.

If your school or company has a strong philosophy, you might deliver it by adding a voice-over, putting yourself onscreen, or asking for student testimonials. If you encourage creative expression in your students, try offering a montage of them improvising, spliced with shots of an encouraging teacher. If you emphasize strict technique and discipline, you could show ballet students concentrating at the barre or completing a technically difficult sequence. Or, if you’re a company director publicizing an upcoming performance, you might share a few dynamic sections of a single piece of choreography; including footage from several performances could be more appropriate for marketing yourself to festivals or grant panels.

Flesh out your intention with style by checking out videos on YouTube to figure out what you find effective. Does flashy editing appeal to you more than long shots? What bores you? Does text onscreen answer your questions or distract you from the dance clips?

Finally, decide whether your video will be an isolated representation of your work (e.g., on YouTube or in a grant submission) or part of a larger presentation (your website media package, for example). That will give you a better sense of what you’ll need to include to market yourself. Always include your name, website, or contact information at the end of the video to mark your work in case it gets passed along via email.

Crafting the final product
Cheap and remarkable filmmaking tools are available to do-it-yourself filmmakers who have access to a computer and software. In a single day, you can shoot a rehearsal, edit it, and set it to different music to bring back to rehearsals as you develop your piece.

When you get to the editing stage, stick with basic, nonproprietary software like iMovie. More complicated and expensive programs like Final Cut Pro take time and effort to get used to, while simpler programs still deliver useful tutorials, effects, and transitions in user-friendly formats.

In general, Forbord uses longer shots to cover transitions between choreographic sections and short clips sparingly, to capture a specific gesture or dynamic move. And if you choose to include an interview as part of a marketing video, use it as a voice-over as much as possible to offer more movement and fewer talking heads onscreen.

DVDs
Forbord also warns against venturing into DVD-authoring land, as it takes great technical expertise to navigate the many formats and system requirements. Choose the more universal file format of MPEG-2 files. For basic DVD production, iDVD works well; you’re better off deferring to a professional if you think you might need a more professional program like DVD Studio Pro, which is more reliable for creating universally readable DVDs.

With all of the options at hand, don’t be afraid to ask for professional help at any point in the process. As Forbord says, “We can’t all do everything; if you’re running a studio or a dance company, you already are. At some point you have to recognize that you wouldn’t ask a non-professional to do your dance piece. At some point you need to just deliver this to somebody else.”

Outsourcing
If it feels like too much to document your own work, don’t worry! Forbord says he’s often able to pay for his services without charging schools a penny, simply by setting a reasonable price for DVDs of a show to sell to parents, with a guaranteed minimum number of sales (for example, $30per DVD with the school agreeing to pay the difference if fewer than 30 are sold).

If you decide to outsource for the shooting portion of your documentation as well as editing, taking the time to communicate with your videographer (whose work you should have seen beforehand) will ensure insightful documentation of your work.

Give the videographer the freedom to shoot up close (ideally during a dress rehearsal); there’s no point in paying somebody to set up a camera at the back of the house unless it’s a second camera. Describe any particular sequences you need captured or characters to follow. Most videographers will welcome your input, but it’s up to you to take that initiative.

If you’re excited about shooting your work yourself, know that Forbord has faith in you. “I think that you are going to be a better dance videographer if you are a dancer than if you are a videographer,” he says. “You can teach how to work a camera, but you can’t really teach sensitivity to momentum, to weight, and also to what’s important to a choreographer.”

Tips to Remember

1. Know your intention. Who will be watching your video? Do you need to capture every detail of the dance? What will this footage represent?
2. Commit to your shot. If you’ve zoomed in on one duet, don’t be afraid to stay there. You can capture the other dancers soon enough, and the viewer will enjoy watching the development of the duet instead of being yanked away with a jarring pan or zoom.
3. Tighter is better. Filming up close will convey your movement’s power and intention and inspire viewers to check out your work in person. Forbord will often sacrifice a wider shot to catch a crucial gesture: “The key is being in tight. And the key is also not being frightened about being in tight.”
4. Do archiving yourself.   Don’t hire a professional just to stick a camera on a tripod in the back of the house, unless you’re already hiring them to do more artistic work and they have an extra camera on hand.
5. You can’t do everything. If possible, hire a professional who is sensitive to dance (or at least to performance). It’s likely you can work out a low-cost arrangement, and professionals will use much higher-quality equipment than you could likely afford to buy or rent.

What Does It Cost?

The following information was provided by videographer Jonathan Bloom.

Cameras
Small pro/high-end consumer cameras with large image sensors that shoot onto tape and/or memory cards cost $3,500 to $6,000. The sensors in smaller (read: cheaper) cameras often have trouble handling high-contrast situations. An affordable option is looking for quality widescreen SD (standard definition) cameras on the used market (eBay or craigslist). Recommended: Panasonic HVX-200A (new), Sony DSR-PD170 or PD150 (used).

Tripods
High-end: $1,200 to $1,600 (“worth every penny”) for a decent fluid-head tripod that can be adjusted from 1 to 6 feet off the ground. Recommended: Miller’s “Solo” series.

Mid-range: $800–$1,000 for a 6- to 10-pound medium-size camera. Recommended: Cartoni’s HiDV (less durable than Miller but can give good results if you’re gentle).

Low-end: $200–$400. Libec makes a “fluid-like” tripod suitable for lighter cameras.

Wide-angle lens adaptors
Roughly $800–$1,000 for a large camera lens, $200–$400 for a medium camera (often comes bundled with cameras), and around $100 for a small camera

External mic
For the best sound quality, plug a cable into the soundboard and record audio directly from there. However, to record foot (e.g., tap) or ambient noises, you’ll need a directional mic (“shotgun mic”). Prices range from $100 to $1,000. Recommended: Sennheiser K6-ME66 ($355).

Editing programs
Recommended: Edius for Windows; Final Cut Pro for Macs. Bloom recommends programs that have a direct print-to-DVD function, which will create a menu-less DVD that will play on any DVD player.

What to do when you’re putting only one or two dancers onstage

By Larry Sousa

Solos and duos are notoriously hard, and so is the plastic chair I sit in when I’m judging them. I’ve been in that uncomfortable chair for 15 years, judging solo after solo, duo after duo (and everything else too). I could ask for a more comfortable one, but in a way, the chair helps me do my job better. If I’m not fidgeting in my seat, I must really be enjoying the dance.

Here are some of my favorite dos and don’ts for solos and duos; perhaps they can help strengthen your dances.

(Photo by Richard Calmes)

Solos

Do tailor the choreography to the dancer.
Obvious, right? As it turns out, many choreographers these days are tailoring their steps to the judges instead of their soloists’ strengths. Maybe it’s the judges’ fault. At just about every competition in every state, we seem to give the top awards to the same type of contemporary-ish solo. And it’s no help that our industry now hosts a glut of influential “star” convention teachers, all of whom seem to hail from the same corner of Contemporaryville. In one way or another, we’ve all been indoctrinated.

You’ll know this familiar dance by its frenetic finger gestures and insanely tilted battements featuring, shall we say, questionable hip placement. Note the requisite girl’s uniform: black booty shorts, a loose-fitting man’s dress shirt, and long, stringy, wet hair. And the song? A standard-issue stream-of-consciousness indie-folk diatribe. I know that song! Wait—no, I don’t—yes, I do—or do I? Either way, it’s swell to listen to yet nearly impossible for your audience to connect to. That’s a problem, because inviting audiences to participate on an emotional level is one of your most important goals, especially when your dancer is out there all by herself.

Here are some figures worth noting, taken from the most recent solo competition I judged:

• Ballet/pointe solos: 3 entries
• Musical theater solos: 6 entries
• Tap solos: 10 entries
• Contemporary solos: 51 entries 

For the record, I love contemporary solos—when they are well executed, entertaining, and emotionally accessible. Of those 51 contemporary soloists, I’d say 9 had a true command of the style and technique they were aiming for. The rest seemed to offer vague sketches of what they thought we wanted to see.

Here’s what judges hope to see: a unique dance that fits the dancer, not the same solo everyone else is doing. So, why not interview your dancer before you start his or her solo? Does he have a favorite painter? Does she play a sport? A musical instrument? Dig for ideas from which to launch a one-of-a-kind story. But proceed down this road with caution. If she says, “I want to do frenetic finger gestures and wear black booty shorts and a man’s dress shirt and have wet hair,” then take back the reins and go searching in the opposite direction.

Don’t use today’s most popular music.
Please, I beg you, don’t! Judges are sick and tired of hearing the same songs over and over. And I bet your studio’s parents are too. Have mercy on us all.

But if you absolutely must—if your darling soloist puts a gun to your head and forces you to use “Circus” by Britney Spears, then put an unexpected twist on it. Your judges have already seen about 3 million dances to this song. Every one has employed—surprise—the look and feel of an actual circus. (Never mind that the song is, ironically, about individuality, leadership, and rising above the crowd.)

Inviting audiences to participate on an emotional level is one of your most important goals, especially when your dancer is out there all by herself.

So what can you do to make your “Circus” different? Go beyond the surface of the lyrics and search for the bigger themes. Decide what your song is really about. If you stick with the obvious choices, you’re stacking your piece against the many versions already swimming around in the judges’ heads (plus the video, which is pretty fabulous). Are you sure you want to compete against all that?

And that’s the problem with using the most popular music: It comes with a world of baggage. Getting noticed is hard enough in today’s competition world, so take the road less traveled. Better yet, pave your own.

Don’t try to trick the judges.
Win our hearts instead. There’s a big difference between choreography and a series of tricks masquerading as choreography. Judges have been onto this for a while now, but some teachers have been curiously slower on the uptake. And I understand why; it’s human nature to feel that more is more. How could a soloist who does one grand jeté score higher than a soloist who does loads of switch leaps and acro and 32 fouetté turns, then grabs her leg and spins? Well, believe this: Many soloists have earned titles and top awards without even that one jeté.

Instead, these winners presented dances full of style, detail, character, and passion. Emotionally and physically, your soloist must commit to every moment. Judges usually sit very close to the dancers; even so, every detail should be articulated clearly. Because we’re close, we notice when a dancer places less importance on the details and more on the tricks. That’s not good.

It’s also worth mentioning that the more tricks you have in a dance, the more possibilities there are that something can go wrong. If your dancer does several challenging turn sequences, you’ve given him several opportunities to fall out of those turns, or travel, or hop. Small infractions indeed, but each little blip derails the viewers’ involvement; the soloist then has to get them interested again. If you put them through that too many times, they stop trusting the dancer. That, too, is human nature.

Remember, dance is an art that can take audiences on a vivid, thrilling journey. Certainly it is a physical achievement too. But once you let those relentless Dance Competition Tricks overpower your hard-fought style, emotion, poetry, story, and character work, then the war to win the audience’s hearts is over—and you’ve lost. Think of it another way: Two and a half minutes of tricks feels like a long time. Two and a half minutes of passionate dancing feels like seconds.

Do use the whole stage.
A soloist making an entrance feels to me like one little person entering a new world—like an explorer, if you will. Just before the dance begins, I think, “Will she conquer this vast world, or will the landscape overwhelm her?” Your soloist should claim the space and cover lots of ground. Help her turn terra incognita into terra firma with choreography that travels all over the stage. Otherwise, the piece will likely feel stagnant and the dancer can seem overpowered. Remember, it’s a solo. There’s no one else out there to pick up the energy.

If there is an exception to this, it’s for tap solos. In most dance competition venues, you can assume that the speakers will be blaring directly into the ears of the judges. So your tap soloist will need to spend a lot of time in the front areas of the stage so those well-rehearsed sounds can be heard. Even so, look for a few good opportunities to send your tapper around the stage from time to time.

Duos

Do create a relationship between the dancers.
It’s downright painful to watch a pas de deux where the deux don’t acknowledge each other onstage. Sadly, this is so common that I find myself giving special awards to the few partners who do create a relationship. But that shouldn’t be special; it’s expected, like pointing your feet.

I’ve seen more than a few duos performed to the classic Irving Berlin song “Sisters, Sisters.” More often than not, the dancers ignored each other while the lyrics were proclaiming, “There were never such devoted sisters . . . Caring, sharing,” and so on.

I realize how awkward it can be for young people to interact with each other during a dance. In my experience, this is mainly about fear. They’re kids—or worse,  teenagers! They feel uncomfortable expressing emotion to each other and making a connection in front of other people. If you are faced with this resistance, help them understand that their dance (like most) has a lot to do with acting. Emphasize that they are playing characters, not themselves. Name the characters and do whatever else you can think of to separate the dancers from these characters. (“You might not do this, but Juliet would.”)

And by all means, get the dancers to contribute choices that help your story along. Frame a dramatic moment, then ask them questions such as, “How can you show that your characters are angry with each other?” The goal is for the dancers to tell their story with honesty and believability. Ironically, young, timid performers have a better chance of getting there by way of entirely imaginary characters. They are more likely to feel safe if they’re preoccupied with fulfilling the technical needs of a character that is unlike themselves. 

Do pick music that helps your story.
If plucking a story out of thin air is not your strongest suit, let music be your inspiration. Pick songs that have a relationship built in (like “Sisters, Sisters”). There are a million of them. Once you’ve found your ideal song, don’t forget why you picked it. The lyrics are never enough to communicate a story to an audience. Your choreography and direction must do that.

Don’t be afraid of creating your own scenarios. Most dances are stories in one way or another. So force yourself to think like a writer. When you’re driving, put the radio on and play this game: You must imagine every song you hear as a duo. How would you justify using only two dancers for each song? Would you create two distinct characters, such as mother and daughter? Are they a puppy and kitten interacting? Are they two waves washing onto shore? Are they two pieces of string tying and untying themselves? The possibilities are endless. 

Don’t choreograph a solo for two bodies.
I’m surprised that I still see so many duos consisting merely of two dancers doing the same steps in unison. The two don’t relate to each other. There are no levels, intersecting lines, or opposing angles. They don’t work in counterpoint or stagger their rhythms. They rarely split up, and when they do, they use the same steps to travel away and back, symmetrically. That’s not much of a duo; it’s a solo that happens to be performed by two people.

A duo gives you the great advantage of two bodies to work with. Use them, differently. Think levels. Think intertwining. Think partnering! You can make your dance much more interesting while simultaneously giving your dancers the added lessons that come from engaging with each other, rather than merely dancing steps side by side.

Here’s an exception: If the central concept of your dance is about precision, then sure, have the dancers work in unison. But I’d reserve this option only for the rare occasion that you happen to have two dancers who look and move exactly alike. And be warned: One small mistake breaks the spell. Are you sure you want to take that chance?

Don’t let one dancer overpower the other.
You’ve worked hard to create two distinct characters and an interesting story. You’ve avoided unison steps and come up with choreography that is textured, layered, and interesting. Your two dancers have bonded and are truly performing together. Good work.

Now, observe them as individuals. Is each pulling his own weight in the dance? Is one dancer shining more brightly than the other? Look at every aspect: technique, acting, energy, style, stage presence, and anything else you can think of. Does one dancer have a stronger relationship to the audience than to her partner? Undo that immediately.

And look at your own choices. Does your choreography inadvertently favor one dancer over the other? Are there lead and supporting players? You hope not. I don’t mean to suggest that if you have one dancer doing six pirouettes, the other one should too. Just be sure your piece features a good balance of each dancer’s strengths and that one isn’t overshadowing or undermining the other. 

Got all that? Great! Now go out there and make your judges and audience think that those hard plastic chairs are comfy as a cloud.

More Advice From People Who Know What They’re Talking About

Here are more great tips courtesy of some of North America’s most experienced dance educators and judges: Rennie Gold (Massachusetts), Suzanne Citere (Florida), Fran Coyle (Ontario, Canada), Marcia Aller
Indiana), Jackie Decusati (New Jersey), April Nelson (Arizona), Gary Coburn (Rhode Island), and Mary Kate Felber and Mark Santoro (New York City).

DO choreograph shorter solos! Three minutes is an eternity for judges.
DON’T choreograph a grand jeté à la seconde to face the back; it features nothing but the student’s backside.
DO sit on the floor (the view judges have) and watch your dance. You’re looking for, shall we say, unflattering angles.
DO check the dancers’ feet and insteps while you’re down there.
DON’T forget teamwork. Your duo should no longer make sense if one of the dancers is missing. 
DO keep your costuming age appropriate (e.g., no studded bra tops for toddlers).
DON’T let the dancer choose her costume. 
DO travel your tap choreography.
DON’T miss the message. For example: the popular dance competition song “Endangered Species” is not about jungle animals; it’s about the strength and power of women.
DO stay within the format of the category.
DON’T over-rehearse a solo. Keep it new, free, and fresh.
DO encourage dancers to see the audience. The eyes are the single most significant tool for connecting with viewers.
DON’T ignore a prop, if you have one in your dance.
DO invite other teachers to take an objective look at your dance.
DON’T let young dancers “emote” to songs with mature lyrics such as “I ache for you.”

To save money, keep payroll down and challenge shaky claims

By Vanina and Dennis Wilson

Dance studio owners who don’t pay attention to their unemployment costs do so at their own financial risk. Unlike Medicare and Social Security taxes, which are fixed, studio owners have some control over unemployment taxes.

When a dance studio opens, it will pay unemployment taxes at a fixed rate. After it has been in operation for a couple of years, however, the owner can affect the rate by minimizing the amount that the state unemployment insurance fund pays to the studio’s former employees.

The lower the amount paid, the lower the tax. In Vermont, for example, unemployment tax rates vary from 0.4 to 8.4 percent (a 2,100 percent difference!) of an individual employer’s payroll, depending on how much the unemployment fund has paid in benefits, relative to the size of the individual employer’s payroll.  In California, by contrast, the experience-based tax rate varies from 1.5 to 6.2 percent (2008 figures). Check with your state’s department of labor or employment for your situation.

In today’s tough economy, laid-off instructors will have more difficulty finding new jobs. They may, therefore, receive unemployment benefits for longer periods, increasing the taxes that their previous employers must pay. Unemployment taxes will likely also rise as states seek to replenish depleted unemployment funds.

Keeping unemployment taxes low
Dance studio owners can take two steps to minimize the amount of benefits paid to laid-off employers, thereby keeping their unemployment taxes as low as possible: (1) keep payroll to a minimum; and (2) ensure that unemployment benefits are paid only to former employees entitled to receive them.

Fewer employees mean fewer layoffs
The first step should be self-evident: Hire only if you must. When you hire, choose versatile staff members and make full use of them before hiring new employees. Can your jazz dance teacher also teach modern dance or hip-hop? Can you persuade the advanced ballet teacher to take over beginning ballet and possibly even pre-ballet tots? Consolidate classes where possible to avoid hiring new instructors.

Employees entitled to compensation
The second step is to ensure that the state unemployment fund pays only former employees genuinely entitled to benefits. Not everyone who is unemployed automatically receives benefits.

Unemployment-insurance systems vary widely among states. Some states place a high priority on requiring applicants to show that they’re actively looking for work; others cut them a check with few questions asked. The national economic stimulus bill passed in February changed the situation for  states that accept loans from the federal government for their unemployment funds. Such states must make unemployment benefits easier to obtain, so studio owners in those states may find that the rules have changed from last year.

A state administrative agency determines—subject to court review—whether a particular claimant may receive benefits. Dance studio owners can participate in this process and influence the decision reached. Most employers represent themselves before the state agency to save on lawyer fees. Dance studio owners should, however, consider consulting counsel before a hearing, because the agency’s rules of procedure and evidence may be unfamiliar to them.

Departure “for good cause”
Employees who leave voluntarily may not collect unemployment benefits. Departure “for good cause,” however, is not considered voluntary and the former employee is entitled to benefits. Employees who leave because the dance studio changed the terms and conditions of employment, for example, are considered to have left for good cause and will be eligible for unemployment compensation.

Know your state’s rules about what constitutes good cause. In a Rhode Island case (not specifically involving a dance studio), an employee who left a job to follow a spouse who moved out of the area was considered to have left for good cause and could collect unemployment benefits, for which the former employer’s account was charged.

Dance studio owners can minimize the amount of benefits paid to laid-off employers by keeping payroll to a minimum and ensuring that unemployment benefits are paid only to former employees entitled to receive them.

What about the teacher who leaves in hopes of landing a better job, doesn’t get it, and then seeks unemployment compensation? Though such a former employee would normally be ineligible, she could claim that the “real” reason for leaving was attributable to the employer, and that the departure was for good cause. In contesting that claim, the studio must explain the circumstances of the teacher’s departure and submit documentation to show that the move was voluntary. But even if you have a signed letter of resignation stating that the teacher left entirely of her own volition, don’t be surprised if she claims she was forced to sign it.

Another common situation occurs when an employer-employee disagreement escalates into: “I quit!” followed by “No, you’re fired!” To establish that an employee truly quit and was not terminated, the studio owner will have to show that the employee had a conscious intent to quit. If an employee is under the impression that he or she has been fired, the state agency will likely find that the termination was involuntary.

Layoffs
Layoffs, or involuntary separations, because a dance studio did not have enough work for the instructor clearly entitle the laid-off employee to unemployment compensation. More difficult and frustrating cases arise when an employer discharges an employee for reasons other than lack of work, and the discharged employee claims unemployment benefits. An employee discharged for misconduct may not receive unemployment benefits. Although state rules differ, in general misconduct is defined as a “substantial or intentional disregard of the employer’s interest.” Ordinary incompetence, such as consistently mislabeling dance steps, does not constitute misconduct.

Also, a single instance of misconduct does not disqualify a discharged employee from receiving benefits, except in extreme cases, such as arson or an assault on a student. An employee must ordinarily have been warned about the misconduct and the discharge must have been for a subsequent instance of the same misconduct. (How many instances are required? The total varies from state to state.)

For example, if an employer warns an instructor about her habit of starting classes late, the teacher can still collect unemployment benefits if she is terminated for consistently mislabeling dance steps. A justifiable discharge for misconduct would have to be for repeated instances of starting late or mislabeling dance steps.

It’s essential to document warnings given for misconduct. Ideally, they should be in writing and dated, set forth the details of the objectionable conduct, and be signed by both employer and employee. But even then, some laid-off employees may still wind up getting an unemployment check.

In one famous case, an employee converted to the Seventh-Day Adventist Church and refused her employer’s requirements to work Friday nights and Saturdays. After warning her about missing work, the employer fired her and the state denied her unemployment benefits. The U.S. Supreme Court found that the employee’s right to practice her religion had been violated. The state then paid benefits, for which the employer was charged.

Minimizing your costs
Even if you, the owner, contest the right of an employee to receive unemployment compensation (or if you lose the case), you can take these steps to minimize benefits paid and keep your own costs low.

Communication
Provide the state agency with the separated employee’s dates of service and pay records, so that the agency can determine if she is eligible for unemployment benefits (she must have worked a minimum time period and minimum hours) and the amount to which she is entitled (she may claim more).

Let the agency know if you provided severance pay or other benefits upon termination, since they reduce the amount of the benefit payment and help keep your tax low.

If you offer to rehire a discharged employee and she refuses, let the state agency know; the refusal may disqualify the claimant from future benefits.

If you suspect that the instructor is giving classes on her own for pay, let the state agency know so that it can investigate.

Pay on time
Like all employers, dance studios pay both state and federal unemployment tax. The federal unemployment tax drops significantly, however, if the dance studio pays its state unemployment tax on time. Don’t lose important savings on your federal unemployment taxes (and subject yourself to late-filing penalties and interest) by delaying the filing and paying of your state unemployment taxes.

Don’t pay unnecessarily
Hiring family members also can reduce your unemployment tax. Dance studios operating as sole proprietorships or partnerships need not pay unemployment taxes for services performed by the proprietor, the partners, or the proprietor’s or partners’ spouses, parents, or minor children or stepchildren. Dance studio owners who operate as Limited Liability Companies (LLC) need not pay unemployment taxes for services performed by the members (the owners), managing members (owners and managers), or managers (non-owners who operate the LLC). Moreover, an LLC managed by a single member or manager is treated as if it were a sole proprietorship, and a multiple-member LLC is treated as a partnership, for purposes of the family employment exemption. Your accountant knows which employees are owners, managers, or their family members, so that no unemployment tax is paid on their wages.

School owners who watch payroll closely, contest unjustified claims, pay state taxes on time, and don’t pay unemployment taxes for exempted employees will see the reward every time they open their wallets.

Why you should leave the dancemaking to your students

By Kelly Cannone

Kids doing choreography? It’s not a standard offering in many dance schools, but I believe that all young dancers should try it. Young people’s minds brim with endless ideas and possibilities, and many kids have no inhibitions and will try anything. As teachers, we can enhance our students’ creativity by offering them the chance to experiment with choreography.

I remember, when I started dance as a fifth-grader, wondering where my teacher got all these dance steps. I went home filled with excitement. I grabbed my record player and my favorite records, went outside, and began making up my first dance. It was to the song “Tears of a Clown,” and I still remember parts of it today. My creativity started flowing as I made up my own steps.

Cannone explains the basics of choreographing to her students and then places them in randomized groups, which allows everyone to get to know each other. (Photo courtesy Kelly Cannone)

Later I learned that what I was doing was actually choreography.

Now I can see that my afternoon of dancemaking on the lawn was the beginning of a choreographic journey that has helped me learn. If we encourage our students to start choreographing at a young age, who knows where their journeys may lead? The self-esteem and creativity they develop will help them throughout their lives, on whatever path they take. I offer this learning experience to my students in three ways: in-class choreography work, a choreography competition, and as a requirement when auditioning for the school’s company.

Choreography month
At my studio, every December is choreography month. I began this program because with the holidays approaching, most of my students had trouble focusing in class. I decided it was the perfect time to have some fun and get creative. During this month, choreography is not optional; I include it within the normal curriculum structure in all of the classes we offer for ages 6 and up.

Structure
In the first week I put the students into small groups, usually three to five dancers, chosen randomly by having them count off. Working with randomized groups avoids the pitfalls of students pairing up with friends and allows everyone to get to know each other. I give them a piece of music (everyone gets the same one) and explain a little bit about choreography, keeping it simple. I tell them I’m looking for original steps that fit nicely with the music and that they should create a story based on the meaning of the lyrics. Most of the choreography is unison movement since it’s easy for beginners. By the third or fourth week, they might begin to do steps in canon and change the spacing.

I give them 30 minutes to create their piece, which must include beginning and ending poses. At the end of the class each group performs its choreography. (No parents are allowed to watch because I want all the students to feel comfortable.)

Many times I notice that the shy students won’t participate in creating the choreography at first, though they will perform it; they are used to doing that in the classroom. But they gain confidence from the others, and usually I see them sharing ideas before we’ve gotten too far into the first class. By the next week they want to lead the choreographing; once they have the confidence, there is no stopping them!

I divide the students into different groups each week. Working in small groups is good practice for those who might become professional dancers, and it promotes the importance of teamwork. However, the students are permitted to feature someone in the group occasionally if doing so fits the choreography.

If we encourage our students to start choreographing at a young age, who knows where their journeys may lead? The self-esteem and creativity they develop will help them throughout their lives, on whatever path they take.

Each week I give them new music to work with. We talk about how a good choreographer seeks out interesting music and why it’s important. The students are allowed to bring in music of their choice (which needs to be different from what they’ve been using) for consideration for the next week’s choreography.

Evaluation
Since performing something of their own creation is a new experience for some of the students, I do not want them to feel like they are being judged. After each group performs, I talk about what I liked in the choreography and explain why. I often praise elements like good use of the stage, interesting patterns, and how the students interpreted the song’s lyrics in telling the story. We talk about how some of the steps are creative and some are silly, but I emphasize that all ideas are good. My students learn that trying something new is better than letting fear get in your way.

As the weeks progress, the discussions about choreography gain depth. We talk about lighting and how it affects the overall feeling of the choreography. I love how my students share ideas about stories they want to tell and how they might tell them. Some of their ideas have been so good that I have used them in my choreography. I was honored to work with them to create a vision they had thought of, and I know they felt good that I used their ideas.

Working with teens
In creating choreography, teens sometimes are not as comfortable as younger children because they worry too much about what their peers think. Young children believe they can do it, but teens doubt themselves and worry that their friends won’t like their choreography. My words of encouragement play a big part in helping them believe in themselves. I share my stories about my lawn choreography and tell them to never give up. I know that I am giving them confidence and building self-esteem.

I tell teen students who are new to choreography that we are going to have fun. I explain that choreography is making up a dance and suggest that they use steps they have learned in class. And I emphasize that there is no right or wrong. I coach them, telling them that all they need to do is come up with different ways of putting the steps together. If they resist, I usually help them out by giving them the first step and then asking them to add some interesting arm movements. Working in groups gives them confidence, and once one student takes the initiative, the other students follow.

Choreography competition
After the first year I gave the students another chance to boost their creativity with an Inter-Studio Choreography Competition, held in the spring. The kids get excited for this competition because they get what they call “the fever”—the itch to choreograph, which stems from their experiences in December.

The students team up with whomever they want, choreographing solos, duets, and group pieces and choosing the music and costumes. They sign up for studio time, and many of them get together outside of the studio to practice. They pay an entry fee of $5 for each routine, and I donate the proceeds to a different charity each year.

I rent a facility and ask experienced dance teachers to help with judging. The event is open to the public, so parents have the chance to see their children in a showcase of their own choreography. We give many awards and ribbons recognizing everything from choreography to music choice to costuming. The parents thank me repeatedly for giving their children this opportunity.

Audition requirement
My company auditions each year require the students to choreograph a one-minute dance routine. I want my students to be able to bring out their creative side and know that they can do it in a loving atmosphere. Most of my students cannot wait for auditions; they love doing choreography every December and this gives them a chance to shine in their own solo. Some of the choreography is amazing, with unique music and creative steps, and the students perform with such confidence. I credit this to my December choreography month.

Over my years of teaching, I’ve come to realize that choreography isn’t about great steps; it’s about making my students look good and finding unique stories for them to tell. Although I have taught many technically talented students, I find the most reward in making average students shine in a routine that is creative and unique. Allowing them to create and perform their own work is one more way to let them bring everything they’ve got to their dancing.

How the Internet has created new privacy challenges for dance studios

By Steve Sucato

Today’s technology makes it easy for us to record the goings-on in our lives and share those images with the world. The massive popularity of websites like YouTube and social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace has led to a seemingly no-holds-barred sharing of information. However, there’s a problem: It has caused a disconnect in people’s minds between the desire to post anything and everything and what is appropriate and legal to post.

Gradually, we have become a society of unwitting voyeurs, spurred on by new and easier-to-use technologies like camera phones and mini-video recorders, which let us inconspicuously record anything. Because of this, we view taking pictures and shooting video as commonplace as talking on a cell phone. And like talking on a cell phone, the practice causes alarm in very few places.

For dance studio owners and directors, choreographers, and dance students and their parents, the downside of this new technological reality is that, increasingly, invasions into what was once considered as private domain in the dance studio have now made their way onto the Internet for all to see.

No one knows this better than Michelle Hayes, owner and director of Dance Carousel in Scituate, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston.

One teacher’s nightmare
Hayes found herself in an unlikely predicament in 2008 when she found out that a parent of one of her students had secretly videoed a costume meeting Hayes had with parents at her studio, in which she prepped them for the annual end-of-year production. The parent then posted that video on YouTube.

The problem, says Hayes—beyond the fact that she did not give permission for the meeting to be recorded—was that the meeting dealt with more than costume issues. It also delved into personal issues concerning the dancers, like who should be wearing a bra with their costume, what food allergies a particular child has, and assessments of specific children’s skills and capabilities—information, including students’ names, that was meant to be confidential among those at the meeting.

“I was horrified,” said Hayes. “I immediately began researching how to get it off [the site].”

What Hayes found out is that getting a video removed from YouTube is more complicated than she anticipated. She ascertained from YouTube that she could not have the video removed herself; instead she would have to find out who posted the video and request that they remove it.

After some investigative work, Hayes found out who the culprit was. When she contacted the woman about removing the video, Hayes says, the woman laughed off her concerns and told her to “wake up to the times we are living in” and that she did not need permission to post anything on the Internet.

Hayes says she is not opposed to the general practice of people posting video clips on the Internet and even has a few on her studio’s website. The difference, she says, is that she authorized the videos on her website. She believes that anything posted should respect individual privacy rights. “If I were to make an instructional video for parents on costuming and then post it on the Internet, it would be under my terms,” she says. “I wouldn’t talk about my students by name and what their issues were. I would have done it differently.”

In the end, Hayes did persuade the parent to remove the video. But she won’t forget the hard lesson she learned. “If that parent had asked me beforehand for permission to videotape the session to refer to at home, I probably would have said OK,” she says. “Knowing what I know now, if someone were to ask me if they could record a session like that, I would make them agree not to post it on the Internet.”

Widespread misunderstanding
Dance is, at its core, about being in the public eye. The conundrum nowadays for those in the dance community is how to balance privacy needs with the irresistible lure of exposure on perhaps the largest stage in the world: the Internet. Knowing what you can as well as what you should or should not post on the Web has to take precedence over how much public attention a posting might bring you.

According to Tauna Hunter, the head of the dance department at Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pennsylvania, she now has to address with her students their lack of understanding of what is appropriate and/or permitted by law to post on the Internet. A student of Hunter’s posted a portion of one of the college’s dance productions from a department-produced DVD without permission and in violation of copyright law.

“Quite frankly, I don’t think that student or my other students even think about what they are posting online; they just do it all the time,” says Hunter.

Hunter says she believes that her students are so oblivious to copyright law that she now includes information on it in their course material, including the proper use of music and choreography. She is also revising the dance department’s student handbook to address issues of privacy and the Internet.

Choreographers’ rights
“Choreographers have the rights to their work,” says choreographer and master teacher Dianne McIntyre. “If you want a record of their work, you need to get permission from them first.”

McIntyre is a strong proponent of copyright law and has had her own run-ins with people posting her copyrighted material on the Internet without her permission. “People do not understand that everyone might not be excited as they are about putting their work out on YouTube. It is copyright infringement and it’s illegal,” she says.

McIntyre feels that some dance studio owners may not know that they need to spell out in guest choreographers’ contracts the uses they envision of any recordings of that choreographer’s work, such as posting them online and sharing them with other parties. “If, for whatever reason, the choreographer says no to a particular use of that recording, like putting it on YouTube, it is their right to do so,” she says.

McIntyre says she also has had issues with videos of her lectures and master classes appearing on the Internet without her permission. She recalled an incident in which she was giving a talk to a group of dancers in which she told them about a personal experience that influenced her as a teacher. Portions of that talk, including that personal story, ended up on YouTube. “I wasn’t happy because I was giving that talk for a select group of people, and the recording was only supposed to be for the organization’s archives,” says McIntyre.

Photo theft
Thefts of images from her organization’s website were the first indicators Angela Harris, executive artistic director of Atlanta’s Dance Canvas, Inc., had that she needed to safeguard the site against misuse.

“I have had dancers and choreographers use photos from the Dance Canvas website to promote their own work in other shows without asking and crediting the organization,” Harris says. “I now ask all of my dancers to make sure that they credit the company when posting Dance Canvas pictures elsewhere on the Web.” Harris feels the new procedure has helped to stem but not fully eliminate image theft from her website.

Differing views
Attitudes toward Web content use vary. Kirsten Carpenter, director of the Lake Erie Ballet School in Erie, Pennsylvania, says she found herself on the opposite side of that coin with artistic director Alethea Bodine. Without permission, one of LEB’s students posted online a video of herself performing a work Carpenter had choreographed for the school.

“[Bodine] seemed upset that the student had done it,” says Carpenter. “I was fine with it as long as my name was credited, which it was. I have had so many of my works on dancers’ MySpace and Facebook pages for so many years—I almost feel sad when my choreography isn’t posted.”

While Carpenter, like scores of others in dance, sees largely the upsides of these sites as new tools that can help inform their teaching, their choreography, and their lives, she does acknowledge that there are limits to what should be posted, especially if it violates copyright laws.

How to protect yourself
So what can you do if you find yourself on the wrong end of an inappropriate, unauthorized, or copyright-infringing video posted on the Internet?

In the case of YouTube, “check out our privacy infringement page,” says Scott Rubin, a spokesman for YouTube parent company Google. “It contains information on what constitutes a violation of our privacy policies, guidance on how to contact another user to request that he or she remove the violating material, and a contact form should you not be able to resolve the issue yourself.”

Rubin says YouTube provides users with the tools to moderate their own site experience, such as the site’s “Safety Center” (accessed from the bottom of its homepage), which addresses most privacy, copyright, and other issues related to the website.

“We believe that giving users tools to help themselves is akin to providing access to an ATM rather than requiring that all customers wait in line for the teller at a bank,” says Rubin. “You can always work with a teller, but most people prefer to handle their transactions quickly and on their own.”

What Rubin says the company will not do is reveal the identity of one user to another. “That would be a violation of our privacy policies,” says Rubin. He suggests using the private messaging feature outlined on the “Privacy Infringement” page under the “YouTube Help” section.

Like YouTube, other websites and social networks have policies in place to deal with privacy and copyright infringement issues. However, correcting an issue you know of is one thing; finding the ones you don’t know about is another.

For many, the question then becomes: How do you police the Internet? The reality is that you effectively can’t. The next best thing, however, might be to put into place measures that could prevent these unwanted issues from occurring in the first place.

Paul P. Cheng, Esq., a lawyer from Pasadena, California, who has a series of legal-aid videos on YouTube, explains the measures a studio owner/director can take to help prevent privacy violations and copyright infringement issues.

“First, a general statement regarding unauthorized photography or videos not being allowed is imperative,” says Cheng. “It should be posted in a conspicuous place. Second, it should be [included] under rules that each person should sign when signing up for the studio.”

Cheng says similar provisions can be made to deter unauthorized recordings of performances. If someone does photograph or video during the performance and the images are used for commercial benefit, Cheng says that raises an additional issue that may allow a court to stop it.

Here to stay
Cheng does not see issues of privacy and copyright infringement going away anytime soon. “Privacy is a constitutional law question,” he says. “Many cases that go before the courts that have a full head of steam are not constitutional issues; they are commercial ones. Unless the government has a beef or an individual or group has the funding to push Internet privacy case issues, they will remain on the periphery for quite a while.”

Reclaiming the art of improvisation in tap dance

By Gina McGalliard

Back in the golden age of tap dancing, the tap masters used to challenge each other through improvisation. Along with choreography, improvisation was integral to the art form, a vehicle through which it grew and progressed. Flash forward to the early 21st century, and tap is still alive and well—but improvisation as a key element of training has fallen away. In the typical American dance studio, tap classes consist of learning choreography for the recital, learning choreography for the competition—but learning improvisation skills as a fundamental part of tap dancing is nowhere to be found.

So what happened? According to Lane Alexander, co-founder of the Chicago Human Rhythm Project, along with tap not being the largest discipline at many studios, “there was a real change of course in the ’50s, when music changed and become much more balletic and jazz oriented as opposed to the ’30s and ’40s, when almost every show was tap-centric. Everybody tapped, and that was a holdover from vaudeville.”

Chicago Human Rhythm Project co-founder Lane Alexander, photographed at the 2007 Rhythm World festival, says that using a rhythm everyone knows, like the song “Happy Birthday,” “takes a little bit of the pressure off about being hyper-creative or hyper-complex.” (Photo by Kristie Kahns)

As dance in America became more ballet centered and tap dance retreated from stage and film and into jazz clubs, dance studios around the country began to reflect the structured, choreography-based ballet culture—even in tap classes. Eventually, improvisation in tap receded from dance training almost completely.

Improvisation can be taught
There is a misconception that spontaneously making up your own dance steps is an inherent gift or talent that cannot be taught. Therefore, tap teachers who desire to bring improvisation into their classes must first recognize that it can be taught and practiced.

“It is possible to teach children, young children, from the beginning, how to improvise, because that’s how I learned,” says Michela Marino-Lerman, a protégé of Gregory Hines who is now a teacher and performer. “It was always a part of class, no matter what.”

Although some students may come by improvisation naturally, many students are intimidated by the idea of having to make up steps on the spot. Often it is best to begin students with structured exercises that allow them to build confidence in their creativity before moving on to less-structured improvisation. 

Techniques
Claudia Gomez Vorce, a freelance San Diego tap instructor, often has beginning improvisers tap out the rhythms of nursery rhymes, using any steps they desire. This is beneficial because it allows students to practice hearing rhythms in their head and translating them to the feet, Gomez Vorce says.

Another technique she uses is having students improvise using only a limited amount of steps, such as only heels, toes, heels and toes, or shuffles. This not only allows them to get used to their own creativity but also produces cleaner sounds because the students are using basic steps. Eventually, they are able to transition to more intricate improvisation that sounds rhythmic and clear and keeps the tempo, with both the music and other improvisers.

Alexander uses a similar exercise. “One of the most basic exercises is to duplicate a song, for instance, ‘Happy Birthday,’ a rhythm everybody knows. And regardless of the steps—even if you do it all with shuffle ball change, or toe heel—it takes a little bit of the pressure off about being hyper-creative or hyper-complex,” says Alexander. “Because a lot of times that’s what makes people freeze. They think they have to do knee-breaking, extraordinarily complex rhythm structures or else it’s not good improv. And that’s not necessarily true, especially when you’re just beginning. Keep it simple, keep it simple.”

“Somebody could be doing crazy steps but it sounds like gibberish,” says Marino-Lerman. “And then the person who goes after them, who’s just stomping their feet, but in rhythm—that is where my heart goes way faster than when somebody is doing some wild trick.”

Before introducing her students to improvisation, Marino-Lerman has her students get in a circle and clap in time with the music, and she teaches them to count four bars. This way, students learn the invaluable skills of keeping the tempo and how to get in and out on the four bars when they’re supposed to be improvising.

Pam Thompson-Spinner, who owned a dance studio for 14 years and studied with tap master Eddie Brown, would often teach students a simple combination. After becoming proficient at the combination, students would take turns doing their own variation on it. “It goes back to the old joke: Make a mistake, repeat it three times, and it’s jazz,” she says. 

The fear factor
Intimidation and fear are frequent obstacles to learning improvisation. Those feelings can be perfectly natural after a lifetime of choreography-based training, so it’s important to let your students know that it’s OK to not be perfect or technically correct.

“I pretty much just say, ‘Just keep your feet moving,’ ” says Rod Howell, a teacher at Pam Rossi’s Dance Ten and at The Talent Factory (in Moorpark and Chino, California, respectively). He says not stopping “is the biggest thing, because when they stop and start thinking, then it all goes south. Just get them moving; stuff will come out, don’t worry about it. Try not to let your brain rule everything and think everything through. Just let your feet move.”

Howell has also taught at Edge Performing Arts Center in Los Angeles and numerous dance conventions, and in his experience, about 99 percent of students eventually become comfortable with improvisation, given time and encouragement.

“I say this to my students all the time: Don’t stop when it’s not perfect, because it’s never perfect,” says Alexander. “You let it come out as whatever it is, and if you want to think about it after the fact, that’s fine.”

 “If it becomes more like a game, then it’s not scary,” says Thompson-Spinner. “And if you have musicians and other dancers around you who are nurturing and they treat it like that, then it doesn’t become ‘You have to have some special gift.’ And guess what—you might find you have one.”

Listen to the music
Training one’s ear is always an important part of tap training, and it’s even more important in improvisation. In most improvisation circles, students will be dancing by themselves, which means they won’t be able to “hide” behind the sound of their classmates’ taps. Plus, improvisation requires students to hear and translate overall rhythmic patterns rather than individual steps, even more so than when doing choreographed steps.

For Denise Scheerer, a tap instructor at The Colburn School of Performing Arts in Los Angeles and Loyola Marymount University, teaching students to read music notation is the key to opening up the world of tap improvisation. Tap dancing is a form of percussive music, and her students learn to create rhythms through understanding and mixing up quarter, eighth, and sixteenth notes. Like Marino-Lerman, Scheerer teaches her students how to count four bars of tempo before they start improvising.

“It makes improvisation so much more viable, because you can then just do an easy rudiment, like a cramp roll or a step-heel, and you can change it up by, ‘OK, now I’m going to do triplets; now I’m going to do some sixteenth notes.’ And pretty soon you’re making a nice little rhythm and you’re improvising,” says Scheerer. “And you’re just doing simple things. But it’s all about the time. If you aren’t thinking about the time, you’re just making noise.”

Another technique Gomez Vorce and Marino-Lerman use is having students focus on the rhythm of a particular instrument in a song while improvising. This teaches students how to listen to music critically as well as how to complement the music with the sound of their taps. 

Keep it positive
Teachers may find that some students approach improvisation with the attitude that it’s a contest to out-do each other on a particular step or prove they are the best dancer. Ideally, teachers should strive to keep an atmosphere of nurturing and encouragement, because the heart of improvisation is self-expression and communication with other dancers.

“It’s not about a platinum,” says Alexander. “It’s not about winning. It’s about expressing yourself. And everybody’s capable of doing that.”

And once tap students are over the initial hump of fear and have some basic improvisation skills under their belts, they may find that it’s one of the most fulfilling and satisfying aspects of being a tap dancer.

“Once you get the hang of it, it’s a lot of fun,” says Gomez Vorce. “I’m not perfect at it, and I have good days and bad days when I’m onstage doing improvisation, but it just feels really good to express yourself and not be told what to do. It feels so good when you’re not in your head. It really, really does.” 

Resources

Books
Inside Tap by Anita Feldman
The Souls of Your Feet by Acia Gray  

DVDs
No Maps on My Taps (documentary)
Tap (feature film; includes famous “challenge” improvisation scene)

Mind and body, theory and practice—all are essential for effective learning

By Tom Ralabate

As a dance educator working in a research institution, University at Buffalo in New York, I have made a philosophical commitment to the integration of mind and body and of theory and practice. In a higher-education dance classroom, teachers have a responsibility to present and honor both content and process. To that end, multiple models of learning are best.

If a teacher wishes to teach the controlled beauty of a pirouette or the airborne flight of a grand jeté, there is little sense in only lecturing on the finer points of these two technical skills. Rather, it is important for students to experience the sensations of turning and leaping through active engagement (of both mind and body) in the instructional process.

Educators in a liberal arts setting understand the need to balance studio and academic requirements. They know it is not enough for students to simply listen to an explanation of a skill or concept—no matter how coherent or how laced with meaningful language and imagery it is—or to merely observe as an expert performs the skill. On the other hand, total understanding and quality learning will not come from only physical involvement in an activity. As researchers and practitioners, teachers choose course materials (for both theory and practice) that will foster students’ developmental and artistic growth.

Hence, studio classes become unique places to develop not only proficiency in technique, style, and performance attributes but also creative, analytical, and critical thinking. But it’s easier said than done. How do we balance theory and practice in classroom situations?

Multiple models

A key principle in achieving this balance is using multiple modalities to keep students involved in the learning process. Regardless of whether instructors are teaching a pirouette combination across the floor or explaining the concept of torque, their concern should be learner involvement. I have found success in teaching specialized skills by engaging multiple models for deeper learning.

For example, in teaching pirouettes, I have students view a video by Kenneth Laws called Physics, Dance, and the Pas de Deux. In it, the principles of physics are explained as they apply to turning, leaping, and partnering. Afterward I present a turn clinic to reinforce the video’s information through practical application and related exercises. This is followed by a take-home quiz in which students make 15 to 20 statements that highlight for them the most important elements in the video/lecture, clinic, and supplemental reading.

In addition, students write an essay, taking a personal inventory of their problems with alignment, balance, motion, turning sensations, and executing pirouettes in general. They must provide specific references from the book/video/clinic in discussing their problems and searching for possible solutions.

I then divide the class into small groups to discuss their observations and share their experiences. Finally, I facilitate a conversation with the entire class.

Do not be surprised if the brilliant successes do not work the second time around, and don’t be so quick to throw away the failures. A failed result may be just the right recipe for another class’s personality.

Through these multiple models (practical, written, and oral), the dancers become more connected and involved in acquiring both practical and theoretical knowledge, and the learning becomes better and more refined. Understanding and acquisition of skills takes place in both the head and body. Ultimately, this is expressed through one’s soul in movement, whether executed in the classroom or performed onstage.

As observant dance teachers in higher-education settings, we require evidence by assessing our students, and we rely on outcomes of learning that are demonstrative, oral, and written.

Making learning meaningful
In the studio setting, giving personal attention to students is mandatory. Teachers also need to achieve a balance between what is good for each individual and what is good for the entire class. That means being ready to shift gears, being sensitive to the flow and temperament of the class, and finding balance between meaningful language and images that will connect to the students’ minds and bodies.

Through hands-on instruction in the classroom and the acquisition of knowledge, students find voices of power and confidence. My early classes with such prime movers in jazz as Matt Mattox, Luigi, Phil Black, Ann Marie Garvin, and the late Gus Giordano and Beverly Fletcher taught me how to implement practice and theory in the classroom. They were masters of classroom structure and of organizing and presenting class material, both practical and theoretical. These teaching artists understood how to blend scientific explanations with dance history, philosophy, and aesthetics and present them with objective language and meaningful images.

Timing is everything.
Find that teachable moment. Know when to shift gears and when to stay on track with an idea or concept. Recognize when you become boring or are presenting material that is beyond the students’ mental or physical abilities.

Classroom continuity and flow will maintain students’ interest and earn you their praise. For example, after a lengthy classroom discussion on developing a working definition for jazz dance and then discussing its future, I decided it was time to return to more practical work. But the students seemed more connected to continuing the discussion, so I shifted gears to discuss characteristics of jazz choreography. As we continued to explore this topic, once again their faces became alive. That was a teachable moment.

Conduct a guided lecture in technique class.
Once students have assimilated knowledge about a specific skill, have them pair off to give more constructive corrections. Clearly state the artistic and technical objectives they should address in examining one another.

• ·Try a feedback lecture in a technique class. After two follow-up technique classes, have students pair off and give feedback in response to questions you provide that are drawn from the previous classes.
• ·In a technique class, determine which principles are important. Write the key ideas—scientific, technical, aesthetic, historical, and philosophical—on the board or give the students a head start by sending out the list on Blackboard (a computer classroom discussion/communication program) prior to class.
• ·Make connections to the students’ prior knowledge. In addition, make comparative connections to other idioms, techniques, and styles, historical timelines, and key figures. In new learning situations, this will make a bridge from the known to the unknown.
• ·Be patient and give students time to become aware. Once they become aware of new ways of moving, they can then begin to feel physical changes and deepen their comprehension of kinesthetic pathways. Students who say, “I don’t feel it” during a movement sequence are telling you they are unaware.
• ·Keep a journal of classroom successes and failures. Do not be surprised if the brilliant successes do not work the second time around, and don’t be so quick to throw away the failures. A failed result might be just the right recipe for another class’ personality.
• ·Talk pedagogy with your peers. Participate, present, and network at high-quality professional development conferences. At these venues, educators share their expertise and offer innovative teaching techniques, touching on such themes as active learning, learning styles, student assessment, online teaching and communication with students, and integrating technology in the classroom.

Dance teachers in higher education are constantly searching for indicators that they have achieved an effective, balanced approach to teaching in the studio setting. We assess our students’ work on multiple levels with a goal of producing inventive, resourceful young artists. Developing this resourcefulness and an understanding of one’s dance identity is a vital part of the students’ education. All that bending, twisting, turning, leaping, stretching, and strengthening of the body should simultaneously work the mind, cultivate the imagination, and let the student artist’s spirit shine. Now that’s a balancing act!

Budding choreographers offer dance schools fresh voices

By Joshua Bartlett

Some choreographers seem to be born with a gift. Others learn their craft slowly and work their way into the business. But those who want to choreograph seriously need to hone their skills through practice and hard work. One of the best, most accessible—and often overlooked—means of doing so is by working with local dance studios and choreographing for their recitals and performances.

In most cases, this scenario can be beneficial for school owners and their dancers as well as the choreographers. The budding choreographer gets experience on the job, while the students get a chance to work with a professional from the outside—one who has different perspectives and some seasoned expertise. And school owners can sometimes benefit by getting choreography for a low fee or even as a freebie if the choreographers simply want to try out their skills or build a resume.

A non-threatening environment for learning
James Sofranko, a soloist with San Francisco Ballet, took a plunge into choreography several years ago with Contra Costa Ballet in Walnut Creek, California. A fellow SFB dancer, former soloist Garrett Anderson, had trained at the school, owned by Zola Dishong and Richard Cammuck, and asked Sofranko to choreograph solos for an alumni gala.

San Francisco Ballet soloist James Sofranko danced The Husband in Jerome Robbins’ The Concert (or, The Perils of Everybody) last spring. (Photo by Erik Tomasson, courtesy San Francisco Ballet)

“The pressure is less than if you are doing a big premiere for a company,” says Sofranko. “You’re freer to experiment and explore the art form. It’s also good for dancers to gain experience by having something created in the room for them. Often they just learn set choreography, like classical variations.” In 2006, Sofranko was invited back to choreograph for a student spring showcase.

Cheryl Cutlip, who has served as a dance captain and choreographer for the Rockettes, is the founding director of Project Dance in New York City and the executive producer of Broadway Underground, a sort of 21st-century vaudeville show featuring dance and comedy. While still a student, she cut her teeth choreographing at a local dance studio in Archdale, North Carolina. As a teenager, she created dances for recitals and for dance studios preparing for competitions.

As a professional, Cutlip has often returned to local studios to choreograph. “When you become a working dancer, you grasp those opportunities, because they can pay well and there is always a need for choreography. It becomes part of your skill set,” she says. Known for working quickly and efficiently, she usually charges $1,000 to $1,800 for an out-of-town weekend job choreographing a dance routine for a recital or competition. For in-town assignments, she charges $175 per hour or $400 for a half day or $800 for a full day. Studios cover all expenses such as travel, food, and lodging.

“In that environment, there are a lot of kids who are excited that you are there and giving them the tools they need,” adds Cutlip. “I grew up in a small town and know what it’s like to have a professional come in and work with you.”

Honing choreographic skills
The act of choreographing involves multiple aspects of craft: musicality, spatial awareness, and psychology. Working in a low-profile environment like a dance school allows you to cultivate those talents. Mona Störling-Enna, artistic director and choreographer for Störling Dance Theater in Olathe, Kansas, specializes in storytelling productions. She began choreographing in her home country of Finland at a young age, gathering friends from her local dance studio to create ballets. She continued to do so when she and her husband moved to Kansas City and both taught for local studios.

“It’s important to have the experience of being in front of people and communicating what you want,” says Störling-Enna. “A lot of choreographers haven’t learned how to explain things. The experience can be a frustration for everyone.”

Caleb Mitchell, a former Houston Ballet dancer who is acquiring a master’s degree in dance from the University of California at Irvine, began choreographing at age 14 for his mother, Betty Mitchell, at The Link School of the Arts in Troy, Michigan. Having accumulated extensive choreographic credits over time, he says that choreographing in a modest school setting taught him patience and the discovery of his own passion.

“For a creator, patience is hard, but it’s required,” says Mitchell. “It’s true that the choreographic process requires a push for both the dancer and the choreographer, but you have to leave time to step back and evaluate the creation and not be in such a rush to complete a deadline. As a choreographer, you not only find out if you have the passion to choreograph, but the dancers also find out if dancing is what they really want to do.”

Mapping out the music has been an essential part of Cutlip’s approach, beginning in her early years, when she learned how to put together big production numbers for studios entering competitions, and continuing when she choreographed for the Rockettes’ Christmas show and publicity events.

Eventually she graduated to using an Excel spreadsheet to make a map of the music, the counts, and the words. “That way I can navigate the choreography of the whole piece,” says Cutlip. “I know how to construct the piece, how to place the dancers. I teach the movement to the entire group to see who excels in different sections before I start to break it down. I have the entire piece structured before I even go into the studio. There’s nothing worse than stepping in to choreograph something when you are not prepared. You can change things once you start, but at least you know where you are going.”

For Sofranko, who is nurturing his career as a choreographer during the little time off he has from dancing, working with Contra Costa Ballet gave him more courage. “It gave me a good deal more confidence in being able to make a piece that is 20 minutes long,” says Sofranko, who had studied basic choreographic craft while obtaining a BFA at The Juilliard School. “I feel more confident now about moving dancers around in space.”

The learning curve
There are, of course, challenges in working with young, inexperienced dancers who may have never worked seriously with a choreographer. “One thing is the work ethic,” says Störling-Enna. “A lot of dancers in studios are babied. They might not know how much it takes and how much you really have to put out there and try.”

“It’s important to have the experience of being in front of people and communicating what you want. A lot of choreographers haven’t learned how to explain things. The experience can be a frustration for everyone.” —Mona Störling-Enna

“It was difficult initially for me to get the students to be more grounded, to dig into the movement and roll around on the floor,” says Sofranko, who choreographs in a style that utilizes contemporary and classical influences and goes beyond traditional ballet steps. He pulls what he has learned from choreographers whose work he has performed, such as Christopher Wheeldon, Paul Taylor, and Hans van Manen. “It was unusual for them, but it was fun to see them latch onto it,” Sofranko adds.

An additional challenge was the time issue; he could choreograph only on Sundays after SFB’s matinee performance and had to leave the piece during the week. When working on a tight schedule, creating on demand often takes priority over the luxury of waiting for artistic inspiration. “You always want more time,” says Sofranko. “I didn’t have a lot of time to futz around, experiment, or change.”

It also helps to be realistic about the disparity of students’ abilities. “Not everyone is going to dance on the level of a prima ballerina or be able to do hip-hop, jazz, and modern,” says Mitchell. “There are cases where you have two who are at a high level and the other 30 don’t have much ability in dance at all.”

Non-professional dancers will frequently miss rehearsals because of exams, games, text-messaging trances, proms, or whatever myriad activities they are engaging in. “The commitment to the piece as an ensemble is often not the fullest,” Mitchell adds.

School-age dancers who watch competitions or see dancers executing high-flying tricks on TV or YouTube like to imitate what they see. “Kids want to do things that are not safe for them. You have to convince them that they don’t need to do anything more difficult than their skill level,” says Cutlip. “One of the challenges is to construct a piece that is geared toward that talent, especially with jazz and hip-hop.” For dancers who have less technique, she opts for fun choreography with a lot of character (like a number from Hairspray) and utilizes props to unify the choreography and take the focus off technical deficiencies.

Long-term results
Beginning at the ground level has led choreographers to more advanced opportunities. Mitchell has choreographed works for such companies as Ad Deum Dance Company, Houston Ballet 2, and Houston Metropolitan Dance Company. For Störling Dance Theater, Störling-Enna recently created an hour-long piece about the Underground Railroad and is working on an interpretation of Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Match Girl.

Assisting a teacher or choreographer at a dance studio can be a great lead-in to establishing a career in the field. It’s not so intimidating to ask a teacher if she needs assistance with choreography. After all, dance teachers can always use a little help; the worst that can happen is that they say no.

“If you can be a great assistant, that’s a valuable skill,” says Cutlip. “Generally, you’re not going to start out as a choreographer in the professional world. You’re more likely going to assist. When you become a professional choreographer, all the decisions are on you. Dancers should try to get those opportunities so that when they make mistakes, they have directors to guide them.”

In order to become successful as a choreographer—or even to simply try it out as an experiment—a little advice is in order. Number one: Honor your teachers. “They usually are the first instructors who can establish your reputation as a hard worker and a choreographic talent,” says Mitchell. “Through the respect of the teacher/student relationship, this allows conversations about opportunities and possibilities outside of dancing, such as choreography.”

Second, if you do get a foot in the door, keep researching music and the movement style of choreographers you admire. “I think a lot of dancers have ideas about what they would like to do onstage,” says Sofranko. “A school setting is a safe place for them to do it. Professional dancers are not always thought of as someone who can do a piece for a school. I think they are an untapped resource for choreography.”

How to convey what students need to know in the most advantageous way

By Kerry Ring

Learning is a process; any teacher knows that. But when you’ve got 60 minutes, 20 students, and 100 fine points to make about their technique, you face quite a challenge. How do you help your students improve without confusing them with a blizzard of details?

Your initial task is to clarify what you’re focusing on at a given moment in a movement combination, such as a specific body part, qualitative issues, rhythm and musicality, or developing a sense of one’s body in space.

The layers of information we need to share with students are most easily approached by fine-tuning our cueing. Cueing is a signal for action, a way to communicate appropriate behavior and direct information while students are executing a movement. As dance teachers, you understand that efficient use of time is critical in a technique class. We should strive to give as much information as we can to our students while they are moving. A lecture after every combination kills the momentum and energy of the class.

Kerry Ring, working with students in the University at Buffalo’s Summer Evening Dance Program, advises repeating class material enough so you can cue on top meaningfully. (Photo by Renee Conners)

Instead, verbally engaging the students throughout the class allows the students to connect the mind and body. Lead them through the combinations while sprinkling information and demanding awareness of the layers. Clarifying your expectations through cueing allows students to grow within the structure of a technique class.

Cueing techniques

Imitation
Demonstrating a step or concept is the most efficient and most obvious means to get what you want quickly. However, performing the steps yourself is not the ultimate tool; as the primary means of teaching, it has many disadvantages. The students often pick up the teacher’s weaknesses and may find their own artistic expression of a movement limited by the expressive choices of the teacher.

In my teaching, I see a lack of understanding of vocabulary that demonstrating doesn’t address. If I demonstrate a first arabesque croisé to corner #2, the students can replicate it easily. But if I ask them to find first arabesque croisé to corner #2, the problem is evident: The dancers look for someone in the class to find that shape first, and then they imitate it.

Demonstrating is key in running a smooth and efficient audition or master class. However, a yearlong or semester-length course allows you to delve more deeply into the understanding of vocabulary.

Learning through rhythm
Rhythm is the foundation of many dance combinations; a movement sequence can be thought of as an extension of that rhythm. If students don’t understand the rhythm, their execution of the sequence will be spotty at best. I call it the “Sing a Song” method. I often ask the students, “What song are you singing in your head while performing this sequence?” The “song” could be the counts. The “lyrics” of their song could be telling the movement qualities of the story. For example, “I pat the cat and walk away to gaze at the stars, then melt to the grass. I roll over the dandelions and crawl to the stream—and splash!”

It is important to remember that students learn in their own way, and the more ways we can present the same information, the more success the students feel and the more positive the energy.

Are they singing the actual movement? Leap, hop, hop, step, step, leap, jump, jump. I often have the students sing, say, or clap their song aloud to verify which parts of the combinations are unclear for them at that moment. This exercise gives insight into which cueing style your students have gravitated toward. Knowing how your students grasp material may help you present those other layers of information in a different way.

A recipe of steps
Three pas de chats, one changement, three jeté battu dessus, and one assemblé dessus. As you mark the combination on the second side, try translating the French terms into English: three steps of the cat, one changing step, three thrown beats over, followed by one assembling step over. This allows the students to hear and see the vocabulary, which gives them ownership of both the terms and the quality of the movement (e.g., pas de chat: cat, quiet and playful).

Teach the combination while moving and saying the vocabulary, stating the counts, sounding out the rhythm, or giving descriptions of the quality of the movement. It is important to remember that students learn in their own way, and the more ways we can present the same information, the more success the students feel and the more positive the energy. Every student will benefit from the clarity of the counts, vocabulary, and descriptive images.

Value of repetition
Repeat class material enough so you can cue on top (while they’re doing the movement) meaningfully. First, the cues will be about learning the material. Once the students take ownership of the movement sequence, you can then cue them in their attention to breath, the shape of their feet, or with images of deeper outward rotation.

Alternating between cues, counts, imagery, sound effects, and vocabulary while simultaneously demonstrating will allow the students to comprehend the combination on their own terms. That may lead to more specific questions like “Do we float on count 5 and shiver on 8?” Once students have taken true ownership of the combination, you can give more detailed information.

Teaching combinations efficiently allows more time for individual corrections. More repetitions of a combination strengthen muscle memory and impart more kinesthetic information to the student.

Results of successful cueing
Cueing students during a combination should serve as a vehicle for digging deeper into the detailed skills of the dance process. As educators, we must realize that our students comprehend information in varied ways. Sprinkling various cueing techniques throughout a technique class allows each individual to connect to the material in a personal way.

In addition to helping students make meaningful connections to their own learning process, our job as dance teachers is to engage them throughout the class, directing them through the layers of information. Meaningful cueing may inspire a sharper focus in class, create significant mind–body connections, and tap into each student’s artistic and expressive potential.

Teaching and dancing in the moment: creative approaches to dance

By Sarah Sass

What is creativity? And how can dance teachers encourage it in their students? In most dance forms, traditional teaching methods do not include creative ways of learning or a focus on using the imagination. Instead, technique classes typically are taught through demonstration and repetition. That was my experience as a student, but when I began teaching, I wanted to do something different.

My wish to encourage creativity in my students led me to some daunting questions: What does creativity look like when it’s dance based? How do I encourage and expand my students’ creative thinking? How do I plan my class to reflect my teaching goals?

In partnership with Luna Kids Dance, Tracy Dordell’s third grade class at New Highland Academy in Oakland, California, improvises within a score based on Anna Halprin’s Planetary Dance. (Photo by Sarah Sass)

I have found that one of the most effective ways to encourage creativity is through dance improvisation and composition, or what is typically referred to as creative dance. I’ve experimented with a creative-based curriculum and honed my teaching skills with hundreds of students, and I still get excited by challenging students to be clear about their choices and expecting them to make those creative decisions evident through physical execution and performance.

Regardless of where I’m teaching, I see children respond enthusiastically and immediately when given opportunities to improvise and create their own dances. I’ve taught creative dance in studios, schools, community centers, preschools, residential facilities, and domestic violence shelters. While the content of what I teach varies based on each group’s needs and experience, the elements of dance (space, time, and energy) are the main focus in all of my classes.

Recognizing creativity
What does creativity look like in dance? Through my experience in teaching dance in academic settings, I know that what I consider a successful class may appear messy and chaotic to a teacher who is new to creative dance. But to me, it’s a room full of excitement and possibility.

The truth is that improvisation does look messy, especially if a few dozen children are leaping, running, and spinning in a small space. But if you look closely, you’ll see drastic differences depending on the children’s ages and level of experience. For example, 3-year-olds demonstrate creativity when they show their own improvised dances that incorporate the concepts learned that day. Seven-year-olds would be able to begin making, manipulating, and performing their own short phrases. And a class of experienced teenaged dancers could make sophisticated dances that have personal meaning while incorporating what they’ve learned about the elements of dance, choreographic tools, and editing and performance skills.

Offer choices, expect decisions
Dancemakers, no matter how old they are, need lots of practice making decisions that they then commit to physically through performance. By honing their skills and learning to make decisions that are true to their artistic vision, they become not only better dancers but more accomplished choreographers.

I foster creativity in my creative dance classes by utilizing my knowledge of improvisation and choreography in structuring each class, giving each child a chance to practice making creative choices. I provide opportunities for the children to explore, improvise, and compose their own dances, regardless of age or level of experience.

Generally the creative dance activities comprise the bulk of my lesson plan, with time devoted to opening activities, warming up, and cooling down. For example, in an hour-long class for teenagers, improvisation and choreography would consume 45 minutes. The amount of time spent on creative dance activities varies depending on the ages and experience of the students and the length of the class.

In the span of even one dance class, my students have many opportunities to make choices that expand their knowledge of dance while developing critical-thinking skills and the ability to make in-the-moment decisions. Without the experience of making spontaneous decisions, students can’t make effective choices when asked to come up with their own movement.

Some of the benefits include increased body awareness, improved motor skills and coordination, and the ability to watch, analyze, and describe movement. Over time I’ve seen students gain confidence and develop social and leadership skills, all while engaging in making their own movements and dances.

Planning for creativity
As I plan each class, I take the time to determine whether the content is developmentally appropriate and whether the class activities support my teaching goals. This step has drastically affected the level of creativity I see.

When content is developmentally appropriate, it meets students where they are physically, challenges them intellectually, and makes them excited to learn more. For example, 9-year-olds are learning about symmetry and asymmetry in school, so making symmetrical and asymmetrical shapes engages them and allows them to expand their knowledge of concepts that are relevant. The children gain understanding of the concepts, and the class structure provides a framework for exploration and taking creative risks.

How it works
The dancers make choices in response to my cues and directions, first through an exploration, then in a structured improvisation, and finally in a composition that they perform for the class.

In a class for 5- and 6-year-olds, the lesson might focus on teaching the difference between curvy and straight lines in the body. I would gear the entire class toward giving the children various ways to experience those concepts physically. So in the course of this one class, I would provide them with lots of ideas about how to make curvy and straight lines in their bodies, using their arms, legs, spine, fingers, and necks. I would also have them try making curvy and straight lines while they travel through space, combining the concept of line with locomotor movements.

I make space for each child’s creativity by giving her the room to respond to my cue in her own way. If I tell the students to make a shape with curvy arms and then freeze in the shape they have chosen, in a class of 10 children there would be 10 different solutions.

Then I push their creativity by challenging them to move out of their comfort zone. For example, if one child made a shape with curvy arms while at a low level, I might encourage all of the students to make their shapes at a low level as well. In that moment, my specific direction gives every child in the room the opportunity to solve a seemingly small problem (finding her own way to make a shape with curvy arms and a curvy spine) in a way she might not have thought of previously. The child whose shape was copied learns that her idea was valuable; the others learn that having their own movement ideas is safe. In this way, the children learn about dance concepts while also learning to make conscious choices.

Teens—build on what they know
If teens are new to improvisation but experienced dancers, they will be able to remember and memorize movement phrases. My goal for this type of class would be to help them explore how they can make the movement their own. I might have them bring to class a combination they learned in another class that week; then I would take them through an exploration of the phrase, manipulating it by using energy words. I’d have them try making all the movements with a smooth quality, then jerky, then loose and floppy; then we might do it again from the beginning, starting smooth and ending jerky. I’ve found that this sort of facilitated activity works for both small and large groups.

I’d have the students try the combination 15 to 20 times, and each time I’d give them an idea about how to alter it. Their composition assignment would be to take their two favorite ways of manipulating the phrase, rework the phrase with the manipulations, and then memorize it. This is only one way of taking material that your students already know and giving them a chance to play with it and alter it.

Getting started
If you don’t normally encourage your students to be creative, how do you start? It’s best to start small. Boosting creativity in small ways will make a big difference to your students. Allow your students to practice making choices by dedicating a few minutes of every class to improvising. It can be as small as having 7-year-olds come up with their own way of turning in the middle of a combination or having teens find their own endings for a combination. Find resources that help you expand your class content and offer new ideas for class structures that facilitate creative problem solving. And give yourself permission to break away from your normal class structure and be more creative with your teaching.

Resources

Books
First Steps in Teaching Creative Dance to Children by Mary Joyce
This book has ideas on how to verbally cue children in creative dance activities and where to start.

Creative Dance for All Ages: A Conceptual Approach by Anne Green Gilbert
A great reference for creative movement ideas, full of fun movement games, concepts, and class structuring ideas.

Body, Mind and Spirit in Action by Patricia Reedy
The perfect resource for figuring out how to teach a creative dance class with some knowledge of child development, plus clear suggestions for how to structure classes.

Journals
Teaching Artists’ Journal and the National Dance Education Organization publish articles by and for dance teaching artists. They address questions of creativity, creative teaching, learning theory, and teaching successes.

Professional development resources
Anne Green Gilbert’s Creative Dance Center in Seattle, Washington, and Luna Kids Dance, based in Berkeley, California, are great resources for teachers and dance specialists interested in learning more about teaching dance. Both offer workshops that address how to bring more creativity into your dance-teaching practice.

They’re not real dance terms—but they should be

By Diane Gudat

I often rely on dictionaries to assist me with definitions and spellings of dance terminology. However, my school’s staff uses some terms that do not appear in any dictionary. These words have been borrowed from our peers or have evolved through need or frustration. Although we don’t use most of them openly in the classroom or lobby, many are used frequently in the office and at staff meetings. I’ve listed them here in alphabetical order—get ready to add color to your vocabulary!

Alumnut: A studio graduate who has not been missed very much and who consistently stops by at awkward times. She threatens to start taking class again, but thankfully, never does.

Ara-seconde: An arabesque in which the torso twists in the direction of the working leg, making an extension to the side rather than behind.

Auto-notes: Notes written while driving a car (see “car-eography”), which could include actual dance steps or the name of a good song that came on the radio. They usually appear on the margins of church bulletins, fast-food receipts, and bank envelopes.

Baby-whisperer: A preschool teacher who can get tiny dancers to do anything, including leaving their mothers’ arms and remembering a routine. These people are extremely rare and should be paid any amount they demand for their miraculous gifts.

Ball blah: A ball change with no clean sounds.

Bourrevé: A compound ballet term (bourrée and relevé) referring to a relevé sous-sus in which the dancer cannot stay still and instead takes millions of tiny steps.

Call-aholic: A parent who calls the studio incessantly. These delusional people also expect their calls to be returned in a timely fashion.

Car-eography: Choreography done while driving, often on the way to the studio, and usually triggered by a good song on the radio. Although dangerous, it is a common practice among dance teachers. A common injury caused by this practice is jammed fingers (from slamming them into the dashboard or windshield).

Chore-eography: A piece of choreography that you really do not want to do.

Choreoholics: Teachers who find that whether they want to or not, they simply cannot stop doing choreography.

Cinq-almost: Failure to completely close fifth position.

Daddy-doo: Hair that has been styled by a child’s father rather than the mother.

Dan-senior: Dancers who never show up for rehearsals during their senior year of high school but are in the front of every number. They are experiencing their “last” of everything and are often accompanied by emoti-moms (see definition below) who defend their behavior.

Danzheimers: Loss of memory attributed to lack of space left in the brain due to an overabundance of stupid dance stuff (see SDS).

Day off: A fanciful term for a nonexistent thing.

Demi-dad: A father who has the kids every other Saturday and has no idea what is going on at the studio. He receives no flyers and does not know how long class is or where his child’s shoes are.

Dévelopoo: A développé that gets nowhere.

Econo-mom: A mother who constantly questions how much everything will cost.

Elephant legs: Tights that are so big that they bag at the ankles.

E-maniacs: Parents who send emails constantly. They put you on their chain letter, YouTube, and inspirational phrase lists. They expect a response or an e-hug back. These parents ignore all newsletters and papers sent home from the studio.

Emoti-moms: Overly emotional mothers. Whether it is their child’s first recital or their last, every moment evokes tears, hugs, and meaningful conversations. They purchase videos, photos, and buttons depicting their child at competitions.

Fire hydrant: An attitude in which the leg is too far to the side (like a dog lifting its leg).

Flat tire: A ballet slipper with holes.

Fluffle: A shuffle that is missing a sound.

Ghost dancer: A dancer you cannot picture or remember when you look at the class roster to order costumes from home.

Grand promenade à la toilette: The bathroom parade that happens during a preschool class. First one young dancer decides to use the restroom, and before long just the mention of the word “potty” causes the entire class to make the trip one at a time. Experienced teachers know that once the promenade begins, to stop it means you had better have a mop handy!

Grouch-a-rina: A grouchy ballet student who has just awakened from her car nap or never wanted to go to dance to begin with.

Invert-a-tard: A leotard that has been put on backwards, causing a skimpy rear and saggy front (often a result of the grand promenade à la toilette).

Leosnacker: A child who chews on the front of her leotard. The front of the leotard is always wet and the child’s lips are generally chapped.

Lob-ster: A mom who waits in the lobby during every class and talks everyone’s ears off. She knows everything and everybody and hands out misinformation like it is going out of style.

Momzilla: This strain of mother is named after the giant fire-breathing lizard, Godzilla, that wreaked havoc everywhere it went. The momzilla must be kept at a safe distance. She could explode into fits of rage at any time over any subject. Her unpredictable mood swings can be dangerous.

Para-didn’t: A paradiddle that is missing a sound.

Peek-a-pants: Underwear that sticks out the leg hole of a leotard.

Piggybank: Jazz pants, a skirt, or booty shorts that have headed too far south, refrigerator-repairman style.

Port de whatever: A ballet term for bad use of the arms. (“Grand port de whatever” means really bad arms.)

Quest-aholic: A parent or student who cannot stop asking questions. Often their questions are a ploy to let others know how much the asker really knows.

Queue-d’excuse: The line that students form after class to explain to the teacher why they will not be at the upcoming rehearsal.

Reverse-a-tard: A leotard accidentally worn inside out. Like the invert-a-tard, this can be the result of the grand promenade à la toilette or help from a demi-dad.

SDS: An acronym for “stupid dance stuff” (or a similar phrase).

Shutter-mom: A camera-crazy mother who snaps photos of you and the kids at the most annoying times.

Side moon: The crescent-shaped expanse of skin that becomes visible when the tights slide down past a leotard’s leg opening. The child with a side moon is never aware of it and there is no delicate way to correct it.

Sprinkler: A preschooler who consistently wets the floor.

Swiss tights: Tights with holes.

Tapperina: A tap dancer who inadvertently turns out the legs and feet.

Teapot: A parent or teacher who gets excited at a competition or performance and lets out a loud “Whoooooo!” sounding much like the whistle of a teapot.

Ten-don’t: A tendu in which the legs are not stretched completely.

Tweener: A dancer who takes class between other activities such as Brownies and basketball. She is usually late for class or leaves early, has fast food on her face, and left her shoes in her other bag.

Worms: Ballet shoe elastics that are untied or untucked.

Yee-haw: A tombé that is done rolling through the heel and then onto the ball of the foot instead of in the correct order of toe, ball, and then heel.

Do you have a fun dance term that should be added to our lingo list? If so, send it to Arisa@rheegold.com.

Sole teachers at their own schools, these dynamos do it all

By Jennifer Kaplan

They’re the soloists among dance studio owners, teaching a half-dozen or more classes, returning the phone calls, buying the paper towels, ordering the costumes, depositing the checks, and emptying the trash. They teach and counsel, balance the books and sweep the floors, and choreograph and negotiate leases with the poise and panache of a center-stage ballerina. In the dance world, single-teacher studio owners are unsung heroes in the field.

Ashlee Guin, Louisiana
Lake Arthur, Louisiana, is a small town; only 36 people were in Ashlee Guin’s high school graduating class. About two hours from Baton Rouge, three from New Orleans, the area has two primary industries: farming (rice and soybeans) and oil.

After purchasing two locations, in Welsh and Jennings, for her Main Street Dance Company last year, Guin teaches 10 classes a week to about 120 students. On top of that she has a new baby and a bookkeeping job three mornings a week. Plus, she coaches a high school cheerleading squad.

“For the most part, I learned everything on my own,” Guin says. “This is my first year making brochures and newsletters and that takes a little bit of time, but somehow I manage. I would say I spend three to five hours a week on administrative tasks.”

She enjoys being in charge. “I’m a control freak, so I like to be in control of everything. If something goes wrong, I can’t blame anyone else.” But the flip side of being in control is being responsible, and Guin adds, “It gets a little overwhelming at times, especially at recital time. But I love it. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”

Gayle Russell, Washington
“I do all the billing; I pay all the rent; I do all the cleaning—the hallways, the bathrooms, the mopping. And I do all the costume ordering,” says Gayle Russell, who teaches from three locations near her home in South Bend, Washington.

With about 150 students ranging from preschoolers to high schoolers, Russell has had a long run as a solo teacher/studio owner—36 years, long enough to have seen some of her charges become teachers and parents of second-generation students. Splitting her days among Aberdeen, South Bend, and Grayland, she offers up to 10 classes a week, primarily ballet and jazz, at her school, Gayle Russell Dance Academy.

Russell, who briefly danced in Zurich, Switzerland, in her 20s, loves passing on her skills in the place where she was born, raised, and started her own dance training. “The best thing? That would be the roots and contacts I’ve made.” The toughest part? Hands down, it’s when recital time nears and she’s working nonstop ordering and altering costumes, designing and printing flyers, choreographing and rehearsing. “It gets really stressful,” she says, “when I’m doing a show. There’s so much going on, so I have to have my ducks in a row and keep my little Post-its everywhere.”

Also tough, she admits, is choreography. “I do enjoy it, but it gets difficult if you have to choreograph almost every single number. It’s challenging coming up with fresh ideas after all these years.”

Regan Marynowski, Wyoming
Returning home was the attraction for Regan Marynowski when she purchased the studio where she grew up dancing. Main Street Dance in Riverton, Wyoming, has 154 students with another 30 on the waiting list, and Marynowski teaches an astounding 22 to 25 classes a week, in addition to managing the operation. Her schedule would make a corporate exec’s head spin. “I start teaching with my pre-K and tiny tots classes at about 2:00 p.m.,” she says. She doesn’t finish until about 9:00 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays.

Marynowski teaches ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, hip-hop, and pointe. “I have a recreational studio,” she says. “It’s a studio where kids aren’t going to become professional dancers. But the most rewarding thing is when I get through to a student and [she] comes back and says, ‘The classes I took with you and the time I spent with your studio and what you showed me with just dancing help me in my life.’ I want to show them how important the art form is to me and how passionate I feel about it. I eat, sleep, and drink this.”

And that nonstop pull and attention to her burgeoning business are also the greatest challenge for Marynowski, who has a school-aged son. “The toughest part would have to be juggling it all. I have an amazing family, but my son doesn’t always understand that sometimes I can’t give as much of myself to him as I do to my business and my other students.” Living in a small town also has its problems. With a population of just 10,000, Marynowski knows everyone: “Everything I do, everywhere I go, I’m looked at. I’m never off duty.”

Emily Burnell, West Virginia
Emily Burnell of Hedgesville, West Virginia, also has a jam-packed schedule. The sole teacher and owner of Dance Dimensions, she teaches third grade by day and tap, ballet, jazz, Irish step, and creative movement in the afternoons and evenings to 120 students. On Saturdays, she takes a day off.

Hedgesville, an hour and a half from Washington, DC, in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, is Burnell’s hometown, and she couldn’t do it all, she says, without tremendous family support. That means her mother might make a bank deposit or pick up brochures at the printer, or her father, an insurance salesman, will advise her on small business issues.

“A lot of people think I’m crazy because I teach school all day and teach dance all night,” Burnell says. “I tell parents that I went to school all day and danced all night ever since I was 3. That’s all I know. I guess I’m an overachiever and a good multitasker.” She realizes that she has a perfectionist streak but is comfortable with her schedule. “My parents are business owners, so I’ve seen what it takes to run a business.”

For those still wondering what doing it all really means, Burnell lays it out: “The biggest thing is organization and communication. I spend at least an hour a day on the administrative side, processing paperwork, writing newsletters, returning phone calls and emails,” she says. That’s on top of about 20 minutes a day spent cleaning and four hours of class time four days a week. (Fridays she teaches one class and gives private lessons.) Planning is key. The rewards are obvious: “I love working with children. They’re balls of energy, spirited. They’re there because they love to move.”

“A lot of people think I’m crazy because I teach school all day and teach dance all night. . . . That’s all I know. I guess I’m an overachiever and a good multitasker.” —Emily Burnell

Most of her clientele is between 3 and 6, which is exactly where she wants her school to be right now. As her students grow, Burnell hopes her studio will as well. She already has blueprints for a larger facility, doubling her existing 1,000-square-foot space and adding a classroom. But she knows what her students’ parents appreciate: access to the teacher/director. “There’s a fine balance, but within a certain ratio of students, I think parents appreciate having a direct line to the studio owner.”

For Burnell, the tough part isn’t the workload, it’s the work–life balance. Like other single studio owner/teachers, she says, “It’s hard to balance out the work schedule so I can have downtime. While I’m not married, having personal time not sitting in front of the computer all weekend or teaching is important. You have to find a way to relax so that when you are with the children, you give them 110 percent.” So she’s learned to schedule time for relaxation, just as she schedules work commitments.

No doubt Burnell speaks for all owner/teachers when she says, “The big thing is not letting yourself get worn down. If you get worn down, you’re doing a disfavor to the students.”

Leigh Chaves, Missouri
At Sedalia Ballet School, about an hour and a half east of Kansas City, Missouri, Leigh Chaves teaches up to 18 classes a week in ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, hip-hop, pointe, and swing dance. With about 90 students, Chaves relies on volunteers. “I have a couple of moms who work the desk while I’m in class. I don’t pay them, but I trade off and their kids get discounts on lessons.”

Without those willing mothers who also help out backstage and with costumes during recitals, Chaves couldn’t do it all. But, she says, “as far as everything else goes, I teach all the classes, manage the books, do everything.”

When she’s not teaching, she works part-time in a local hospital’s admitting office and takes classes to fulfill her requirements for a master’s in education at University of Central Missouri. While Chaves doesn’t teach on Saturdays, frequently she rehearses her students for recitals and competitions. “I’m always behind on stuff like laundry,” she says.

Chaves purchased the Sedalia school three years ago, right out of college. “I was really ambitious and thought it would be fun to run a dance studio.” She learned about the business from its prior owner, Leslie Swank. “She was very organized. She let me see her budget, referred me to a tax guy, and told me to talk to the Small Business Administration. The rest I figured out on my own,” Chaves explains.

She has realized what works best for her. “We’re a very close-knit studio. We’re so small, I know all the families and the kids all know each other. I like it like that. I knew it would be hard, obviously. But everything has worked out so far and these three years have been, I think, wonderful and successful. I’m glad I did it.”