Posts Tagged ‘dance studio life’

Dance Studio Life, a magazine with a back-to-basics approach, is a division of the Rhee Gold Company, whose mission is to be at the forefront of dance and education by promoting the highest possible standards in teaching. Dance Studio Life understands the soul of the teaching field.

COLUMNS
Ask Rhee Gold Advice for dance teachers
2 Tips for Ballet Teachers | At the Barre By David Arce
2 Tips for Hip-Hop Teachers | Slides By Geo Hubela
2 Tips for Modern Teachers | Discovering the Spine By Bill Evans
2 Tips for Tap Teachers | Turns and Flaps By Gregg Russell
A Better You | Shape Up for Summer By Suzanne Martin, PT, DPT
EditorSpeak By Karen White and Lisa Okuhn
FYI What’s Up In the dance community
On My Mind | Words from the Publisher By Rhee Gold

DEPARTMENTS
Classroom Connection  By Debbie Werbrouck and Debra Danese
Ideas to incorporate into your curriculum
Click! | A new look for the DanceLife Retreat Center website  
Online must-sees from the Rhee Gold Company
Mail Words from our readers
Mindful Marketing | Tempting Adults With Tap By Thelma Goldberg
Teacher in the Spotlight | Lisa Swenton-Eppard Teachers who make a difference  
Thinking Out Loud | Dancing Again, Ballroom Style  By Lois O’Brian

FEATURES
Ballet Scene | Ballet Meets Ethnic in Atlanta By Mary Ellen Hunt
Ballethnic’s uncommon blend of African and European dance.
Bright Biz Idea | Business No-Brainer By Julie Holt Lucia
Better at choreographing than accounting? Let a financial whiz handle the numbers.
Capturing the Truth By Joseph Carman
Rose Eichenbaum’s personal view of the icons of dance.
Dancing Big By Ryan P. Casey
Jimmy Locust’s kid-oriented mission matches his high -energy career.
Hooked on Horton By Eliza Randolph
Ana Marie Forsythe on Lester Horton’s legacy and the need for codified modern dance.
Inside the Dancer By Kerry Ring
Why you should learn what makes your students soar or stumble.
Making Space for Modern By Bonner Odell 
Why offer modern dance? Five reasons to get you motivated.
Tap Festivals
A guide to 2013 tap festivals in the U.S. and abroad
Tap Pups, Top Dogs By Kay Waters
Teaching older students new tricks.
You Say ‘Modern’… By Jennifer Kaplan
I say ‘contemporary.’ Rethinking the nature of ever-evolving dance.
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Dance Studio Life, a magazine with a back-to-basics approach, is a division of the Rhee Gold Company, whose mission is to be at the forefront of dance and education by promoting the highest possible standards in teaching. Dance Studio Life understands the soul of the teaching field.

COLUMNS
Ask Rhee Gold Advice for dance teachers
2 Tips for Ballet Teachers | Rigor and Nuance By Mignon Furman
2 Tips for Hip-Hop Teachers | The Shoulder Bounce By Geo Hubela
2 Tips for Modern Teachers | Investigations By Bill Evans
2 Tips for Tap Teachers | Shuffles and Pullbacks By Gregg Russell
A Better You | Getting Out with Grace By Suzanne Martin, PT, DPT
EditorSpeak By Karen White and Lisa Okuhn
On My Mind | Words from the Publisher By Rhee Gold

DEPARTMENTS
Classroom Connection  By Kerry Ring and Lizanne McAdams-Graham
Ideas to incorporate into your curriculum
Click! | New DanceLife Teacher Conference website
Online must-sees from the Rhee Gold Company
FYI What’s up in the dance community
Mail Words from our readers
Mindful Marketing | Marketing Ideas for Summer By Teri Mangiaratti
Teacher in the Spotlight | Erin Spriggs Teachers who make a difference  
Thinking Out Loud | Hip-Hop Gold  By Carol Crawford Smith

FEATURES
Ballet Scene | Russia Calling By Joshua Bartlett
For authentic Vaganova training, head to St. Petersburg.
Bright Biz Idea | Rehearsals Made Simple  By Karen White
Online scheduler takes the pain out of private rehearsal planning and payment
Higher-Ed Voice | Dance Steps, Next Steps By Lisa Okuhn
A San Francisco school helps teens navigate the path to college dance programs.
Kicking Off Summer By Megan Donahue
In five short weeks, Kick Start gets kids jazzed for fall.
Stay-at-Home Summer Dance Intensive By Julie Holt Lucia
How to challenge and transform dancers right in your own backyard.
Summer Inspiration on a Shoestring By Julie Holt Lucia
Do-it-yourself staff development and continuing education.
Summertime Teacher Training 
Your guide to workshops and intensives across the U.S. and beyond.
Top of the Class By Jennifer Kaplan
Never mind the trophies and the technique-dance honor societies value effort and commitment

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Dance Studio Life, a magazine with a back-to-basics approach, is a division of the Rhee Gold Company, whose mission is to be at the forefront of dance and education by promoting the highest possible standards in teaching. Dance Studio Life understands the soul of the teaching field.

COLUMNS
Ask Rhee Gold Advice for dance teachers
2 Tips for Ballet Teachers | Pas de Cheval By Mignon Furman
2 Tips for Hip-Hop Teachers | Muscle Control By Geo Hubela
2 Tips for Modern Teachers | Focus on Intent  By Bill Evans
2 Tips for Tap Teachers | Clean and Simple By Stacy Eastman
A Better You | Say What? Putting a halt to hearing loss. By Suzanne Martin, PT, DPT
EditorSpeak By Cheryl A. Ossola and Karen White
On My Mind | Words from the Publisher By Rhee Gold

DEPARTMENTS
Click! | Online must-sees from the Rhee Gold Company
Join Rhee Gold on Twitter
Classroom Connection By Michele Monaghan and Holly Derville-Teer
Ideas to incorporate into your curriculum
Strength in Numbers
Dance teacher organizations- where to team up, share ideas, and be heard
Thinking Out Loud | Feedback Frenzy By Holly Derville-Teer
Teacher in the Spotlight | Aradia of Las Vegas
Teachers who make a difference
Mail Words from our readers
Mindful Marketing | Selling a Message By Misty Lown

FEATURES
ADF Abroad By Jennifer Kaplan
Modern-dance ambassadors bring American methods and ideas to the world.
Ballet Scene | Moving With the Mouse By Joshua Bartlett
Angelina Ballerina finds a new home at North American dance schools.
Bright Biz Idea | Sister Studios By Misty Lown
Sharing a teacher, sharing success.
Flying Down to Rio By Jennifer Kaplan
Step aside, Fred and Ginger-Brazil opens its arms to student dancers.
Mind Games By Kerry Ring
Physical excellence takes mental preparation.
Of the People, for the People By Brian McCormick
At BYU, international dancing is a 50-year tradition.
Russia’s Contemporary Culture By Meg Brooker
Exploration and self-expression take post-Cold War dance beyond ballet.
Two Halves, One Whole By Arisa White
Mexico and India meet onstage in a blend of dance and culture.
Work of the Heart By Joshua Bartlett
Preserving the traditions of Northwest Canada’s aboriginal dance.

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Dance Studio Life, a magazine with a back-to-basics approach, is a division of the Rhee Gold Company, whose mission is to be at the forefront of dance and education by promoting the highest possible standards in teaching. Dance Studio Life understands the soul of the teaching field.

COLUMNS
Ask Rhee Gold
Advice for dance teachers
2 Tips for Ballet Teachers | Pointe Prep By Mignon Furman
2 Tips for Hip-Hop Teachers | Music and the Mirror By Geo Hubela
2 Tips for Modern Teachers | The Whole Dancer By Bill Evans
2 Tips for Tap Teachers | 5-6-7-8 By Stacy Eastman
A Better You | Bodywork By Suzanne Martin, PT, DPT
The healing power of touch
EditorSpeak By Karen White and Cheryl A. Ossola
On My Mind | Words from the Publisher By Rhee Gold

DEPARTMENTS
Thinking Out Loud | New School, New Outlook By Chanel Lacasse
Teacher in the Spotlight | Sandra Balestracci Teachers who make a difference
Classroom Connection By Kerry Ring and Karin Wilde-Berry
Ideas to incorporate into your curriculum
Mindful Marketing | Tumblr Talk By Julie Holt Lucia
Click! | Online must-sees from the Rhee Gold Company
Mark Your Calendars for the 2013 Dance Life Teacher Conference.
Mail
Words from our readers

FEATURES
Ballet Scene | Bohemian Ballet By Mary Ellen Hunt
Ballet teacher Augusta Moore’s approach includes yoga and Feldenkrais principles.
Bright Biz Ideas | The Future Is Now By Misty Lown
Why offering employee benefits is a smart move in building your school’s stability and strength.
Giving ‘Em Love By Rita Felciano
San Francisco International Hip Hop Dancefest’s 14-year love affair with dance

Keeping It Fresh By Eliza Randolph
Husband-and-wife jazz dance teachers make “old school” relevant for young dancers.
The Heights of Hip-Hop By Karen White
At Phunk Phenomenon, hope and potential offer reasons to dance.
Higher Ed Voice |Jazzed by Jump Rhythm By Maureen Janson
Thanks to teacher Jeannie Hill, jazz dance at UW-Stevens Point has a Siegenfeld twist.
Introspective Leadership By MaryBeth Kemp
Improve your business by examining how you work.
Jazzed About Teaching By Kory Geller
A young dancer’s transition from learner to teacher and back again
Luigi By Joshua Bartlett
A dance legend and his game-changing style are still jazzing up dancers’ lives.
Strength in Numbers
Dance teacher organizations-where to team up, share ideas, and be heard

Mignon Furman with students; photo courtesy DSL

The Rhee Gold Company staff is in mourning today for Mignon Furman, a long-time Dance Studio Life writer and DanceLife Teacher Conference faculty member who died yesterday, December 4.

A funeral service was planned for this morning at 11am at the Carlebach Shul, 305 West 79th Street, New York City, followed by a burial at the Beth David cemetery in Elmont, New York.

Furman, founder and director of the American Academy of Ballet in New York, had written the popular “Two Tips for Ballet Teachers” column in DSL since July of 2007, and she was a good friend of Rhee Gold and many ballet teachers across the country.

Her ballet career started in South Africa where she danced with the University of Cape Town Ballet Company in ballets such as Les Sylphides, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Prince Igor, c, and other classics. She studied ballet in London, England, with Anna Northcote (Severskaya) and modern dance with Sigurd Leeder. On her return to Cape Town, she started her own ballet school with one student; it soon grew to be one of the largest ballet schools in South Africa, with a staff of 10 and more than 600 students. She founded both the Cape Town Ballet and the Port Elizabeth Youth Ballet.

She served as senior lecturer and acting director at the University of Cape Town Ballet School. Her excellence as an instructor and also a teacher trainer was recognized when she was nominated for the Distinguished Teacher Award out of the university’s entire academic faculty of 1,200 lecturers and professors.

Furman also founded and directed the University of Cape Town Youth Ballet, taught and choreographed in London, Tel Aviv, Paris, and Cannes, and served for four years as administrator of the Royal Academy of Dance USA in the early ’90s.

At her own American Academy of Ballet she ran a highly-respected summer intensive program for pre-professional dancers, and also created the Performance Awards, a program used by ballet programs around the world for recognizing students’ accomplishments.

Waiting in a long holiday shopping line? Need a break from tree trimming? Check out the November issue of Dance Studio Life magazine now online and rejuvenate yourself with a hearty “Leap into Creativity.”

Along with helpful technique hints, marketing suggestions, and classroom strategies, this issue contains fun and fascinating features on topic such as: the Gelsey Kirkland Academy, classroom accompanists, Gaga movement, teaching expressiveness, and Boston Ballet’s Adaptive Dance. Interested in learning how to do professional-quality in-studio photography? Curious about the growing art of aerial dance? Or check out this odd couple: we found a dance studio that doubles as a furniture store.

And, as always, Rhee Gold dispenses a month’s worth of wisdom and advice in his popular “Ask Rhee Gold” column. Visit http://www.dancestudiolife.com/2012/11/november-2012-dance-studio-life/ to read all about it!

Dance Studio Life, a magazine with a back-to-basics approach, is a division of the Rhee Gold Company, whose mission is to be at the forefront of dance and education by promoting the highest possible standards in teaching. Dance Studio Life understands the soul of the teaching field.

COLUMNS                                                                                                                          

Ask Rhee Gold
Advice for dance teachers.
2 Tips for Ballet Teachers | Fouetté Fundamentals By Mignon Furman
2 Tips for Hip-Hop Teachers | Artistic Vision By Geo Hubela
2 Tips for Modern Teachers | Strong and Liquid By Bill Evans
2 Tips for Tap Teachers | Early Steps in Improvising By Stacy Eastman
A Better You | Dealing With Doubt By Suzanne Martin, PT, DPT
Make a positive impression by nurturing a strong self-image.
EditorSpeak By Karen White and Lisa Okuhn
On My Mind | Rhee Gold
Words from the publisher.

DEPARTMENTS
Thinking Out Loud | Virtual Rehearsal
By Maureen Janson
Teacher in the Spotlight | Rachel Good
Teachers who make a difference
Classroom Connection By Debra Danese and Alice Korsick
Ideas to incorporate into your curriculum.
Mindful Marketing | A Birdie on Your Shoulder
By Julie Holt Lucia

FEATURES
Ballet Scene | Teaching Young Eagles to Soar By Joshua Bartlett
Classical training meets the art of storytelling at Gelsey Kirkland Academy.
Bright Biz Ideas By Eileen Glynn
Tea Dances and Coffee Tables
Studio Sidekicks By Ross LeClair
Classroom accompanists’ perspective on dance education.
Cultivating Creativity By Jennifer Kaplan
Three programs that nurture the next generation of choreographers.
Restored Glory By Karen White
Historic drops and drapes get a facelift from Curtains Without Borders.
Through the Lens of Gaga By Jennifer Kaplan
Modern movement language speaks to textures, instincts and sensations.
Intent and Expressiveness By Don Halquist
Teaching students to dance with the mind as well as the body.
The Joy of Movement By Mary Grimes
Boston Ballet gives students with Down syndrome the chance to dance.
Photo Fun By Pierre Lacasse
With some know-how and a good digital camera, school photo opportunities abound.
Daring Young Dancers By Rita Felciano
Taking movement to its heights with aerial dance.

Dance Studio Life, a magazine with a back-to-basics approach, is a division of the Rhee Gold Company, whose mission is to be at the forefront of dance and education by promoting the highest possible standards in teaching. Dance Studio Life understands the soul of the teaching field.

COLUMNS
Ask Rhee Gold
Advice for dance teachers
2 Tips for Ballet Teachers | Developing Trust By Mignon Furman
2 Tips for Hip-Hop Teachers | Watch and Learn By Geo Hubela
2 Tips for Modern Teachers | Energy Paths By Bill Evans
2 Tips for Tap Teachers | Amping It Up By Stacy Eastman
A Better You | Wobble Your Way to Strength By Suzanne Martin, PT, DPT
Give feet and ankles a boost with balance boards.
EditorSpeak  by Cheryl A. Ossola and Karen White
Retrain Your Brain | Elephants Are Easier
On My Mind |Rhee Gold
Words from the publisher
  

FEATURES
Shared Seclusion By Karen White
At the DanceLife Retreat Center, common ground, creativity,
and wisdom make for good times and lasting connections.
Lights Up! By Brian McCormick
From lighting to backdrops, professional-looking productions
keep audiences-and students-coming back for more.
No-Sweat Recital By Shannon O’Brien Marshall
Beat the heat and cruise through spring with a fall recital.
2-Way Street for Studio Owners By Misty Lown
A conference connection turns to mentorship, and more.
Beyond the Comfort Zone By Jennifer Kaplan
Spice up your studio’s offerings with guest teachers.
One-Stop Shopping By Karen White
Bundling fees means simplicity and convenience, all in one package.
Big Groups + Big Plans = Huge Impression By Gregg Russell
To make ensemble pieces sizzle, not fizzle, think like a director.
Shelter from the Burnout Storm By Holly Derville-Teer
Three school owners tell what to do when the deluge hits.
Moveable Dance By Eileen Glynn
In Atlanta, Dance Truck brings dance anywhere it wants to go.
Recital Rescues By Megan Donahue
How to go on when the going is tough.
Higher-Ed Voice | “I Can Do That!”  By Kerry Ring
How to help auditioning students shine.
Ballet Scene |Magaly’s Magic
Cuban-style training and warmth draw top dancers to Pompano Beach.
By Quinn B. Wharton

Gregg Russell; photo courtesy DLTC

Emmy-nominated choreographer and master tap teacher Gregg Russell will be sharing his insights into tap education each month as part of Dance Studio Life magazine’s “Two Tips for Tap Teachers” feature.

Russell, who will also be teaching at next summer’s DanceLife Teacher Conference, has joined the magazine’s esteemed “tipsters” Bill Evans (“Two Tips for Modern Teachers”), Mignon Furman (“Two Tips for Ballet Teachers), and Geo Hubela (“Two Tips for Hip-Hop Teachers”).

Russell has directed commercials and performed with numerous music artists. He appeared in a national Volkswagon commercial, trained Dancing With the Stars’ Derek Hough for an upcoming feature film, and performed on the Jerry Lewis Telethon and Dance Halloween charity events. As a master teacher he travels with Co. Dance Conventions and produces his own Tap Into the Network dance intensives.

His first set of tap tips will appear in the January DSL. For more information on the DanceLife Teacher Conference, visit http://www.dancestudiolife.com/dltc/dltc-fees-info/.

Submissions are now being accepted for Dance Studio Life’s Strength in Numbers feature, which pays tribute to the numerous and active dance teacher organizations throughout the country and Canada.

Any organization that assists and supports dance teachers by providing opportunities for continuing education, networking, and social activities is invited to submit an article for publication in a 2013 issue of DSL. Articles can focus on any aspect of the organization, from its history to services to membership, and are important not only to spread the word of the group but also to recognize important individuals who have helped the organization stay strong and relevant.

Previous Strength in Numbers features have focused on the Colorado Dance Alliance, Dance Masters of Michigan, Dance Teacher’s Club of Boston, Florida Dance Masters, Cecchetti USA, Ohio Dance Masters, Rhode Island Dance Alliance, Associated Dance Teachers of New Jersey, and others.

Articles of between 400 and 700 words can be submitted to Karen@rheegold.com. Photographs of committee activities, such as workshops classes or PAC title competitions, are also welcome.

Don Halquist; photo courtesy DLTC

In the November issue of Dance Studio Life magazine, SUNY Brockport professor Don Halquist shares his thoughts on teaching students how to layer their own passion, their own emotions, and their personal uniqueness on the choreography they have been taught in class or for performance.

Halquist, a member of the Bill Evans Dance Company for 20 years, will expand on these and other modern-dance concepts when he serves as a faculty member at next summer’s DanceLife Teacher Conference. Set for August 1 to 4, 2013, at The Phoenician in Scottsdale, Arizona, the DLTC features some of the top motivational minds in the dance education world.

Halquist has performed as a guest artist with the New Mexico Ballet and in the companies of Nora Reynolds Daniel, Licia Perea, Debra Knapp, and Jennifer Predock-Linnell; and has taught dance at the University of New Mexico, Santa Fe Community College, and the New Mexico Ballet Company school.

“We should encourage reflection on the part of our students,” Halquist says in his article. “Ask them to think about what the movement phrases mean to them, and encourage them to bring their own images to the material they are learning and performing.”

For more information on the DLTC faculty, visit http://www.dancestudiolife.com/dltc/dancelife-teacher-conference-faculty/.

Dance Studio Life magazine wouldn’t be filled with all the insightful and inspirational stories it is without the generosity of teachers and studio owners from across the country who agree to share their stories with DSL and its readers.

This is particularly true of the monthly Thinking Out Loud (TOL) feature, written by studio teachers, owners, professional dancers, friends of dance, and even students. The stories—sometimes humorous, sometimes poignant—might feature the re-telling of an experience or hard lesson learned, reminisce about a mentor, speak about a challenge fought and overcome . . . or even air a gripe!

The editorial staff is always on the looking for new TOL columns, about 700 words spoken from the heart. Submitting is easy: just email the column with your contact information to Cheryl@rheegold.com. We hope to hear from you soon!

Do you know about all the ways you can keep in touch with Rhee Gold and all that’s happening at the Rhee Gold Company?

By visiting www.dancestudiolife.com and clicking on Welcome, you can sign up to receive Ezines featuring articles from Dance Studio Life magazine with everything from classroom tips to business and inspirational features. You’ll also get the scoop on events and activities coming up at the DanceLife Retreat Center and DanceLife Teacher Conference.

To get the best in dance education articles at your fingertips, Dance Studio Life magazine is available through the Apple Newstand, accessible via the iTunes App Store. Dancers, dance teachers, and dance enthusiasts worldwide can now subscribe annually or download a single issue onto their iPhones and iPads (iOS 3.0 or later). The free app opens to a complete library of back, current, and future issues. Visit https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dance-studio-life/id524932942?mt=8 to learn more.

Or subscribe to the daily DanceWire feed to read the latest news from the dance world, from what’s going on at professional companies to hot happenings at local studios across the country. Check it out at http://www.dancestudiolife.com/dsl-dance-wire/dsl-wire-rss-feed/.

Now that the hectic registration rush is done and kids are settled in their classes, many teachers turn their attention to competition season—and Dance Studio Life is here to help.

Our annual Competitions and Conventions listing is a comprehensive guide to what’s happening on the team scene, from friendly old favorites to cutting-edge newcomers. We’ve done the work of collecting contact information and descriptions of more than 150 competitions and conventions, and presented them in an easy-to-read format illustrated with energetic photos. Whether it’s a multi-day intensive workshop or a top-notch competition, you’ll find it here.

Look for the DSL Competitions and Conventions listing in our jam-packed December issue. To subscribe, visit www.dancestudiolife.com/subscribe/.

Luigi; Photo by Joseph Astor, courtesy Luigi’s Jazz Centre Facebook page

For half a decade, Luigi has been one of the reigning masters of jazz dance—holding court in his New York City classroom where jazz aficionados of all ages and abilities have benefitted from his in-depth knowledge and dedication to this very-American style of dance.

Dance Studio Life magazine pays tribute to this legend of dance in our December issue. If you love stylistic, savvy jazz dancing—and who doesn’t?—don’t miss this issue. To subscribe, visit www.dancestudiolife.com/subscribe/.

This week Rhee Gold received a personal letter from Marilyn Caccamise, secretary of Dance Masters of Western New York Chapter 8, expressing the excitement that she and her fellow club members felt after seeing their chapter featured in the October issue of Dance Studio Life.

Each month, DSL’s Strength in Numbers feature pays tribute to a dance teacher organization. Through pictures and illustrations, the feature explains why the group was founded and by whom, how it has grown over the years, and what sorts of services and education opportunities it affords members.

Some of the organizations featured recently include Michigan Dance Council, Colorado Dance Alliance, Canadian Dance Masters of America Chapter 38, Massachusetts Dance Educators Organization, and RI Dance Alliance. Any organization that would be like to be featured can contact associate editor Karen White at Karen@rheegold.com for more information.

Ten times a year, Dance Studio Life magazine presents pages and pages of insightful, emotional, and advice-packed articles about the dance studio world. But our readers tell us that what’s on the cover is always a treat as well—from twirling toddlers to dance icons.

Did you know you can peruse each and every cover from July of 2007 to now on www.dancelifetv.com and www.dancestudiolife.com? It’s fun to scroll down and check out the energetic images. Do you have a favorite? How about the snarling “wild animal” all dressed up and ready for recital, or the little Hawaiian dancer looking lovely in her lei? Geo Hubela coming at ya, or William Wingfield’s statuesque pose? What’s up for next month—we’re not telling, but we can almost guarantee it will make you go “Ah!”

A scene from “le ballet” on Vimeo; image by Louis Thomas, courtesy Vimeo

A recent film posted on Vimeo by Paris artist Louis Thomas that shows an audience filled with famous faces enjoying a night at the ballet credits Roland Petit, Jerome Robbins, and Marius Petipa for its precision “stick figure” choreography.

The four-minute animated video “le ballet” is set in an opulent hall similar to the Opéra de Paris Garnier and plays out along the sprightly strains of Rossini’s William Tell Overture. More than two dozen renderings of famous people—Bette Davis to Buster Keaton, John Ford to Elia Kazan, the Marx Brothers to Robert Mitchum, Gene Kelly to Julie Andrews—challenge viewers to flex their mental skills in a guessing game of who’s who. Scenes of the audience, backstage crew, and lobby staff are interspersed with moments from the ballet—which, since the dancers are faceless figures, offer short breaks from all that guessing.

In responding to comments, Thomas said the animation was all hand drawn on paper, then scanned and colored in Photoshop, with After Effects used for the compositing. A companion video shows some of Thomas’ early ideas and how they evolved into the finished film—created for his graduation year at GOBELINS, l’école de l’image; a school of applied arts, print, and digital media, in France.

On his blog, (http://louist.blogspot.com), Thomas admits to loving ballets, musicals, and operas. “When I see one, I always try to do some sketches about compositions, choreographies, and colors.” To see the video, visit http://vimeo.com/48547146.

A publicity images from Flashdance, Photo courtesy Paramount Pictures/AP Photo

Dig out those leg warmers and headbands—Flashdance is coming to Broadway.

Producers said Tuesday that the stage adaptation of the 1983 hit movie about a working-class Pittsburgh girl with dreams of becoming a professional ballet dancer hopes to boogie into New York in August 2013.

A story in the Sacramento Bee said Sergio Trujillo, the choreographer of Jersey Boys, The Addams Family, and Memphis will direct and choreograph Flashdance—The Musical.

It features a book by Robert Cary and original screenplay co-writer Tom Hedley, music by Robbie Roth, and lyrics by Cary and Roth. Producers say it has been “substantially rewritten and completely restaged” following its short-lived debut in London in 2010. A separate company will begin a national tour in January 2013 in Pittsburgh.

To see the original story, visit http://www.sacbee.com/2012/09/04/4785598/flashdance-to-dance-on-broadway.html.

Dance Studio Life, a magazine with a back-to-basics approach, is a division of the Rhee Gold Company, whose mission is to be at the forefront of dance and education by promoting the highest possible standards in teaching. Dance Studio Life understands the soul of the teaching field.

COLUMNS
Ask Rhee Gold
Advice for Dance Teachers
2 Tips for Ballet Teachers by Mignon Furman
2Tips for Hip Hop Teachers by Geo Hubela
2Tips for Modern Teachers by Bill Evans
2 Tips for Tap Teachers by Stacy Eastman
A Better You | Fighting Fatigue by Suzanne Martin, PT, DPT
How to cope when you’re toast
EditorSpeak by Cheryl Ossola and Karen White
On My Mind | Rhee Gold
Words from the publisher

DEPARTMENTS
Thinking Out Loud by April Spisak Nelson
The lost art of theater etiquette
Teacher in the Spotlight | Cosmin MarculetiuTeachers who make a difference
Schools With Staying Power | Alzine’s Vision by Roger Lee
Love, caring, and respect add up to 50 years at Cuppett Performing Arts Center
Bright Biz Idea
To Fee or Not to Fee
Mindful Marketing by Julia Holt Lucia
Create interest with Pinterest.
Classroom Connection by Jeanne Fornarola and Mary Beth Marino
Ideas to incorporate into your curriculum
Strength in Numbers
Dance teacher organizations

FEATURES
Ballet Scene | Classical in Connecticut by Karen White
Ballet competition puts classics, and classes, front and center
A Dancer’s Mind by James Careless
Using psychology to improve physical performance.
No-Touch Zone by Kay Waters
How to cope when using a guiding hand in the classroom.
Making Magic With Music By Brenda Bufalino
In Tap and beyond, variety, volume, and interpretation make music meaningful.
An Excellent Option by Gina McGalliard
For dance convention seekers, an international event in L.A. might be just the ticket
Fast-Track to the Past by Maureen Jenson
Dance “webinars” give online listeners a weekly dose of dance history.
Handle With Care by Karen White
Put props to work for fun and impact

SPECIAL COMPETITION AND CONVENTION EDITION FEATURES
Competition Directors Tell All
What they think about solos, video streaming, scoring, and more
Give It a Gold by Julia Holt Lucia
Parents talk about the realities and rewards of the competition experience
From Ho-Hum to Knock ’Em Dead by Diane Gudat
How to turn good-enough dancers into performers with power
From Studio to Shining Sea by Karen White
Onboard with Celebrity Dance Competitions
Playing by the Rules by Eliza Randolph
Conflicts, no-shows, and too-frequent illnesses? Make commitment a competition team mandate.
 

How to cope when using a guiding hand in the classroom can get you in trouble
By Kay Waters

For a certain generation of dance educators, feeling a teacher’s guiding hand on a leg, back, or even a rear end was often standard when they were students. That’s the way things used to be—a touch here, a tap there with a hand or stick were part of the usual learning experience for many dancers.

“My teacher not only manipulated us, but she’d whack us a little bit with her cane,” says Patricia Oplotnik, a teacher based in Oklahoma City. “We didn’t think anything of it. You just knew that if you did not stretch and lengthen the leg when she was walking by, she’d tap you with the cane to get you to stretch and lengthen.”

Oplotnik didn’t employ a cane in her classes when she started teaching dance 40 years ago and then, 10 years later, opened her own school, Applause Studios, in Oklahoma City. But she definitely used her hands to guide her students’ placement, positioning, and use of their bodies, just as her teacher had once done with her. That all changed when Oplotnik joined the faculty at Oklahoma City University’s Ann Lacy School of American Dance and Arts Management in 2000.

“We are not supposed to physically touch the students. That’s pretty much the standard in [higher] education now,” Oplotnik says. The veteran teacher admits that she still advises her college students that she was trained by a teacher who touches and that they should let her know if the issue is a problem for them. Occasionally, she tells them, she forgets and taps a knee if it’s not straight.

“The thought [behind teaching without touching] is that if you give the kids enough information to stimulate critical thinking, they will then have the ability to correct themselves,” she says. “You have to correct through symbolism, parables, show things on your own body. You have to get the point across the same way but without physically touching the kids.

“But it’s hard. Fortunately I’m an artist-in-residence for tap here, so it’s not as much of an issue for me,” Oplotnik says, alluding to the less hands-on nature of teaching tap dance. “But for a teacher ‘in the trenches,’ as I put it, who is teaching something like ballet technique, working on things like alignment and turnout, I think it’s a real challenge. And it’s a shame that this is even an issue.”

While the “no touching” rule has become standard in public education, more and more private studio teachers have also adopted the new mores over the years. Elizabeth M. McPherson, BA in dance education program coordinator at New Jersey’s Montclair State University, says that when she works with the students in the dance teacher-training programs, she warns them to be very careful.

“The thought is that if you give the kids enough information to stimulate critical thinking, they will then have the ability to correct themselves. You have to correct through symbolism, parables, show things on your own body. You have to get the point across the same way but without physically touching the kids.” —Patricia Oplotnik

“The first thing I say is to err on the side of caution. I tell them to remember that someone may interpret [a touch] differently from what you intend,” says McPherson. Montclair has a dance studio training program as well as one that offers certification to teach dance in public school systems.

McPherson points out that parents’ awareness of many dance-related issues—even topics like proper nutrition for dancers and the importance of stretching correctly, without being forced—has been heightened. But concerns about appropriate touching have been especially acute, she says. “There’s been a lot of media attention about sexual abuse cases. When there’s that much media attention, parents and students are on edge and high alert, which means you’ve got to be even more careful.”

The shift has even affected the big dance studios in major dance centers, where one might assume students are more aware of how teachers have traditionally used a more hands-on approach. This seems to especially be the case with male teachers.

Elizabeth Gibbons addresses the topic in her book Teaching Dance: The Spectrum of Styles. She says although everyone needs to be careful in this litigious age, it’s male teachers who have to employ extra caution.

“When I take class in New York City, I’ve noticed that a lot of the male teachers do not touch the students. Not at all,” says Gibbons, who teaches in the dance program at East Stroudsburg [Pennsylvania] University. “It’s kind of a shame, but I understand where they’re coming from. If you’ve ever heard of anyone who has been slapped with a lawsuit, then [you understand]; their feeling is ‘Hey, I’m not going to lose my ability to teach over this.’

 “It’s a shame that men are somewhat stigmatized, but it’s a reality,” Gibbons continues. “If I go to a playground and watch children play, it’s not a problem. But if my boyfriend watches children at a playground, some people may think, ‘Oh, he’s a pedophile.’ That’s just the way the world is. All teachers, but especially the males, have to think ahead and protect themselves.”

Some of the ways teachers can protect themselves are installing cameras or viewing windows in studios, including written policies about the use of touch in studio policy manuals, and being careful to limit physical contact with their students outside of the classroom.

Ramon Moreno, a principal dancer with Ballet San Jose who teaches at Western Ballet school in Mountain View, California, says that when he started teaching in the United States 16 years ago, he knew that he would have to do things differently with his students from what he’d experienced as a student training in his native Cuba. “You cannot do the things here that they do in Cuba,” he says. “It’s just not allowed. I figured out that it was different here because [teachers] talk about it, how it’s different.”

Moreno says he doesn’t take the special precautions some male teachers employ, such as leaving his studio door open. But he does allow parents to observe if they ask to, and he’s careful about how he touches his students while he’s teaching. “If I want to correct the arm, I’ll show on myself. Sometimes I will take a foot in my hand if it’s sickled because I want to develop the right shape of the foot. But that’s about all I’ll touch. Otherwise I just tell them,” he says.

“In Cuba if they want the arm fixed, they touch it. If they want the popo under, they touch the popo and tuck it under. If they want you to stretch the leg, they touch the leg,” he continues. “I had teacher who had a stick. He would give you a little hit on your popo or your leg to fix it. You can’t do that in this country.”

Moreno says a no-touching approach sometimes means student don’t grasp a correction as quickly as he’d like. “Sometimes it takes me longer; sometimes it doesn’t. Some kids get it right away,” he says. “It depends on the kid. It’s just a different way here. But I’m OK with that.”

Not everyone has changed the way they do things. April Spisak Nelson, director of Spisak Dance Academy in Glendale, Arizona, says she’s still teaching the same way she’s always taught—and the way her mother taught before her. “We’re lucky. It’s never been an issue here. We’re still pretty much hands-on. It’s hard to describe [concepts to kids] without touching them, especially when you’re talking about alignment and placement,” she says. And, she adds, her studio also teaches acrobatics, in which spotting a student by hand is essential for safety.

Nelson says she does use other methods when teaching, such as description and demonstrating on her own body—methods employed by teachers who do not touch. She also advises teachers coming in, especially male instructors, to exercise caution and do things like leave the classroom door open when they’re teaching so that anyone can see what they’re doing.

“Sometimes you just need to take that foot and put it in the correct position or correct that sickled foot,” Nelson says. “With younger kids especially, you have to touch them to get them to understand what you want. You can’t just explain and expect them to get it. They don’t have that awareness yet. They don’t have that coordination, that brain connection to the body parts you’re trying to work on.

“Sometimes I’ll show something on myself first and then have them try it. Some kids will get something that way,” she says. “Some kids will get the correction just by you giving it to them verbally. But with some kids, you have to touch them so that they understand.”

No-Touch Techniques

Learning to teach effectively without touching students is not optional; it’s a necessity, according to Jane Bonbright, executive director of National Dance Education Organization (NDEO).

The key in a lot of cases is for teachers to use their own bodies to demonstrate the desired correction or effect, she says.

“You can use your own hands to press in on the abdomen, or you can stand against a wall and show how you can’t get your hand all the way through [between the wall and the body] and if you can, then you’re hyperextending the pelvis. Then they can line up against the wall and press on their own abdomens with their own hands or press with their own pelvis and measure for themselves,” Bonbright says. “They can feel the shoulder blades against the wall. They can feel the lengthening. The responsibility is on them to take ownership intellectually of what you are communicating, and then physically, they take ownership.”

Many teachers interviewed advise studio owners to distribute a written policy on using touch to parents and also post it on the school website. Most agree that light touches to the extremities (hands and feet) are acceptable for corrections, although demonstrating on one’s own body is always best. However, corrections dealing with alignment and turnout can be particularly challenging.

Of course some methods will work better than others, depending on the age and body awareness of the students involved.

Here are some suggestions for communicating with students without touching them.

• “When you’re talking about pointing your feet, you can talk about the imaginary line going down through the knee, through the shin, and into the third toe. They can experience it on their own by taking off their shoes. You articulate what they should be doing, and then you let them look at their own bodies and experience it through their own kinesthetic feedback.” —Jane Bonbright
• “For a sway back, you can show them [the posture] exaggerated one way and how to bring it to neutral without necessarily having to touch them. You can place your hands on your body to demonstrate how to correct the body.” —Elizabeth McPherson
• “There are teachers who, rather than grab or pull if they want the student to bring the arm higher, will put their hand above the student’s and tell the student to press into theirs. So the student is the one who is initiating the contact.” —Elizabeth Gibbons

Cultivating Empathy

The results are preliminary, but they’re a no-brainer to anyone involved in arts education. A study has found that “children that partake in music activity in a group setting are more prone to developing one of humankind’s noblest traits: empathy.”

The ramifications of this research are discussed in an article on San Francisco Classical Voice (sfcv.org) called “Is Music the New Social Media? ‘Empathy’ Entrainment.” The yearlong study at the University of Cambridge (UK) explored the effects of group music activities on 52 children ages 8 to 11, roughly half boys and half girls. They were divided into two groups, one of which was given group music-based games and the other activities that involved texts and drama only. The children in the music group scored higher on a test that measured empathy.

The experiments didn’t involve dance, but the correlation is obvious. The music activity stressed what lead researcher Tal-Chen Rabinowitch called “entrainment,” in which the children had to become “rhythmically attuned to one another” and “[i]mitation and the sharing of musical goals were also stressed.” Although the imitation games were largely improvisational, “[e]ach child playing a musical instrument had to attend to other children in the group.” Sounds like a dance class, doesn’t it? In effect, teachers are sowing the seeds of empathy.

If the study’s results prove significant and valid, the data will serve well those who argue for arts education. As Joe Landon, executive director of California Alliance for Arts Education, says in the article, “Quality arts programs have the potential to empower and engage students in ways that can promote learning across the board. Students who have a positive sense of themselves are more likely to embrace learning new things and find success in school.”

The article points out that the study raises the issue of individual versus group music education, since most music instruction “is geared toward private performance.” In dance, the opposite is true. So, dance teachers, take note: if group activities in which children are rhythmically attuned to one another promote empathy, your students will have it in spades.

Just one more reason why dance education matters. —Cheryl A. Ossola, Editor in Chief

Soft Touches

Did anyone catch that episode of Bunheads where Michelle discovered Fanny’s hatbox filing system? The one where her bills were deemed “should be paid” or “might be paid” and stored in oversized, decorative boxes? So funny—so true! I wished I had all your numbers so I could mass text, “Turn on your TVs right now!”

But the episode got better when Michelle (the amazing Sutton Foster) found out that Fanny (my hero, Kelly Bishop) had precious little money to pay even the “have to be paid” bills. But the studio is crawling with kids, Michelle says (or something along those lines), forcing Fanny to admit that all but nine of her 75 students are “on scholarship.” Michelle is stunned—“Only nine kids pay? Nine? Nine?” Fanny counters that times are tough, and someone’s father lost his job, and what is she going to do? She can’t deny these kids their ballet!

Still funny—but ouch! I was torn between feelings of delight that the show so cleverly exposed our secret little catch-22, and feelings of despair for the very same reason.

I can’t begin to recall how many conversations I’ve had with studio owners about parents who have cancer or mortgage woes. So sometimes the studio owners just “forget” about a bill or two. Sometimes they use their precious little time off to organize fund-raisers or quietly spread the word in the hope that other parents will cover some costs. They eat the costume charges, or dig deep to pay their staff when the tuition is overdue.

What else are they going to do when they’ve watched a child grow up, shared her smiles and her struggles, given their hearts away?

On the show, Michelle demands that everyone pay up and then has to beg for forgiveness when all the trees and flowers in Fanny’s “environmental ballet” quit. She’ll learn. It’s not that studio owners are bad businesspeople or sentimental pushovers or just plain dumb. It’s just that, like Fanny, they can’t deny these kids their dance. —Karen White, Associate Editor

Columns
Ask Rhee Gold
2 Tips for Ballet Teachers
2 Tips for Hip-Hop Teachers
2 Tips for Modern Dance Teachers
2 Tips for Tap Teachers
A Better You | The Post-Dancing Diet
EditorSpeak
On My Mind

Departments
Mail
Thinking Out Loud | Making My Garden Bloom
Teacher in the Spotlight | Chris Grau
Bright Biz Idea | Doing Well by Doing Good
Mindful Marketing | Using QR Barcodes
Classroom Connection
Strength in Numbers

Feature Articles
Ballet Scene | Another Way to Soar by Steve Sucato
Teachers as Protectors by Roxanne Claire
Seen But Not Heard by Derrick Yanford
It’s an Imperfect World (and That’s Ok) by Kerry Ring
Higher-Ed Voice | West Coast’s One-and-Only by Lisa Okuhn
How Am I Doing? by Debbie Werbrouck
Talking Tap by Mike Wittmers
Dance Right In by Ryan P. Casey
Breaking Barriers, Building Bonds by Holly Derville-Teer
Spirit, Spunk, and Heart by Cheryl A. Ossola
Teachers in Training by Megan Donahue
Letting Loose by Diane Gudat
Strong to the Core by Joshua Bartlett

Words from our readers

Just a quick note to let you know how excited we were to see the article about the CNADM Centennial in the May/June issue [“A Century of Dance Education”]. Steve Sucato did a great job pulling it all together from many different sources. We very much appreciate the coverage and all the support that we receive from DSL every year.
Kathy Velasco
Chicago National Association of Dance Masters
Rockford, IL

I love Dance Studio Life and really believe in what you are doing with your publication. Thank you for being such a positive and “real” resource for the dance community.
Caron Moore
Director, Encore Performing Arts Showcase, Inc.
Fort Worth, TX

Dance Studio Life seems to be the only dance-related magazine I have read that always takes care of the little guy. I was thrilled to read the article about Mary Alpha Johnson [“Reviving Mom’s Dream,” May/June 2012]. Over 20 years ago I met a teacher at a dance conference who let me in on The Magical Kingdom of Dance. The book is a wonderful way to use imagery that is child appropriate but still gives the exact quality to bring the movement out of the student. I hope the mat will be a big success and that her daughter can find an effective way to market the products.
Shelly Holmes
Topeka, KS

I am so impressed and excited by the incredible article [“Ballet Without Barres,” July 2012]! You covered so much in a factual and eloquent way. I couldn’t have dreamed of a more perfect representation of BalletBarreNone—and right before the Dance Teacher Summit! I am so grateful to you for this phenomenal exposure.
Eileen Juric
Founder, BalletBarreNone
North Carolina

Columns
Ask Rhee Gold
2 Tips for Ballet Teachers
2 Tips for Hip-Hop Teachers
2 Tips for Modern Dance Teachers
2 Tips for Tap Teachers
A Better You | Headache Help
EditorSpeak
On My Mind

Departments
Mail
Thinking Out Loud | Unexpected Inspiration
Teacher in the Spotlight | Jennifer Sue Peterson
Bright Biz Ideas | Sweat and Sizzle
Mindful Marketing | Coupons for Bargain Hunters
Classroom Connection
Strength in Numbers

Feature Articles
Ballet Scene | Ballet Without Barres by Karen White
Bullying Launches a Business by Karen White
What They Do for Love by Elizabeth Zimmer
My Boss, My Buddy by Joshua Bartlett
Not Just Child’s Play by Mary Grimes
Short and Sweet by Eliza Randolph
A Nutcracker With Legs by Jennifer Kaplan
Movies With a Twist by Diane Gudat

Don’t Fly—Walk
The 2012 graduates of the University of Pennsylvania got some unusual commencement advice. Nipun Mehta, the founder of ServiceSpace.org, told the Ivy Leaguers that though everyone else might expect them to fly, he wants them to walk. What he said makes sense for all of us, and it seems particularly timely advice for our business-focused issue.

Mehta and his wife spent three months walking across India, and his speech contained many personal anecdotes. (For the whole transcript, see huffingtonpost.com and other sites.) What I’d like to share with you, in edited form, are his words on four behaviors he pegs to the acronym WALK.

Witness: “When you walk, you quite literally see more. . . . Higher speeds smudge our peripheral vision, whereas walking actually broadens your canvas and dramatically shifts the objects of your attention. . . . A walking pace is the speed of community.”

Accept: “When walking in this way, you place yourself in the palm of the universe, and face its realities head on. We walked at the peak of summer, in merciless temperatures hovering above 120 degrees. . . . [W]e had to cultivate the capacity to accept the gifts hidden in even the most challenging of moments.”

Love: “Most of us believe that to give, we first need to have something to give. . . . We have forgotten how to value things without a price tag. Hence, when we get to our most abundant gifts—like attention, insight, compassion—we confuse their worth because they’re, well, priceless.”

Know Thyself: “[W]hen we serve others unconditionally, we shift from the me-to-the-we and connect more deeply with the other. That matrix of inter-connections allows for a profound quality of mental quietude. . . . [W]e are then able to see clearly into who we are and how we can live in deep harmony with the environment around us. . . .”

A three-month pilgrimage isn’t possible for all of us, and it might not yield the same epiphanies Mehta’s did. But I’m just fine with stealing his. —Cheryl A. Ossola, Editor in Chief

 Where There’s a ‘Why,’ There’s a Way
The actor was not getting it. In a middle school production of Fame I was choreographing, his character, playing a performing-arts high school student cast as Mercutio, had the line “They have made worms’ meat of me!” The script told him to grab his gut in an “overly theatrical” manner, which our show’s director was more than happy to demonstrate. But still, the actor’s performance was bland.

Running into the actor in the wings, I blurted out, “What’s worms’ meat?” Met with a blank stare, I explained that, in Shakespeare, “worms’ meat” means the person is dead. Why? Because worms wiggle their way through cracks in wooden coffins and proceed to suck the eyeballs out of dead corpses and make a feast of every bit of rotten flesh. (I was talking to a middle school boy, remember.) For the first time in rehearsals, I had not only his full attention but that of about a dozen performers who listened in, slack-jawed.

The next time he delivered the line, he grabbed his gut as if Ridley Scott’s alien was about to burst forth. The director leaped from her seat. “Bravo, Jacob!”

I call what I did the magic “why.” As teachers, we tell kids what to do, show them what we mean, and ask them to try. It doesn’t matter if you are teaching math, English, dance, or soccer—the method is the same. But in the rush to jam in as much as we can on a deadline—and a director blocking a play is in the same boat as a dance teacher preparing for recital—the “why” often gets short shrift.

I think real learning takes place when students understand the reasons for what we’re asking them to do. Explaining them takes time, for sure, because there isn’t always a simple answer, and many times the answer itself begets many more “whys.” And the discussion might lead us teachers to admit we aren’t exactly sure “why” ourselves. The best result, of course, is when we ask the question and the kids fill in the blank.

So keep a few “whys” in your back pocket to throw around the next time the kids are bored, or struggling, or flippant. Why? Because I said so. —Karen White, Associate Editor

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Rhee Gold Company 508.285.6650
rheegold@aol.com

DANCE STUDIO LIFE GOES GLOBAL WITH FREE ISSUE

NORTON, MA, May 20, 2012

Dance Studio Life magazine has hit the global market with the launch of online editions made available through the Apple Newsstand, accessible via the iTunes App Store. Dancers, dance teachers, and dance enthusiasts worldwide can now subscribe to the magazine annually or download single issues onto their iPhones and iPads (iOS 3.0 or later); options will soon be available for other smartphone devices. The free app opens to a complete library of back, current, and future issues.

To celebrate the launch, Dance Studio Life is offering a complimentary download of the May/June 2012 issue to the first 5,000 users.

“This is an exciting time for the magazine,” says Dance Studio Life publisher Rhee Gold. “The new online editions are a plus for both readers and advertisers. Our inspiring stories on all things dance now have no geographical boundaries. Users will find interactive features throughout the magazine, from clickable links that bring them to our advertisers’ websites to embedded videos that play with the touch of a finger.”

With more than 66,000 readers, the print edition continues to flourish. The new app’s interactive features are just a small sample of Gold’s vision to maintain Dance Studio Life as the leader in the magazine industry. With this digital opportunity, Dance Studio Life will spread its inspirational and educational content to tens of thousands of dance lovers and educators around the world.

To get the free app and download your free May/June 2012 issue, visit the App Store > Newsstand and search for Dance Studio Life.

Columns
Ask Rhee Gold 
2 Tips for Ballet Teachers 
2 Tips for Hip-Hop Teachers 
2 Tips for Modern Dance Teachers 
2 Tips for Tap Teachers 
A Better You | Health Care How-Tos 
EditorSpeak 
On My Mind

Departments
Mail 
Thinking Out Loud | Why I Walked 
Teacher in the Spotlight | Katie Petronio 
Bright Biz Ideas | Reviving Mom’s Dream 
Mindful Marketing | 10 Tips for Great Newsletters 
Classroom Connection 
Strength in Numbers 

Feature Articles
Ballet Scene | The Chautauqua School of Dance by Steve Sucato  
Searching for Acceptance by Joshua Bartlett  
A Century of Dance  
Higher Ed Voice | A Fresh Approach by Joshua Bartlett  
Fire in the Dark, Beauty for the Spirit by Ann Murphy  
The Power of Hero Worship by Diane Gudat  
Every Day, a Little Miracle by Jennifer Kaplan 

Pina’s Power
The 3-D documentary Pina has had the U.S. dance world talking since it opened here last December, and the film came up during a pre-show Meet the Artist interview I did with San Francisco Ballet principal dancer Damian Smith last March. A longtime dancer who’s known for his artistry in both physicality and interpretation, Smith cited the film as reaffirming that what’s most important in dance is intent.

I couldn’t agree more. I’ve seen the late German choreographer Pina Bausch’s company, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, in performance, and the experiences left me stunned. But the film, with its concentrated scrutiny of dances, revisiting them in various forms and with different dancers, revealed even more pointedly the phenomenal power of intent.

Bausch’s work is oblique, coming from a deep place of pain and loneliness (“Dance, dance,” she once said, “otherwise all is lost”), embodying desperation, desire, and other equally raw emotions, along with a quirky sense of humor. But unlike some dances that leave viewers wondering what they just saw, Bausch’s works offer a dizzying choice of interpretations. That’s because her dancers know exactly what the dances mean to them. They are invested—body, mind, and soul—in the movement given to them, and because they so clearly have something to say, they in turn give us a work of art that we bring our own meaning to.

Some of the dancers quoted in the film said they were often confused about what Bausch wanted from them. One of them said that when she told Bausch she felt lost, the choreographer said to keep looking inside herself. The dancer said she didn’t know what she was looking for, and Bausch said only this: keep searching.

What that dancer found is what we all want in dance—an experience that shakes us to the core, makes us question what we think of the world, and gives us reasons to keep searching for our own reasons to go on. —Cheryl A. Ossola, Editor in Chief

Tears and Togetherness
It was only the first competition of the new season and boy, were the tears flowing already! I started to think: where are the TV crews when you need ’em? Drama, tears, girls in costumes making a scene—we had it all, and we weren’t even halfway through the first day.

One girl started it all. A senior. Apparently just moments before the girls headed onstage for their lyrical number, she realized this was one of her last competitions with teammates she loves from a dance studio she adores. One tear and a tiny sniffle led to “Ooohhhh, are you crying?” and before anyone realized what was going down, all the girls were in each other’s arms, fussing over each other and sobbing with gusto.

They were almost back in control when someone’s 6-year-old sister showed up and, without a word, held out a tiny package of tissues.

And as they dissolved again in laughter and splotchy mascara, I thought—this is what all dance teams should be about. Friendship. Support. Doing what you love with people who share the same passion. Pressure, but the kind born of hard work and self-determination. Memories.

During awards, the MC called up several members of this group. In an interesting twist, the competition had asked this team to create a special award to be given by the judges to another team. They chose the name “Together at Heart” and described it thus: “To a team that not only dances together with precision, but dances together as friends.” I am sure that the dancers who won the award will cherish it.

There were other special moments as well: a couple of high scores, a choreography award, and a judge’s recognition of one girl who, although only in group numbers, stood out because of her endless smile and vivacious energy. Her teammates were tickled pink. “Hey Dee,” they couldn’t stop teasing, “guess that puts you at the top of the pyramid!”

All that, and three more competitions to go. Now where’s that little girl with the tissues? —Karen White, Associate Editor

Columns 
Ask Rhee Gold  
2 Tips for Ballet Teachers 
2 Tips for Hip-Hop Teachers 
2 Tips for Modern Dance Teachers  
2 Tips for Tap Teachers 
A Better You | Say Goodbye to Smoking 
EditorSpeak 
On My Mind  

Departments
Mail  
Thinking Out Loud | I Remember Tony  
Teacher in the Spotlight | Donna Abnathy  
Bright Biz Ideas | Betrayed by a ‘Friend’  
Mindful Marketing | Musical Theater and More  
Classroom Connection 
Strength in Numbers 

Feature Articles
Ballet Scene | Floor Barre by Karen White  
Practicing to Be a Pro by Joshua Bartlett  
Simon Says: Listen Up! by Mike Wittmers  
20 Going on 40 by Kay Waters  
Rescued by Dance by Misty Lown  
A Touch of Broadway by Jennifer Kaplan  
Back From the Brink by Steve Sucato  

Coping With “Copy-ography”
It made No. 4 on TenduTV’s blog listing “APAP Preview: Ten Things the Dance Field Should Be Talking About in 2012,” and I’m sure it has been popping up in your conversations more and more. What is it? The issue of intellectual property rights, otherwise known to dance teachers as “Hey, that’s my choreography!”

This is a slippery subject, but one that is probably causing plenty of heartache and heartburn this competition season. It would seem that if an idea came out of your head, you would own that idea, but life today is rarely that simple. The professional world with all its contracts and lawyers still can’t figure out if Beyoncé really “stole” those steps from Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker when putting together her “Countdown” video.

It’s even worse for those of us in the dance studio trenches, where video cameras outnumber contracts 1,000 to 1. What prevents a teacher from using steps she picked up at a convention in her own dances and calling them her own? What stops Studio C from re-creating Studio D’s award-winning competition number from last season? Or, with more and more competitions streaming live, even stealing from this season?

Years ago I read a magazine article about a studio that did a number to “It’s Oh So Quiet” with the dancers as librarians. Eureka! Not even having seen it, I immediately imagined what it would look like: the funny moments, the choreography, how we’d use books and chairs and tables to build this crazy number. As tempted as I was (and believe me, you know those days when you’d kill for just one good brainstorm), I never did it, because, well, it was someone else’s idea.

Some people see nothing wrong with lifting ideas, songs, concept, even entire choreography sequences, from work they catch on YouTube, in competition, in recitals. One of my studio-owner friends calls it “copy-ography.” We chatted about it one night after lessons, and while in some industries a similar discussion might involve copyrights or compensation, we just decided the whole situation is very sad. I think I’ll stick to my own ideas, thank you, good or bad. —Karen White, Associate Editor

It’s a Team Effort
The musical The Wild Bride, performed by Cornwall, England–based Kneehigh Theatre Company at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, is a prime example of a collaborative process that works. The production is stunning, with a rustic set, emotionally driven dance numbers, and music that’s a blend of blues and Eastern European folk—nothing I’ve ever heard before.

Because I am interested in adapting literary works for the stage, without simply reiterating the text theatrically, I was intrigued by how in this production (adapted from the Brothers Grimm fairy tale “The Handless Maiden”), word, set, movement, and score came together in a way that made a 150-plus-years-old story seem fresh, complex, and relevant.

In the program notes, Emma Rice, the show’s director and co-director of Kneehigh, reveals the troupe’s creative process. She works on sketches with the designer to create an environment for the story to live in and exchanges music that feels right to her with the musical director/composer, who then comes up with a “musical palette of melodies.” Amazingly, no script is created with the writer; instead poems, lyrics, and ideas are produced and a structure is mapped out in order to maintain an element of surprise. “The shared imagination is greater than any individual, so we begin the rehearsal by returning to the story,” Rice says. “We tell it to each other, scribble thoughts on huge pieces of paper, relate it to our own experience. We create characters, always looking to serve and subvert the story.”

So that is how a collaborative process that engages all the players fosters original, creative art. Regardless of the story that compels us to the stage, unique work often is not created alone. Sometimes you need others, and even your students, to help you scratch that itch. —Arisa White, Editorial Assistant

Words from our readers

I cried when I saw the news that modern dance legend Ruth Currier had passed [“FYI,” December 2011]. I first encountered Ruth at the Limón school; she became the director shortly after José Limón died. Ruth made up for missing the opportunity to study under José in so many ways. She was always true to the Limón, Humphrey, and Weidman techniques and inspired us with her stories of José. She was truly my mentor. When she left the Limón company and opened her own studio, I relinquished my scholarship to follow her.

Taking a class with Ruth was ever so challenging physically, mentally, and emotionally. She pushed us to go beyond our comfort zone; she loved it when we fell off balance because she knew we were trying to do the movement more fully.

I remember telling her I wished I had been alive when Doris Humphrey and Charles Weidman had their companies since their movement felt so natural to me. I actually felt I had learned them before, as if I had been dancing in that time. She commented that I probably had and that I would have fit in nicely in that era. That conversation has given me inspiration ever since. Ruth was sparse with her compliments in class and I cherish every one that came my way. Ruth may be gone, but I will pass on her knowledge to my students so that her memory lives on.
Joanna Furman-Markowitz, Director
Orange County School of Dance
Little Feet Dance Company
Monroe, NY

Just wanted to thank you wholeheartedly for the beautiful article about our Dance Academy and the “Road Trip to the Future” [December 2011]. The students were electrified when they saw their photographs and names in the article. Your dedication to our dance community is second to none—keep up the fine work.
Diane Swirka
PR Manager, Kinetic Expressions Dance Academy
Daytona Beach, FL

Columns
Ask Rhee Gold
2 Tips for Ballet Teachers
2 Tips for Hip-Hop Teachers
2 Tips for Modern Dance Teachers
2 Tips for Tap Teachers
A Better You | Beating the Blahs
EditorSpeak
On My Mind

Departments
Mail
Thinking Out Loud | Down But Not Out
Teacher in the Spotlight | Suzanne Welch-Kakouris
Bright Biz Ideas | Bring On the Bachelorettes
Mindful Marketing | Summer Camp Srategies
Classroom Connection
Strength in Numbers

Feature Articles
Ballet Scene | Personality Cults by Stephen Manes
Summertime Teacher Training
Higher-Ed Voice | Dance Geets a Boost in Missouri by Marlise A. Cole
A Walk on the ‘Wildish’ Side by Joshua Bartlett
Back to School at ABT by Roxanne Claire
Dream Weaving by Sandi Duncan
Me Time: Meditation by Dunya Dianne McPherson

Tune-Up Time
For many of our readers, summer is a time to slow down, maybe even take some time off. And so it seemed like perfect timing to suggest using the slower months of summer to look inward and do some personal maintenance. We all take our cars to the mechanic and our kids to their checkups, but how often do we focus on our own well-being? In this issue, we’ve got some ideas on how to do just that, through a creative process of goal setting, a primer on meditation, some apps to help you with on-the-go wellness, and a few fun tips on teas and inspirational jewelry. It’s a package designed with you in mind, the brainstorm of my editorial assistant, Arisa White.

And now I’m going to take the idea of introspection a step further and say that it could (and perhaps should) include some awareness-raising about our attitudes toward others. So I’m going to steal some suggestions worth noting from an online holiday card posted last December by SYPartners.com, a company that promotes transformation in organizations. (Some of the wording is theirs; some I’ve paraphrased.)

First, exercise relentless empathy. How? Set aside your own worldview and see someone else’s. Dignify others by acknowledging their value.

Second, be that person. Which one? The one who’s fully present, calls everyone by name, and starts sentences with “What if?”

Third, curmudgeons be damned. There’s good in everyone, so find it. Expect the best in people and that’s usually (eventually) what you’ll get.

Fourth, embrace not knowing. In a fast-changing world, it’s the best way to open yourself to great things.

It’s not too late to add these behaviors to your list of resolutions for 2012. I’m sure going to try—are you game? —Cheryl A. Ossola, Editor in Chief

Sondheim’s Songs
I’m engrossed in a new book, and it’s a real page turner. I know whodunit, so there’s no mystery. In fact, I’m pretty familiar with the protagonist and his life story. But still, I’m savoring each word and can’t wait to see what the next paragraph brings.

It’s Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954–1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes by Stephen Sondheim. I wasn’t too thrilled to pick it up initially—I have a shelf full of musical-theater books, from rants to gossip to dissertations on the worst flops ever, and a list of lyrics sounded like a yawn. Did I say I knew Sondheim? I should have known better.

Because not only does he list all his lyrics, including changed verses and discarded tunes, but he dissects his own work with the skill of a surgeon (or a show doctor, as it were). It’s fascinating to follow him along as he looks back on his earliest efforts, and with the wisdom gained through years of doing a job only a few people have actually done well, tells us exactly where he went wrong.

From miscalculations to compromises to plain crappy work, he explains the art of lyric writing. Consider this comment from a song cut from West Side Story: “Wrong: the heavy use of soft consonants like s and n, which make the Jets sound more like a hissing radiator than a gang on the warpath.” Or, despite Maria’s uneducated immigrant status, how he couldn’t resist showing off with “It’s alarming how charming I feel.”

Of course, as he moves along to Gypsy, Company, A Little Night Music, and beyond—in this book as well as the sequel, Look, I Made a Hat: Collected Lyrics (1981-2011)—the comments become more about why things work than why they don’t.

So since I’m a choreographer, not a lyricist, what does his book teach me? That all artists (even geniuses) have to take time to hone their craft; that no work (even on songs thrown away) is wasted; and that everyone can benefit from a little self-reflection now and again. Some nice advice from a man with no vice . . .  or is it price? Mice? (Sigh.) —Karen White, Associate Editor

Words from our readers

So inspired to see so much work go into such a worthy cause [“A Shoe Show With Heart,” October 2011]! The ripple effect is always there; we just need more people to throw the first stone. Congratulations on a wonderful show and community service.
Michelle Ballaro
Ballet Arts Center for Dance
Cheektowaga, NY
via Facebook

I enjoyed reading the article [“Dads on Demand,” October 2011]. This story is all about the kind of dancer dad I want to be.
E. Keith Turner
via Facebook

We all love the article [“Ballet Scene: Ballerinas of a Certain Age,” November 2011]! You were able to capture the essence of our school and the “ladies of a certain age” quite well. Mimi is already planning her next ballet spoof of Coppélia for November.
Jayne Santoro
Dance School/Performing Arts Director 
JCC of Mid-Westchester 
Scarsdale, NY

I just finished reading “Thinking Out Loud: [Creating a Culture of Welcome]” in the November [2011] issue. My, how the opening statement hit home. I travel to Florida quite often and always thought I’d like to take a class there. I called to ask if a recreational dancer would be welcome and was told it was definitely a class for adults who wanted to stretch and tone. [Once there] I overheard a student saying that just because it says “adult” doesn’t mean just anyone can drop in. You can bet I won’t be returning to class there again.
April Mosher
Agawam, MA

Columns
Ask Rhee Gold
2 Tips for Ballet Teachers
2 Tips for Hip-Hop Teachers
2 Tips for Modern Teachers
2 Tips for Tap Teachers
A Better You | Mood Swings, Menopause, and Men
EditorSpeak
On My Mind

Departments
Mail
Thinking Out Loud | Dancing for Bill (Shakespeare That Is)
Teacher in the Spotlight | Cricket Mannheimer
Bright Biz Ideas | Seal of Approval
Mindful Marketing | High Returns on Referrals
Classroom Connection
Strength in Numbers

Feature Articles
Dancing in Dhaka by Claire Sheridan
Ballet Scene | Strict From the Start by Jennifer Rienert
Ancient Dance in a Modern World by Kalpana Mohan
Live Music: Worth the Price? by Kay Waters
Mexico in Their Blood by Eliza Randolph
Capturing the Elusive: Dance Preservation by Meg Brooker
Poor Kids, Rich Prosepects by Jennifer Kaplan
Bollywood’s Best by Gina McGalliard

Art for a New Year
It’s a new year, always a good time to think about where we’ve been and where we’re going. As dancers and dance teachers, you’ve probably got creativity on your mind—and that leads to a question you might not ask yourself very often: why make art? And where does it happen—only on a stage, or in a classroom? Or does art really gain shape and meaning in places that are more metaphysical than physical, in our hearts and minds?

In one of this issue’s stories, “Poor Kids, Rich Prospects” (page 88), teacher Melanie Rios Glaser believes that the children and teens who study dance at The Wooden Floor are doing more than learning and performing dances. According to her, they’re making art. And that fact just might be what makes that program for low-income children the success it is. Art, perhaps more than anything else, has the power to transform.

Contemporary artist Richard Serra, known for his steel sculptures, talks about why he makes art in a video posted on YouTube by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which is hosting a retrospective exhibit of Serra’s drawings through January 16. He’s speaking of fine art, but his words hold true for the performing arts as well.

“I think one of the things art does [is] it asks you to perceive what it is on its own level. And it can come up and grab you at any time. It can be reassuring or it could be exactly the opposite—it could agitate you; it could be something you dismiss; it could be something that engages you; it could be something you recall; it could be something that leads to things that have nothing to do with what you’re looking at. So I think works of art engage, possibly, an internal memory bank that isn’t linear. And it can make you see the outside reality in that way also, like you probably see the world in ways that you would not have seen it if those artists had not exist[ed].”

Yes, art grabs us. It reassures, agitates, engages. It involves memory and perception. And it changes the way people see the world. Remember that as you bring the art of dance to your students and families this year. —Cheryl A. Ossola, Editor in Chief

Two Thumbs Up
The temptation was too much. The awe-inspiring Bolshoi in a spanking-new Sleeping Beauty starring the-most-famous-employee-in-the-world David Hallberg—every sequin, sauté, and squeaky pointe shoe beamed into a cinema near me. I had to be there.

So a friend and I set out to catch the latest Ballet in Cinema offering from Emerging Pictures, a company convinced that dance lovers will brave sticky floors and odd hours to see top companies doing top ballets. We were happy to—and so, I believe, were the seven other people in the theater.

Instead of the usual pre-show fare of previews and commercials we stared at a black screen, listening as the Bolshoi orchestra warmed up. (Definitely an improvement!) When the visual arrived, we were greeted by one of those amazing Europeans who speak 17 languages, chatting about Petipa. Onstage, dancers in layers of costumes and sweats milled about, ripping off quads and relaxing on pointe, waiting for the curtain to rise.

When it did, the audience in the Bolshoi Theater applauded. We in Theater 5 did not, and I must admit I felt vaguely traitorous. Still, it was a very different audience experience to be, at one moment, close enough to see the herald’s eyes narrow at Carabosse’s entrance, then suddenly, sitting somewhere in the third circle, in awe at the corps and their intricate patterns.

When intermission arrived, we were slightly perplexed. The Bolshoi patrons stretched their legs, but since our projectionist had obviously turned on the three-hour broadcast and gone out for a drink, we sat in the dark. For 30 minutes. But then it was Act II and time for David the Great to make his historic entrance.

I have to admit, it wasn’t too different from my usual trip to the ballet—I didn’t get a program and I dozed off during the Act III grand pas de deux. Yet I saw the Bolshoi, larger than life—and live. —Karen White, Associate Editor

Words from our readers

Thank you for the beautiful article on Young Dancemakers Company [“Show on the Road,” November 2011], so articulately written by Elizabeth Zimmer. It was featured expertly in an especially readable layout, the photos perfectly chosen and placed. I am so grateful to you, Dance Studio Life, and Elizabeth for this opportunity to spread the word so effectively about Young Dancemakers Company.
Alice Teirstein, Founding Director
Young Dancemakers Company
New York, NY

Congratulations to Mrs. Schleifer on a job well done [“Teacher in the Spotlight,” October 2011]. I am one of her former students from Andries Hudde, I.S. 240, in Brooklyn. When I started her class I had never done a live performance and was scared to perform in front of an audience. I was told by Mrs. Schleifer, “If you think it, imagine it, and can achieve it, you can do it. Express yourself!” I had never heard the song “Iko Iko.” Every time I hear that song I think of my days at Hudde and anticipating dance class. Mrs. Schleifer was a big influence in my life as far as music. A big thank-you to Jamee Schleifer for introducing me to expression!
Nadia Powell
Initial L&T Specialist
LeasePlan USA

From Our Facebook Fans:

So inspired to see so much work go into such a worthy cause [“A Shoe Show With Heart,” October 2011]! The ripple effect is always there. We just need more people to throw the first stone! Congratulations on a wonderful show and community service.
Michelle Ballaro
Ballet Arts Center for Dance
Cheektowaga, NY

I enjoyed reading the article [“Dads on Demand,” October 2011]. This story is all about the kind of dancer dad I want to be.
E. Keith Turner

Wonderful article [“The Eye of the Beholder,” October 2011]! My iPod is wonderful for taking a quick video of a step such as a pirouette during class so the student can see what I see. It’s so true that they feel like they are correct, but when they see it they can understand why I gave the notes. And then they are much more driven to correct it!
Christina Munter

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

Departments
Mail
Thinking Out Loud | What I Gained From the Biggest Loser
Teacher in the Spotlight | Stephanie Thomas Saul
Bright Biz Ideas | Thinking Inside the Box
Mindful Marketing | Power of the Press Release
Classroom Connection
Strength in Numbers

Feature Articles
Ballet Scene | Vancouver’s Ballet Family by Barbara Stowe
The Power of Being ICONic by Eileen Glynn
Turning Up the Heat by Steve Sucato
Higher-Ed Voice | Road Trip to the Future by Eliza Randolph
Jivin’ With Joe by Karen White
My List for Santa by Diane Gudat
Back-to-Basics Jazz by Joshua Bartlett
Hip-Hop From a Ballet Perspective by Quinn Wharton
What I Know for Sure by Julie Holt Lucia
Ins and Outs of Hiring and Firing by James Careless
Let Your Stars Shine

By Cheryl A. Ossola

Pushing Past the Plateaus
In certain realms of the world, coaches are a given: baseball, gymnastics, personal fitness, career changes, opera, to name a few. So why is it that most of us get to a certain level of competence in our chosen careers and then figure we’re on our own? We build our skills, develop our game, move up whatever career ladder we’ve chosen—and then we stop climbing and start walking across the broad, flat expanse that’s the rest of our working lives. We go from vertical to diagonal to horizontal and we don’t give it a thought.

But it doesn’t have to be that way, and that’s the argument posed by Atul Gawande in the October 3, 2011, issue of The New Yorker. He’s a surgeon, and in his article “Personal Best,” he says he has, in the past, measured his ability in part by comparing his surgical complication rates to published data. As his skills grew, his rates moved lower and lower, he says. “And then, a couple of years ago, they didn’t. It started to seem that the only direction things could go from here was the wrong one.”

Then one day, after paying someone to analyze his skill on the tennis court, he had to ask himself a question. If he was willing to get feedback on his serve technique, he writes, “why did I find it inconceivable to pay someone to come into my operating room and coach me on my surgical technique?”

It’s a question each one of us should ask. Heck, according to Gawande, even musical prodigies like violinists Itzhak Perlman and Midori had a coach (both worked with Dorothy DeLay). So did Gawande hire a surgical coach? He did, and the 20-minute discussion that followed the coach’s first observation in the operating room gave Gawande “more to consider and work on than I’d had in the past five years,” he writes.

So, what about teachers? Can coaches help them? The answer appears to be yes. Gawande writes: “California researchers in the early 1980s conducted a five-year study of teacher-skill development in 80 schools, and noticed something interesting. Workshops led teachers to use new skills in the classroom only 10 percent of the time. Even when a practice session with demonstrations and personal feedback was added, fewer than 20 percent made the change. But when coaching was introduced—when a colleague watched them try the new skills in their own classroom and provided suggestions—adoption rates passed 90 percent. A spate of small randomized trials confirmed the effect. Coached teachers were more effective, and their students did better on tests.”

Gawande observed teacher coaching in action at Leslie H. Walton Middle School in Albemarle County, Virginia. Eighth-grade teacher Jennie Critzer, whom Gawande describes as already excellent in the classroom, was enthusiastic about the feedback she got from her coaches, saying that she’d “exhausted everything I knew to improve.” She’d begun to burn out, she said, and felt very isolated. As a result of the coaching, she reported that her stress level had decreased and she found teaching more satisfying.

I think we’d all agree that growth is good and that stagnation or decline isn’t. So now I’m wondering who’s in the market as a coach for magazine editors—maybe The New Yorker’s own David Remnick? I could do a lot worse—and with someone like him in my court, maybe I’d do a lot better. —Cheryl A. Ossola, Editor in Chief

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

Departments
Mail
Thinking Out Loud | Creating a Culture of Welcome
Teacher in the Spotlight | Tabitha “Miss Tabby” R. Andrews-Colmary
Bright Biz Ideas | Mother, Sister, Daughter, Me
Mindful Marketing | Making Discounts Count
Classroom Connection
Strength in Numbers

Feature Articles
Ballet Scene | Ballerinas of a Certain Age by Jennifer Kaplan
Banishing Bullying by Brian McCormick
Show on the Road by Elizabeth Zimmer
Triple Threats Take Broadway by Joshua Bartlett
Schools With Staying Power | Cameron School of Dance by Maureen Keleher
Welcoming Visual Learners by Jennifer Kaplan
Give a Dance Teacher Some Music… by Julie Holt Lucia
Poise on the Page by Karen White
Costume Firms Say: Speak Up!
Shaping Creativity by Heidi Landgraf
Inspiration in the Desert
Got Dance? Add Music! by Marlise A. Cole

By Karen White and Arisa White

Space, Emotion, Spirit, Mind
I like to broaden my horizons by doing things I haven’t experienced before. So when I saw a listing for a free dance-theater improvisation workshop, offered by San Francisco Bay Area choreographer and Mills College alumnus Bianca Brzezinski, I jumped on the opportunity.

Every Friday in May we met in a small black-box theater in San Francisco, where for two hours we did a series of improvisation exercises that inspired movement. Being a non-dancer, this workshop gave me the chance to explore dance without being caught up in the technique of movement. My imagination and my everyday gestures were viable means to exploring my body in space, my body moved by emotion, and my body confidently and securely connected to spirit and mind. I learned to trust my impulses and use “mistakes” as an occasion to do movement differently. I learned to deeply listen.

Speaking about doing improvisation, Brzezinski says, “My body leads me to discover things about myself through movement because motion expresses emotion, and sometimes it’s hard to confront your emotions face to face. Dance releases you.”

During our final workshop, I made a discovery when we did a free-writing exercise for a minute, read over each participant’s text, and then selected a phrase to create movement to. I chose, from another participant’s free-write, “Why my angel?” In my first round of a two-minute solo, I spoke the words and my movement was broad; however, I wasn’t focused because I was feeling self-conscious.

After receiving feedback from Brzezinski and participants, in the second round I internalized the phrase, making small, delicate, and boxed movements and facial expressions that articulated distress. I was communicating through my body a sadness ripe with creative energy. It was quite amazing!

Something beautiful and real came from me that Friday evening, something that made me know myself wholly as a dancer. —Arisa White, Editorial Assistant

Art Is Where You Feel It
When does dance become art? I think it’s when it touches your soul.

We’ve all experienced those moments when we stop dissecting the patterns of the corps or marveling at extensions or oohing and aahing over costumes, and find ourselves so immersed in the dance that we forget to breathe. I had one of those moments last spring at a nationals—yes, at one of those five-day, mind-numbing “Oh-God-not-another-lyrical-solo” dance marathons of double pirouettes and half tops.

The piece was a contemporary quintet from my daughter’s studio. Danced to “This Bitter Earth,” it was stunning and mature, with four male dancers, clad in ragged brown, and one female, in a red tunic and green leggings loosely reminiscent of a rose mentioned in the lyrics.

The movements of the men were very grounded: crouching, rolling, often pulling and yanking on the girl, keeping her in check. Even in the lifts, she never seemed to soar or fly but was manipulated through the air at the discretion of the men. The piece was gorgeous and haunting and I loved it—but I appreciated it on an aesthetic level. “It’s about how people hold each other down,” I thought.

I had seen the piece maybe a dozen times and certainly wasn’t expecting to find myself riveted at nationals. But I was. It was as if I suddenly understood something deep and hidden. This dance was not about a person or two’s petty actions but about prejudice and hatred, racism, greed, poverty, ignorance—all those things that keep us, individually and as a world society, from blossoming, keep us from reaching our full potential as humans. My daughter whispered at me in horror: “Mom, are you crying?”

Perhaps that’s not what the dancers thought. Perhaps the choreographer never had that in mind at all. But somehow the commitment of the dancers, the aching music, the care and precision of the choreography fused into something greater than mere movement. When does dance become art? Look for it this year at competitions, at performances, at rehearsals. And carry tissues. —Karen White, Associate Editor

Words from our readers

You put together more practical content than all of the dance magazines combined. Thank you for your passion and spirit.
Victoria Hunt
Highland Dance Academy
Sammamish, WA

Thank you so much for the features on my products in your August edition. I had a very good month in August thanks to you. It is very hard for small businesses to get off the ground and succeed. Your kindness in these features gave me a size of advertising I could not have afforded. I look forward to placing more classifieds with your magazine in the future. 
Janet Jerger
Dance Teacher Press
Seward, NE

Just wanted to express my thanks for such a great article about our new Dance Studio Concentration at MSU. We are all very appreciative.
Dr. Elizabeth McPherson
Coordinator, BA Dance Education
Montclair State University
Montclair, NJ

I want to thank you for the article you wrote about Mrs. Marsden [“Teacher in the Spotlight,” August 2011]. She has been more excited than I’ve ever seen her, and that warms my heart.
Gloria Silva
Attleboro, MA

Misty Lown, a Dance Studio Life writer and DanceLife Teacher Conference speaker, will be honored during the YWCA of the Coulee Region’s 29th annual “Tribute to Outstanding Women.”

Lown, owner of Misty’s Dance Unlimited in Onalaska, Wisconsin, is being recognized for her contributions to the Greater La Crosse business community. Other local women will be honored in areas such as health, social justice, and arts administration. The ceremony will take place at the La Crosse Center South Hall ballroom on November 17 at 6pm. For more information, visit www.ywcalax.org.

Columns
Ask Rhee Gold
2 Tips for Dancers
A Better You
EditorSpeak
Teacher to Teacher
On My Mind

Departments
Mail
Thinking Out Loud | Dance Moms’ Sells Out Dance Education
Teacher in the Spotlight | Jamee Schleifer
Bright Biz Ideas | Stress Less With Tech
Mindful Marketing | Pinpointing Preschoolers
Classroom Connection

Feature Articles
Ballet Scene | The Magic of Mime by Peter Brandenhoff
Back for More by James Careless
Inspired by Immigration by Robin Stuyverson
Dads on Demand by Karen White
Higher-Ed Voice | College Doesn’t Mean Goodbye by Eliza Randolph
A Pro’s Guide to Recital Videos by Rob Rothkopf
Don’t Sew? So What? by Hedy Perna and Karen White
The Eye of the Beholder by Kerry Ring
A Shoe Shoe With Heart by Misty Lown
Revolutionary Recital by Eliza Randolph
Here Today,  Gone Tomorrow by Lauren Green
Power of the Positive by Diane Gudat
Make the Most of Volunteers by Karen White
One-Hour Wonders by Eileen Glynn

By Rhee Gold and the dance community

The buzz was immediate for Dance Moms, the reality-TV show on Lifetime featuring Pennsylvania studio owner Abby Lee Miller—but it wasn’t the good kind. On July 15, Dance Studio Life publisher Rhee Gold posted this on the magazine’s Facebook page:

Abby Lee Miller has sold out herself and the dance profession. Her reality is not the reality for 99 percent of dance school owners (or the parents). Shame on all the people who created this farce—you are doing harm to the dance field and community. The moms look like fools sacrificing everything to make their children winners and allowing their children and themselves to be abused. This show is a perfect example of what not to be as a teacher, school owner, or parent.

And here’s a sampling of what people in the dance community said in response. (Some responses have been edited for length.) 

• I was shaking because I was so angry. Dance should be fun; it doesn’t mean you’re compromising your talent or technique. We need this off TV!
• I somewhat disagree that she doesn’t represent the majority of studios. It’s harder and harder to find studios at competitions that act like dance is the most important part and not the tricks/costumes.
• I was appalled. I don’t know who was worse, the coach or the moms. I pray that people who are not in the dance field don’t think this is what being a dance teacher is. It’s offensive to educators who work hard to provide quality dance education. My heart was breaking for those sobbing 8- and 9-year-olds. No one, especially children, should be treated like they were. Lifetime should be ashamed to air a show like this.
• Learn a dance in a week and then compete? Interesting to watch only because I feel so much better about the way I run my dance studio. It’s not all about winning; it’s learning the art form of dance. Why does she have to be harsh to get the dancers to produce wonderful routines? She says she loves her career, but [she] looks miserable.
• I came away with gratitude that the teachers and parents I associate with understand that teaching dance isn’t all about perfecting athletic steps and pasting on a performance face. It is developing respect for yourself, your peers, and your art form. Thank you to all the wonderful teachers whose [students] shine brighter because you lit a passion in their souls!
• I cannot imagine that any parents who see that show will decide that is the studio for their daughter. She may produce winners, but at what price?
• Funny, after 21 years of owning a studio, I don’t recall having to go to a bar and reprimand any dance parents.
• I’m so disappointed that any dance instructor would agree to show the dance profession in such a bad light. And that parents would put their children and themselves through that kind of torture—for what? Big plastic trophies! It’s just sad.
• Parents and students complaining about a studio and the instructors but staying there because they are winning is something we see in our area. Either stop complaining or change studios.
• As a competition coordinator and dance mom, I am absolutely disgusted. This is not my reality at all! I have never seen anyone treat people or kids that way! I am horrified!
• If I ever become that type of teacher, just shoot me.

And Rhee responds: All of you make me proud to be part of the dance community that is not featured on national TV. Many posts say that the show is scripted, as though that would make it right. Dance Moms probably is scripted, but that doesn’t mean being part of it is acceptable. Once you know that your actions will hurt others, you jump ship. Dance is a soul thing first and foremost, an art form that must be respected. As a teacher/mentor, your priority has to be about what is right for your dancers (mentally and physically) and the dance community in general. Your reputation is a reflection on every other teacher in the field. That’s what you call responsibility for the greater good.

Columns
Ask Rhee Gold
2 Tips for Dancers
A Better You
EditorSpeak
Teacher to Teacher
On My Mind

Departments
Mail
Thinking Out Loud | Choreography and Copyright in the Digital Age
Strength in Numbers
Teacher in the Spotlight | Erin Jefferson-Foley
Bright Biz Ideas | Art of the Silent Auction
Mindful Marketing | Back-to-School Momentum
Classroom Connection

Feature Articles
Ballet Scene | Birth of a Competition by Karen White
Altitude by Barbara Stowe
A Leg Up on the Pageant Competition by Diane Gudat
Conquering Conventions by Danie Beck
Dance Teacher of the Future by Diane Gudat
Voices of Dance by Karen White
Competition Directors Tell All
Long Road to Grand Prix by Joshua Bartlett
Competition Wish Lists
Trips Without Tears by Marlise A. Cole

What they think about TV dance shows, what teachers need to know, and lots more

Dance Studio Life asked dance competition directors across the United States to share what’s on their minds—and did they ever! Their candid responses to our questions (some directors did not answer every question) appear in alphabetical order by company name (sometimes abbreviated). We thank them all for their participation:

REY BARCENA, executive director, iHollywood Dance
DAN BARRIS, executive director, Dancers Inc.
BRENDAN C. BUCHANAN, owner/director, BravO! National Dance & Talent Competition
MELISSA BURNS, president/director, Turn It Up Dance Challenge, Inc.
ROBIN DETTWILLER, director, Celebration Talent Competition
RON DeVITO, president, Access Broadway Inc.
GINNY FAUBELL, director, Beyond the Stars
TERRY HAZEL, executive director, On Stage America
APRIL JACKSON, operations manager, Platinum National Dance Competition MICHELLE KRESGE, national director, Spotlight Events, Inc.
RHONDA MARCHANT, founding director, Encore Dance Competition for the Stars
KIMBERLY McCLUER, owner/director, Talent on Parade
KIM McKIMMIE, international director, I Love Dance
CHRISTINA MIRIA, director, Energy National Dance Competitions
CATHY ROE, owner/artistic director, Cathy Roe’s Ultimate Dance
DAVID SANDERS, CEO, Legacy Dance Championships
CHRISTOPHER SMITH, CEO/director, Hollywood Vibe Dance Productions, Inc.
NANCY STONE, vice president, Dance Olympus/Danceamerica
SHARI TOMASIELLO, national director, and IRMA ZIEGLER, president, Headliners
STEVE WAPPEL, president and founder, StarQuest International
DAVID WESTERFIELD, CEO, Westerfield Management, owner of Showbiz National Talent and Prime Time Dance

What has been the noticeable effect of reality dance shows on participants’ performances?

Access Broadway (DeVito): They’ve had a good impact on the quality and diversity of acts that we see at our regional competitions. By viewing the country’s best up-and-coming dancers and choreographers weekly, our competitors and teachers have increased their range of knowledge and skill.

Beyond the Stars (Faubell): I think they have expanded people’s concepts of costuming and choreography, opening up new ideas.

BravO! (Buchanan): Reality shows have brought celebrity status to professional dancers and given the best ones the ability to be role models for younger dancers. In performances you see many young dancers really taking the craft seriously, trying new tricks and moves. And you see many out on the stage who previously might not have been there.

Dance Olympus (Stone): Reality dance shows have had a positive influence on the performance level at competitions. The performances on TV are polished and well rehearsed and the choreography is sound. I think this has made an impact on the dance teacher as well as the student.

Dancers Inc. (Barris): Competition kids often attempt to do too much at a young age. Choreographers push a bit too much, too soon, sometimes. Ten-year-olds don’t need to dance in a string bikini top and pop-’n’-lock to Beyoncé—can’t they save that until the kid is 12?

Encore (Marchant): The biggest effect I have seen is the impact on costuming, music selections, and the popularity of contemporary dance. These shows have boosted the competition industry by encouraging students to strive for the excellence they see on television.

Energy (Miria): Reality dance shows have really put competition dance on the map. I see dancers pushing themselves beyond the norm and really doing exceptional work . . . and their stage presence is phenomenal!

Headliners (Tomasiello and Ziegler): The shows have encouraged dancers to set higher goals. The majority of dancers on So You Think You Can Dance are great technicians, which is great for a competition like ours where we focus on good foundations, proper technique, and realistic scoring.

Hollywood Vibe (Smith): The level of skill has greatly increased due to the popularity of these shows, and male dancers are now more numerous. Dancers are inspired by what they see on TV and are challenged to push the envelope.

I Love Dance (McKimmie): They have turned everyone into a critic. We now formulate our opinions very quickly if we like a certain dancer or performance—or not. I think participants get “to the pointe” (pun intended) a little more quickly now as they’ve watched how the very short performance time allotted on the dance shows forces contestants to sell themselves and their abilities from the moment they hit the floor.

iHollywood Dance (Barcena): Once, dancers’ expectations were right in front of them; they could see everything firsthand either at their studios or at competitions and conventions. Now television dance shows have exposed dancers to some of the world’s finest artists and choreographers. This has a huge effect on the smaller studios that don’t have opportunities to branch out and travel. 

Legacy (Sanders): Presentation has improved.

On Stage America (Hazel): They have inspired the dancers to achieve higher goals and choreographers to be more innovative and creative.

Platinum (Jackson): Competition performances are different in a couple of ways. First, the choreographers seem to be pushing themselves to be more creative and innovative. We’re still seeing a lot of tricks in routines, but I have noticed more artistry emerging as well. In addition, the dancers seem to be more connected and invested in performing their pieces, not just dancing them.

Showbiz/Prime Time Dance (Westerfield): I think the shows are pushing kids harder—especially the ones from smaller towns—because they’re able to see what’s really out there. You take kids from, say, Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and they may think what they’re doing is as good as what’s done anywhere in the country, but when they see these shows, their eyes are opened. Another effect is that contemporary has become one of our top categories. When we started 25 years ago, it wasn’t even a category.

Spotlight Events (Kresge): While the overall style of dance, costuming, choreography, and music selection that we see on stages throughout the country noticeably follows the trends of what reality dance shows present, I think the influence actually runs a bit deeper. A benchmark has been created for what the highest level of dance and choreography is, which we didn’t really have before. Seeing someone celebrated as America’s favorite dancer or best dancer has provided the young dance community with a mainstream example of what it takes to be the best within this competitive industry. Additionally, with such a high level of talent appearing on these shows, I believe dancers have been influenced in a positive way to push their limits, challenge their abilities, and take the level of talent within studios to a higher echelon. Fortunately, these shows have maintained positive and uplifting storylines to inspire dancers and promote the art of dance. It is also rewarding to see and know so many of the contestants as past competitors in our competitions.

StarQuest (Wappel): All the dancers have “stepped up their game” as performers. Choreography is evolving faster with more innovative combinations. There is now a stronger emphasis on performance skill and personality. It is one thing to be a fantastic “studio technician” with strong technique. Now, instead of watching a dancer perform steps, we find ourselves watching the vision of the choreographer more and more. Competition has always offered dancers the opportunity to cultivate performance skills. Teachers, choreographers, and performers are pushing the envelope more than ever and, although the boundaries of appropriateness are sometimes overstepped, the entire dance industry still prospers from that push.

Talent on Parade (McCluer): These programs have introduced dance in a huge way to a whole generation. Kids watch these amazing dancers and want to be one of them, and dancers are inspired and encouraged by watching their dance idols on TV. Dancing is now cool. These shows also have increased the number of boys going into dance, which is wonderful for the dance world. 

Ultimate Dance (Roe): Creativity! Innovation! Competition dances were becoming formulaic. Choreographers felt there needed to be a checklist of tricks and vocabulary that would bring home the trophy. Now, with the reality dance shows, innovative choreographers inspire us all with new vision and innovation. Also, they dive into many genres, making them cool again to young dancers.

How have your ideas about what makes a good performance shifted over the years?

Access Broadway (DeVito): It hasn’t shifted. A good performance is a good performance in any style of dance. When a performance entertains, excites, and moves you, that’s a good or great performance.

BravO! (Buchanan): For me, it used to be so traditional. Now people come up with creative ways to stand out by turning something traditional on its head. I’ve seen a comedic performance of “Blackbird” with dancers dressed as Elmer Fudd and carrying rifles. Back in the day, you picked a two-minute number and did some cool stuff. Now everyone is striving for the next big idea. Neither approach is good or bad—they’re just different.

Celebration (Dettwiller): No, not really. Good technique coupled with artistry is still what stands out in a dance performance.

Dance Olympus (Stone): Clean, well-executed, and well-rehearsed work has always been the key to a successful performance.

Dancers Inc. (Barris): Dancers are so strong today; they’re so capable and fearless. I just wish today’s kids would realize that sometimes walking and convincing an audience is more impressive than a boatload of pirouettes and tricks.

Encore (Marchant): I don’t feel that my ideas of a good performance have changed dramatically over the years. The key element to a good performance, in my opinion, has always been passion. A passion for dance always creates magnetic energy that reflects a great performance.

Energy (Miria): My ideas on what makes a good performance are simple, regardless of the dancers’ age, level, or division at competition. In a good performance the dancers excel in everything they do, from smiling to acting to the physical dance, from the minute they take the stage. It doesn’t really matter how advanced the routine is; it’s all about the individual performers and if they did their personal best. I know our judges like to see confidence and performers being comfortable with what they are performing.

Headliners (Tomasiello and Ziegler): We do not believe our ideas have shifted at all. Headliners has stayed consistent with our original standards. For a good performance, dancers need a strong technical foundation combined with enjoyment in performing for themselves, which in turn is enjoyable for an audience to watch.

Hollywood Vibe (Smith): Our opinion of a good performance has not changed that much; we are still looking for the core elements that we have always stressed. Even though dancers have upped the difficulty level with tricks, they still need strong technique, strong stage presence, and the ability to dance through the movement.

I Love Dance (McKimmie): Music selection is a huge factor and continues to grow in importance. I think the judges (and audiences) take notice of an unusual piece of music or a piece of music they really like but haven’t heard for a long time. I appreciate teachers who spend a lot of time coming up with clever musical selections, ones that aren’t too popular or overused. However, I am totally over “dark” performances. I do not like seeing choreography with titles like “Disturbia” and “Schizophrenia” that depict mental illness with dancers in straitjackets. If a performer comes out to “Get Happy,” I think it feels like a good performance because of the positive, upbeat music. When I see my judges bouncing in their seats, it’s clear that the musical selection has made the performance much more enjoyable.

iHollywood Dance (Barcena): The standards for a good performance have risen immensely. The level of talent is increasing exponentially; younger dancers are achieving feats that were unheard of 10 years ago, hitting the most gorgeous lines and nailing the biggest tricks. With older dancers, the expectations are different—the performance should come from a completely different place of maturity.

Legacy (Sanders): They haven’t. I say: “Entertain me. Make me feel something. Leave it all on the floor.”

On Stage America (Hazel): They haven’t: a good performance requires showmanship, presentation, good choreography, and solid technique.

Platinum (Jackson): Less glitz and glam and more substance in a routine are what I look for in a good performance. Good technique is still at the top of my list. It must be accompanied by age-appropriate choreography, especially for dancers ages 12 and younger and in the lyrical category. How can a Petite or Junior dancer relate to relationship-type songs or super-sad lyrics? Why can’t there be “happy” lyrical, with age-appropriate messages?

Showbiz/Prime Time Dance (Westerfield): They have not changed. I never felt that the strongest technical dancer was necessarily the one with the best package as a performer. The package comes from everything from costuming to showmanship, not just technique. My background was in musical theater, so I’m accustomed to seeing the personality as a bigger part of the package.

Spotlight Events (Kresge): Where I might have looked for flashy, eye-catching routines with inventive tricks in the past, I now prefer to see creativity, good technique, and tasteful choreography. The limit of what is acceptable on stage seems to be pushed more and more, especially with younger dancers. And often it seems being showy and provocative takes precedence over showcasing technique and a creative concept. I like to see choreographers and teachers get back to the basics while adding a modern twist with their own personal style, as well as sending a message or telling a story with their choreography. This includes complementing the strengths of the dancers and staying away from using the latest and greatest tricks just because they’re popular or difficult.

StarQuest (Wappel): For me, a good performance includes solid technique, seamless and inventive choreographic combinations, an “intention” or strong choreographic vision, and strong performance skills. I believe every great performance must possess all these characteristics. Always. Since I come from a musical theater background, I find that the ability of a dancer or group to make me forget about the outside world by keeping me transfixed for those three minutes of performance requires a high level of commitment from the performer(s) to showcase the choreographer’s mission. If the performance can hold me the entire time, I deem it great. That is what I have always believed, so my ideas have not changed one bit. Remarkableness is timeless.

Talent on Parade (McCluer): I believe a good performance has never really changed. When you watch dance you want to be entertained, or you want to see a story being told or feel a certain piece of music. You must captivate your audience in some way, through showmanship or technical aspects. You must sell yourself onstage to the audience.

Turn It Up Dance Challenge (Burns): We constantly ask judges what they’re looking for in performances, and for years we’ve heard them talk about how they like routines that have a uniqueness to them, the ones that take an unexpected twist. It is creativity that is cherished as the years go on.

Ultimate Dance (Roe): My ideas have not shifted, because I learned long ago from my mentor that a good performance needs three elements. First, technique. Get to class (especially ballet class). You can’t just practice your dance. You must take class and constantly work on technique. Second, precision. That means rehearsal—lots of it. Third, stage presence. Give of yourself and shine your light!

In an ever-expanding field of competitions, how do you make your competition stand out?

Access Broadway (DeVito): In a market of primarily dance events, Access Broadway is the very first “all-inclusive” competition, workshop, and talent search in dance, acting, and voice. Our “Broadway Experience Event” has always given performing enthusiasts a much wider range of choices than just dance.

Beyond the Stars (Faubell): I try to meet every studio director and work with them to create a positive, stress-free competition environment. From scheduling (and consistently running early) to giving a wide range of judges and special awards, we strive to make everyone feel valued.

BravO! (Buchanan): We really try to listen to what people want: a schedule with a comfortable timetable, often running ahead of schedule; not having competition on Thursdays so students can attend classes; cutting off the routine entries at reasonable numbers so the competition weekend isn’t over-strenuous, etc. We also really stress personal achievement. At every O!wards ceremony, we remind the dancers that on a different day, at a different time, with a different judge, the score would be different, too. What matters most is how they feel and that they did their personal best. That idea carries over to the overall atmosphere of our competitions. And that is what stands out.

Celebration (Dettwiller): I think all competitions appeal to a certain set of people, which is one of the reasons why there are so many.

Dance Olympus (Stone): I think fairness to all is one of the elements that a Dance Olympus/Danceamerica competitor expects from our competition. Danceamerica gives awards for first, second, third, fourth, and fifth place, so clearly there is only one winner. I believe that we are one of the few competitions that still stick to that grading system. Also, our competition is different from most in that we require a workshop registration in order to compete. We feel that dance education is the stepping stone to a great performance.

Dancers Inc. (Barris): We still offer gold, silver, and bronze—how’s that for a standout? Michael Phelps is fine with gold and he’s the most decorated American athlete. When my competitors are better than he is, I’ll buy them platinum at Tiffany’s myself. I say that onstage all the time and audiences love it!

Encore (Marchant): We always get a lot of positive feedback about our friendly staff, Southern hospitality, family atmosphere, use of a professional theater as opposed to a hotel, free master classes at all of our competitions, nationally recognized judges, punctuality, quality trophies and awards, and special audience involvement during all of our judges’ breaks.

Energy (Miria): We pride ourselves on being one of the only national competitions to stick to a one-day schedule. We realize that our studio directors and parents are busy and that sometimes a whole weekend isn’t feasible. Our one-day event starts very early in the morning and goes until evening. We usually can accommodate 10 or more studios. Sometimes, if time permits, we do optional convention classes on the stage in the morning. Those are always a big hit.

Headliners (Tomasiello and Ziegler): We provide opportunities that no other competition does. Our exclusive relationship with McDonald Selznick Associates in New York City gives dancers who attend Headliners events the opportunity for representation by a leading dance agency. Also, Headliners has provided more than $300,000 in college scholarships for the past three years. Finally, we offer the opportunity to become part of the U.S. Dance Team and represent the United States in world show dance and hip-hop championships.

Hollywood Vibe (Smith): Our event stands out by offering faculty master classes by the judges, bringing the best of Hollywood to dancers everywhere. We also offer unique scholarship opportunities, including possible agent representation, which opens doors for aspiring young dancers.

I Love Dance (McKimmie): Certainly, I Love Dance stands out for longevity; we are going to be producing our 34th season. The staff and I are all dancers and dance teachers, so we have always been able to relate to our participants, and they in turn have confidence in us. Our competitions are very well attended—and we have never cancelled, so being dependable is a huge factor. I also think we stand out for having kept our prices very economical. I ask teachers to compare prices before selecting any competition.

iHollywood Dance (Barcena): iHollywood comes from a different place than other conventions and competitions. Penny Barcena and I [Rey Barcena] and many other members on the iHollywood team have worked in the film industry, so our dancers get to learn from our unmatched firsthand experience. Also, because I’ve grown up as both a convention and competition dancer, it’s my mission to bridge the small gap between these two. Thus, iHollywood is the first convention/competition to offer unlimited classes and competition numbers, which has proven to be a ground-breaking addition for all participants.

Legacy (Sanders): By awarding thousands in scholarships and cash prizes at every event. No-nonsense award ceremonies. Three levels of competition. Hand-tailored competition schedules that keep us on time and the dancers, teachers, and parents happy.

On Stage America (Hazel): Our scoring and variety of levels and divisions. And, most important, we send Team USA to China each year on an expense-paid trip, and we award a Caribbean cruise at every competition to a lucky studio director.

Platinum (Jackson): It is so important to be a family-friendly competition. That means no early start times and late nights, no competing on Thursdays, and remembering that it’s about the kids. We wouldn’t be in business if we didn’t spotlight all the dancers and make them feel special. Also, we are very conscious of the need for age-appropriate choreography and clean music. Our judges are instructed to comment and deduct if they feel a dance is inappropriate.

Showbiz/Prime Time Dance (Westerfield): With the entry fees parents pay today, we try to give people a top product, a professional staff that knows what it’s doing, and a first-rate venue. At Prime Time, we have a finals with every regional we do in which the top three dancers in a category come back and compete again.

Spotlight Events (Kresge): We stick to what we’re good at but never rest on our laurels. Spotlight has always been extremely organized, fun, fair, family friendly, and forward-thinking. While I want to see the company grow and stay competitive, I never want to compromise what made it so successful in the first place, nor do I want it to become complacent.

StarQuest (Wappel): Consistency. We have always understood that 95 percent of the time a performer spends at a competition is not spent on the stage performing, and that distractions and stressors can hamper their performance. We combine solid production value with a calm, professional environment that gives the performers every possible chance to deliver their best. This is combined with solid judging critiques from respected professionals in the industry. Consistently.

Talent on Parade (McCluer): All of our staff members are part of the dance world in some way, and they love dance as much as the teachers or dancers do. It doesn’t hurt that we’re organized, run on time, and present a product that we are proud of. We have also worked hard to be more relaxed and fun than the rest. After all, it is all about kids on our stages. 

Turn It Up Dance Challenge (Burns): Turn It Up prides itself on being an overall fun experience, not just a competition. Also, thanks to detailed planning, we are able to run our competition according to schedule to the minute, thus enabling parents and teachers to plan their weekend. Finally, we offer a fair and challenging scoring system and a positive judges panel that challenges and encourages our dancers.

Ultimate Dance (Roe): My competition stands out because it’s personal. I am backstage watching and meeting the dancers. My sister is my manager and we are devoted to families and customer service. I know what it’s like to be on the other side of the stage because I had my own dance team and took them to competitions. I know that every one of those dancers is somebody’s baby and they are dancing their hearts out, and it’s not for a trophy. It’s for the people they love sitting in the audience. And it’s for me.

If you could speak to all dance teachers privately for five minutes, what would you tell them?

Access Broadway (DeVito): By sharing the knowledge of dance and the performing arts, you have a very important responsibility for students’ growth artistically and for passing on life lessons generally. Your teachings will stay with them for a lifetime, so be creative, demanding, constructive, and—most important—honest with them. They may not be able to grasp your knowledge right away, but they will certainly thank you for it later.

Beyond the Stars (Faubell): I’d thank them for being a role model and a positive influence on so many kids. I’d let them know that their hard work and effort are appreciated.

BravO! (Buchanan): I think the biggest thing is that I would remind them to keep a positive perspective on why we are here. This is about the kids and their growth. Not every dancer spends an equal amount of time in the studio or has the same skill, but the important thing is the confidence that is built. Perhaps 2 percent will stay with the craft and go on to be professionals, but the confidence every dancer gains will stay with him or her wherever they go in life.

The other thing I’d tell teachers is that they shouldn’t get carried away with the idea that “the judges got it wrong” or that a certain routine scored better at a different competition. Judges have opinions, and opinions are always going to be a little different. How many dancers remember the exact placement they received? And how many of those same dancers remember the fun they had while performing, the moments they shared with their classmates, and the overall experience they had with their friends? The kids don’t focus on the score unless the teachers do. They are a product of their teachers, so stay positive and remember that we’re all here to have fun.

Celebration (Dettwiller): Please, please give us feedback, both the good and the bad. We can’t improve without our customers letting us know the things they like about our competition as well as the things they’d like us to improve or consider.

Dance Olympus (Stone): I would stress how important it is that they and their students look at themselves objectively. It is important to be a good winner as well as a good loser. Respect your fellow dancers and praise them for the qualities that they have that you admire.

Dancers Inc. (Barris): Please give the dancers passion to go with these great contemporary solos. I had a 10-year-old tell me that “Wild Horses” was about a horse. Made me cry. Where is their connection to the music and emotion?

Encore (Marchant): As a former studio owner and dance teacher myself, I feel one of the most important jobs of a dance teacher is to instill a love for dance in their students at an early age. I would also encourage all dance teachers to never stop learning themselves. It’s critical to stay on top of the latest trends, styles, and techniques.

Energy (Miria): I would ask them, “What can we do at Energy to make it better for you as studio owners?” and I would listen to their comments and concerns. I would then try to implement those suggestions where I could.

Headliners (Tomasiello and Ziegler): That we are always willing to listen to make our events the most positive for them and their students. No matter what you do in life, you should always be willing to learn and grow.

Hollywood Vibe (Smith): I would tell them to not put so much weight on the results of the competition but rather the experience their dancers took from the performance and how it made them better dancers. Also, I’d urge them to attend events that offer master classes by top professionals because contacts with choreographers are crucial to a dance career.

I Love Dance (McKimmie): Don’t get hung up on technique too much with young dancers. If you instill them with the love of dance, the performance skills naturally grow along with technique. The main thing is to have students who can’t wait to get to the studio. To keep them enthused, working toward goals (like competition) really helps. Also, don’t hesitate to bring your beginners to I Love Dance. Since we offer ability levels, we are very encouraging to your beginner students.

iHollywood Dance (Barcena): I would talk with them about the different things they could do to make their dancers stand out. In touring all over the country and watching thousands of dancers a year, I find that the ones who stand out are refined and finished dancers who have mastered body awareness and movement clarity. It’s that extra hour a week of technique that will separate the unfinished dancer from the finished. 

Legacy (Sanders): Everything you say and do has a profound effect on the young lives in your care. Be inspirational, but don’t be afraid to be demanding. Spend more time in class teaching kids how to dance and less time in rehearsal teaching them how to execute a routine. Routines come and go, but knowledge gained in dance class stays with the young dancer forever.

On Stage America (Hazel): I’d say, “Back to the barre! More ballet training!”

Platinum (Jackson): First, when choosing costumes, keep in mind the body type of all performers in the group. The fact that half the group looks fantastic in a two-piece costume doesn’t make it the best costume choice. Putting dancers in costumes that fit properly and that they feel comfortable wearing will allow them to perform at their best.

Second, when selecting music, please listen to the words and, if necessary, do an Internet search of the lyrics. Sometimes the song sounds great and may be fun to dance to, but the lyrics aren’t appropriate for the dancers’ age group. You can edit a song so that you’ve removed the profanity, but the message of the song may not be appropriate for the competition stage.

Third, dance teachers should remember: you are the professionals. Don’t allow parents to make your decisions concerning choreography, costuming, rehearsals, and other areas. They’re paying you to train their child in dance, and you’re the ones who know dance. If the parents did, they would be doing the teaching.

Showbiz/Prime Time Dance (Westerfield): I’d say, “This is not life or death. We’re not looking for a cure for cancer. We’re looking for an outlet for release. It’s not like pro sports, where you put the ball in the hoop and points go up on the board. If you feel good about your performance, let’s just close the book. We’re done.”

Spotlight Events (Kresge): I’d remind them that their overall attitude at competition is the number-one factor for influencing the dancers’ competition experience. I find that teachers sometimes don’t realize that their students (and often parents) are watching their every move during a competition. The way a teacher handles a CD skipping, a lower-than-expected award, a cramped dressing area, etc., sets the tone for how everyone else will react. The teacher can keep the mood positive and stress-free or she can create a hostile and negative environment where anything that doesn’t go perfectly signifies the end of the world. Keeping a cool head and a positive attitude can make a competition season a positive learning experience for dancers and will be that much more enjoyable for the studio as a whole.

StarQuest (Wappel): Compete. Going to competition offers your students an opportunity to experience an environment in which they can grow as performers. We are here so that your students can cultivate and enhance their performance skills. These skills will follow them through the remainder of their life. Whether onstage or offstage we can help them improve those skills. We complement each other. You teach and train your children for 362 days of the year; we see them for 3 days. That is an important one-two winning combination that exists between you and a competition owner. Together, we can help these students grow in a positive atmosphere and show them that no matter what award they get, it should always reflect their best effort. We are in this together. We can evolve the dance industry and nurture mature adults at the same time.

Talent on Parade (McCluer): I’d tell them: Don’t take the competition world too seriously. Open many doors to them, not just competition ones, and take pride in letting go of students when it is time. Respect other dance professionals and share and receive opinions. We can all grow from reaching out to others who love the same things we do. 

Turn It Up Dance Challenge (Burns): Do what you believe in your heart is the best thing for your students. You cannot please every dancer or every parent. However, if you can truly say you did what you believed was right for your students, that’s what success is.

Ultimate Dance (Roe): I’d say the obvious: that competition is supposed to be about fun and not about the trophy. But the kids want success, so the not-so-obvious answer is that I would tell them how to raise their scores in five minutes of practice. And that is to pull up and walk on stage with confidence. The entrance and the exit are part of the dance, and so many kids enter and exit with bad posture and no focus. This is easy to fix and so impactful.

Tell us an inspirational story regarding a student or dance team at a competition.

Access Broadway (DeVito): One of our studio directors for our Long Island event is Allison Bryant from Huntington, New York, who continues to teach despite having multiple sclerosis. She gives many of her students professional-level classes for free, has paid for their group to attend our Nationals in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and has even made some of the costumes. She is a role model of determination, courage, and generosity and an inspiration to our Access Broadway family.

Beyond the Stars (Faubell): I appreciate the little things that dancers do for each other, especially for a dancer from another studio or one that they are competing against. At our nationals last year an independent entry came without the right version of her music. A dancer from another studio spent several hours downloading and then editing her music. Those are the moments that show the best side of competition.

BravO! (Buchanan): This year at our Athens, Georgia, competition we saw a wonderful musical-theater performance in which a young dancer portrayed Ursula in “Poor Unfortunate Souls” from The Little Mermaid. She performed with so much gusto that at one point her set tipped over, but she kept on with the routine. All of the people stage left rushed to hug her after that performance. This routine and dancer were inspirational not only for that dedicated performance, but because the dancer has Down syndrome, and you can tell her whole studio embraced her as one of them, not as anyone different. She ended up being very good at being a showperson and I believe took home a gold. Seeing that performance hit close to home as my youngest son has Down syndrome. We can learn a lot from kids with disabilities. They push on with their lives and conquer their fears.

Celebration (Dettwiller): We encountered a studio this year that blew us away at awards. Every time a special award or overall high score award was given, this studio’s dancers stood up as a team and applauded the winners. Keep in mind, these weren’t dancers from their studio they were applauding, but dancers from other studios. In our years of attending, working for, and owning a competition, we’d never seen anything like that happen before. This particular studio had shown courtesy and support to all of the other dancers during the competition, but this was the icing on the cake. Best of all, by the end of awards all the other studios were standing and applauding as well. It was like one unit—and each winner would receive his or her trophy to thunderous applause. We wish that every city’s awards ceremony was like that—for a moment in time, exhibiting full support of that thing we all love, dance.

Dance Olympus (Stone): Training includes more than teaching technique. Training is teaching good manners. The dance team that sits on the stage during the awards ceremony and applauds for every team that receives an award and pays attention to all the announcements is an inspiration to me. If I had trained a team like that, I would walk away from that competition with my head held high no matter how many trophies or ribbons I had in my arms.

Dancers Inc. (Barris): A senior-level dancer, recently diagnosed with cancer, was on medications that made her nauseous. In the middle of her dance, she got violently ill but continued to perform. As she walked off at the end of the dance we all cheered and it was cleaned up. Her next dance was done without her wig. How empowering is that for a 16-year-old? Sometimes we can all learn a lesson.

Encore (Marchant): I will never forget sitting in the green room with my Grand Finals judges panel in Charleston, South Carolina, two years ago. One of my judges, Josh Horner, had been on tour with the musical Billy Elliot and commented that his casting director had been looking for a replacement for the role of Michael in the national tour. Josh was so excited because he felt he had found the perfect talent on our Encore stage. He immediately called the casting agent and set up an audition for this young boy, Dillon Stevens, from China Grove, North Carolina. The special part of the story was that Dillon, for family and financial reasons, had been taken under the wing of his devoted dance teacher, Sandy Overcash at Center Stage Dance Company. This sweet little boy had achieved great honors at our competition and many others during the year, but his whole life changed when he was chosen by one of our judges to audition for this big part. Because his mother had other children to care for, Overcash flew with him to the audition and Dillon landed the role. He is currently on tour in Billy Elliot in Canada with Overcash. We are so proud of this special little boy who always had a contagious smile, and we know he will never forget his humble beginnings in China Grove.

Energy (Miria): A teacher of a top competitive school told me of a girl who had her collarbone broken at birth and had a slightly deformed arm. The teacher says that in working with this girl, she tries to emphasize her strong points—her beautiful legs and feet, for example—and that in ballet pieces, she turns the girl so that her problem arm is less prominent. I thought it was so extraordinary that a teacher chose to allow the girl to perform and showcase her strengths. That, to me, is a great teacher!

Headliners (Tomasiello and Ziegler): There’s the student who was spotted performing at our Nationals, was hired by Disney, and is now a successful choreographer. There’s the dancer who was seen by a casting company performing at a Headliners competition on YouTube and is now a lead on Broadway. But the stories that are truly inspirational are the ones about young dancers who were ready to quit dance because they felt they weren’t good enough and then won overalls or a National title. It is so amazing to be a part of their light-bulb moment where they realize that if you work hard and set goals, your dreams can come true!

I Love Dance (McKimmie): The inspiration of many of our past and present participants is that they use the experience to hone their performance skills and that so many go on to careers in movies, television, and dance companies and on cruise ships. Best of all, many dance studio owners and teachers who competed with I Love Dance in their student days now choose to bring their own students to participate. That inspires me to keep producing competitions.

iHollywood Dance (Barcena): A dancer who started attending our events in 2006 hadn’t had much experience or training, but she was adamant about attending every iHollywood Dance event every single year. From one year to the next, the growth I saw in her was unparalleled. Now she lives in the Los Angeles area, where she is one of the busiest dancers in the industry and teaches at Millennium Dance Complex, one of the best-known studios in the area.

Legacy (Sanders): There are so many, but I am most inspired by a young woman with Down syndrome who comes to our events and competes every year. Her performances remind us of what the joy of dance truly means and why I dance and do what I do in the first place.

Platinum (Jackson): One memorable story happened at our Nationals a few years ago. A fire had caused considerable damage to a studio, and the students and a couple of the parents wanted to recognize the teachers and studio owner during one of the awards presentation. Onstage, they presented the studio owner with a box of salvaged photos and thanked the owner and teachers for continuing classes under difficult circumstances. It was a complete surprise to the studio owner and a joy to witness.

Showbiz/Prime Time Dance (Westerfield): This year, teachers told me about a girl of maybe 13 named Clare Blase who dances at a St. Louis studio. She’s mostly a tapper. She has a very rare cancer and they were doing fund-raisers at the event, selling these little bracelets. Later in the afternoon, here comes this mother pushing this bald-headed child in a wheelchair. I had made a donation to her fund, and this girl came rolling up to thank me. Our whole conversation was about life. Nothing about dance. Then that little girl looked at me and said, “I live to come to your events. I’m going to live until I come to Nationals in Dallas this year.” She and I continue to correspond. As a cancer survivor myself, I feel like she did much more for me than I did for her.

Spotlight Events (Kresge): Dance Emporium, of Spokane, Washington, and one of its dancers, Hannah Bowman, are both examples of inspiration. This studio consistently bands together to support the causes of individual dancers as well as its community. Hannah was battling lymphatic cancer at a time when her father was without employment. The studio, under the direction and example of Camille Camp, supported this family in every possible way—through fund-raisers, benefit concerts, providing emotional support, and doing all they could to ensure Hannah could still enjoy the one thing she loved—dance! Hannah helped raise money for Spokane Children’s Hospital through this ordeal, while maintaining a positive and uplifting attitude, keeping her grades up, and touching the hearts of those around her. This is just one example of the care and compassion demonstrated by this studio and its director and students.

StarQuest (Wappel): Eleven years ago a teen duet, “Dust in the Wind,” won first-place top score at our Virginia Beach World Finals “Quest for the Best.” The moment their routine was announced the two girls jumped up, hugged each other, and began crying, completely ignoring the large trophy and cash award. It was startling to everyone else, but I was actually not surprised. I told the audience: “Four years ago these two girls were at one of our regional events and achieved a silver. After that awards ceremony they walked over to me and said they intended to eventually get a first-place top score. I reminded them that you never know how long that can take, but they were willing to put in all that time, effort, and focus on achieving that goal. The next year they got a gold. The following year they aged up into Teen Division and this time got a high silver. They were depressed but, once again, reminded me they were not done yet.” (By now, they had stopped crying and were listening too.) I continued, “Last year they got 11th place. They still stuck it out. This year their technique, their hard work, their choreography, their performance skills—it has come together. You see, they aren’t crying because they have won; this marks the fulfillment of their journey. It’s not the three minutes, it’s everything that leads up to it. My congratulations to both of you for this accomplishment.” They hugged me. Then I cried. I will never forget that.

Talent on Parade (McCluer): We at Talent on Parade have been inspired by the dancers and people of Joplin, Missouri (one of our competition cities), who were devastated by a recent tornado. Talent on Parade had the chance to participate in Convoy of Hope in Branson, Missouri, and the response from the dance world was so swift and inspirational. It once again confirmed just how small but close and caring this dance world is. 

Turn It Up Dance Challenge (Burns): At one of our events we had a team that had a spirit doll that traveled to every competition they entered. Before each performance the teacher had the spirit doll dressed in a handmade costume like a member of the team, which helped add a fun and exciting environment before each performance.

Ultimate Dance (Roe): Two young sisters once collapsed in tears in the wings after dancing their hearts out on my stage. They told me their dad was in the audience and was leaving for duty in Afghanistan as soon as he saw them dance. I rushed to the podium and had the lights turned up, asking him to stand. I introduced him and told the audience that the girls’ performance was a goodbye to their father. The entire audience gave him a standing ovation as he departed. That was a great gift to those sisters, to see an entire auditorium of grateful citizens applauding their hero.

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I read your article “Ambassadors of Tap” [March/April 2011]. I am in my third year of tap at A Class Apart in Deltona, Florida, and can’t remember when I’ve had more fun. When I began, my 12-year-old daughter came along so she could laugh at Dad. Now she’s in two classes, one with her age group and the adult class with me. Given our age difference, it was awesome to find something we could enjoy together. I’m 63, and I expect I’ll tap until I die!
Bruce L. Warner
Deltona, FL

Thank you for writing this article of overdue praise [“Tops on the Tap Scene,” October 2010]. I am one of two living grandsons of the late Sadie Bruce Glover. You’re right—it’s amazing how deeply entrenched tap dancing is in Chicago. Tap dance is a serious game and we need people like you to raise the awareness to get the fire back. Keep up the good work and continue to spread the ‘good’ word (gospel) about those who suffered and put their sweat and name on the line to lay the foundation for entertainers today. These unsung heroes do not receive the respect they deserve, especially on a national stage.
R.N. Glover
via DanceStudioLife.com

Miss Nancy [“Teacher in the Spotlight: Nancy Lacy Stewart,” May/June 2011] is amazing on so many levels. Besides being a great dancer, teacher, mentor, and performer, she is also funny, charming, and just plain awesome. My daughter studied with Miss Nancy for several years and those were very special times. She was remarkably kind, patient, and a great disciplinarian. Miss Nancy makes learning fun. Period. Long after my daughter has grown up and moved on, I have kept in touch with Miss Nancy and am mighty glad I have.
Frankie Dee
via Dance Studio Life.com