Archive for the ‘2007 | 11 | November’ Category

Columns
Ask Rhee Gold 
2 Tips for Teachers   
On My Mind 

Departments
Thinking Out Loud | Dancing for God
Mail 
Teacher in the Spotlight | Todd Wilson

Feature Articles
Borrowing From Broadway by Nancy Wozny
High Tech Meets Home on the Range by David Favrot
Closets Full of Costumes by Jennifer Rienert
Making Alvin Proud by Cheryl Ossola
Teaching With Love by Karin A. Wilde-Berry
Common Ground: for teachers and students | First Year on the Job by Joshua Bartlett
Recital Theme Starter Kits by Rhee Gold
10 Smart Ideas for a Smooth Recital by Rhee Gold
Costume Connection
Higher-Ed Voice | The Meaning of Mastery by Tom Ralabate
Playing It Safe by Debbie Werbrouck
Gifts That Lasted a Lifetime

Dear Rhee,
I own and direct a dance studio in a small Midwestern town. I was wondering what percentage of a school’s students should return from the previous year. I’m concerned about my low number of returns but hopeful about all my new enrollments. Right now 57 percent of my students are returning. Please let me know if these numbers sound about right to you. I think I have tried everything, but what can I do to make my students more long-term? —Linda

Hello Linda,
Although there is no definitive research on student retention from year to year as it relates to the dance-school business. I estimate the average to be about 25 to 30 percent among the school owners who attend such discussions at my seminars. You seem to be above average, but I have heard of percentages that are higher. I suggest that you send your non-returning adult students and the parents of non-returning underage students a survey to get feedback on why they or their children chose not to continue dance at your school. (See a sample of this form on page 61 of Dance Studio Life, August 2007.)

As for how you can improve your retention rate, start by evaluating your preschool enrollment. These are the students who are most likely to remain on your class lists for years. If this group is dropping out at a rate of 43 percent, as you described, then it’s important to reevaluate your preschool or creative movement program. Ask yourself if the faculty is enthusiastic or has the skill to truly understand this age group. If the teachers are weak or parents perceive them as too young or inexperienced, you will continue to experience a high rate of dropouts. And that’s not good for positive word of mouth; parents of children in this age group are always talking about the activities their kids are into.

Here’s another consideration: Is your school’s atmosphere friendly and inviting? Customer service and organization play as large a role in retaining students as the training does. Is it easy for parents and students to find answers to their questions or concerns? Does the season end on a positive note? If you do recitals or year-end performances, how was the show? More important, was it a smooth, easy process for parents and students? What kind of feedback did you receive?

Other factors may have nothing to do with any of the above. What is the level of unemployment in your community? Dance lessons will be one of the first things to go when a parent loses their job. Also, children today have many activities on their agendas, with parents who want them to try various sports, arts, and clubs. Often financial and time limitations have a big effect on returning enrollment.

With all that said, making your school enjoyable and inspiring for the kids and a low-stress, professional organization for their parents often results in clientele loyalty that keeps students returning year after year. Good luck! —Rhee

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Hi Rhee!
I think I have gotten myself into a little mess! Like many teachers, I have a difficult time getting boys to join dance. This year I decided to follow some advice and offer dance classes to boys at half-price—anything to get them in. Great news—it worked! All seemed fine until today, when one of my competition parents who has two daughters approached me wanting to know why I was giving special treatment to boys. She accused me of discrimination, and I just stood there with my mouth open, not knowing what to say. She made a valid point about giving special treatment to a certain group, but I wasn’t trying to discriminate against any gender or group; I just wanted to get boys to dance. I feel awful! What should I do? Any suggestions on how to make everyone happy? —Jeannie

Dear Jeannie,
This is an excellent question, which doesn’t have an easy answer. However, with the word “discrimination” being tossed about, I would pursue advice from an attorney before taking any action. The validity of the discrimination claim aside, I know of many school owners who have offered incentives to get boys into the classroom. A large majority of male students who start to dance are the siblings of girls who are already taking lessons. Most parents don’t imagine that their sons would want to take a dance class until they see them dancing around the school lobby or practicing the movement that they observed in their sister’s classes at home. This scenario plays out hundreds of times each season.

The catch for many of these would-be young male dancers is that the dads (and sometimes the moms) discourage the boys from dance training because they believe that it is for girls or sissies. Although our society has taken some giant leaps forward when it comes to the stereotype of male dancers, especially with the hip-hop phenomena and the nationally televised dance shows, some people hang onto the perception that a boy in tights is a boy who will be gay, especially in small-town America. The first excuse this kind of parent comes up with to discourage the boys is that the classes would be a financial burden. It’s sad but true, and there are thousands of boys who would love to dance but never have the opportunity.

Many times it is for this reason that school owners initiate incentives like partial or full scholarships or a work-study program to encourage the boys to dance. It is very hard for parents to tell their son that he cannot dance when the classes are free or discounted. There are hundreds of professional male dancers and choreographers who never would be where they are if it hadn’t been for the kindness of teachers who offered them encouragement through some sort of financial aid.

I have a feeling that until we live in a society in which every child can choose to be what they want to be without stereotypes or parental fear, dance-school owners will come up with ways to bring in the boys. I’m not sure whether it is discrimination or not, but I know I would not be where I am today if not for the many scholarships and incentives I received. Get some good legal advice, but please continue to encourage the boys to dance in whatever way you can. I wish you the best. —Rhee

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Dear Rhee,
I have a faculty member who is an excellent teacher and choreographer but does not always set the right example for her students. She teaches in her jeans with T-shirts that have a picture of rolling papers or even worse, say “Born to raise hell,” with a picture of a person sticking her tongue out. The children seem to love this teacher, but I have heard some rumblings from the parents and I’m not sure what to do. Do I have a right to tell her to wear dance clothes and get rid of the inappropriate T-shirts? Any advice is appreciated. —Maxine

Hi Maxine,
I certainly do believe that you have a right to speak up. I would not allow a teacher to wear a T-shirt with a picture of rolling papers at my school. A good approach might be to establish a faculty dress code, just like you may have done for your students. The policy should cover what is allowed as well as what is not. I don’t think it is unreasonable to require teachers to wear T-shirts with no imprint. Better yet, if they are going to wear a T-shirt, make it a policy that it has to be your school’s shirt. As for the jeans (and I am guilty of wearing them myself), you might want to make them off-limits. I would suggest a pair of sweats or leotards and tights for teachers who work with children. Good luck. —Rhee

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Dear Rhee,
It’s been 30 years since I opened my school. When I started I was the only one in town; now I am one of 11. Three of the other schools are directed by my former students. There are just too many dance options for our small community and my student enrollment has suffered.

Last week one of my former students (who owns one of the schools) called me for the first time in many years. She explained that her enrollment was down and that she didn’t think she would be able to keep her doors open. She’s not taking in enough to pay the expenses. Then she asked me if I would like to merge our schools.

Even though there is a lot of bad blood between us, the thought of merging our schools intrigues me. I would love to have a partner to take on some of the responsibilities, and it would put us both in a better financial place. I think I want to do this, but it feels so awkward to consider merging with a former student who has hurt me in the past. Do you think I’m nuts to consider her proposal? Should I put our past differences aside? Thanks. —Doreen

Hi Doreen,
From what you have written I would say go for it! If both of your schools are experiencing dropping enrollment, this strategy could keep you both in business. I understand the “bad blood” circumstance, but you’ll be surprised at how quickly it will dissipate once you are working together to accomplish the same goal.

Be sure to invest in a good attorney to make certain that you have a partnership agreement that works best for your future (and hers). Your story is unique, but it’s a great example of things coming full circle for you and your former student. Who knows—maybe the other two former students will be calling you soon! I wish you luck. Let that bad blood go and instead focus on making this new opportunity a success. —Rhee

By Mignon Furman

TIP ONE
Three golden rules for arms (except where choreographed otherwise):

1. The arms should never move to or be held in a position behind the ears.

2. The hands should never cross the centerline of the body.

3. In any arabesque, the shoulder of the front arm is never lower than the shoulder of the side arm.

TIP TWO
Three more golden rules:

1. At the barre, when turning to repeat an exercise on the other side, dancers should always turn toward the barre.

2. When dancers must pass each other on the stage, those on stage left always pass in front of those on stage right.

3. Whenever the foot is lifted off the floor, it must be stretched to a full point.

By Rhee Gold

Where did they go? You remember them—those things people used to call “tights.” Most girls wore them onstage or in class to give them a clean line and to keep their butts, thighs, and other body parts from jiggling. They seem to have become a thing of the past, or close to it.

Dance and tights were synonymous for centuries; it’s only been over the last decade that they really started to disappear. Coincidentally, it was about that time that private-sector schools began embracing modern and contemporary dance in their curriculums. That’s a good thing—the result has been stronger, more technically proficient dancers, and those better-prepared dancers are seeking higher-ed programs and professional lives in dance. I applaud the teachers and schools who have taken this route.

The problem is that the trend has become so prevalent that we’re even seeing tap dancers wearing booty shorts without tights, and I don’t think that’s a good thing! Personally, when I see a group of tap-dancing girls turn upstage, tapping away with their derrieres to the audience, my eyes are not focused on their feet and I’m not listening to the sounds they are making. Instead, I’m noticing all that extra “action” and how uncomfortable I feel for myself as well as the dancers. All I can do is wonder why someone didn’t speak up—not the kids, nor the teachers, nor the parents. I ask myself, “Doesn’t this make them as uncomfortable as it does me?”

The issue isn’t limited to the tappers—I see it in musical theater too. There is no question in my mind that a 10-year-old who is dancing to “Shine It On” should be wearing tights. So should the senior dancers who are performing a Fosse number. After all, you went all the way with the choreography and you got the style and the movement down; the white gloves and the isolations are working better than you expected. And then the dancers hit the stage without tights. Would Bob Fosse have made that choice with all those isolations and sharp choreography? I don’t think so. Add the fact that many dancers are bigger than those of previous generations and the “case of the disappearing tights” dumbfounds me even more.

I do appreciate the no-tights look for most modern or contemporary pieces and I think it is appropriate. But I also think that choreographers need to consider more carefully the times when tights are appropriate. From my perspective, there’s a simple way to make that judgment: If the dancers go upstage and there is a lot of jiggling going on, then that’s a number where they should wear tights!

The subject of choice in costuming leads me to this issue’s theme: recitals! Costuming is an important—and huge—part of producing a show, and we’ve got the topic covered. In our pages this month you can learn what costume companies say in response to questions from school owners, weigh the pros and cons of building your own costume inventory, and go backstage at San Francisco Ballet to see how complex costuming a full-length classical ballet can be. And what goes hand in hand with costumes? Makeup, of course—and we’ve got a story that shows you how to do it like a pro. This issue’s recital content doesn’t end there, so jump right in. You’ll find ideas, inspiration, and practical how-tos that will make your next recital your best ever. Enjoy!

By Donnalynn Collings

Shall We Dance was one of my favorite movies when I was growing up. Who wouldn’t want to be Ginger Rogers, spinning round and round the dance floor in those beautiful outfits? Little did I know that after some 30 years of teaching and performing dance I would finish my career spinning round and round in praise and awe of the One who gifted me in dance!

Shall we dance? I have no doubt that the readers of Dance Studio Life would say yes without reservation. But shall we dance in the church? For some, this may be a more difficult question to answer, so I offer with a humble heart what I’ve discovered about the power of dance in church.

In 2002 I left a dance professorship to relocate with my family to Chicago. I found myself displaced from my field. “What now?” I thought. Dance had been my life. My husband, bless his heart, kept leaving a liturgical dance company audition notice from our new church around the house. Audition for a company, at my age? Was he nuts? I realize now that God was working through my husband.

After much prayer, I auditioned and began a journey into a realm of dance I was familiar with historically but not spiritually. For the next two years I grew in fellowship with the company members. We worked diligently to hone our craft and create pieces that honored God. We experienced the scripture “God inhabits the praises of his people” (Psalm 22:3).

I had never felt the presence of God as I did when I danced for Him. It brought me closer to Him than any other experience in my life. I was aware of every dynamic change my body was making, yet I felt as though I was being lifted and carried through the dance. I believe God used this time to speak to me and through me.

I had never felt the presence of God as I did when I danced for Him. It brought me closer to Him than any other experience in my life.

A fellow dancer, Christine Gruca of Groundwork Dance, explains how she’s seen God work through dance: “The coolest part about dancing [is] seeing others being touched by the raw and fairly unbridled passion coming out through the dance. It [gives] people room to journey through some of their own thoughts and feelings . . . and some space to dwell in places they may not have otherwise. It is a huge gift to see people unable to express their emotional reactions . . . because sometimes you can’t. People are so quick to try and explain things away, and sometimes you just have to feel. It is good to see people touched and just dwelling there. I hope they feel closer to God in some way because of it.”

Another dancer, Deanna Armentrout, shared her thoughts about dance in the church. “Dance, for me, expresses a feeling or emotion that we often feel but don’t say. Whether I am actually participating in dance or am an observer, dance identifies with a part of my soul that is vulnerable or childlike, which then opens me up to be ministered to by God’s Word.”

Once, as I watched a piece I’d choreographed being danced, I noticed a little boy copying the movements of the dancers. At one point he stood up and raised his hands over his head and began praising God with his whole little self. My heart sang as I thought, “How awesome it would be if we all, like children, opened ourselves up to God.”

I have the pleasure of working with young, talented dancers who dedicate one night a week to praising God by sharing their gifts with one another and the church. One of them, Stephanie Lee, told me about an experience she had had at a recent rehearsal: “It was like my body was speaking to God without my head and thoughts getting in the way of something so awesome and holy.” It is a joy and an honor to help these dancers find fulfillment by creating a place where they can combine their gift of dance and love of God in a nurturing environment.

Shall we dance? Absolutely! Shall we dance in the church? For me, the answer is a resounding yes, and I pray that the community of sacred dancers will continue to grow and bring more dance to our houses of worship. I hope more dancers will embark on a journey of faith through their gift of dance. I know from experience the journey will be transforming, illuminating, and well worth the walk.

Words from our readers

I read the article “Easy Cartwheels [for Preschoolers]” in the August issue—and they are! I wondered why I didn’t think of some of those. Sometimes we get caught up in teaching a certain way. I wonder if Patti Komara has other techniques that are easy that she can share to help the little ones!
Marlene Hawkins

I just want to express my continual admiration for Rhee and [what he does]. I am happy to be associated with someone who is doing the right thing the right way. I would also like to offer my deep gratitude for the story you ran on Deborah Mitchell receiving the Living Treasure in American Dance Award [“FYI,” Dance Studio Life, August 2007].
Jo Rowan, Dance Department Chair
Oklahoma City University

Just a short note to say “Wow!” This is probably one of the most professional, thorough, high-quality, and complete issues [Dance Studio Life, September 2007] that I have ever seen. Congratulations!

In addition, thank you for your article regarding the FDC [“Spirit of Cooperation,” September 2007]. I am sure that you have heard that a lot of chains are being rattled regarding the new federation. Hopefully the information that you have in print will help spread the word that we are truly trying to provide something good for the dance community.
David Westerfield
CEO-Double Door Productions, LLC

I just have to let you know how I feel about the newest issue of Dance Studio Life [September 2007]. When it came in the mail yesterday it was face down, so I didn’t know which publication it was. Thinking it was probably one of “the other guys’,” I turned it over and was shocked to see how much it has grown. It’s the best issue ever—I can’t understand how you can keep making a great thing better, but you always do! Thanks so much!
Terrie Legein
Legein Dance Academy of Performing Arts
Coventry, RI

I want to comment on the new Dance Studio Life for this month [September 2007]. It is truly amazing! I am so impressed with how far the magazine has come from when it first debuted. It was very evident today when I received my new copy, which is so full of information, wonderful stories, and the collaboration of some amazing people in the dance industry! What a great thing you have created! I am looking forward to many, many more!
Tori Crombie
Toriography Dance Center
Vernon, CT

I just wanted to thank you for your great magazine. My wife, Janna Kirova, and I get so much out of it. We love reading it both on paper and the Internet. Please keep up your wonderful work.
Boris Chepelev, Artistic Director
Space Coast Ballet
Melbourne, FL

Recently I had to deal with a mother whose 12-year-old daughter I did not move up to pointe (though I did advance her cousin). The mom told me how this ruined their carpool, then moved on to how humiliating it was to watch her 5′ 8″ daughter tower over the much younger girls in class and that a doctor said she was ready for pointe. (I had asked her to have her daughter’s feet checked.) The kicker is her idea of letting her daughter show me—in pointe class—how motivated she is to work. If I don’t move her up, I will be robbing her darling of her dreams.

I explained that the decision to move a student to pointe can be made only by an instructor and that I seriously consider class placement for each dancer and never want to hurt anyone’s feelings. I told her that her daughter knows what has to happen before she goes on pointe. Advancement is not something I just give her; she will have to earn it. I asked her to continue trusting my judgment.

I guess it worked! The girl was dropped off for her correct class last night and the mom did not stay to watch. If I’d given in on this decision I would have robbed this student of much more than her dreams. I had read an article about friends no longer being in the same class that inspired me to hold my ground. I’m sure it was in your magazine.
Shelly Beech
Art of Motion Dance
Bartlesville, OK

Co-artistic director, instructor, Tucson Dance Company, Tucson, AZ

Ages taught: 7 to adult (primarily teens to adult)

Genres taught: My focus is on jazz and lyrical. I oversee all curriculum.

Teaching dance for: 9 years

 

I began dancing professionally at 14, when I joined the University of Arizona Dance Ensemble. Throughout high school I balanced performing with teaching at my family’s studio and  traveling back and forth from Los Angeles. At 17 I began teaching at Canyon Ranch, a health spa in Tucson, which pushed me to become a more committed and responsible teacher. The expectation of professionalism was much higher there than anywhere I had worked previously. Later, while living in L.A., I felt the void of not teaching a consistent class. While working aboard a cruise ship, I decided to return to Tucson to take our family studio in a new direction.

Greatest inspiration: First, my teacher, Josette Weibrecht Blue. Josette opened my eyes and heart to the love of movement and respect of dance as an art. She is a constant inspiration. Second, my family. Most of my success and achievement as a dancer and teacher has been due to their constant and strong support. Third, the dancer. There is nothing I love or that inspires me more than an eager mind and body. I have such an appreciation for the process; seeing a young dancer find their “Aha!” moment is incredible.

Philosophy of teaching: Share your humanity with your students. Make sure to tell them they are humans first and dancers second. Keep a healthy relationship with your students; always remember that you are their teacher first and friend second. Remind them how lucky they are to have the outlet of movement and to cherish their time in the studio. Keep your expectations high; they can do anything if you give them the right tools.

What makes him a good teacher: I am absolutely insane; I am sure that is a prerequisite for good instruction. I also try to live in moderation and believe that comes through in my class.

Fondest teaching memory:  I had an incredible experience at Canyon Ranch. I decided to take a chance and teach a lyrical class to recreational dancers in their 40s and above. As I was teaching this technically basic  class, I noticed that the dancers were connecting with the choreography on a profound level, one that I had not found at the studio or in choreographing for professionals. They were living the movement and externalizing every ounce of the music. Afterward they came to me with hugs and stories. One woman told me that while she danced she could see her grandkids and feel how much she loved them. That day moved me beyond words. I was so humbled by my students, whom I had so underestimated. They had taken on the role of teacher without even knowing it.

Best piece of advice for students and/or teachers: Take a chance. Step out of the box. If you’re not nervous or afraid, go find something new. Live every moment while you dance or teach.

What he would do if he couldn’t teach dance: Politics. We would be doing production numbers on the Senate floor. C-SPAN’s ratings would go up dramatically.

More thoughts (not) on dance and teaching: My favorite color is blue; I am a Scorpio; I love music; yes, I am going to Vote for Hillary; yoga is amazing; and I love good food.

(Photo courtesy Todd Wilson)

Why he teaches:

Do you know a dance teacher who deserves to be in the spotlight? Email your nominations to Cheryl@rheegold.com or mail them to Theresa Grenier, Rhee Gold Company, 10 South Washington St., Norton, MA 02766. Please include why you think this teacher should be featured in Dance Studio Life, along with his or her contact information.

Pro show or simple recital? The difference is in the details.

By Nancy Wozny

When Darlene and John Ceglia returned to their hometown of Buffalo, NY, after an 11-year stay in Manhattan, they took a bit of Broadway with them. “We wanted to bring a taste of the New York theater world to Buffalo,” says Darlene. “Creating a memorable concert was part of the plan from the get-go in starting up our studio.” It’s not that the owners of Darlene Ceglia’s Dance Project expected their 4-year-olds to belt out show tunes; instead, what they envisioned was the professional nature of their end-of-year show, which they lovingly refer to as a concert.

Judging from the ads in the back of dance publications, recitals are on a roll toward bigger and better. So many studio owners are now calling their shows concerts instead of recitals that it seems like a trend. In keeping with a concert presentation, many people are employing themes, using high-tech lighting and sound, and booking their shows into upscale venues. For the Ceglias, it’s about quality; just because their students are not professionals doesn’t mean they can’t put on as polished a production as possible. And that polish is everywhere—in the lighting, expert sound editing, authentic costumes, eye-catching backdrops, and choreography that shows their students in their best light. The Ceglias’ end-of-year performance has built a loyal following even with former parents.

The couple runs two locations, each housing two studios, with an approximate total enrollment of 500. With a faculty of 18, they offer ballet, jazz, tap, hip-hop, and modern dance. They try to get their competition team of 88 dancers to nationals every few years, which often results in a slightly scaled-down concert, “just in some respects,” says Darlene. “The quality will still be there, but maybe not the 30-person choir.” Plus they enjoy showing off their competition pieces in the concert those years.

Darlene credits her career in musical theater with forming her strong visual and theatrical sensibilities. She trained with Sam Fiorello in Buffalo before heading to New York in 1980, where she and John lived for 11 years. It was there that they caught the Broadway bug and there that the groundwork for their values as directors was laid. From 1983 to 1985 Darlene danced with Maurice Hines’ and Mercedes Ellington’s company, Balletap USA, performing works by Judith Jamison, Carmen de Lavallade, and Gregory and Maurice Hines. Working with Jamison was a dream come true. “I had followed her career since I was in high school,” says Darlene. John, who was a DJ at Studio 54 at the time, got his start in editing dance music with Jamison’s first work for the company.

Darlene has remained friends with Hines, who recently stopped by the studio to visit with her students. Besides working with him in Balletap, Darlene was a dance captain and a featured dancer in Maurice Hines Nightclub Revue in the United States and Europe, and she danced with Hines in a national tour of Kiss Me Kate. She also worked with Broadway legend Lee Theodore of The American Dance Machine. “Lee was like a strict mother,” says Darlene about her legendary but temperamental teacher. “She was tough all right; she made you consider how much you really wanted to dance. She also made me think about what I wanted to do when I became a teacher.”

The Ceglias’ central idea is to create a production that parents will look forward to attending and students to dancing. “You know how people roll their eyes when you mention having to attend a recital?” asks John. “We didn’t want it to be that way. We want parents, friends, and family members to want to come to our shows.” With a family-friendly goal in mind, the Ceglias keep their performances under two hours, which means double casting and very few solos. “To get a solo is a big honor at our studio,” says Darlene. “It’s a way of acknowledging select students who have worked exceptionally hard.” Large group pieces are the norm. The outstanding theatricality of their productions is the single greatest tool for attracting new students. “They see what we are all about,” says Darlene with pride about the school’s reputation.

‘You know how people roll their eyes when you mention having to attend a recital? We want parents, friends, and family members to want to come to our shows.’ —John Ceglia

The annual show takes form, from conception to performance, as an ongoing conversation between Darlene and John, who do some things separately and some together. Darlene does most of the choreography, assists her faculty in their contributions, selects music, and has specific ideas on lighting and costumes. Selecting the theme drives everything that follows. The school owners prefer open-ended themes that lend a good deal of freedom and possibility; past ones have included “Hollywood n’ Vine” (a tribute to music and dance in the movies), “Return of the Century” (a retrospective look at the 20th century), and “A Soulful Celebration” (all gospel, with singers, choir, and musicians). John writes the scripts, which fill in between pieces and add historical anecdotes about dance and music. There’s no dead space in their shows. “Once it starts, it runs like a charm,” says John.

Creating a seamless sound experience falls to John, whose day job is senior engineer at Crosswater Digital Media. “In music editing and sound design, your role as engineer is to be transparent, keeping the focus on the stage,” he says. “Audio issues, as with any technical difficulties, tend to compromise the level of professionalism of the work presented.”

John has created on-air promotions for HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, and The Discovery Channel and has taped Martin Sheen, James Earl Jones, and Bernadette Peters. His role at the studio utilizes the full spectrum of his talents. He helps select and edits all the music, chooses the voice-over talent, designs the lights, and heads up the production end. John’s impressive music library from his deejaying years comes in handy in selecting music for each show. “The fact that he actually studied tap and jazz also gives him an edge,” says Darlene.

Husband and wife are equally involved in the artistic end of the final product. Ideas can come from anywhere, so the school owners keep their imaginations working year-round on potential themes and music ideas. They regularly attend concerts, theater productions, and museums. “We take advantage of everything that comes through Buffalo and get to Toronto and New York when we can,” says Darlene. On occasion they have conflicting opinions. “We don’t always agree, but we try to hear the other person out.” Darlene appears to be the “big idea” person and John plays “reality check” position. After 16 years of togetherness as school owners and 29 as a couple, they have it down to a streamlined process.

With John’s background, the emphasis the couple places on music comes as no surprise. Their shows frequently feature live music, including, over the years, saxophone legend Bobby Militello, Da Capo Saxophone Quartet, New Beginnings Choral Ensemble, and the now defunct Prayer Tower Gospel Choir. “Whenever we have musical guests we always let the children sit in the theater and listen to the music that they will be dancing to,” says Darlene. “It’s so exciting for them to share the stage with artists of this caliber. Live musicians bring so much energy to the stage.” Lea Michele, now on Broadway in the Tony Award–winning musical Spring Awakening, performed with them at the start of her career, singing a song from Les Misérables, which she performed in on Broadway.

When it comes to recorded music, the Ceglias’ taste is not limited to popular songs. Darlene has choreographed to music by India Arie, Stevie Wonder, Bobby Darin, Ella Fitzgerald, Louie Armstrong, Diana Krall, and scores from popular musicals. “John has a great ear for what works with my choreography,” she says. “He will find something and play it for me with very specific ideas about how it might work with our theme.” The process of selecting the music takes several months. “The music has to move me,” Darlene adds.

With costumes, Darlene takes a hands-on approach. She thinks that professional-looking costumes put a finishing touch on a show. Sometimes she lucks out and finds exactly what she needs in catalogs. When she doesn’t, she hits the discount shops and vintage-clothing boutiques. She prefers an authentic look, especially for period dances. “If I find a dress at one store, I’ve been known to comb every location in the city to find 11 more,” she says. “My two seamstresses can do wonders altering a dress so it will work.” She considers how the fabric will move with the specific choreography, how it might look under lights, and the overall visual design of the show. Between scouring online auctions, shopping at local outlets and vintage shops, and purchasing some costumes in stores, she arrives at the look she wants. It takes work, imagination, and a willingness to try new ways of using store-bought materials to make it happen.

Darlene is known for creating choreography that shows off what her dancers can do and not what they can’t. For her, it’s not just about steps but about making a compelling piece, with a clever use of group formations in a range of dynamics. “I like to add texture by using different layers and levels,” she says. Rarely does she rely on the usual tricks; you won’t see kids showing off their turning chops if it doesn’t fit into the piece. She likes to use sets, props, and carefully chosen visuals like backdrops or projections. She prefers to stage her dances in lively environments created by unusual settings and strong lighting concepts and keeps that in mind during the choreographic process. Her choreography includes the movement of light, sound, costumes, and props. Her finesse with props never fails to astound John. “Darlene likes to make them move, change shape, and disappear,” he says. “She can make a table dance.”

Early in the planning process the Ceglias bring in set designer David Butler, a well-known Buffalo actor who also designs for the Irish Classical Theatre Company, to get his ideas. Butler attends rehearsals to determine what kind of visuals will complement the dance. When what they need can’t be found in a catalog, Butler designs and makes his own backdrops.

Shows are presented at the Mainstage Theater in the Center for the Arts at the University at Buffalo. It’s a state-of-the art theater with a knowledgeable staff. Setting a professional tone at the performance is key. You won’t find the audience screaming the dancers’ names at this concert. “We expect proper theater etiquette from the beginning,” says Darlene. “We want the children to have as authentic a theatrical experience as possible.” The students learn early on that behavior that may have been tolerated at other studios may not meet the Ceglias’ standards of professionalism.

There’s always a buzz after the June show; each year audiences leave wondering how the Ceglias will ever top that year’s production. “That’s the question we want them to have,” says John.

But by the time that final curtain drops, Darlene and John have already begun thinking about the next year. “It’s a process,” says Darlene. “And it has different stages.” During the school’s summer intensive Darlene experiments with music she might want to work with for the show. With this extensive planning period, the production follows its own rhythm, from the “wild idea” stage to the “How can we make this happen?” stage. Darlene confesses to coming up with some rather complicated ideas that John deciphers into what’s probable and what’s possible. As always, it’s a process of give-and-take.

For the Ceglias, the difference is in the details. You don’t have to be a professional dancer to be part of a professional show, so why not start out that way? Darlene sums up their collective mission: “When I was young I remember going to the theater and feeling that magic. I want my audience to feel that same magic.”

Traditional dance training, a family atmosphere, and computer wizardry on a California ranch

By David Favrot

There’s not much, from the looks of things, to tell you that a 20-acre horse ranch near Sacramento in Northern California may be spawning a big step forward in dance stage production. Baseline Road in Placer County is flat, pre-tornado Wizard of Oz territory: golden-brown fields, barbed-wire fences, hand-painted signs touting “Fresh Strawbaries [sic] 4 Sale,” and the blue outline of the Sierra Nevada far off to the east. But there are clues in addition to the easy-to-miss sign for the ranch that’s home to Dance Gallery 2. Check out the license plates in the driveway: “THE DG2” on the red Chevy Trail Blazer, and on the black Ford pickup, “EFX CTRL,” as in “effects control.” That’s Doug McLemore’s specialty. Dance Gallery 2 is run by its founder, Doug’s wife, Lucy, while Doug handles the technical end of its staged performances.

The school gets a lot of use out of its single 35-foot-by-25-foot suspended-wood studio floor—“I’m old- school,” Lucy says of the floor. Last year it took a pounding from about 580 students from age 3 to adult, she says, taking ballet, tap, jazz, break-dancing, and hip-hop under a staff of 5 choreographers, 6 paid teachers, 21 student teachers, and 12 junior student teachers. One of her former students, 21-year-old Dominic Sandoval, has his own break dancing crew and was one of eight finalists on Fox television’s So You Think You Can Dance in the 2007 season. This fall he is touring the country with the stage show based on the series. Lucy admits she still cringes when she sees him spinning on his head or shoulders, with a concern that’s both professional and motherly: Dominic, she says, sometimes stays in a room downstairs from the studio, where he studied jazz, tap, and ballet and also taught for three years.

While Dominic obviously can hold his own with top-level talent, Dance Gallery 2 doesn’t enter into competitions with other schools or encourage rivalry among its own students. They get trophies and plaques—even a dozen roses for students with 15 years’ attendance—but not for besting other students. “Once you enter through our studio door, everybody is a star,” Lucy says.

That policy stems from her experience with her son, Brandon, now a 21-year-old college student. When Brandon, who is autistic, was a boy, “I opened the ranch so I could be home with [him],” Lucy explains. “He had an incredible passion for dance. He never missed a rehearsal,” she recalls. But he was so focused on his own performance that his sense of ensemble was undependable. “If the other kids in class all turned to the right and he turned to the left, he was right and they were wrong.” She ended up expanding her nonjudgmental classroom treatment of Brandon to her other students, with the mantra “It’s OK to make a mistake. You just try it differently the next time.” Her students’ parents don’t seem to have a problem with the policy, she says.

Instead of competitions, Dance Gallery 2 gives students two yearly opportunities to perform: a recital in December and a staged production in June. The shows are where Doug McLemore snags a starring role, though when the lights go down, he’s in the back of the auditorium with his laptop. In his non-dance hours, Doug works part-time doing information technology support for a California state agency, drawing on more than three decades of computer expertise.

The path to that expertise was no straight line. It began with stints in a succession of Sacramento-area junior colleges, followed by two years in the military. Doug flew Chinook cargo helicopters in Vietnam during the war years of 1970 and 1971. On one mission his copter, almost entirely without armor, came under fire as he delivered a load of water to fight a fire on a U.S. base south of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) that had come under Vietcong mortar attack. That day of combat earned Doug the Bronze Star, the fourth-highest combat award for bravery awarded by the U.S. military.

His postwar years found him working in his father’s air-filter manufacturing plant in Roseville, north of Sacramento, where Doug got fed up with the factory’s sluggish output. So he automated the factory—robotics was “something I just picked up” as he worked, he says. When he had finished, a plant that used to take 10 to 15 minutes to cut 12 filter frames could produce a frame in about 15 seconds.

So when Doug met Lucy through one of his grade-school buddies in 1993, he recalls, she saw a man with technical expertise. “She asked me what she asked everybody: ‘Can you help me with my show?’ ” He ended up calling the cues for her dance school’s stage production. He’d never done it before; his biggest previous show-biz experience was playing drums in a local rock group called The Average Garage Band. That first dance-school show was decidedly low-tech. “We had a guy out in the audience with a cassette player and a headset” supplying the music, Doug says. But he liked  his role and got good at it.

These days, Doug also shoots live video of the performances and builds the sets on the ranch in a big metal shed, home during the off-season to a fog machine, sets and props from previous shows (including, on a recent visit, a fake upright piano in blond wood with painted keys), and the occasional black widow spider.

Doug builds the sets in a big metal shed, home during the off-season to a fog machine, sets, and the occasional black widow spider.

“Spiders” of a different kind are a big part of Doug’s contribution to stage technique. These wireless, remote-control gizmos are his response to the growing complexity of school dance productions. Audiences may be there mostly to watch little Suzie’s three minutes in the spotlight, but they’ve also seen Beyonce’s videos and Justin Timberlake’s shows and Cirque du Soleil, so the challenge of staging a jaw-dropping show without a Vegas showroom budget—so that “when Grandma and Grandpa come, Grandpa won’t be grumpy and complaining,” as Doug puts it—grows and grows. That means ever-more-elaborate sets (and more of them), with costumes, lighting, and stage effects to match. And that, in turn, means hundreds more cues on split-second timing for the backstage crew, with the accompanying risk of mishaps.

Not that you would have noticed these challenges in Dance Gallery 2’s most recent show, The Headlines. It’s drenched in film-noir atmosphere, reminiscent of Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal video, and set to an eclectic score that zooms from Rhapsody in Blue to “Ain’t No Other Man.” A five-minute opening video—shot in color in abandoned offices in Sacramento and then converted to black-and-white for that doom-laden 1940s look—sets the scene: A gangster’s moll is phoning a tip to a reporter and setting up her two-timing lover for arrest at a nightclub. The video ends, and on the dimly lit stage we see dancers huddled for warmth around a barrel that bursts into flames . . . and it’s dance time, with principal choreography by Nick Willrich assisted by, among others, Dominic Sandoval and Lucy’s daughter, 23-year-old Summer Cedarleaf.

Long after the show, in his gadget-crammed den downstairs from the dance studio, Doug sits at his laptop with a CD player, a tape deck, and other audio gear in a 3-foot-high stack at his elbow and puts the onstage barrel through its paces. His stage cue system runs on software that combines the features of an audio mixing board and a multitrack recording and editing setup, so he can control the recorded stage music as well. His laptop screen displays a series of horizontal lines, each one tracking a dance, lighting, or stage-effect cue (indicated by a small, vertical hash-mark). As the program runs, the lines track steadily from right to left and Doug can broadcast his cues to the backstage crew, wearing wireless headsets, or to stage monitors.

Doug’s innovation is this: Some stage effects, including the barrel, are fully automated, though that feature can be overridden in an emergency. Fastened under the barrel is a battery-powered radio receiver that’s connected to an air compressor. When its programmed cue comes up, the receiver gets an automated radio command and activates the compressor. As it blows air up through the open top of the barrel, a cluster of suspended fabric strips flutters in the breeze while a simultaneous lighting cue bathes the strips in a red glow, and you have a “burning” barrel.

Doug calls his radio receivers “spiders” because they have eight outputs, just as spiders have eight legs, to operate up to eight stage devices simultaneously. The automated cueing system, Doug says, can control up to 2,048 such devices, which run on batteries or household current. Its radio signal has a half-mile range. Radio interference—from, say, someone punching a garage-door opener down the street—isn’t a problem because commands are transmitted in computer code. With a 45-minute show involving up to 500 stage cues, the spiders let him concentrate on the tricky parts and give him what he calls “ ‘ ‘dream freedom.’’ We can make this look like a professional show.”

All this doesn’t come cheap. The software comes in three versions that range in price from $300 to $2,500. Though Doug works with the equivalent of the top-of-the line model, he says he could call a show with the cheapest version in a pinch. In addition, he figures the spiders and control modules cost between $1,500 and $2,000, with another $10,000 for computer gear. As for putting it all together, he’s thinking about ways he can market his system or be a consultant for dance studios that want to duplicate it. In any case, his setup is definitely a “Kids, don’t try this at home” project unless you happen to be a software engineer.

Or, unless you’re married to one. Lucy McLemore got an early start in the business end of dance: She opened her first studio at age 14, teaching neighborhood children in her hometown of White Bear Lake, MN (north of Minneapolis). Lucy, the child of a Japanese mother and French father, caught stage fever at age 10 as one of the students in a production of The King and I. She opened a second studio at 18 and a third when she was 21.

Her dance training began at age 4 at the Larkin School of Dance in Maplewood, MN, and the Andahazy Russian dance school in Minneapolis. Her subsequent tutors included Gus Giordano and Frank Hatchett. If you were watching TV’s disco-dancing contest show Dance Fever back in 1979, you’ve seen Lucy—she and her partner were first-place finishers that year. In addition to a wardrobe—and let’s throw a veil of charity over the tight-pants-and-polyester fashions of the day—they won an eight-track tape machine rigged up with lights that blinked in time to the music.

After a stint as a dance instructor and entertainer with Princess Cruise Lines (then called Sitmar Cruise Lines) in the early 1980s, Lucy worked as a choreographer and teacher before opening Dance Gallery 2 in 1991. In addition, she has worked with Showcase Productions in preparing parades, performances, and workshops at Disneyland and Walt Disney World with her husband as the official videographer.

In keeping with what Lucy calls the “family feeling” she seeks in dance education, her studio’s adjoining lounge is equipped with sofas, a television, a pool table, and a dartboard for the comfort of parents waiting while their children take class—in farm country, it’s a long drive to the nearest Starbucks. Parents sometimes bring picnics and hang out all day, Lucy says. But she also puts them to work: The moll, mobster, reporter, and other players in the short video that opens The Headlines were all volunteer non-actors. At the end of the workday, Doug typically leaves his high-tech hideaway, comes upstairs, and cooks dinner for the teaching staff. Now that’s family.

Boost your school’s bottom line by building and renting out a costume inventory

By Jennifer Rienert

Ask studio owners to name one of the most time-consuming tasks they face and they’re likely to say, “Costumes!” There’s a lot on a school owner’s plate when it comes to putting on a performance. Along with the creative process that goes into any recital, holiday show, Nutcracker, or competition piece, there are the everyday decisions regarding production details. Just the thought of choosing, sizing, ordering, collecting payments for, and distributing costumes is enough to send chills down the average studio owner’s spine, and most will admit that this revolving routine can become tiresome. So think about it—are costumes a thorn in your side or a welcome chance to generate income? For a different approach to costuming, consider creating your own in-studio inventory.

Forty-odd years ago, when my grandmother, Lena Taylor, founded the school I now own, New Hampshire School of Ballet, costume catalogs were not as plentiful or as high quality as those we have today. Fortunately Lena was a seamstress, because making costumes for her students was the only realistic option available to her. For her first two years in business she tried the traditional route of having her students purchase their costumes. But they were expensive, and she realized that her students would be more apt to take more classes (and thus be in more dances in the school’s shows) if they didn’t have to spend so much on costumes. So instead she made them by hand and rented them for $5 each. After the recital she collected the costumes, washed them, and stored them away for another year. At first, when the studio was small, in the mid- to late ’60s, it was easy to handle. But as her studio grew she had to hire some help, so her rates began to climb to cover costs. Her decision proved smart in the long run—jump ahead to today and you’ll find that 70 percent of the dances our students perform each year are costumed from our in-house inventory.

As the school’s costume stock grew, storage and upkeep needs became greater, and those are very real concerns for anyone considering developing an inventory. However, an in-house rental system is beneficial to families as well as school owners. With a rental fee of $25 per costume (for one-time recital use or the entire competition season), the students’ parents save hundreds of dollars a year on garments that are typically stuffed in a closet and forgotten at the end of the season, and school owners gain an additional source of income.

Regardless of how long you’ve owned your school, you can start building a small inventory now and add to your stock each year. It is a long-term investment—it takes years to gather enough variety and volume to be an effective method of costuming an entire group. Our costume inventory started with a few ballet dresses and now includes several hundred costumes, from jazz outfits to tutus. Each year I go through the inventory list to see which outfits will work well with a show’s theme or a particular song; at the same time I also coordinate sizes for the various classes.

Costumes have a long shelf life if they are washed and packed away properly. We still use some costumes that my grandmother made more than 30 years ago.

Since the price of renting is so much cheaper than buying, we ask more of the parents in helping to fit their children. Sometimes minor repairs like hemming or repairing loose stitches are needed; if the student or a parent is capable of doing the work, we ask them to fix it themselves. Two or three parents at the studio are excellent seamstresses, and they and my mother help out by making the alterations that other parents are unable to do. I offer an incentive to the really good ones who make many of the alterations—they don’t have to pay costume fees for their own children, which can save them a few hundred dollars each season. Though I’m fortunate to have my mother’s help, most studios have a few talented seamstresses among their students’ parents. In general, parents seem to appreciate the opportunity to save money, and most are willing to help by making minor repairs to their own child’s costumes.

After the shows are over we place big boxes and bags in the dressing rooms, where the students deposit everything they have rented, from costumes and headpieces to ribbons. We bring everything home, where the pieces are sorted, counted, washed, and placed back into inventory for the next use. This does take considerable work, but in most cases a costume begins to bring in income after two rentals. Costumes have a long shelf life if they are washed and packed away properly. We still use some costumes that my grandmother made more than 30 years ago.

Each year I add to the inventory with both homemade and catalog-purchased costumes. Sometimes a less expensive alternative to ordering all the costumes from catalogs is hiring a good seamstress to make some of them, particularly dresses or simple jazz costumes. You can add or change the color of lace, sashes, or sequins to completely alter the look of the costume for use in another show.

Since my school’s performances include a lot of ballet, I know it is a good investment to buy classical costumes that we will use frequently throughout the years. For example, four years ago I bought beautiful, Giselle-like peasant dresses for my competition team, for about $45 apiece. We rented them to the dancers at our standard rate of $25 per costume. Two years later we used those same dresses in a recital of Swan Lake, and last year we rented them out again to a group of students in a ballet competition piece. The third rental was total profit.

Thinking ahead is important, whether you are making purchases or having something made. Before starting to invest in an inventory, make sure that someone in your studio will be available to help with alterations, since not every dancer will slip easily into the sizes you have in stock. Also think about the styles of dances that you tend to use in your performances each year. Ordering extra costumes in various sizes to make sure you can accommodate large classes in the future is a good idea. Although you will have to make an initial investment to purchase or have costumes made, keeping the long-term goal in mind will help you cope with the delayed gratification of future income.

Consider starting with a few jazz costumes in children’s sizes, which you can then alternate between classes in the recitals. Keep track of which students wear which costume each year to make sure that they don’t wear the same one two years in a row. If you put on a holiday show or Nutcracker every year, that may be the perfect place to start. We have an entire inventory dedicated to Nutcracker performances, as well as angels and Nativity-style costumes for our Christmas show. Versatile costumes like clowns, toy soldiers, and green or red party dresses can be used for a variety of themes and songs in holiday shows. We have made a profit on costumes like these for years.

Sometimes the costumes I choose for a certain class don’t fit the majority of the students. We have learned to request long hems and extra material in the zipper seams when we have costumes made, which make alterations easier. Buying costumes that have some stretch in the material is a plus in accommodating various body types over the years.

We have made some mistakes, of course. We tried to start a big inventory of solo costumes for competitions but found that most students wanted to purchase something that would suit their individual style. Most parents are willing to spend more money on their child’s solo costumes, although some of them do prefer to save money by renting something from us.

Even with a large inventory, there are times when I don’t have what’s needed or can’t afford or justify a large purchase. In those cases my clients are forced to go the traditional route and buy them themselves. It’s usually at times like that that they realize how much money they’re saving each year by renting instead of buying.

Owning your own costume inventory yields benefits for everyone. The extra work required is worth it, mostly for the benefit of the students. As long as the quality of the costume and appropriateness to the music is taken into consideration, my clients are thankful for the break in price. Building an inventory may not be right for everyone, but it’s an option worth considering. Thinking long-term and taking some risks can be beneficial to your students and your budget.

At AileyCamp, dance is a means to a greater goal

By Cheryl Ossola

As the house lights dim at Zellerbach Hall, on the University of California’s Berkeley campus, two nervous girls stand in a spotlight reciting poems they have written during the six weeks of AileyCamp. Then the curtain rises on a program of dance and spoken word that is endearing and invigorating in its earnestness. The energy-filled performance may lack polish and brilliant technique, but that’s just as it should be. At AileyCamp, dance is a tool that’s used to achieve a much bigger mission.

AileyCampers learn a lot about dance, but they also learn about life, and people, and how to function in society. The single biggest lesson these young people walk away with is not how to do a plié, how a dance is put together, or how to memorize steps. It’s discovering, every day and in various contexts, that they have choices—about who they are and what they will do with their lives, and how art can help them figure out both of those things. In every class, whether it’s learning a jazz combination, experimenting with slam poetry, discussing social and racial tensions, or writing in a journal, these kids learn that self-expression comes in many forms.

Talk to anyone affiliated with AileyCamp and you will find yourself on the receiving end of an impassioned explanation of what makes this program so valuable. Alvin Ailey, founder/director of New York City–based Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT), left a legacy of giving back to the community when he died in 1989. His commitment to young people is the driving force behind the camp, and one can only assume that he would have loved what his successors have achieved. “Mr. Ailey was generous and he was accessible, and those are two words that are everywhere within the Ailey organization,” says AileyCamp national director Nasha Thomas-Schmitt, a former Ailey dancer. “It’s important for young people to know that they can do something. It is a gift to be able to get up and walk. It is a gift to have this instrument that you can use.”

AileyCamp began in 1991 in New York City and now has eight other sites: Berkeley; Boston; Bridgeport, CT; Chicago; Kansas City, MO and KS; and (new this year) Atlanta and Staten Island. Hosting organizations, not the Ailey Foundation, are responsible for funding and running their camps. For the campers, everything is free: two meals a day, camp T-shirts and shorts, dancewear and shoes, field trips, and bus transportation. The Berkeley location, officially called the Oakland/Berkeley AileyCamp at Cal Performances, is hosted and administered by Cal Performances on the UC–Berkeley campus. According to Cal Performances’ director of public relations, Christina Kellogg, the organization raises approximately $250,000 each year to fund the camp, which started in 2002 with a three-year grant from the Hewlett Foundation.

All eligible sites share a common denominator: a history of hosting AAADT or its second company, Ailey II. That allows the program to extend beyond the six weeks of classes to include reunions, at which the campers and their families can see the company perform and take master classes with company members. That connection to the Ailey legacy “is an important part of the process,” says Thomas-Schmitt.

Nationally, the camps serve approximately 650 middle schoolers, most of whom have had little or no experience with dance. (Although the camp is not a preprofessional training program, the Ailey Foundation tries to arrange scholarships with local dance programs so that talented students can continue their training.) According to the Berkeley camp’s director, David McCauley (also a former Ailey dancer), middle school is the perfect time to reach these students. “It’s a difficult age and it’s the best age,” he says. “They can make decisions; they are still receptive to change; and they know how to enjoy themselves. It’s an excellent time.”

The campers are recruited through presentations at schools in areas where most children have few opportunities to experience the arts. Applicants are interviewed, says Thomas-Schmitt, “so that the director has a better understanding of who this child is, what challenges they might face, how they view themselves, what their family situation is. So everyone has an idea of what they’re getting into. The campers sign a commitment contract, because it’s one thing for parents to say, ‘I want my child to come here,’ and another for the child to say, ‘I commit to coming for six weeks, to having my attire here every day, and to participating.’ And when there are problems, the director can say, ‘Look at what you signed. It says all this, and it’s not happening. What do you think we should do?’ ”

Though the camp rules are strict—hair is pulled back; big jewelry, gum chewing, candy, and soft drinks are banned; and there’s zero tolerance for violence—the results “are great,” says Thomas-Schmitt, and parents are enthusiastic. “The program helps to develop well-rounded young adults. And that is something every parent wants.” But, she adds, “the kids must have the desire to accomplish these things; they have to embody it for themselves. I always say, ‘It’s not about making the right or wrong decision. It’s about making the best choice for you at this particular moment.’ That’s something they can understand.”

Not all of the campers arrive feeling certain that this is the place for them—like 12-year-old Oscar Urquiza. “I wanted to go to a sports camp, but my mom said, ‘Why don’t you give it a shot for a week?’ So I came, and I like it more than sports,” he says. “They cheer you up and tell you not to give up, and if you want to give up they’ll keep on encouraging you. I’m thinking of being a volunteer next year.”

Empowerment is a key concept at AileyCamp. “A lot of these kids don’t have a family structure or support for their goals and dreams,” says Thomas-Schmitt. “We talk about goal setting and the possibility of reaching these goals. Say you tell two kids to write a one-page summary [of a book]. One brings in a typed page and the other brings in a handwritten paper and says, ‘I don’t have a computer at home.’ I’d say, ‘Well, there are computers at school. You could type it there. You’re going to be applying to college in a couple of years, and they’ll look at a typed application much quicker than a handwritten one—they’ll throw that in the garbage.’ It’s all about production and presentation. All of these things are part of what goes into AileyCamp from the first day.”

McCauley tells the kids that what they are learning translates into life outside of camp. “I say, ‘Who wants to be a singer? A writer? This is what you’re going to go through no matter what you plan to do. You’re going to come in thinking you know a lot, and you’re going to find out that you don’t. You have to be willing to accept that and then take your instruction and keep adding onto it. You’ll get there, but it’s going to take the same discipline that we’re asking of you here.’ ”

Camper Kenya Jelks, 12, is a good example of empowerment in action. She gushes about how much fun the campers have, how much she loves African dance, and how much harder ballet is than she imagined. “Willie [Anderson, the ballet teacher] said, ‘It’s not easy, but you have to try.’ He gave me courage, so I tried; if I didn’t get it, I tried again.” When asked to name something important she has learned, she grows serious. “They taught me that if I want something I have to go for it, and I shouldn’t give up on myself. If you keep on trying, there is a way to get through things that you thought were hard, and they will no longer be hard.”

‘These kids are at an age where they can discover the kinds of choices that will show them the road to success. AileyCamp does that, and that’s why I’m involved with it.’ —AileyCamp teacher M’bewe Escobar

In Berkeley the campers start their day with breakfast, then gather onstage for affirmations, led by McCauley. “One of them is to not say, ‘I can’t.’ If you say, ‘I can’t,’ then you can’t do it. If you say, ‘I don’t know how,’ you can always learn,” he says. The roughly 75 students then divide up into four groups (each one monitored by a college-age group leader) and rotate through their classes: Horton-based modern dance, ballet, African, jazz dance, performance techniques, personal development, and creative communications. Fridays are reserved for field trips, like sailing on San Francisco Bay.

On a Monday in June during the camp’s third week, the walls in Shawn Nealy’s personal development classroom are lined with statistics: “One child dies every three hours from gunfire.” “Of the 15,000 hours of TV kids watch, they will see 180,000 murders, rapes, robberies, etc.” On a positive note, posters about self-esteem, integrity, and classroom expectations abound. That day’s assignment is to write down three things that affected the campers’ self-esteem in the past week. Nealy’s approach is no-nonsense but polite, peppered with positive feedback. She explains everything carefully, and her immediate response to questions is “I’m listening.” At first, as the kids get to know each other, Nealy says, “there is culture shock. By the second day, conflicts arise, and by the fourth day we’re into conflict resolution. The kids say it helps them come together. I tell them, ‘Attitude is everything. You can’t have fun if there’s conflict.’ ”

The kids’ eagerness to participate is striking. They may not want to share their own writing in creative communications, but eight hands shoot up when teacher Kate Schatz asks the group what someone else’s poem was about. Camper Charles Edwards, 13, describes one of the classes as “really deep. We were all crying because we did ‘I remember’ poems.” In the jazz class, when teacher Rosario Lionudakis asks a question or wants volunteers to move to the front row, there’s a sudden burst of enthusiasm from kids who had seemed inattentive. As small groups finish a combination, their friends give them a high-five.

If kids are the heart of AileyCamp, the teachers are its soul. Apart from looking for accomplished instructors, McCauley tries to get “a broad spectrum of people who can work together and focus on the children. They have to support each other because it can be intense, and the kids see that. And if the students have difficulty with anything, I tell them they can always talk to someone in staff. I try to have a wide variety of people so that just about any student will find someone they can click with.”

According to modern-dance teacher M’bewe Escobar, AileyCamp has a profound ability to transform children. “I know that many of them use their new skills in their academic settings. And given the nature of society today—the abundance of influences that surround young people, the challenges and pressures that affect their choices—in that sense, all children are at risk of making the wrong choice. These kids are at an age where they can discover the kinds of choices that will show them the road to success. AileyCamp does that, and that’s why I’m involved with it. It’s a cool thing for children to be validated if they enjoy writing or the visual arts, to be told it’s a good thing and they should continue exploring it. It’s great to find out about yourself; I think it helps them make good choices. They could choose a group of people who are into something positive and not a situation where the outcome could be negative.”

As director of the New York City camp for three years, Escobar says she saw the program transform families as well. “When parents see their children doing something they didn’t know they could do, it helps them to see them in a different way. So the children get a new sense of themselves and their possibilities, and the families can too.”

Even the structure and process of a dance class helps to teach children life lessons. “One of the benefits of a dance education is that it dispels this crazy myth that dancers are dumb because they’re mute,” says Escobar. “The mind is totally engaged. And whatever technique is being taught, certain principles are universal. The idea of knowing and maintaining their personal space and respecting others’—it’s a big deal for young people this age.” She emphasizes how learning technique and choreography teaches children about follow-through. “Ninety percent of their choreography comes from what they did in class; I build it into class. I want them to see that the process has brought them to a [new] place. They can use this kind of process, of setting goals and working through it, for the rest of their lives.”

Partial proof of the camp’s success is the desire of former campers to return as volunteers; some eventually move into paid positions as group leaders and one now teaches at AileyCamp. Others say that AileyCamp didn’t change their life but, says Thomas-Schmitt, “it enhanced [it] and instilled certain values in them. For some people it’s a life-saver.”

One who changed dramatically, says McCauley, is former camper Yejide Najee-Ullah, a 2007 AileyCamp group leader and a sophomore at Smith College. “Unbeknownst to me [in 2002], she didn’t want to be here,” he says. “The turnaround in her after she saw what was going on was so quick and so complete that she volunteered for us every year since then. She is [the Berkeley site’s] first camper who’s now an employee.” Having former campers in the program is “the ultimate form of mentorship,” says McCauley. “The [campers] know that Yejide was [one of them], and now she goes to this wonderful college. It’s like, ‘Oh—that’s a possibility for me, too.’ ”

McCauley can’t talk about AileyCamp without getting teary. “Every year, there I am, watching them get ready to perform, and it’s been six weeks of ‘Do this,’ and ‘You have to be ready.’ And some of them are just kind of there, and some are about to do the wrong thing at the wrong time, and I’m just like, ‘Whatever happens when the curtain goes up, happens.’ And then to see them pull themselves together, to see that light go on in them when the curtain goes up, to see them change when the audience applauds—it’s terrific.”

“It’s blood, sweat, and tears for six weeks, but it’s one of the most gratifying kinds of teaching that I do,” says Escobar. “Every time I see the children perform it’s like seeing the butterfly emerge from the chrysalis. They have grown their wings and they are ready to fly.”

Encouraging, praising, and finding the positive in every student

By Karin A. Wilde-Berry

“When will we teach our children in school what they are? We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all of the world there is no other child exactly like you. In the millions of years that have passed there has never been another child like you. You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything. Yes, you are a marvel.” —Cellist Pablo Casals, quoted in The Power of an Encouraging Word by Ken Sutterfield

I recently attended a meeting of dance teachers where the studio owners advocated a very different approach than that of Pablo Casals. They instructed their employees not to compliment every dancer. “They know if their skips are not up to par. Make them work for it,” the head teacher said. I was shocked.

This old-school philosophy was alive and apparently thriving at that dance school. I imagined myself as a little girl with more exuberance than skill. I envisioned the scene: A little dancer skips across the floor. “Perfect,” says the teacher. The next girl skips. It appears to be not as grand, because the teacher sighs. “Not bad. Get those knees higher.” Then it is my turn. I know I can outdo these novices. As I thrust myself forward, I see my beautiful self in the mirror and note that my one-legged skips are really coming along. I confidently breeze past the teacher. Nothing. No comment. She calls out, “Next.” Confused, I figure she did not see me, so I bite my lower lip, lift that leg higher, and skip, skip, skip back to the line. Then I imagine the terrible thought that would hit my tender heart: Maybe I am not good.

Children are like little sponges, waiting to soak in their teachers’ delight and encouragement. Teachers represent authority; children look up to us with trust and respect. Our negative input can crush and wound, cut deeper than any remarks from their peers. They believe what we tell them, and our words stay with them for a long time, sometimes forever. That is why I believe that teachers should compliment every dancer in their classes.

There have been times when I felt discouraged, especially when my dancers were not performing my choreography at the level I thought they could. I would become irritable. Why couldn’t they get it??  Maybe they would work harder if I corrected, drilled, and criticized them. So I would, and the whole class would begin scowling and I would soon realize that none of us were having fun. So I began to change my tactics. “Nice pointed toes!” I’d say. “Great energy! I love your smiles!” I wanted the dancers to leave the classroom beaming, proud of their own accomplishments. I realized that though my choreography could be altered, the dancers’ morale was hard to win back.

Early on in my 33 years of classroom experience I began training myself to seek the positive, to look for the good. I try to follow four basic rules whenever I am in the classroom.

1. Encourage yourself.
Before a day at the studio, I take some time to remember why I became a teacher. I tell myself that I am making a difference. If I am disheartened while teaching, I have nothing to give to my students. This is the first step in making my classroom a positive and safe place to be.

2. Be genuine.
Compliment out of sincerity. I once worked with someone who often conveyed a mixed message. Her words were kind but they lacked emotion, and her smile seemed more like a grimace. Psychologist and author Dr. Larry Crabb sums it up best (again, in Sutterfield’s Power of an Encouraging Word): “Real encouragement occurs when words are spoken from a heart of love.”

As the weeks progressed, this young student flourished in an environment of praise. Her eyes began to sparkle when she crossed the floor.

3. Use a proactive approach to problem solving.
It is easy to be quick to make negative conclusions, but understanding the truth of a situation often takes longer. A story that master teacher Gregg Russell shared with me is a perfect example: “I was teaching a tap class, and I remember seeing a young girl in the back of class with that ‘I don’t want to be here—this class is lame’ face. Back in the day, I would have let that get to me, would have made a snide comment to the class about it. On this day, I didn’t take that route. I went up to the young lady and asked, ‘Are you all right? Because you don’t look happy.’ She looked at me in amazement and said, ‘My feet hurt. My shoes are too small, but my mom won’t let me take them off.’ I was dumbfounded. Here I had taken it personally and it had nothing to do with me. I told her, ‘I am the tap teacher, and I am telling you to take your shoes off. I would rather have you take the class without your feet hurting than suffer through with shoes that are too small.’ I then went over to her mom and told her, and she was OK with it. The girl took the rest of the class and had a blast. It was such a learning experience for me, seeing how taking the positive, proactive approach resolves the problem and creates the class that I desire.”

4. Improve with kindness.
Words of encouragement are the most effective method of getting people to do their best. The greatest leaders in the world are those who can reach into the hearts, minds, and lives of other people, bringing out the best in them and building on their strengths. Find one good thing to point out about every dancer, even if it is a nice braid or pretty smile. Ken Sutterfield writes in the previously mentioned book, “Take the time to find something positive to commend your child for and you will discover both their ability and attitude improve.”

Following these simple rules has yielded results I never could have anticipated. When a girl I’ll call “Molly” first began attending my classes, I noticed how her eyes seemed to be permanently fixed on the floor. She never looked in the mirror and rarely met my gaze. I learned that she used to attend a studio where the teacher harshly critiqued her students and had no qualms about making Molly feel inferior to “better” dancers. I made it my personal goal to instill a sense of confidence and worth in Molly. As the weeks progressed, this young student flourished in an environment of praise. Her eyes began to sparkle when she crossed the floor, and I looked forward to those moments when a compliment would make her break into a huge grin.

Then one day Molly’s mom asked if I would pose with Molly for a picture to send to a contest she was entering called “My Everyday Hero.” Shortly after that I received two tickets to the Minnesota Orchestra. On a Sunday afternoon in November 2003, I sat in the audience as Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man filled the hall. Then I saw the picture of Molly and me on a huge screen and heard her shy voice read, “Miss Karin is awesome! She is not only my dance teacher but she is a special friend. I believe she is Heaven sent, . . . an angel. She makes me feel so confident and loved. Miss Karin is my everyday hero and I love her.” Tears were streaming down my cheeks. As the program progressed, I learned that three everyday heroes had been chosen: a dad, a grandpa, and me. I represented teachers everywhere and the impact we have on our students.

A quote from child psychologist Haim Ginott in Chicken Soup for the Teacher’s Soul rings so true to me: “I’ve come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It’s my personal approach that creates the climate. It’s my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a person’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a person humanized or de-humanized.”

I challenge teachers everywhere to take Ginott’s words to heart. Sit quietly in your living room or studio and listen to Fanfare for the Common Man and think of the tremendous influence you have every day. Be encouraged. You are changing the world, one dance student at a time. You are your students’ everyday hero.

Advice from four corners of the dance industry on what to expect if you go pro

By Joshua Bartlett

So you’re hoping for your first big opportunity—a job in the dance world. If you’re lucky enough to land it, what’s next? Whether it’s in a big ballet company or a Broadway show, or as a dancer on the L.A. media circuit, the jump from being a student to a professional often turns out to be a gigantic grand jeté.

Most experts in the field stress the need for newly minted professionals to take responsibility for their careers—keep up the training, stay focused, and constantly remain open to learning about professional life. Robbie Roby, the new dance captain for the Broadway show Hairspray (incidentally, his first job on Broadway) says that post-training life is an entirely new ball game. “In a college or training setting, your schedule is created for you,” says Roby. “You follow the pedagogy of the people around you to lead you to strengthening, conditioning, and flexibility. When you enter the field, you have to apply it to yourself. You are now in the business aspect of show business—you have to do your job and look good doing it. Nobody is going to tell you to go to dance classes or voice lessons.”

Claire Bataille, one of the original four dancers of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and now the director of its Lou Conte Dance Studio, says keeping up with daily company class is essential. “Dancers sometimes lose a certain work ethic the first year,” says Bataille. “It’s easy to fall into the mentality that taking class is just a warm-up for the day. Your whole performing career should hinge on that time when you are training. I tell my scholarship students that they are working at making themselves physically and mentally strong. You need a strong sense of who you are and what you are doing.”

Ashley Wheater, a ballet master with San Francisco Ballet, closely watches new corps de ballet members and pushes them to improve. “But because you are dealing with 80 dancers as opposed to a class of 12, it’s very different. These dancers also have to absorb a whole repertoire rather than just one or two ballets,” he says.

In Los Angeles, dancers in films, television, theater, industrials, and videos have to adjust to the whims of producers. Jim Keith, an agent for dancers and choreographers at DDO Artists Agency, recently held an audition for 300 people where at least 25 dancers, most “brand, spanking new” and ages 8 to 30, were signed on for representation. “When moving from the student to the professional level, I try to stress in our orientations how to separate the personal from the professional,” says Keith. “I talk about the fact that in L.A., it has little to do with how good you are in terms of technique. It’s more about who you know, how good you look, and how well you sell. Everything is very height-, race-, and age-specific. Once you leave the studio and go into the working environment, it changes from getting better to selling better.”

Talented students often carry over the “big fish in the little pond” mentality from their studio or school. “Sometimes it gets to people that they were the stars of their studio,” says Roby. “The truth is everybody at this level was the best performer in their level in their field. In Hairspray you are selected to be in the ensemble.” Roby counsels the dancers to allow six months to settle into their roles as little (but important) “fish” in a prestigious Broadway show.

Wheater thinks an insidious case of entitlement has crept into some new company members’ mentalities. “Kids who have done really well in school can’t figure out why they’re not getting soloist parts when they join the company,” he says. “I tell them you have to take everything you get seriously, with responsibility.” Showing a sense of responsibility and proficiency in corps de ballet work can earn you a promotion.

‘You are now in the business aspect of show business—you have to do your job and look good doing it. Nobody is going to tell you to go to dance classes or voice lessons.’ —Robbie Roby, Hairspray dance captain

One of the biggest challenges for newly employed dancers is the issue of pacing and remaining injury-free. “If you don’t work on specific flexibility, you’re going to hurt yourself,” says Roby, who cautions the Hairspray dancers to maintain their technique, even though the show requires them to look like non-trained dancers. “In the real world, if you pull a muscle, you’re out of the show and out of a paycheck.”

Whether learning tracks (specific dance parts) in a Broadway show or understudying a contemporary work of choreography, young dancers need to learn the importance of understudying. “If you are called to a rehearsal, you are expected to learn the role of the person you are covering instead of just sitting on the floor. There is always the opportunity when you are asked to get up and do it,” says Wheater, who points out that San Francisco Ballet allows choreographers free choice, so that a new corps de ballet member can potentially be cast in a soloist or principal role.

“You have to get over being second cast and get self-motivated,” says Bataille. Conversely, she also tells novices not to get too pushy and to respect the boundaries of the first-cast dancer’s space in the studio.

In the arena of salaries, the pay can range from minimal to substantial, depending on the type of job you land. For the 2007–08 season, apprentices at San Francisco Ballet make $536.46 per week; first-year corps de ballet salaries jump up to $983.27 weekly. Ensemble members of Hairspray make up to $1,500 per week.

In L.A., Keith says that income depends on one thing: marketability. “Dancers have to retrain their ears and eyes on what is current and what isn’t,” he says. “You have to act like you love that Gap jean jacket even if you don’t, or that can of Coke or that cheeseburger. Dancers in L.A. are hired to make people, places, and things look cooler and better so more people buy them.”

The most successful dancers, Keith says, are the ones who take the initiative to get in and be seen. “They find out which choreographers are working and take their classes. If they are cut from an audition, they stay in the room and see why they were cut.” He also stresses the importance of versatility. “The successful ones take hip-hop or salsa or flamenco or ballroom. The more you learn, the more you earn. A lot of dancers assume that because they have signed with an agency, they can relax. That’s just not the case.”

So what is the success rate of first-timers? Wheater thinks that if they can stick it out through the first year at San Francisco Ballet, they will stay or perhaps move on to another company. (Leaving a company after your first season, by the way, is not always a bad thing. Sometimes you find that another troupe suits you better.) Keith’s experiences in L.A. are little less optimistic. “I’d say 3 or 4 out of 30 stick it out, because they really are proactive, from fashions to headshots,” he says. According to Roby, the Broadway dancers most likely to succeed stay true to themselves and retain a positive, exuberant energy throughout their careers.

As for final words of advice in a field that can be daunting on a first outing, Bataille thinks that cultivating a life outside of dance is essential. “Because the days are long, your personal time is limited,” she says. “It’s important to maintain a personal life of some sort—whether it’s through books or movies or whatever—away from the routine. If you are in a touring company, your whole social circle is there. For mental health it’s important to be in touch with what’s happening in the world.” She also encourages young dancers to extract advice from anyone they trust, including members of management, peers, and current and former teachers. “Don’t be afraid to ask, ‘What will make me better or different?’ ” she says.

Like Bataille, Wheater encourages communication with management. “I tell the new dancers my door is always open. There are often times, because of the nature and size of the company, when you need someone to go to,” says Wheater, who also acts as assistant to the director, Helgi Tomasson. Watching the top dancers in the company and absorbing their strengths only makes for better maturation, he believes.

To keep being noticed, Roby suggests accentuating the distinctive nature of your personality and dancing. “We are looking for unique people,” he says. “Their individuality is what we are seeking.”

Editor’s note: At press time, Ashley Wheater had accepted a new position as artistic director of the Joffrey Ballet.

Themes, music, and staging ideas to jumpstart your imagination

By Rhee Gold

If you’re not already well on your way to planning next spring’s recital, these three recital theme starter kits may be just the thing to help you jumpstart your creativity. Along with ideas for the theme you’ll find creative production notes, suggestions for music selections, and ideas for choreography that will make your show special for your students as well as the audience.

Choose one of the themes we’ve come up with—“Let It Shine,” “Hometown Memories,” and “When I Grow Up”—and take the starter kit into a brainstorming session with your faculty and staff. Pick it apart and keep what you like—maybe come up with your own twist on the concept—then add everyone’s creative input and you’ve got the recipe for a successful show! Don’t be afraid to take chances or try something totally different than what you think your audiences expect. In some cases you may learn what not to do, but I’ve always found that most of the chances we take end up being what audiences remember most!

After you browse through the starter kits, turn to page 90 to find tips on how to make your next recital experience a smooth process from start to finish. But first, read on to learn the basics about downloading music from the Internet. Once you have familiarized yourself with music download sites, you’ll discover that an entire universe of music is right at your fingertips. Whether you purchase music from these sites or just use them for research, they are a valuable tool that today’s school owner can’t live without.

Recital Music Made Simple

Do you ever wish you could find all the recital music you’ll ever need? Here’s how!

Once you’ve decided on a theme or concept for your recital, visit any music download site, like iTunes. Don’t know what to do once you’re there? Let’s use the recital starter kit for the “Let It Shine” theme on page 84 as an example. Start with the keyword “shine”—you’ll find a couple of hundred options, and you can listen to 30-second snippets of each song. You can narrow your search by utilizing the “genre” search option on the site. I use the following breakdown as a guide for finding a song to suit a particular style of dance:

• ballet—classical, New Age
• tap—soundtracks, electronic, jazz
• modern or contemporary—alternative, New Age, spoken word
• jazz—blues, dance, pop, rock
• lyrical—Christian, gospel, easy listening, pop, vocal
• preschool or 10-and-under groups—children’s music (a huge selection!)

Next, cut and paste all the information for each tune that you’ve selected onto a spreadsheet; that way you can revisit all your options later, before narrowing the list down to your final choices.

After you’ve searched all the “shine” tunes, investigate further by using additional keywords that are related to that word, like “sun,” “moon,” “light,” “money,” “jewels,” and so on. Before you know it you’ll have more music options than you could ever use.

Now narrow down your list by listening to the complete song and all the lyrics. Sure, you’ve got to like the melody or the beat, but if the lyrics are x-rated you need to know that up front. If you can’t understand some of the words, plug the song title and the word “lyrics” into your browser, and chances are you’ll find the complete lyrics. If you love the song but not the words, you may choose to edit it or find an instrumental version; if not, drop it from your list. Go overboard with double the amount of music you think you will need, just in case you change your mind or want to offer your faculty several options. (If they are happy with their music they are more likely to produce a great piece.)

Finally, download your music selections or purchase the CDs. You’re ready to start choreographing!

Let It Shine

Here’s an opportunity to make your students shine! Music titles containing the word “shine” (or variations on it) number in the hundreds, making this feel-good theme open to endless possibilities. Don’t forget about gospel titles—an exciting, upbeat gospel number makes a great opener or closer and is always an audience pleaser. Set an upbeat yet mellow tone from the start by using “Let the Sunshine In” as an overture. Have the curtain rise slowly to reveal a painted backdrop of the sun, or project a photograph of a sunrise on a white traveler or scrim in front of the main curtain. The dancers could sing the song as they file through the auditorium from the back of the house, eventually landing onstage for the opening number.

Other ideas for music for this theme include songs about coins, jewelry, the sun, the moon, candles, Broadway, and Las Vegas. Simply take a look around you to explore what shines and include it in the show!

For Shine It On: Flashlights would make a cool prop for this opening number.
For “Planets and Stars”: Pull out the old disco ball to set an “out of this world” atmosphere onstage and throughout the auditorium.
For “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”: Not what the audience is expecting! This title’s mature contemporary style takes it to a new place.
For “Glow Worm Cha-Cha-Cha”: Florescent costumes, used with a black light, will enhance this routine. Or consider glow sticks as handheld props.
For “A Shine on Your Shoes”: Props could include shoeshine kits with rags.
For “Silver and Gold”: Dancers could decorate a Christmas tree with silver and gold garlands.
For “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend”: This hip‐hop version of the song is age appropriate.

Music	ARTIST	ALBUM	AGE LEVEL/STYLE OR TYPE
“Shine It On”	Liza Minnelli	The Act	Tap Production
“Planets & Stars”	Stephanie Bennett	Bardina’s Forest	10-and-Under Ballet
“Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”	Elizabeth Mitchell & Lisa Loeb	Catch the Moon	13+ Modern/Contemporary
“Glow Worm Cha-Cha-Cha”	Jackie Davis	Ultra-Lounge: Leopard Skin Sampler	All Ages Tap or Novelty
“Let Ya Light Shine Down”	H.O.O.D.	John P. Kee Presents: New Artist Showcase	13+ Christian Hip-Hop
“A Shine on Your Shoes”	Mel Torme	My Kind of Music	12-and-Under Tap/Adult Tap
“Silver and Gold”	Burl Ives	20th-Century Masters: The Best of Burl Ives—The Christmas Collection	Preschool
“Rise and Shine”	Rhonda Vincent	New Dreams and Sunshine	All Ages Tap/Clogging
“This Little Light of Mine”	Raffi	Rise and Shine	7 and Under (various)
“Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” (Silver 3D Mix)	Marilyn Monroe vs. The Millennium	Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend(remixes)	13+ Hip-Hop/Funky Tap

Hometown Memories

Take your audience on a nostalgic journey back in time, stirring up fond memories of their childhoods in their hometowns with this recital theme.

In addition to the music ideas included here, you can customize this theme by including landmarks or businesses from your school’s town. That could get your community involved in the production, which is always good for business and can be a lot of fun! If you go this route, consider using a photo of the downtown area on your program cover or projected on a screen as a backdrop. You could even choreograph a football or baseball number and include some of the home teams’ members. It’s a fun way to get some “celebrity” guys in your show, and it’s great for community goodwill—and ticket sales!

For Home On the Range  This version of an American classic is unique and makes a perfect accompaniment for a modern or contemporary piece for older dancers.

For Saturday in the Park Set the atmosphere with the dancers seated on park benches as the curtain opens. The benches add tons of choreographic possibilities as well as visual interest.

For Candy Shop At the end of this routine, the dancers could leave the stage and walk through the auditorium with baskets of candy to toss into the audience as they exit at the back of the house.

For Shop Around Shopping bags make fun props and may give you some imaginative ideas for choreography.

For The Telephone Hour Disguise a ladder as a telephone pole in the center of the stage. Attach toy telephones to it with elastic to create a visually interesting concept. The kids will have a blast!

For Ice Cream Shop Set this routine in an ice cream shop, complete with chairs and tables. For a unique and fun approach, put the tables on rollers. The dancers could tap while sitting and then get up and move the tables around as they dance.

PROGRAM SECTION TITLE	MUSIC	ARTIST	ALBUM	AGE LEVEL/STYLE OR TYPE
“My Hometown Rocks”	“Rock This Town”	The Brian Setzer Orchestra	The Dirty Boogie	All Ages Production
“Neighborhood Gossip”	“The Telephone Hour”	Original Broadway cast recording	Bye Bye Birdie	Ages 7–9 Musical Theater
“Candy Shop”	“Candyman”	Melody Sweeting	Sweet Nothings	12-and-Under Ballet
“By the River”	“Let the River Run”	Carly Simon	Carly Simon: Clouds in My Coffee 1965–1995	13+ Jazz/Lyrical/Contemporary
“The Mall”	“Shop Around”	Girl Authority	Girl Authority	Ages 7–9 Jazz/Tap
“My Home Town”	“My Home Town” (instrumental)	Mae Robertson and Don Jackson	All Through the Night	Preschool Ballet
“Ice Cream Shop”	“The Ice Cream Song”	The Sunshine Road	Rockin’ On Down the Road	Ages 7–9 Jazz/Tap
“High School”	“Rock ’n’ Roll High School”	The Ramones	Weird Tales of the Ramones	All Ages Jazz
“Fun in the Park”	“Saturday in the Park” (remastered version)	Chicago	The Very Best of Chicago: Only the Beginning	10+ Jazz
“Home on the Range”	“Home on the Range” (Cherokee Edition)	Tori Amos	God (EP)	13+ Modern/Contemporary

When I Grow Up, I’m Gonna Be . . .

All children dream about what they want to be when they grow up, and their parents share those dreams. Let your dance recital help them act out those dreams! 

It isn’t very often that a show can open with the preschoolers, but a production number featuring them performing to “When I Grow Up” would make a really cool opener. Music options for this title are endless; for inspiration, just ask your students what they want to be when they grow up. Use their answers as key words in searching for music.

Add a little sentimentality to your recital with a special number for the graduating seniors. The choreography could be set to their spoken words (maybe a poem) about their dreams for the future.

For Hero During this piece, project images of your dancers’ heroes (or local people who are serving in the military) on a scrim.

For On Broadway Add a cool touch to this piece by hanging head shots of the dancers, set in stars, from a fly rod.

For Please, Mr. Postman Enhance this concept by using mailboxes as props or set pieces for this number. Use metal mailboxes and hide a drumstick in each one. The kids can drum rhythms on them.

For Choo Choo Cha Boogie Take a theatrical approach with this piece by painting wooden boxes to look like suitcases. The dancers can use them as props and tap dance on them.

For Old MacDonald Had a Farm Turn this into a children’s production number with one class as the farmers and others being as the farm animals.

Program Section Title	Music	Artist	Album	Age Level/Style or Type
“When I Grow Up”	“When I Grow Up”	Shirley Temple	America’s Sweetheart, Vol. 1	Preschool Production
“A Broadway Star”	“On Broadway”	1995 original Broadway cast recording	Smokey Joe’s Cafe: The Songs of Leiber and Stoller	All Ages Jazz Production
“A Postman”	“Please Mr. Postman”	The Marvelettes	20th Century Masters, The Millennium Collection: The Best of The Marvelettes	12-and-Under Tap or Jazz
“The President”	“We Wanna Be the President”	Eddie Coker	Hmmm . . .	10-and-Under Jazz
“A Ballerina”	“Ballerina”	Brian Slawson	Boomer	Preschool
“A Hero”	“Hero”	Mariah Carey	#1’s	13+ Lyrical
“Rich”	“Rich Girl”	Gwen Stefani and Eve	Love. Angel. Music. Baby.	13+ Hip-Hop or Jazz
“A Mom”	“This Woman’s Work”	Kate Bush	The Sensual World	13+ Modern/Contemporary
“A Policeman”	“Mr. Policeman”	Kidsongs Kids	My Favorite Kidsongs Collection	7-and-Under Novelty
“A Magician”	“Make It Shine/Now That I Can Fly” (Magical DoReMi theme)	4Kids TV	Magical DoReMi Music, Vol. 1  (Single)	10-and-Under Jazz/Tap

By Rhee Gold

When it comes to recitals and other performances, successful school owners know that organization and professionalism are just as important as the dancers’ skill or the choreography. Clients expect school owners to be experts at running a show, especially those who have been in business more than a few years. So make a positive impression from the start of the season right through to the final bow. Here are a few tips to make that happen. Have a great show!

1. Be organized right from the start.
   Parents appreciate a smooth recital process. Create a recital handbook that covers everything from the expenses to the dates of dress rehearsals and performances. Distribute them at registration or during the first week of class. Include information about picture day, tickets, school policies, venue location and facilities, check-in/checkout procedures, and everything else you can think of to keep your clientele informed.
2. Order costumes in December.
   Eliminate the stress of late costume deliveries. Collect the costume deposits by December 1 and place the order before the holidays. Check your order confirmations thoroughly and promptly (the day they arrive is good) to confirm that the stock numbers, quantities, and sizes are correct. Have all of the costumes in order months before the show.
3. Limit the show to 2 1/2 hours or less.
   Follow this simple policy and your clientele will love you. That’s a guarantee!
4. Include music for every generation.
   Keep your audience engaged by including music for the grandparents, parents, young children, and teenagers.
5. Give audiences more than they expect.
   Put on an impressive show by including special lighting, backdrops, scenery, or multimedia elements. Parents love it when we make their kids feel like stars on their big day. Be sure to plan ways to enhance your production—after all, those happy parents are your happy customers.
6. Have extra everything.
   If you choose to use props, keep in mind that they might be broken or lost by well-meaning students (and sometimes the parents). Whether your show includes parasols, beach balls, or magic wands, have at least a couple of extras for the dress rehearsal and performances. Take it further by having extra tights, shoes, and hats, too.
7. Be business smart.
   Be so organized that you have the brochure for the following fall semester ready by the end-of-year show. Place a table in an easy-to-spot location and staff it with an informed, friendly person to answer questions, hand out brochures, and take new registrations before the recital, at intermission, and afterward.
8. Remember that a recital is a marketing tool.
   A good show with a happy audience and students who feel good about themselves is the best marketing tool for your school. Consider taking out some newspaper ads during the month prior to the performance to help bring the general public to your show.
9. Keep it about the kids (and not you).
   Long speeches by school owners are a no-no! First, they are one of the main reasons for a long recital. When you grab that microphone, that’s when people get out of their seats for a break—or to sneak out altogether. Make a nice speech at the dress rehearsal, when your audience consists of students and their parents and faculty members. It’s appropriate to say thank you and share your thoughts with people who will appreciate your words.
10. Always remain calm, cool, and professional.
    Being a pro at all times is the key! Your attitude sets the tone for everyone; if you are stressing out, then everyone else will too. If you have a “nothing is a problem” attitude (on the outside, at least), then everyone else will have it too. Try it—it works!

If you can do all that, have a post–dress-rehearsal reward waiting at home for you—maybe a glass of wine, your favorite chocolate, or a foot massage!

Costume companies answer frequently asked questions from school owners

Thanks to the following people for contributing to this article:
Sue Gordon, Algy Performance Collection
Art Stone, Art Stone/The Competitor
Mike Robertson, Costume Gallery
Carol Hazel, Curtain Call Costumes

Tina Burrows, DesignWorks
Aletia Ferreira, Ferreira Dance & Costumes
Michelle Bronner, Meekelle Costumes
Deborah J. Nelson, Satin Stitches Ltd.
Claudia Reed and Annie Beck, Weissman’s Designs for Dance

The dancers in a lyrical routine range in size from medium child through large adult, with a wide variety of body types. Is there a certain style or cut that will flatter all of them?

Algy Performance Collection: Look for a costume in an empire style with either a soft, knee-length cascade skirt or a regular skirt. This cut can make the heavier girls look thinner and the much thinner girls look a little fuller. Knee-length skirts also create the illusion of height on shorter students.

(Photos by Theresa Smerud)

Art Stone/The Competitor:

A wide range of sizes means that some costumes will not look as good on small children as on larger ones. Using different costumes in different colors will help to make everyone look good and feel comfortable.

Costume Gallery: An empire-style line camouflages many body flaws, such as large hips, thighs, and tummy, while elongating the legs and torso. The best length is just above or just below the knees.

Curtain Call Costumes: Black-and-white groups can be visually arresting, and then you can choose individual styles that flatter each dancer.

DesignWorks: A-line styles are flattering. Look for styles that cut in just below the bust line and flow out.

Ferreira Dance & Costumes: Interchangeable pieces—for example, boy shorts, capris, a skirt, or jazz pants with the same top—allow you to create an overall uniform look while flattering all the dancers individually.

Meekelle Costumes: Lyrical dresses with empire waistlines tend to be the most forgiving for any body type. They provide an updated look along with great movement around the hip area, taking the focus away from troublesome body parts. Also, a split-front skirt adds movement and draws attention away from problem areas.

Satin Stitches Ltd.: Always consider the least “perfect” body shapes when looking for costumes. But the key to being flattering is correct fit. No style will look flattering if the garment does not fit properly. Check to see which styles are offered in all the sizes you need. Always be considerate with the bigger girls, especially those with ample bust lines. Choose a style that allows them to wear supportive undergarments.

Weissman’s Designs for Dance: Styles with flowing skirts are always appropriate. Using different styles in the same fabrics creates continuity while allowing you to costume different body types appropriately.

My competition teams start their events at the beginning of March and I like to have the costumes a couple of weeks before that. When should I order the costumes to be sure they arrive on time?

Algy Performance Collection: Start shopping as soon as the costume books come out. Find out the companies’ ship dates and plan accordingly. Some companies offer styles with earlier delivery dates and state the availability on the catalog page. Provide your vendor with an actual date you need the costumes by, and contact them three weeks before that date to confirm on-time delivery.

Art Stone/The Competitor: For an early March delivery, have your orders in by mid- or even early December. This gives the company plenty of time to deliver and puts less stress on you.

Costume Gallery: Many costume companies keep current styles in stock. However, orders are processed on a first-come, first-served basis. We recommend that you place your order by December 1 to ensure delivery by mid-February.

DesignWorks: Most 0f the fabric used in recital costuming comes from overseas, forcing costume companies to purchase fabrics months in advance. The earlier you place your order, the shorter the manufacturing and shipping time will be. Place your order before the end of the year for the best ship times. Keep in mind that many companies require you to place a new order for exchanges (if in-stock is not available). Always give yourself four weeks of wiggle room.

Ferreira Dance & Costumes: We usually ask for four to six weeks to get an order out the door. If your events are at the beginning of March, order by January 4 and your costumes will be shipped on February 8.

Meekelle Costumes: We like to assure delivery in at least 10 to12 weeks at that time of year. So if costumes are needed in March, we would like to receive the order by the Christmas season.

Weissman’s Designs for Dance: For a ship date of mid-February, it would be safest to order costumes by early December; however, we have a broad selection of “Ready to Ship” costumes that can be found online or by calling your customer service representative.

Our school has a lot of male students and I’m tired of putting them in black pants and a shirt. Do you have any suggestions for how to break out of the box but still give the boys a masculine look?

Algy Performance Collection: The trend in costuming male dancers is toward a more theatrical look as opposed to just matching the girls. Dressing as a character or for a concept has become fashionable and can be created by looking at streetwear with a different eye. Many companies now have men’s shirt programs with multiple fabric choices for a customized look.

Art Stone/The Competitor: Look at all the catalogs. There is a larger selection for boys this year than ever before, with a big range of colors.

Costume Gallery: Depending on the dance genre, cargo pants are very popular with guys. This will create a contemporary look for your production, and the dancers can even wear them after the show.

Curtain Call Costumes: Cargo pants and stretch jeans are a great option. Also, ask costume companies if they will make special costumes for your male dancers.

Ferreira Dance & Costumes: Since fewer boys take dance classes, it is less cost-effective for costume companies to offer many styles of male dancewear. We suggest jeans, button-down shirts, and T-shirts.

Meekelle Costumes: Any color of top and most pants work on any male dancer, but take it slowly—keep them in black pants and start with a different colored top to mix things up a bit. Fashion magazines are a great source to show your male dancers the newest colors and styles and who is wearing them.

Satin Stitches Ltd.: The key to a masculine look in male dancers’ costumes is being well designed, well made, and well fitting. Inexpensive boys’ costumes don’t have the styling or structure to provide the masculine look you want. The closer the costumes look and fit like regular boys’ clothing—even if they are in nontraditional colors or fabrics—the more masculine they will look. Find a local dressmaker/tailor who can sew traditional boys’ clothes in colors and fabrics to coordinate with your girls’ costumes. Spandex can be sewn to look like regular clothes, but it doesn’t always need to be used. Bright stage colors can be used for boys’ pants, but they need to be made like street pants, not like girls’ costume pants.

Weissman’s Designs for Dance: Along with a series of tops in coordinating fabrics in a wide variety of colors, there are also pants in great colors that still look masculine. Add a splash of color with a necktie, available in sparkling colors and polka dots—an inexpensive way to coordinate with your girls’ costumes.

I have always wondered why costume company sizing charts are different. Can’t you all offer the same sizing?

Algy Performance Collection: Each company has invested thousands of dollars in patterns. The cost to standardize size charts would be astronomical.

Art Stone/The Competitor: Sizing charts for costumes are similar to charts in all fields. For example, most dress companies have different charts than their competitors. We would all love to use the same chart, but when the materials come from different suppliers, there are differences (for example, the stretch). And the variety of suppliers would make huge differences and cause more problems.

Costume Gallery: Apparel companies have created huge libraries of body measurements, which are used to develop patterns to create the best fit possible based on fabric characteristics. Unfortunately, no two companies have the same data. We have developed a class sizing/organizational chart to help you. Go to our website and click on “size chart” and then click on “download class sizing chart.”

DesignWorks: We do all of our patterning by computer, so our size charts are accurate. However, teachers should read fabric descriptions carefully since some fabrics (like those with a “wet” look) will be tighter fitting. Your sales representative is a valuable resource. Ask about fit and fabric before you buy!

Ferreira Dance & Costumes: Size charts are as arbitrary as the manufacturer wants them to be. We offer a “true-to-size” fit as well as an in-between size for wider-girth kids.

Meekelle Costumes: We use fit models (girls of all ages) for our sizes, so we stay within the junior sizing of all apparel. In addition, we use fit mannequins within our size chart to ensure fit in a range of sizes. However, not everyone wears a garment the same way as someone else.

Satin Stitches Ltd.: There is no standardization in any clothing. Each company creates its own sizing, based on its own expertise and feedback from customers.

Weissman’s Designs for Dance: Many of the top costume companies’ size charts are similar. The apparel industry publishes standard size charts, but costume companies find that customers’ bodies don’t necessarily fit these standards and are constantly trying to find their own best fit. For this reason they may vary somewhat in an effort to find the “ideal” standard size chart. Communicating your needs to your customer service representative helps us continue to attempt to meet your needs.

Last year a parent came to the studio with a copy of the costume catalog that I order from. She shared the wholesale prices of the recital costumes with the other parents at my school. Are there any measures in place to keep parents from getting your catalogs?



Algy Performance Collection: We work hard to protect the confidentiality of our price lists. Our websites are password protected and proof of business ownership is required before we will send a catalog out.

Art Stone/The Competitor: Costume companies try very hard to send catalogs to teachers only. But even when parents know what you pay and what you charge them, you should not feel intimidated. When a butcher buys meat at $3 a pound, he charges a markup for his work. Think about how much work you put into looking at catalogs, picking out costumes, measuring the students, and sending in the orders—and then all the time you spend on the phone with the suppliers. You are entitled to a fair markup.

Costume Gallery: We require proof of profession before we add a dance studio or organization to our mailing list. Maintaining confidential price lists for studio owners and teachers is a priority for us.

DesignWorks: That should never happen. We do not provide catalogs or price lists to anyone who is not listed as an authorized buyer in our database. We require proper identification before we will release information as well.

Ferreira Dance & Costumes: We have strict measures that request studio contact information and letterhead verification. There is no better way of regulating this business. Our website allows studio owners to unlock the prices with a code that is unique to that studio. Parents and students may view the costumes, but without the code they cannot view prices.

Meekelle Costumes: We send to owners, instructors, and directors (with appropriate signatures) with legitimate credentials only. The computer era has made this a difficult task, but we do check on every catalog request.

Satin Stitches Ltd.: Every dance studio needs to be straight with its clients. Most people understand that overhead and markups are needed to run a business. If you sell costumes, you need to explain that this is how your studio is able to cover costs and make a profit in order to stay in business.

Weissman’s Designs for Dance: We label our price booklets as “confidential” and put language in the catalogs that they are not to be sold online or otherwise distributed. But when we find one of our catalogs in an online auction, we purchase it ourselves. We have made a formal complaint about this activity; unfortunately, there are no laws governing this kind of thing.

Is there a good way to clean costumes that have sequins or rhinestones without damaging the garments?

Algy Performance Collection: Today’s sequins are more durable than ever. Hot-fix rhinestones stay on through gentle hand washing. The biggest problem with washing costumes is letting them soak. Most manufactures of gentle detergents say to wash for 2 minutes. If a garment is constructed with different colored fabrics, you need to be careful to keep them off one another when wet and especially when drying. Laying the garments flat to dry is usually your best bet. Blot wet costumes with one colorfast towel and let them dry on another.

Art Stone/The Competitor: Use a Tide or OxiClean stick to spot clean stains. If that fails, most costumes can be dry-cleaned. To remove odors, use Febreze.

Costume Gallery: All costumes should come with care labels; follow the instructions carefully. Unfortunately, many of the unique fabrics and trims used in costumes cannot be washed or dry-cleaned. If in doubt, talk with a professional at a local cleaner’s.

Curtain Call Costumes: Each garment should have cleaning instructions on the care label. If you need information about a specific garment, the customer service department of the company you purchased it from should be able to assist you.

DesignWorks: No heat on rhinestones or sequins, ever! Look for a product called Fresh Again, which will keep garments fresh without having to clean them after each use.

Ferreira Dance & Costumes: We always recommend spot cleaning until the performances are complete. Asking a reputable dry cleaner for advice is the best bet.

Meekelle Costumes: You can use a very mild detergent and hand wash or spot wash when necessary. Hang dry, because a lot of fabrics are heat sealed and react to heat more than you know. Deodorants and perfumes can cause stains that are impossible to get out; using a mild antiperspirant will minimize damage to the underarm areas.

Satin Stitches Ltd.: Each costume should have care instructions on it; if not, the information should be listed in the catalog. Our costumes include care instructions on the label, hang tag, and an instructional sheet that is shipped with each order. Check your orders for care information provided by the company. We post many articles on our website that address all aspects of costume laundering and care. Sequins should be able to be gently hand washed, but with rhinestones it depends on how they are applied. We use only Swarovski hot-fix rhinestones, which can be hand washed or dry-cleaned (as long as the fabrics that they are attached to can be too). Many of the glitzy Spandex fabrics cannot be dry-cleaned without losing their special finishes. Many fabrics cannot be washed easily, either. We always recommend gently spot cleaning when necessary and using a product such as Fresh Again to control odor.

Weissman’s Designs for Dance: Some professional cleaners may be able to clean your garments, but you must make sure that they are experienced with sequins and rhinestones. Most garments can be hand washed in cold water with a small amount of mild detergent and rinsed thoroughly. Roll them gently in a color-stable towel, then lie flat to dry.

Any additional thoughts or suggestions?

Costume Gallery: Check your order confirmation as soon as it arrives. If a mistake was made, it is much easier to correct it at that time than when you receive your order in April.

Curtain Call Costumes: If your choreographic ideas are not clear, consider browsing catalogs and letting the costumes be your inspiration. You may see a costume you fall in love with, and it can generate ideas for the piece. Use the costume as the starting point for the choreography and music.

DesignWorks: Do not let someone who has no experience with a measuring tape measure your students. You will be assured of a proper fit when you take accurate measurements. We recommend that measurements be taken with the students wearing a leotard and standing tall with feet together. Take the girth measurement first; it is the most important. Then move on to bust, waist, and hips. If the girth measurement is at the end of the size chart table for that size and the child is in a growth-spurt year, move up to the next size. Fit the students in their costumes as soon as possible to allow time for exchanges.

Ferreira Dance & Costumes: Understanding how the different companies operate and relying on positive past experiences could be a guide to successful costume ordering in the future.

Weissman’s Designs for Dance: Attending UDMA shows or visiting costume manufacturers through hosted preview events or by appointment is a wise investment of time. Our costume book replicates our fabrics as closely as possible, but some colors are not reproducible in four-color process printing. Some costumes have fabulous catalog appeal; others are stunning but do not photograph well. The relationships that studios build with costume manufacturers are worth the investment.

Knowledge is good—but is more knowledge better?

By Tom Ralabate

What does it mean to master something? As teachers, we strive for mastery so that we can impart our knowledge to our students in the most effective way possible. But how can we achieve it? We can assume that we will become masterful teachers in a given subject area by obtaining a master’s degree and continuing on to a doctoral degree. Acquiring extensive professional experience in a field might make one masterful, and attending a multitude of conferences and intensives to augment that experience might lead first to teaching proficiency, then to mastery. However, three degrees and a million workshops under your belt still might not be enough.

A major objective for dance educators is to deepen student learning in technique and styles. We need to make wise choices about the approaches we take to our teaching, our professional area of interests or research, and our connection to the world around us. Dance teachers in all sectors are currently tackling monumental challanges in dance education to become masterful teachers.

As an example, let’s look at jazz dance. My research interests include the study of comparative jazz styles and techniques and the multicultural histories and traditions that inform them. Jazz dance in the 21st century continues to blend and fuse traditional dance forms such as ballet, modern, ethnic/world, and tap with both old and new vernacular  movements. Today this blending is layered with movement influences acquired from the theoretical and practical study of dance somatics and dance sciences. In his book Jazz Dance: The Story of Vernacular Dance, historian Marshall Stearns states that the blending that we see in jazz dance “has been going on for years, and although no blend pleases everybody, the process is time-honored and the result—at any moment—may be truly great.” As this blending continues, it calls for dancers to cross-train in other dance idioms in order to be marketable in an industry whose choreographic demands are wide ranging.

For dance teachers this kind of blending necessitates an understanding of dance disciplines from technical, historical, philosophical, and aesthetic points of view. We need to ask ourselves some important questions:

• How important is it for dance teachers to recognize these changes and master various techniques and styles?
• Does the mixing and fusing of various techniques only confuse the student in the teaching process, negatively affecting their self-confidence and the desired learning outcomes?
• Should teachers be knowledgeable (informed) or very knowledgeable (masterful) in a specific teaching area of dance?

Before I tackle these questions, let us briefly discuss teaching and its application to technique and style. The word “technique” refers to the execution of movement in the sense of its shape and form. Are the legs turned out or parallel? Are the arms curved or extended? Is the neck protruding forward on the pirouette? The word “style,” as it applies to dance, refers to movement from an aesthetic or personal point of view with a focus on quality (movement texture) and dynamics (movement force) or the energized action of the movement. Do the legs have breath to them when they are extended? Does the spine have an undulating quality as the dancer travels through space? Is the port de bras liquid or static?

Furthermore, the teaching of dance involves understanding two important concepts: content (what to teach, or the subject matter) and the practical application of how to impart that content (the process). It’s easy to see the dilemma for a jazz teacher. Must I know about traditional jazz movement, its roots and codified jazz techniques such as those of Matt Mattox, Luigi, and Gus Giordano? Must I understand the lineage of vernacular movement from the past to the present? Must I learn how to survive in a hip-hop class? I would like to say yes, yes, yes, to all of the above; but for teachers of many dance forms it may be unrealistic to do this across the board for ballet, modern, tap, musical theater, and social dances as well.

Recognizing changes

In order to feel movement, one must become aware. Highly skilled performers who can express outwardly their inward sensations do so on a kinesthetic level. Teachers might not be highly skilled performers, but most of us aspire to be highly skilled educators. That means we must be knowledgeable about the traditions of the forms we teach. In addition, in order to teach well we must go beyond the scope of tradition and our craft and connect to the pulse of the world we live in. The experiences of students in a jazz class at the height of the 1970s disco era were very different than those of students in today’s computerized, information-based, mainstream hip-hop culture. Cutting-edge modern and jazz choreographers on concert stages, in the competitive dance arena, and in commercial dance are now finding ways to fuse and blend elements of hip-hop, taking movement to exhilarating and fresh approaches. Living in our own artistic boxes is a choice, but doing so can deprive us of the ability to implement exciting changes and possibilities.

It may be overwhelming to think of mastering the many techniques and styles within each dance subject. However, as educators, we become more comfortable when we are able to employ multiple methods and approaches in our teaching.

For me, the conscious creates an awareness that allows my subconscious to explode with creativity, only to be manifested once again in creative consciousness—a full circle of creative activity. You may not be the best krumping and clowning dancer (see filmmaker David LaChapelle’s documentary, Rize) or be an expert in locking and popping (take a look at Don Campbell and Boogaloo Sam); you may not excel in b-boying/girling or be a Brooklyn uprocker. But you are able to read about it, view it, or take a class about it, thus connecting the technique and style to your teaching and choreographing experiences.

Pedagogical confusion

It is not wise to mix schools of thought concerning technique and style when teaching beginning-level students. Teaching a 10-year-old beginner a Cecchetti-based ballet class one week, a Russian/Vaganova-based class the following week, and ending the month by drilling the basic French positions will cause nothing but confusion. The differences between Cecchetti and Russian, especially concerning the fixed points of the classroom or stage, are baffling enough for the beginner dancer. Only after creative repetition of the same information will the student move toward proficiency. Once this understanding is in place, teachers can begin to use comparative information from other schools of thought to expand and challenge the mental, physical, and aesthetic capabilities of the dancers.

At the DanceLife Teacher Conference last July, I discussed the importance of a well-designed syllabus to enhance teaching and augment communication between teachers and students. A syllabus articulates on paper the specific aims and objectives of the dance subjects and levels you teach. Your syllabus is a pedagogical road map that fosters clarity and the achievement of desired learning outcomes for your students. All state-licensed educational institutions of higher education are required to have syllabuses on record, and I encourage private studio educators to use them as well.

Knowledgeable vs. very knowledgeable

Although it might be unrealistic to be very knowledgeable (masterful) in every dance subject we teach, we must consider that when we teach from an informed-only knowledge base, we touch merely the surface of learning. Most likely we will develop only shallow processing and practical presentation skills. Teaching “deep learning” in the classroom is far more desirable. Over a period of time, teaching jumps and turns while drawing on a working knowledge of physics makes one masterful. Explaining the concepts of torque, line, and center of gravity in the context of physics gives the students more concepts to utilize when jumping and turning. Using strong imagery to teach alignment, placement, and posture aids in student understanding, but layering these processes with the workings of anatomy can make them more meaningful. Again, over a period of time, students will experience mastery through this deeper learning, giving them confidence and eventually allowing them to make this new information their own.

It may be overwhelming to think of mastering the many techniques and styles within each dance subject. However, as educators, we become more comfortable when we are able to employ multiple methods and approaches in our teaching. Maintaining your professional development by taking courses and finding the right dance conferences for you will inspire you to new heights. Even the most masterful teachers and the most diligent students need to step beyond their comfort zones in order to make new discoveries.

Want to be fully prepared for your next recital? Add safety to your checklist.

By Debbie Werbrouck

Auditorium rental agreement? Check. Costumes? Check. Music? Check. Backstage workers? Check. You’re well on your way to being prepared for your recital, right? Yes, you are—if you add another element to your checklist: safety. Being prepared for all the “what if”s that could happen at a performance can save the day from disaster. And failing to do so can ruin your long-planned-for performance, big time. But taking safety precautions means more than having Band-Aids and an ice pack on hand. To really be prepared you’ve got to think big and keep a sharp eye out for trouble.

Security issues
Accepting responsibility for your students’ safety means anticipating any possibility of danger. Security issues are your greatest concern. If you promote your shows (and you should), you are letting people other than the dancers’ relatives and friends know about them. Any gathering of children presents an opportunity for predators. There’s no reason to feel overly fearful or threatened—it’s unlikely that anything bad will happen—but understanding the risks involved when large groups of children are together is plain smart. Make sure you have procedures in place that will prevent strangers from entering the backstage area or having contact of any kind with the students.

Limiting access to the students is also important in terms of custody issues. Not all divorced or separated parents will inform you about custody arrangements, and you would be justified in letting a student be picked up by either parent unless you knew about the situation. Don’t rely on the students to refuse to go with a parent who does not have custody of them; they may feel intimidated by the parent or want to please them. It’s a good idea to have parents fill out a form stating who is legally allowed to pick up their children.

There are as many different ways to handle students backstage as there are schools, but your main goal should be to provide safety and security to your students, along with assistance and monitoring, of course. At my school, we adjusted our backstage procedure to heighten our level of security several years ago when my friend, Paula Aubry of Bourbonnais, IL, described the method she uses. With this system, entering the backstage area and the dressing rooms is possible only through a check-in desk. All other entrances are closed and monitored while students are present. Only staff and performers are allowed backstage, and all staff members, both in-house and parent volunteers, wear identification tags.

The check-in procedure works like this: Each student in the performance has a card with their name and the show number (or numbers) of the dances they will be performing, which we keep in alphabetical order in a box at the check-in table. When the students arrive for rehearsals or performances with their parents, we sign them in and give the parent the card as a kind of claim check. The students are then escorted to the appropriate dressing room. Any cards left in the box let us know when someone is absent. When the rehearsal or performance is over, the parents present their claim checks and the escorts retrieve the students from backstage and deliver them to the parents. After rehearsals the card is returned to the box until the next use. After the recital, and after the child has been returned to the parent, the card is torn in half so that it cannot be used again. The process is the same for older students who arrive at the theater without a parent except that they take and turn in their own claim-check cards.

During their time backstage, students are monitored by “class moms” who are assigned to a particular group. Other backstage assistants are there to oversee all proceedings and lend a hand with the inevitable challenges.

At dress rehearsals, students are released after they have performed their last dance so that younger children have a short time backstage. For the recital, though, all students must remain backstage until the end of the performance. We state that policy on the costume order/recital registration form, which parents must read and sign.

Depending on your rental facility, security may be available or even required. The extra charge for it may seem excessive—until that one time when you need it. If security is not available, you might want to consider hiring your own. You can usually find off-duty officers who do this type of work. By going this route, you know that they have the experience to handle any situation. With facility-provided security people, you don’t always know what you’re getting and sometimes you have no choice in the matter.

There are as many different ways to handle students backstage as there are schools, but your main goal should be to provide safety and security.

Performance environment
After you are comfortable with your planned security measures, take a look at the performance venue environment. Hazards can be found in even the most professional theaters. Some school theaters are the worst offenders.

Lights, props, and tools should be cleared from passageways, wings, and onstage areas. Check for loose cords or other tripping hazards, and don’t assume that the crossover behind the back curtain or cyc is free of obstructions. And then there is the issue of the floor surface. You might be lucky enough to have a stage floor that is solid, smooth, and not too slick. Great! If not, you will need to address any of those problems. Slippery or uneven floors are dangerous, and older, softwood floors have been known to snag costumes and implant splinters in feet. If the facility you are renting doesn’t have a dance floor and you don’t own one, you might want consider renting one.

As students are learning their dances in class, they should also learn about the stage on which they will dance. Marking the studio floor with colored tape will acquaint the students with sight lines and correct spacing (and hopefully prevent younger children from moving too close to the edge of the stage). Teach students to be aware of moving curtains and drops and remind them that to avoid injury they must be prepared to step out of the way of any moving scenery. One way to minimize the risk of injuries is to fly everything at half speed during the first onstage rehearsal. Then, once everyone knows when, where, and how fast a curtain or drop moves, you can rehearse at the proper speed.

All teachers want their school’s performances to be impressive and unique, and as a result they may include a variety of props, scenery, or special effects. Some even use pyrotechnics in the form of flash pots. When working with children, extra care must be taken to ensure that no one gets injured. Be sure that all props are safe and age appropriate. For example, umbrellas and wands make fun props, but they are potentially hazardous when put in the hands of young children, especially preschoolers.

Supervision
All faculty and staff should always be on hand when students are on the stage. We have the group’s instructor and demonstrator, at least two runners, and the supervising mom in the wings for each dance. The runners and moms bring the students to the staging area and remain with them as they make their way to the wings. The class moms then view the dance from the wings (a privilege designed to attract good volunteers).

Personal items
Another safety issue in the dressing rooms or staging areas is spills of food or drinks. Do not allow food and drinks in these areas; spills on costumes are annoying, but on floors they can pose a true hazard. Limiting what students are allowed to bring with them helps to avoid problems. It’s also a good idea to ask students to leave valuables at home or with parents to avoid possible losses.

Weather
With all of the things that can go wrong inside the theater, you might not think that your productions can be affected by outside forces as well. Certainly many studio owners have dealt with sudden downpours that soak the performers, their costumes, and their beautifully done hair as they make their way into the theater. But weather can pose far more serious threats. I have had the experience of dealing with severe weather during shows on two occasions, when we were warned about possible tornadoes. In such cases you must know what to do with the performers and the audience in case evacuating or taking shelter becomes necessary. In one of those tornado alerts, we planned that everyone would assemble in the windowless cafeteria, which was also the staging area for our students. In the other, we discovered that access to the shelter was through a very claustrophobic tunnel under the stage, and we informed the staff accordingly. Make sure you know which areas of the building would provide a safe haven for everyone involved.

Medical care
With all of the other safety considerations, don’t forget about the basic first-aid kits. You should have more than one, depending on how many students there are, how many rooms students are in, and how far apart the rooms are. The kits should include antiseptic wipes, Band-Aids, bandages, instant ice packs, elastic wrap, scissors, tweezers, and washcloths. Extras might include sanitary items, clear nail polish, nail polish remover, cotton balls, and needle and thread. Small, portable containers filled with these items can be kept and used at the studio and taken with you to the auditorium at recital time.

It’s a good idea to have a nurse as one of your backstage assistants if possible. It shouldn’t be too difficult to find one in your parent population. You probably won’t need their services, but having them present will make you and everyone else feel more comfortable. And sometimes they’re invaluable. At one of my school’s performances, a parent who was a nurse called my attention to a child with bumps all over her face and arms. The little girl had chicken pox, but her mother had told her not to tell anyone because she wanted her to perform. We separated the student from the others and summoned the mother from the audience to take her child home.

Now that you understand the scope of safety issues related to recitals and other performances, make a list of concerns and how you plan to address them before your school’s next show. If you’re a one-person operation, plan to address a few things at a time; eventually you will accomplish them all. If you have a staff, assigning specific tasks to them will ensure that all bases will be covered. By thinking through your possible needs now and preparing for them, you, your staff, and your customers will feel prepared and relaxed when showtime rolls around.

Dance Studio Life readers on the greatest gifts their dance teachers gave them

Cheri Cameron, Cameron School of Dance, Greenfield Park, Quebec, Canada
The confidence that I can do whatever I want in life. No hurdle was too big that it could not be accomplished with hard work. This even affected my schoolwork. I took pride in what I accomplished.

Eilleen Mallary, Lisa’s School of Dance, Chicago, IL
I was a late bloomer who couldn’t afford classes when I was younger. I took my first class in my freshman year of college. Not only did my teacher start me on the road to dance, but she started me on the road to teaching too. Having the opportunity to walk into the studio every day is a gift beyond repayment.

Dan Barris, Ocean Centre East Dance Theatre, Manasquan, NJ
The knowledge that beyond my hometown was a whole world waiting for me. Being a male dancer is difficult when you are in a small city. It was a tough road for a couple of years. I remember being angry with my mother because she told my dance teacher everything I was going through. He was the only person that could get through to me. He was one of those exceptional people that believed the money that parents pay isn’t only for classes, but for life lessons as well. He never gave up on me.

Elaine Godburn, Five Pointes Dance Center, Inc., Farmville, VA
Discipline and a “never say never” attitude. I was never the best dancer, but I had the love of dance and the drive to stick with it. My teachers instilled discipline and “stick-to-it-ness.” This has helped me immensely with my students who are not the most technically gifted but who have the heart and desire to dance.

Laurel Ashbee-Rodgers, Expressions Dance Centre Inc., Whitby, ON, Canada
There is more to the dance world than just the dance-studio world. The real eye-opener was leaving my little dance school and learning that it’s important to value every dance teacher out there. We can learn from one another, regardless of which style we prefer.

Linda Andrews, Dance Connection, New Rochelle, NY
My ballroom dance coach gave me a great gift when he told me I should be teaching and that he would train me. The next gift he gave me was helping me to reach higher—instead of saying it couldn’t be done he would say, “Why not? Let’s figure out a way.” Now when my students say something is too hard, I encourage them reach a little further and see that they can do it.

Lynda Cadarette, Sturbridge, MA
I come from a poor family. My mom worked hard and couldn’t always be there to be sure that we were doing what we should have been doing. My dance teacher, Debbie Sichol, gave me a place where I was important. I started teaching young, and the admiration that I got from the students kept me out of trouble. Miss Debbie gave me a sense of self-worth that has shaped my entire life.

Missy Steers, Inertia, The School of Dance, Inc., O’Fallon, MO
Self-confidence. The best lesson I got was the day I had to give myself a grade for my independent study. I gave myself a B and my teacher asked me why not an A. She said I could do this and that I needed to pursue what was in my heart and not doubt myself or discredit my work.

Nancy Whyte, Nancy Whyte School of Ballet, Bellingham, WA
When I was 9, my family had to move to a town where there was no dance. My teacher opened a branch of her school in that community; otherwise I would not have been able to continue my studies. She gave me my life.

Stephanie Steinmeyer, Hawthorn Dance and Gymnastics, Versailles, MO
Reality. I was one of the big fish in a little pond. Lisa Young, a college dance teacher, helped me to realize my fullest potential by realizing I had a lot to learn.

Dorie Duvall, Dance Arts Conservatory, Wellington, FL
Self-esteem, but more than that. I was a perfectionist, and if I didn’t get it just right I would pout horribly. One summer my teacher told me that if I ever did that again, I would not perform with her program again. It was just what I needed to find the permission with myself to feel purposeful and esteemed. The lessons she taught me that summer about making powerful, mindful choices have touched me for a lifetime.

Rachel Roberts, Momentum Dance, Tulsa, OK
A correction. I have gotten millions of them, and I consider all of them huge gifts that have led me to be the dancer and teacher I am today.

Amy DeFeudis, Dance Designs, Inc., Hyannis, MA
At 18, I was frustrated when I didn’t get the big jobs (or any jobs) right away. My dance teacher told me I would make a great teacher and began training me. It was the greatest time of my life. I still remember the first time I held my own class—that understanding that this was what I was meant to do.