Posts Tagged ‘dance training’

Teaching dance to teens takes understanding their limits

By Annie Spell, PhD

Adolescence is a time of profound changes. Teens are establishing their identity and developing logical and rational thinking skills that will become further refined in adulthood. As dance teachers, you can ensure that your teaching methods and curriculum support this phase of brain development. When you are aware of the changes, neural activity, and developing capacities that teenagers experience, you can help them make the most of their dance training.

Skill development
Preteen children undergo exponential neural growth in their brains. However, during the teen years, the rate of growth begins to slow to its adult level of activity. This is not to say that the slowed rate is not part of continued progress and skill development. In fact, one of the most significant events in an adolescent’s brain is synaptic pruning, akin to the pruning of a tree. The brain breaks down its weakest and least used connections, preserving only those that experience has shown to be useful—an excellent example of the commonly used phrase “Use it or lose it.” The synapses that carry the most messages get stronger and the weaker ones get cut out. Some research shows that approximately 30,000 synapses may be pruned per second in the adolescent brain. The net effect of this is that teens are left with only 50 percent of the synapses that were present in their preadolescent years.

Although synaptic pruning might seem like quite an insult to the teen brain, it is actually adaptive. Without the weak branches, the stronger ones have more energy to proliferate. The brain actually consolidates new skills by removing unused synapses and wrapping protective insulation called myelin (white matter) around highly used connections. This strengthens and stabilizes the skills and knowledge that adolescents are learning.

The late-arriving frontal lobe
It is important to consider the relative lack of synchrony between adolescents’ mature, adult-appearing physical bodies and their nervous systems. This lack of synchrony is largely due to the slow developmental rate of a teenager’s frontal lobe. That’s the part of the brain responsible for organizing, planning, and controlling impulses. This area of the brain, which we rely on greatly in decision making and emotional reasoning, is the last brain area to develop.

Due to the late appearance of mature planning and reasoning, teens don’t manage their behavior and emotions effectively, and many of them engage in risk-taking behaviors. They tend to make bad choices, often with input from peers in an emotionally charged situation. Understanding that adolescents are built to take risks—and that trying to prevent them from doing so is typically futile—is important to any adult who works with this age group. Risk taking is part of the predetermined path of neural development.

Emotions and hormones: an increase in negativity
During adolescence, hormones become more powerful and the emotional parts of the brain become more active. Emotionally mature adolescents identify and manage their own feelings, recognize and react effectively to other’s feelings, tolerate frustration well, are less impulsive, and show adequate concentration. However, most teens have difficulty regulating their emotions and responding to situations appropriately. Some studies have shown that, compared to adults, adolescents are more likely to experience negative emotions in response to a situation. This overall increase in negative feelings sets the stage for a decline in motivation for learning.

Teaching teens effectively
It is important to keep in mind that the nature of the learning experiences you undertake will dictate how your students’ brains develop and which synaptic connections are pruned.

Reflection and variety
In order to learn effectively, students must develop some key skills: how to reflect on learning and how to link new skills to existing skills. Learning with understanding is more likely to promote fluid skills than memorizing steps or routines. Thus, giving students opportunities to reflect on their skill development improves the quality of learning.

Also, when you present skills with a variety of learning strategies, teens are more likely to be able to recall them effectively. Using visual, auditory, and tactile prompts can help teens synthesize the steps and momentum of dance. This kind of creative presentation can help teens learn to appreciate dance and improve their skills. Helping them integrate information and making explicit links between different steps and techniques—for example, by pointing out how ballet study helps them achieve better turns in hip-hop—are two teaching methods that help students store and apply their knowledge in activities such as choreography.

A safe environment
You can greatly enhance teens’ learning experiences (and take advantage of their risk-taking tendencies) by providing them with challenging activities, such as choreographing. However, these must be done in an emotionally safe studio environment.

Conversely, learning stalls in the presence of threats, insults, and a studio environment that does not respect each individual’s skills and emotional experience. So while you should encourage students to take risks and set goals in their dance development, you must attempt to minimize stress or negative emotional reactions. Unpleasant feelings (anxiety, helplessness, or frustration) impair thinking in anyone, teen or adult, while positive feelings (safety, self-efficacy, and confidence) tend to enhance thinking.

Maximizing motivation
Since teens frequently experience negative emotions, they often feel less motivated in their dance training or other extracurricular activities. One way you can help increase your students’ motivation is to identify their interests, recognize their individual talents, and link those talents in dance to their interests and future goals. Providing a purpose for exploring and mastering dance in a real-life context can increase teen students’ desire to continue with their dance education for years to come.

Hospitality is vital to Southern Association of Dance Masters

By Steve Sucato

The Southern Association of Dance Masters has been training students and teachers for 50 years with caring, commitment, and good old-fashioned Southern hospitality.

The organization got its start in 1959 when a small group of dance teachers from Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi were attending a regional meeting of the Chicago National Association of Dance Masters in Little Rock, Arkansas. In those days, it was typical for dance teachers from Southern states (many from small towns) to have to travel long distances to attend conferences and conventions to further their dance education. This group of forward-thinkers decided it was time for their region of the South to have a teachers’ association of its own.

SADM has always been a close-knit group. Its officers for 1980 included charter member Lyndia Cochran (front row, second from left) and Sheila Vaught (back row, second from left) both of whom have served as president. (Photo courtesy of SADM)

SADM held its first meeting in 1960 in Memphis at the Peabody Hotel, with 52 charter members representing a handful of Southern states. “Back then we were pretty spread out,” says Lyndia Cochran, a charter member and former SADM president from Murray, Kentucky. “Most teachers taught classes once a week in several small towns around where they lived. They would rent a hall and hold a class. Unlike today, back then the students didn’t come to you; you went to them.” Cochran says that for a time she juggled 14 of these small studios along the Kentucky-Tennessee border near Murray.

SADM was formed for teachers like Cochran: small-town teachers who were essentially isolated from the larger dance world but wanted to better their students’ and their own dance educations.

Although patterned after Chicago National Association of Dance Masters, SADM is independent of it and other organizations, such as Dance Masters of America. Over the years SADM has become one of the largest regional teachers’ associations, with nearly 200 members representing 15 states.

From its beginnings, says former president and current scholarship chairperson Shelia Vaught, SADM created a welcoming atmosphere for its members. “I have fond memories of the Southern ladies and gentlemen who started the organization being so gracious,” says Vaught, of Little Rock, Arkansas. “I think that is why so many people want to come to our association—for the friendliness and sense of community.”

A member since 1975, Vaught says that SADM has always been a close-knit group whose friendships extended beyond the organization’s annual conventions. “We are really big on Southern hospitality,” says Vaught. “Socializing, as well as the education of our members, is a large part of SADM. We have lots of get-togethers and parties at members’ homes.”

Like similar organizations that believe in quality dance education, SADM requires testing for teachers who wish to become members. Teachers ages 16 and up must successfully complete oral and written exams in at least two of the core subjects (tap, ballet, jazz, or acrobatics) SADM teaches at its conventions. SADM also has a junior membership program for 11- to 16-year-olds that familiarizes them with the organization and requirements for full membership.

In addition to continuing education, SADM’s mission includes a goal to increase parents’ and students’ awareness and appreciation of dance. The main vehicles for achieving its mission are its annual conventions. “We encourage not only the students of SADM members to attend the conventions but students’ parents as well,” says Vaught. Parents can observe classes as well as attend competitions and the association’s Summer Banquet and Floorshow.

SADM meets twice a year, with a one-day convention in the fall and a two-day  convention in the summer. A third convention in which costume companies would show off their latest products was discontinued a decade ago when those companies began their annual Costume Preview Show.

“Our first conventions were just a way for us to come together and learn,” says Cochran. “We didn’t have many of the things conventions have today, like dance competitions.”

As a young girl at SADM’s first convention, Cochran admits she was a bit overwhelmed at the fast pace of learning in the classes she took. “I had never experienced anything like what these teachers from Chicago and New York were doing,” she says. “Sometimes you were doing the steps and sometimes you were faking it in class, but you always got out there [and tried] nonetheless.”

Over its five decades, SADM has welcomed a number of notable teachers at its conventions, many of whom came back year after year to teach. They included the likes of Robert Joffrey, Buster Cooper, Charles Kelley, and Joe Tremaine.

“The teachers who came back for years and years were just a wealth of information,” says Cochran. “You could ask about a step and its history and why one teacher did it one way and another a different way, and when you had a problem there was always somebody who could tell you what to do.”

Vaught recalls a rather different kind of educational moment at a convention in Little Rock in the late ’70s or early ’80s. Notable jazz dance teacher Gus Giordano (who died in 2008) was teaching in a room where the students were wilting from the heat. Giordano told them to jump in the hotel swimming pool to cool off. They did so, fully clothed and in their dance shoes, and returned soaking wet to finish the class.

“We were all appalled, as was the hotel staff,” says Vaught. “The kids, however, thought it was the most wonderful thing in the world. That is probably what they remember most about their convention experiences.”

The kids weren’t the only ones who got a little wild at the conventions, says Cochran. “Often the teachers, after getting their students settled in for the night, would go out to the local nightclubs to socialize and dance,” she says. “Sometimes we would stay out until 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning and be up for a class at 8:00 a.m. the next day.”

SADM’s 50th-anniversary convention will be held July 15 to 18 at the Memphis Hilton in Tennessee, with classes in tap, ballet, jazz, hip-hop, acrobatics, lyrical, and contemporary dance styles, along with membership testing and, of course, socializing. Guest teachers slated to appear include Janice Aguilera (jazz and production), Gina Badone (lyrical and contemporary), Thommie Retter (tap and musical theater), and Judy Rice (ballet).

The convention will also include SADM’s annual summer Ballet Forum, a one-day workshop for SADM members’ students. The approximately 60 students ages 12 to 21 who attend the forum each summer take technique classes as well as learn choreography for performances at the Banquet and Floorshow event. Teaching at this summer’s Forum will be Ballet Memphis dancers Liliana Muhlbach and Julie Niekrasz.

Another large part of every SADM convention since the 1990s is The Southern Stars Competition, which is open to all students. “It is a low-pressure event designed to promote the experience of performing rather than the intensity of competing,” says SADM’s president, Joy McDaniel of Cordova, Tennessee. It’s shorter than typical competitions, with the number of entries limited to prevent students from getting worn out. “It is meant to be a positive experience for the students and a good way for our younger ones and those with less experience to get their feet wet in a competition.”

Of the approximately 300 students who attend each SADM convention, some do so for free, thanks to scholarships created in memory of past charter members. SADM also provides financial aid scholarships for assistant teachers and a $500 college scholarship for a freshman or sophomore majoring in dance.

“There was no such thing as scholarships in the early days,” says Cochran. “The conventions back then barely paid for themselves.” True to its family-like and caring nature, though, says Cochran, “if a teacher had a child with a lot of potential who could not afford to attend a convention, we would all come together to assist that child.”

SADM’s 50th-anniversary convention will also feature some special additions, such as a memorabilia table that offers a look back at the organization’s history, a reception honoring charter and 25-year members, plus a tribute to the group’s longtime photographer, Lynn Williams.

And what would Southern hospitality be without a gathering for food and fun?

The Banquet and Floorshow will feature all that plus performances by the convention’s top competition winners, the Ballet Forum classes, and SADM’s junior members. The night will also honor longtime members with special awards.

Although it has been a half-century since its founding and much has changed, Southern Association of Dance Masters has managed to maintain its independence and its small-town values, instilling in its members a sense of friendliness, family, and belonging—along with a staunch dedication to proper dance training and an insatiable hunger for learning.

For more information on Southern Association of Dance Masters, visit www.sadm.org.

The Washington Ballet will launch a trainee program this fall that’s aimed at providing full-time training and performance experiences to classically trained ballet students ages 17 and older who aspire to professional careers.

Carlos Valcarcel, a choreographer and longtime faculty member of the Washington School of Ballet, has been named ballet master of the program. Valcarcel will manage the program’s day-to-day operations, expand and contribute to the repertoire, and stage and coach works from the classical repertoire as well as new works.

The one- or two-year program will run from September through May. Trainees will maintain a vigorous performance schedule, dancing alongside professional company members, and will be considered for positions with The Washington Ballet’s Studio Company and its professional company.

Dancers interested in auditioning for the program should send a DVD of barre work, center work, pointe work for women, men’s work for men, and a classical variation along with a curriculum vitae and a $25 audition fee to: Trainee Program, The Washington Ballet, 3515 Wisconsin Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20016.

To learn more, contact the school’s manager, Donna Glover, at Dglover@WashingtonBallet.org or 202.362.3606, extension 149.

DLTV proudly presents a 4-Part Miniseries,Bill Evans: Seven Decades of Dance, Episode #2: Turning Aspirations Into Reality. The importance of diversity in dance training is uppermost in Bill Evans’ mind in this video. His heart has always been in tap, but as a young dancer he took every kind of class he could, and he believes that all dance students should investigate multiple dance genres in depth. He talks about the value of developing confidence, identifying goals, and organizing one’s life so that those dreams can become reality, plus the interrelation of cognitive and physical development that dance training promotes.

Back to DanceLife TV viewer guide

Claylee’s Dance Academy in Whittier, California, will host Cecchetti USA’s spring workshop April 17 and 18. Guest teachers will be Gary Joyce and Muriel Joyce, both formerly of Bavarian National Ballet.

A $200 tuition scholarship to the 2010 Cecchetti USA International Summer School will be awarded to a student who has passed the Grade 4 exam, based on enthusiasm, motivation, and work ethic.

The fees are $15 for one class and $10 for each additional class. To pre-register, contact the host school at 562.698.6316.

A dance teacher with a mission, Elsa Posey gives high marks to accountability and lifelong learning

By Rachel Straus

Elsa Posey’s passion for giving children high-quality dance education comes by way of experiencing the opposite: Her first four years of dance training fell painfully short. Her early instructors, who had backgrounds in vaudeville, made her believe she was preparing for a career in ballet. They also jumpstarted her performance career, including her in military installation shows when she was 9 years old. But when Posey began studying at the Metropolitan Opera Ballet School at age 12, she says, “I was told that I needed to begin ‘at the beginning’ and that what I had learned up to that point was not ballet. I had to forget everything and start from scratch.”

By age 30, Posey was well established in her teaching career, with a school that offers a broad curriculum and shows an awareness of various learning styles. (Photo courtesy Elsa Posey)

Posey endured and re-learned. Since then her mission has been to ensure that no dance student is as unprepared as she was and that no child should be exploited onstage. “I did not want any of my students to have to suffer that painful experience,” she says. At the Posey School of Dance in Northport, Long Island, her commitment to teaching young people is in its 55th year.

The school occupies the top floors of an 1891 building, where ballroom dance instructors were plying their trade when the paint was still fresh on the walls. These teachers learned their craft from Civil War–era teachers who traveled from town to town, teaching social dances to children of privileged families. If born earlier, Posey says, she wouldn’t have been given the opportunity to dance. Her father was a taxi driver and they lived “on the other side of the railroad tracks,” far from the mansions dotted along Long Island Sound. But by the late 1940s, it was possible for middle- and working-class children like Posey to take dance classes and find local benefactors to further a professional education.

Today this passionate educator teaches 12 ballet classes weekly and knows her field inside and out. Like a historian, she considers the big picture, which leads her to ask big questions: Why, in the United States, can anyone call herself a dance teacher? Why do teachers adhere to traditions that foster self-loathing in students? Why aren’t there standards for teaching dance? This habit of asking questions not only makes Posey highly knowledgeable, it makes her a born teacher who needs to understand as much as possible before passing on information to her students. That’s certainly Patricia G. Cohen’s view of her. “My first impression of Elsa,” says the New York University dance education teacher, “was that she listened. She wanted to know who I was and what I thought.”

 Posey is a product of both vaudeville and European ballet training. American dance, she says, is a reflection of both strands, but schools, even today, remain divided into competition studios or ballet academies. When Posey opened her school, however, she didn’t want to create just a ballet academy. With her sister Jacqueline, who was trained in modern dance, she offered instruction in several dance forms, incurring the disapproval of her peers. “My ballet colleagues severely criticized me for bringing modern into the curriculum,” says the school owner.

Since Posey never divided dance forms into “good” and “bad,” “high” and “low,” she developed, with her sister, her own tastes and standards. When 29-year-old Jacqueline died in 1971 after being hit by a drunken driver, Posey’s mission for her school endured. She found other instructors to teach Jacqueline’s specialties—modern, jazz, and tap, thereby honoring her sister’s legacy and her desire to offer, she says, “a complete education in dance.” The school now offers classes in jazz, tap, Middle Eastern/belly dance, modern, ballet, and creative movement.

Today’s commonplace fusion of multiple dance forms on the world’s stages has not escaped Posey’s notice. But a career on the stage is not something she pushes on her students. “A majority of my former students choose not to pursue a career in dance; they dance to enrich their lives through artistic endeavor,” she wrote in her resume.

At first glance, Posey’s ballet classes appear identical to others’. Her students start with pliés and graduate to battements. They wear pink tights and black leotards. Silence, however, does not reign. “I believe children should be allowed to talk at appropriate times during dance class,” Posey explains. By reading about child developmental psychology and by talking to experts, her sense that children learn in many ways—not only by silently watching and replicating—was confirmed.

Last May, when Posey’s intermediate-advanced students took New York City Ballet soloist Jennifer Tinsley-Williams’ class at the Lincoln Center studios, they didn’t make a peep, knowing well ballet class etiquette. “I want my students to be able to take a ballet class anywhere in the world,” said Posey, observing their calm, concentrated approach to Williams’ class.

But in Northport, those students receive more than traditional technique classes. Posey teaches them historical dances, gives them individual corrections tailored to how each one learns best, and encourages them to improvise and choreograph. In 1997, Posey created The Children’s Dance Company, with a focus on children’s choreography. “[Students] should be encouraged to participate in creating the dances they perform, rather than just memorizing steps,” she says. Choreographing can yield fringe benefits, such as the increased understanding of musicality that high school senior Laura Dabrowski, a Posey School student since age 3, says she gained from the experience.

 ‘If you think of a pebble being tossed into a pond and the ripple effect it creates, that is Elsa.’ —Trish Harms, dance teacher and former Posey School student

Many of the students represent their family’s third generation with the school. “It’s important that they aren’t carbon copies of each other,” says Posey, speaking of her multigenerational clientele and of her desire to develop each student’s artistic voice.

Posey’s pride in her students and her desire to give them the best education possible led her to join eight dance organizations. She co-chairs an education subcommittee for the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science and is an active member of the Congress on Research in Dance, the Dance Critics Association, and the Society of Dance History Scholars. From 1998 to 2002 she was president of the National Dance Education Organization, which gave her a lifetime achievement award in 2007, established a scholarship in her name in 2002, and partnered with her to create the National Registry of Dance Educators. She is a founding member and past president of the American Dance Guild and a former board member of the National Dance Association, and was on the Professional Advisory Board of the Dance Notation Bureau.

Posey could have modeled her teaching after her most famous teachers—George Balanchine, Antony Tudor, Margaret Craske—and called it a day. But this teacher has never been star-struck or self-satisfied. She is a seeker of information. Her high standards for dance and her exploratory sensibility reached their most comprehensive expression with the creation of the National Registry of Dance Educators, founded in 1996 by Posey and Peff Modelski, a longtime teacher at STEPS on Broadway and a former Joffrey Ballet and American Ballet Theatre dancer. The RDE honors master teachers—regardless of whether they have degrees or extensive performing experience—by recognizing their ability to teach safely, ethically, and well. Though the registry doesn’t include a step-by-step model of how to teach, “it gives,” says Modelski, “parents the right to ask, ‘So what makes you qualified to train my child?’ ”

The RDE allows teachers to answer that question with confidence. To become a member, Posey says, “Applicants supply extensive information and documentation regarding their educational background, dance education, and performance and teaching experience, which is reviewed by trained evaluators who are qualified dance educators themselves.” RDE teachers possess a proven track record. They demonstrate ethical and professional teaching practices and knowledge of child development, dance science, and dance medicine.

RDE members pay $125 annually, becoming part of an online network of instructors who can safely ask and answer each other’s confidential concerns. They are committed to taking continuing education courses, attending seminars, and staying up to date on teaching methodology advances. To date, the organization numbers nearly 40 members who teach all types of dance and who work in studios, public schools, and as college adjuncts across the United States. Though Posey hopes to expand the membership base, the application and screening process is lengthy, requiring approximately a year.

When Posey began building the RDE, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Modelski says that Posey never faltered in her efforts to develop the organization or in her teaching practice: “She would have fallen over at the barre before she would have taught inappropriately.” Determined to create an organization that allows dance teachers to network and problem solve together “kept me going,” says Posey, who has been cancer free for more than a decade.

Straddling developments in dance medicine, history, journalism, and preservation, as well as federal- and state-level arts education initiatives, Posey’s involvement and contributions are staggering. She does all this without a PhD, a master’s, or even a college degree, making her an autodidact of the best kind. “If you think of a pebble being tossed into a pond and the ripple effect it creates,” says dance teacher Trish Harms, a former Posey School student, “that is Elsa.”

By remaining focused on people while continually learning from others, Posey has embodied a singular philosophy throughout her career: the human potential for growth. With this belief, she gives her students the desire and confidence to become dancers for life. And to the community at large, she serves as a role model of how to stay engaged and make a difference. “Many times you have one teacher who is trained in a village,” says Jane Bonbright, executive director of NDEO and an RDE member. “He or she opens a school. Fifty years later they haven’t learned much beyond the walls of that village.” But like the tendus that Posey teaches daily, “Elsa is constantly stretching and growing,” says Bonbright.

When asked what she wishes for in the field of dance education, Posey replies, “An openness where teachers are not so singularly focused” on their niche, “a free flow of information between all levels of the dance world,” and an understanding that “all people can dance.”

These days, rather than being satisfied with her achievements or writing her memoirs, Posey is looking forward. “My theory is that we are in a time of change; in the future dance will be taught differently.” With Posey and other master educators who think like her steering the way, that theory could become a reality.

 
by Rhee Gold

Ahhh! A new season is in the works—and so are all those ridiculous phone and email inquiries from the parents of “exceptional” children. Here’s one of my favorites: “My 3-year-old does all the dances with the contestants on So You Think You Can Dance—it’s like she has already been dancing for 10 years! Do you have an advanced class for 3-year-olds?” And here’s another one I’ll never forget: “We just put a jungle gym in the backyard, where my daughter, who is 6, has been swinging and flipping herself all day, every day for the last couple of weeks. I know that she has the potential to be an Olympic gymnast. Can she take class with the 12-year-olds because she already has all the basics she needs?”

Those kinds of calls make many school owners wonder if parents are nuts; yet most of them aren’t. They are just extremely proud of their children and lack any knowledge of dance training.

Another interesting thing I have come to learn is that dance teachers are not immune from behaving just like those crazy parents who leave them dumbfounded. At one of my seminars a dance school owner proclaimed that her 4-year-old was better than all the kids at her school. She said she didn’t know what to do because even the teenagers’ classes weren’t challenging enough for her daughter! It’s not often that I am left speechless, but I was at that moment. All I could wonder is what those teenagers (and their parents) thought about having a 4-year-old in their class. Could it be that they interpreted this school owner’s actions as favoritism for her daughter? You bet!

As maddening as those crazy inquiries are, I advise you to welcome them. Why? Because you understand that it’s natural for some parents, especially those who have preschoolers, to think that their children have abilities way beyond their years. Most simply want you to listen to their story as if you’ve never heard one like it before. Once they have had the chance to say what they need to about their child, then it’s your opportunity to begin educating them about dance training.

If you handle these parents’ proud declarations and inquiries with patience, you just might have the honor of having those “exceptional” children at your school from their preschool years all the way through high school. By that time you’ll have educated both the parents and the children about the joys and demands of dance training. And you just might have created some lifelong dance lovers in that family, which you never could have done if you hadn’t had patience with that proud parent (whom you might be just like, given the opportunity!).

There’s a lot more to the start of the season than answering parents’ questions and starting new client relationships, and our Season Opener issue is packed with information to help you. Do you want to get more organized and improve your school’s image? Ever wondered what improvisation could do for your students or how you can juggle being a mom and a studio owner? Do you need tips on how to encourage boys to keep coming to your classes? Are you considering bartering with a client or community member, interested in hiring a front-desk person, or wondering if a dance degree is really worth it?

We’ve got all that covered, plus more! This month you’ll learn about the pleasures of teaching adults—especially those whose hair is tinged with gray—and gain some practical advice about that oh-so-important art, the pas de deux. We’ve got a fun dance quiz to share with your students and staff, plus a grab bag of “Collective Wisdom,” terrific ideas from your fellow dance teachers.

This issue is a meaty one, so kick off your shoes and settle down for a good read. Then get ready to kick off one terrific new dance season!

Forget kindergarten—the dance studio is the classroom of life

By Diane Gudat

There is a famous book that claims that everything we need to know in life can be learned in kindergarten. I might be slightly biased, but I think there is no better format for presenting life’s lessons than the dance classroom. Dance training and exposure to a good dance teacher can enhance a child’s life in immeasurable ways. We build confident minds, open hearts, and sensitive artists (who occasionally learn to move well!). Here are the lessons learned in every dance class, along with a few old sayings that help to make my point.

Stop, look, and listen before you cross the street—and before you move your feet! Dancers learn early on that they must listen carefully and watch attentively to get all the information they need to move well. The ears and eyes become as important as the feet. Trial-and-error learners (better known as showoffs) learn that moving without having all the vital information does not always work. Learning to be a patient listener is a huge part of the dance process.

You are in charge of your destiny. No one can make someone do anything. All parents recognize the struggle of getting their children to clean their rooms. The job is never done well until someone they wish to impress is due to visit. Unless they decide on their own to do something well, it simply will not happen.

Motivation is an important factor in dance training, and less talented dancers often surpass those with more natural ability because of their personal desire to excel. Teachers learn to never give up on a student who loves to dance. That love is more powerful than any other attribute a dancer can bring to the classroom.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again! With dance, you get out of it exactly what you put in, and hard work really does pay off. A strong work ethic tends to carry over into students’ lives outside the studio and is reflected in their approach to schoolwork and other challenges. Dancers learn not to give up when they are not immediately successful. They learn to ask questions of their teachers and themselves and stick with a project to its best conclusion. They discover the strength of discipline and the joy of personal accomplishment.

Teachers who find that the first attempt at teaching a skill does not work according to plan must look for another way. Success with students is sometimes a sweet surprise that occurs after a seemingly never-ending series of failed attempts. Patience and creativity are essential attributes of a successful educator.

It’s not always about you. Teamwork is a big part of the picture in dance training. In preschool classes, the first lessons the little ones learn are how to cooperate, sit in a circle, stand in a line, and wait their turn. They find out that classrooms have rules and that rules in life ensure that everyone is comfortable and has a good experience.

For many children, life revolves around their own desires and immediate comfort. The dance classroom might be the first and only time in their lives that they must consider the comfort of others. As dancers mature and gain experience by performing with a group, they learn to share their talents and the spotlight with others. They become part of a larger family, sharing their lives and accomplishments.

Teachers learn to treat all students equally and expect all of their students to adhere to the same rules. Students love to emulate the personalities of their teachers, which makes kindness and fairness important qualities for the entire staff to embody. Clear rules with consistent consequences allow children to feel they are safe and part of a larger picture.

There are no do-overs. Dancers cannot hit the rewind button. I tell my students, “The bigger the mistake, the bigger the smile.” They learn quickly that frustration and tension only make things harder and that they have to leave their mistakes behind and forge ahead. I have never met a dancer who has had a perfect performance, but the show must go on and an audience can smell fear. Even the most prepared and talented performers will encounter technical difficulties that are beyond their control. Years of stage experience teach dancers to dismiss the problems and stay focused on the end goal. They learn to problem solve in the blink of an eye and come to the aid of their fellow dancers instinctively. What better life skills can you hope for?

The grass is always greener on the other side of the body. My right side always wanted the same amount of coordination that my left side had! In dance, it’s often true that one foot, side of the body, or direction really is stronger or more coordinated than the other. Because of that, dancers are more comfortable turning in one direction, tapping on one foot, or tumbling to one side. They have to learn to accept many things about themselves that they cannot change and find those things that they can improve on, which leads us to our next lesson . . .

Be yourself. Every body is built in its own unique and perfect way, which makes each dancer deliciously special. Dancers learn to find their own excellence and to admire and emulate the talents of others without making negative comparisons.

A teacher who helps students identify and develop what makes them special is giving them a true gift. Students cannot be allowed to take over a class or, worse, become invisible. All students deserve at least one correction as well as one compliment in each class they take.

It’s all in the details. In dance, basics are all-important and details make the difference. This explains the need for the constant repetition found in a dance classroom. Training is about developing good habits that stack together to form the technique that dancers can rely on.

Teachers can become bored with material they teach repeatedly over the years. Looking for fun and interesting ways to present that necessary repetition is the key to a happy classroom. It is the teacher’s responsibility to disguise the work and applaud the smallest accomplishments. Using props, costumes, and interesting music, blended with obvious enthusiasm for the subject, can decrease boredom for everyone and allow for the repetition needed to learn and enjoy the details.

Fast is not always best. Whether it is the tap dancer who forsakes rhythmic phrasing for breakneck speed, the acrobatic dancer who attempts trick after difficult trick, the lyrical dancer who never stops spinning, or the jazz dancer who never draws a movement out to its complete end, dancers eventually learn that audiences love changes in pace and the occasional quiet moment.

This rule also applies to the learning process. Getting a dancer from point A to point B requires slow, tedious work and a great deal of patience from everyone. Putting dancers on a fast track toward learning a skill or trick can lead to injury and frustration. Winning an award or satisfying a pushy parent is never worth the tradeoff.

Remember to develop the artist in your students, leaving time and space in the choreography for the audience to appreciate them as creative and artistic beings.

You get what you pay for. Quality education is essential for both the student and the teacher. Teachers must never apologize for charging an appropriate price that will compensate them for the education they must constantly acquire to teach this ever-changing, living art form. Studio owners should always encourage and facilitate continuing education for their staff. The teachers’ knowledge and personalities are the products the studio is selling. Education ensures the quality of that product. Teachers must stay motivated and excited about what they do.

Few other professions require people to excel in as many areas as teaching dance does. Spending time in a classroom or on the dance floor with others who share your daily problems and experiences can boost your energy and preserve your sanity. Taking time to recharge the batteries and laugh about common problems is an absolute must. This includes taking personal time to share with your family or simply pampering yourself.

Variety is the spice of life. The great thing about dance is that there are so many avenues for expression. The dance world is like a huge ice cream store with millions of flavors. Whether this week you love ballet and next week you prefer tap, there is always the opportunity for change.

Do not be afraid to switch things up. Try a new style of music, take a class in a discipline you have never tried, or expose yourself to ethnic dance of all flavors. Blending styles helps your students find their own dance voice and lends a new feel to a familiar class.

Dancers should be encouraged to take more than one dance discipline to develop all facets of their training. Try to arrange the school’s schedule to allow them to take one class conveniently after another. Encourage them to make up missed classes in a dance style they do not normally take. Let younger dancers visit the classes of older students who are studying a different genre, or have a tap soloist or group visit a ballet class. Everyone benefits from respecting diversity.

The future belongs to us. Dancers are taught to respect the past but not to be afraid to create the future. We understand that the masters laid the groundwork for what we now know, and we accept our responsibility to develop this information for future generations. Advancements in the study of kinesiology and exercise science have taught us how to use the body efficiently. Universities now provide advanced degrees in pedagogy, dance psychology, and teaching techniques. There is a newfound respect for the somatic arts, which have taught us to respect and protect our bodies and integrate that practice with healthy minds.

Technology makes it easier than ever to find new information and learning resources. We can now teach students more efficiently, which allows for new levels of accomplishment from our dancers. Teachers must arm themselves with information and set no boundaries for artistic innovation. Developing students’ awareness of how their bodies work will lead the way to years of healthy learning and performance and lay the groundwork for the artists of the future.

Dear Rhee,
I know you have had a lot of experience in the competition field and I am hoping that you can help with me with some advice on how to become a judge. For the past couple of years I have been sending my resume to many of the national competitions inquiring about a judging position, yet no one ever contacts me.

My credentials include dancing on Broadway, on tour, and in videos with Janet Jackson, Madonna, and others. I have appeared in soap operas, movies, and almost every other professional venue out there. Last week I went to observe a competition and discovered that the judges had very little professional experience and most of them were from small-town dance schools with no professional performance credentials. How do the directors of competitions skip over my experience in favor of a local dance teacher with no experience? What do I have to do to get on a judging panel? I would think my experience would put me at the top of the list, especially above the rinky-dink dance teacher. Please help. Thanks. —Gordon

Hello Gordon,
I am so glad you wrote, because I feel like you’re not alone in your thinking. As a former competition director, I appreciate the opportunity to express my views on this subject—although I have a feeling you might not like my answer.

First and foremost, the professional credentials you have do not make you a qualified judge for dance competitions. The most important credential is experience in the classroom, which gives judges the professional know-how of what it takes to get a group of 10-year-olds to dance on the same foot on the same beat in the music. These “rinky-dink” teachers, as you call them, do understand what it takes to make a group of children look good because they work with them on a daily basis, year in and year out. You do not.

In your email you do not mention any experience teaching or choreographing for children. That’s the professional experience that these teachers have that you do not. In my opinion the best judges are those who teach or are studio owners. You should be proud of your accomplishments, but they do not make you more qualified to judge a dance competition than the average dance teacher.

If you really want to be a judge, get rid of the attitude that you are better than those who are judging now and get yourself into one of these “rinky-dink” dance studios to see what it takes to be a professional dance teacher. Try your hand at choreography for a group of 7-year-olds or beginner teenagers so that you can sit in a judge’s chair with a true understanding of what you are watching and what it takes to make it happen.

I apologize if this response seems harsh, but I have heard your story many times and I’ve never had the opportunity to express my feelings on the subject. Add to that the fact that I am proud of the “rinky-dink” blood that flows through my veins and I relish the opportunity to defend the thousands of dance teachers who are working in the trenches every day. Thank you. —Rhee

Dear Rhee,
Today I feel like I want to close shop. I just received a call at home from an irate mom who is questioning the class placement of her child. It’s the same old story of the mom who believes that her child is better than everyone else in the class, but this situation is more than that because this woman is beginning to scare me. 

I asked her to stop calling me at home, and she has called me three times since then. She always tells me that she is sorry to bother me at home, but then she goes on a rant for anywhere from a half-hour to two hours. She cries and cusses me out every time and today, before she hung up on me, she told me that I should watch my back because she wasn’t going to take it anymore.

I can’t take another call or another rip-the-dance-teacher-apart session. I am confident that her child is in the right class and I know the child knows that too. She is always happy in class and I can tell that she is embarrassed by her mom’s actions. How do I get this to stop? Do I throw the kid out? And if I do that, will this mom be lurking in my driveway one morning, ready for a fight or worse? I think I’m dealing with a very unstable person. Any ideas for dealing with her would be appreciated. —Gina

Dear Gina,
This is serious and not the typical disgruntled-parent scenario that so many of us deal with. As far as I am concerned, you are being harassed and when she told you to watch your back, she threatened you.

In my opinion, the child and the mom have to go, and that’s too bad for the child because she has to live with her unstable mother every day. Before you do anything, you need to go to your attorney to discuss what has transpired so far. If I were in your place, I would ask the attorney to contact this parent to let her know that she and her child are not welcome at your school and that she should refrain from contacting you again. If she persists, then it may be time for a restraining order, which your attorney can help make happen.

In the meantime, you have the power to refuse to listen to this parent when she calls you at home. Screen your calls or at the least, when she calls, tell her you’d be happy to discuss her concerns at the studio and that she should call the school’s office manager or secretary if she’d like to make an appointment. Then politely say goodbye and hang up. Another option is to change your home phone number and do not list it in the phone book. If she obtains it anyway, then continue to politely refuse her calls.

It is too bad that there are parents who act like this; I can only imagine the influence that her actions have on her child. However, you don’t deserve to be harassed or threatened one second longer. Go to your attorney right away and get this behind you. Good luck! —Rhee

Dear Rhee,
Your magazine is such an inspiration for me and I love to read about dance teachers who are dealing with the same issues I am. When I read your advice column, I feel like you are right on. So I have decided to throw a question your way.

When I was growing up in a dance school, I had a very loving teacher who had a passion that rubbed off on me. However, I learned early in my teaching career that my training was not all that good. Since I opened my school, I make it a point to learn as much as I can by spending my summers studying in New York and Los Angeles, training and observing classes in every style and level that I teach. I know that I’ve become a strong teacher because of my consistent continuing education and my desire to learn.

Today my school has seven faculty members from a variety of backgrounds and experience. Some of them come from the same kind of training that I did. They all love what they do, but I know they need more knowledge in order to offer the kind of dance education that I want for my students. I hear that there are teacher-training programs out there, but I have never been to one. Are they something that will help my teachers become better, and where do I find them? Any information you can offer is appreciated. —Shelby

Hello Shelby,
I appreciate your drive to learn and be the best teacher you can be—you should be proud of yourself for taking the initiative to always improve your knowledge. That’s what makes a good teacher!

Throughout my dance life, I have been involved in many of the teacher-training programs, especially those associated with the dance teacher organizations. Actually, I am a proud graduate of the Dance Teachers Club of Boston Teacher Training School, and as a past president of Dance Masters of America, I was involved in their program at the University of Buffalo. And there are others that I have been a guest speaker for, including the Chicago National Association of Dance Masters, Cecchetti Council of America, and Dance Educators of America, among others.

I am an advocate for these programs because, for the most part, they are developed by organizations that represent the private-sector dance educator. They know the classrooms that we come from and they understand the knowledge and tools we need to handle the variety of styles and skill levels that are unique to the private-sector dance educator. Some programs are offered over a series of years, concluding with a certificate of completion. Others are more intense and last a shorter period of time. Many are now offering post-graduate programs for teachers who complete the program but still want to continue their study.

You can find ads for these programs in many of the national dance publications, including Dance Studio Life at times, and if you type “dance-teacher training schools” in your browser, you’ll discover a ton of options. I wish you and your faculty the best in your pursuit to be the best dance educators you can be. —Rhee 

How tap training benefits ballet dancers

By Joshua Bartlett

Tap and ballet. They’ve been the bread and butter of most American dance studios since the post-Depression years. Today studios offer a variety of other dance forms like lyrical, modern, hip-hop, and body conditioning courses like Pilates. But the combination of tap and ballet as a basic dance curriculum has produced a steady crop of dancers for each generation.

So if these two very different dance forms have provided the backbone of American dance training, how do they relate in terms of exchanging technical and artistic benefits to dancers? More specifically, how does studying tap help ballet dancers become better ballet dancers?

The most obvious answer lies in the way that tap dancers develop keen musical ears through the application of complicated rhythms. Vicki McLean, the academy director and ballet mistress for the Lone Star Ballet in Amarillo, TX, has always stressed the tap curriculum for that studio. “The main thing about tap is that it benefits all dancers, not just ballet dancers, because of the rhythm of the music,” says McLean. “One of the ways that I teach is that if you can clap out the rhythm of the step, you can do it either with a tap shoe or ballet shoe. I don’t care if it’s Giselle or 42nd Street, you have to get the rhythm of the music.”

Graham Lustig, who directs American Repertory Ballet (pictured here are company dancers Joe Bunn and Kristin Scott), says that tap teaches dancers a musical discipline that transfers to ballet. (Photo by Eduardo Patino)

Graham Lustig, artistic director of American Repertory Ballet in Princeton, NJ, began tap and ballet training at a small studio in West London at a young age and continued tapping until he was 14. “There is something definitive about making sounds with your feet,” says Lustig, who trained at The Royal Ballet School and joined Dutch National Ballet at age 18. “In ballet there is a little room for leaning forward or backward on a waltz beat or a note. That isn’t the case with tap—you’re either on the beat or not. It teaches you a musical discipline which you can transfer to ballet.”

McLean compares tap dancers to the drummers in bands. “The drummer holds the band together with the rhythm. Rhythm holds ballet dancers to what they are supposed to do,” she says. For example, a dance phrase might include an elongated movement, followed by two quick beats, followed by an elongated movement. “Ballet dancers have to learn to listen,” she adds. “I had a wonderful tap teacher who did all the classics in his tap shoes. He would add rhythmical movements and sounds to Swan Lake. All of a sudden you would hear a different tonal quality. I carried that with me through many years of study.”

Another advantage to studying tap emerges in the speed that both tap and ballet require. “I think tap helps tremendously with ballet, particularly with the allegro, the quick movement, the quick change of weight,” says Fred Knecht, who founded Knecht Dance Academy with his wife in Levittown, PA, 49 years ago.

Joseph Fritz, the deputy dance director at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, began tap classes at age 8, before he started ballet training. “Because of tap, I was always good at petit allegro combinations and moving from one side to the other side.”

Tapping also augments coordination of movement. “All tapping is done on the ball of the foot,” says Fritz. “You never have your heel down except when you stomp. Being on your toes enables you to move quickly from one spot to another. It’s like watching the best boxers—they’re always on their toes, not back on their heels. It enables you to move quicker and have better coordination.”

The weight change required of tapping can aid dancers in understanding the off-balance movement required in Balanchine ballets and other contemporary and neoclassical choreography. “In tap the weight changes are sophisticated, fine, and very fast,” says Lustig. “You work different parts of the foot. When you scuff and slide, you take the center of gravity off the regular center of ballet.”

At Denise’s Dance Connection, run by Denise Ronco in Rochester, NY, all students are required to study ballet and tap before they can take hip-hop. “The more knowledge you have of different dance forms, the better equipped you are to handle a dance career,” says Ronco. “In this day and age, you need to be a well-rounded dancer.”

McLean agrees that versatility offers an advantage. “They used to talk about a triple threat. Now you have to be a multiple threat,” says McLean, who danced in ballet and jazz companies and had a recurring acting role on the soap opera Days of Our Lives. “Ninety-nine percent of my students who are really good ballet students are also good tappers.”

Some ballets include tap in their choreography. The most famous, Agnes de Mille’s Rodeo, features an extended tap solo for the Champion Roper when he tries to impress the Cowgirl. (Knecht remembers that when Rodeo was first danced in 1942, the tap dancing didn’t impress all balletomanes. “People thought it was horrible that they were going to have tap dancing in a ballet. They frowned on it,” he says.) When New Jersey Ballet mounted a production of Rodeo, Fritz danced the Champion Roper because so few of the company men knew even rudimentary tap steps. Now, he points out, half of the dancers at the Metropolitan Opera Ballet started with tap.

In George Balanchine’s Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, excerpted from the musical On Your Toes, the lead male is a hoofer who falls in love with a dance-hall girl. Jerome Robbins referenced tap steps in his wartime sailor ballet, Fancy Free. Twyla Tharp directly used tap in Eight Jelly Rolls and slyly threw in tap moves in ballets like Baker’s Dozen and Nine Sinatra Songs. And in Frederick Ashton’s La Fille mal gardée, the Widow Simone does a wooden clog dance that requires some of tap’s rhythmic virtuosity.

Every big ballet company requires character dancing from its performers in ballets like Swan Lake and Don Quixote. Anyone who has sat through lame national dances in the third act of Swan Lake can tell which dancers have had only ballet training. “Tap helped me with my character and folk dancing, because of the rhythmic work with the feet,” says Lustig. “It also taught me how to stay grounded.” When the Metropolitan Opera staged a production of Carmen, the flamenco choreographer Maria Benítez chose Fritz as a soloist because he quickly picked up the complicated rhythms necessary for flamenco footwork.

‘The main thing about tap is that it benefits all dancers, not just ballet dancers, because of the rhythm. . . . I don’t care if it’s Giselle or 42nd Street, you have to get the rhythm of the music.’ —Vicki McLean, Lone Star Ballet

Learning tap is invaluable for ballet dancers who decide to audition for Broadway shows or other theatrical dancing. One of Knecht’s star students, Nadine Isenegger, has served as the understudy to Cassie in the current Broadway production of A Chorus Line (she has performed the role about 40 times) and was cast as the ingénue, Peggy Sawyer, in the tap dance spectacular 42nd Street.

Dance students sometimes forget that ballet is a theatrical art form, something that is always evident in tap dancing. Most young ballet students, fixated on learning positions and vocabulary, tend not to relax into movement and make it spontaneous. “This is the critical difference with tap—you completely let go and surrender,” says Lustig, who introduced tap into ARB’s Princeton Ballet School curriculum when he took the reins in 1999. “That’s not what you are thinking when you are 7 years old, learning your first glissade or jeté. With tap there is all this fun stuff you can do. You are usually dancing to a completely different type of music and letting your hair down. It’s a buoyant, optimistic experience, as opposed to doing a ballet solo when you are young, [where] the challenges can take away from the sheer joy of doing it.”

The evolution and histories of ballet and tap couldn’t be more different, particularly in terms of class distinction, although both were invented as a means of entertainment. The roots of tap dancing came from Irish solo step dance, African dance forms, and the English clog dance. Among black American slaves, buck-and-wing dancing became popular, which made its way into 19th-century minstrel shows and showboat performances. The soft shoes eventually gave way to metal-plated soles in the 20th century, and more sophisticated forms of tap appeared in vaudeville reviews, Broadway shows, and on the silver screen.

Ballet, on the other hand, began in 1661 when Louis XIV formed the Académie Royale de Danse. Designed specifically for the royal courtiers, the dance technique included many ballet steps and positions recognizable today (including turned-out positions). The opera ballet soon developed, and the art and technique of ballet blossomed through the 18th and 19th centuries.

Of course, the sheer polar opposition of ballet and tap appealed to Americans, who created new art forms by combining existing ones. The cross-pollination of ballet and tap, along with other dance forms, has produced a uniquely American hybridization. A good example of the breeding of tap and ballet is the oddity called toe-tapping—dancing on pointe with taps attached to the platform of the shoe. Harriet Hoctor, a 1930s Broadway vaudevillian, created a sensation by toe-tapping up and down escalators and tapping out the meter to Edgar Allen Poe’s poem “The Raven.”

So what about the reverse of the original question: How does ballet benefit tap dancers? Some teachers think it helps tremendously, while others are not entirely sold. Linda Lavender Ford, the director of Linda Lavender School of Dance in Monroe, LA, thinks that ballet training is an essential element in tap dancing. “Ballet is the basis for everything. I really think that if you can’t do ballet, you can’t do tap,” says Ford, who loves the elegance of old-style tap dancers like Fred Astaire and Eleanor Powell. “You have to have that body placement and center and control. Once you have seen a ballet-trained dancer and one who isn’t, the difference is obvious. The ballet port de bras is necessary for good tap dancing.”

Fritz disagrees. “It’s a totally different ball game,” he says. “If you have studied ballet all your life, you might struggle to pick up the tap steps.” That opinion probably rings most true among dancers who have been rigidly trained in ballet.

Lustig sees reasoning to both sides of the argument. He remembers that as a child it took him a full year to learn not to turn out while tap dancing. However, because ballet requires slower work and deep analytical thinking, he feels that it can help tap dancers understand where the movement is coming from, like the placement of the arms from deep inside the back. “Pirouettes and steps like chassé en tournant, you can translate into tap,” he says. “It also helps dancers to understand the principle of spotting pirouettes and a sense of control.”

In this era, when dancers are required to do just about everything—look at the popularity of the TV show So You Think You Can Dance—the more you know, the more you can better your career. Tap and ballet may be very different creatures, but certainly knowing tap technique can help a ballet dancer become a more dynamic performer.

The power of So You Think You Can Dance

By Nancy Wozny

I’ll never forget the day I landed in “the big chair.” It was shortly after the end of the second season of the hit Fox Broadcasting Company show So You Think You Can Dance. I was at a meeting of artists, wearing my usual hat as the “dance person.” There were a few empty chairs in the room, one of which was large and comfortable looking. One of the artists piped up, “Nancy, you take the big chair; your art form is hot right now.”

The final four contestants—(left to right) Lacey Schwimmer, Danny Tidwell, Neil Haskell, and Sabra Johnson—pulled out all the stops in a Bradway routine. (Photo by Kelsey McNeal/FOX)

Who knew that the trickle-down effect of So You Think would land a Houston dance critic in the coveted big chair? It’s curious enough that the show was on the radar of poets and visual artists, but that’s not why the experience stayed with me. It was the idea of dance being in front of so many people—that “big chair” moment—and what that means in terms of visibility for the art form itself.

What is it about So You Think that puts dance in the global “big chair,” and what are people learning about dance from the show? This season, with the best-trained group of dancers thus far in the show’s three-year history, was an ideal time for viewers to get exposed to the results of top-notch training. The final four were hardly newbies. Danny Tidwell, a former corps de ballet member with American Ballet Theatre who has also danced with Complexions Dance Company, was named one of “25 to Watch” in 2006 by Dance Magazine. Neil Haskell danced on Broadway in Twyla Tharp’s Times They Are a-Changin’. America’s favorite dancer, Sabra Johnson, appeared in the mega-hit Disney film High School Musical. Lacey-Mae Schwimmer is just about West Coast swing royalty. Her father is a legend, and her brother, Benji, was last year’s winner. Amateurs they are not.

America’s top two dancers
Who best to answer the question “What does So You Think teach the American public about dance?” than America’s current favorite dancer, Sabra Johnson, who started dancing only four years ago. It has been an intense few years of training, in ballet, jazz, and hip-hop in Bountiful, UT, for this young dancer. “Once I got serious, dancing was all I wanted to do. I was in ballet class every single day. The show really shows the kind of dedication it takes to be a dancer, what’s really involved,” Johnson says. “The audience gets an idea of how hard dancing is and how tricky it is to switch from genre to genre. They also get to see so many different kinds of dance, from ballroom to hip-hop to lyrical, and it shows the opportunities dancers can have if they really put their minds to it.”

Runner-up Tidwell found that his strong ballet foundation gave him what he needed to compete fully. He started dancing at Denise Wall’s Dance Energy, where Travis Wall, last year’s runner-up, and this year’s top-ten ranker Jamie Goodwin also trained. That’s quite a record—Wall’s dancers show a clean, versatile technique and a good deal of performance polish. Tidwell credits Wall, his adoptive mother, for her strong support throughout his dance career. “My mom’s studio is like a family,” says Tidwell. “I studied the usual ballet, hip-hop, and jazz. When I arrived at the Kirov Academy [of Ballet of Washington, DC], they put me together technically.”

Johnson and Tidwell both say that their experiences on the show were life changing, including the pressure of having to “dance for their lives” when they landed in the bottom three a few weeks in a row. There were perks, too, like working with “tremendous choreographers—people like Mia Michaels and Wade Robson,” says Tidwell.

As for the future, Tidwell has some teaching gigs lined up, and Johnson hopes to teach as well. Tidwell will join the faculty of JUMP (Break the Floor) this season and is looking forward to commanding a roomful of 600 to 700 kids. He says he enjoyed teaching the warm-up while the So You Think dancers were rehearsing for the show tour. “I taught some jazz and ballet and even threw some Pilates in,” he says. “It was really fun because we have such different backgrounds as dancers.” But the two dancers are by no means done with performing. Both hope to be onstage as much as possible. “The TV show is great, of course, but there’s nothing like the power of a live performance,” says Tidwell. He hasn’t ruled out starting his own company, and Johnson hopes to land a great dance job.

Questions and kudos
The show has done a marvelous job of making distinctions between various ballroom forms, but it raised a few questions in my mind, like how ballroom dancers are trained these days (they seem like an enormously versatile bunch) and why those Russians are so good. And how many actual rumba steps need to be in a rumba routine? When is a dance not a routine? How do ballroom purists feel about the artistic license the show’s choreographers take with classic ballroom forms?

Johnson and Tidwell both say that their experiences on the show were life changing, including the pressure of having to ‘dance for their lives’ when they landed in the bottom three a few weeks in a row.

And then there’s the prevalence of hip-hop. I love the new directions this art form is taking, which were nicely demonstrated by Cedric’s fluid style and Hok’s uncanny ability to catapult himself into the airspace with minimal touchdowns, as if the floor were on fire. Why are some hip-hop dancers able to transfer their skills to other forms of dance while others look like rank beginners in contemporary pieces? Do some of them sneak in ballet training on the side?

All questions aside, one of So You Think’s greatest accomplishments is putting dance front and center, on primetime TV, for months at a time. How wonderful and empowering it must be for dance students to be able to turn on the television and see dance week after week, not only when Dance in America is airing one of its terrific shows. After all, sports aficionados can watch top-level contenders hit the field anytime. And putting fabulous young male dancers and choreographers on camera each week places a much-needed emphasis on men in dance. I imagine the show also has had a loyal following among those already dancing. Week after week they were treated to polished performances (all done with five hours of rehearsal per piece). And the sense of camaraderie among the participants did not seem at all like an act.

Audiences also gained insight into the role of the choreographer and the choreography. How to tell the dancer from the dance often proved a tricky issue on the show, but it became more clarified as season three progressed. Early on, if the judges did not like the choreography, they appeared to blame the dancers. Later more distinction was made between the success of the choreography and that of the performers. In the end, viewers learned how choreography can either elevate or sink a performance. They may also have a better idea of what the life and work of a choreographer is like. That rehearsal footage did a great job of answering the question of what exactly a choreographer does. And Mia Michaels is now recognized on the street as a choreographer. That’s progress.

The future
What does the show’s success say about the future of dance? Tidwell and Johnson feel that it has put dance in the public eye in a big way and does a terrific job of informing the public about who’s hot in the commercial dance world. Dance teachers certainly should feel more empowered in their professions. Did enrollment rise at studios across the United States this fall? Will more and more people sign up for ballroom lessons? Are teens getting the idea—from Johnson, who started dancing at the late age of 16—that it’s not too late to start taking dance classes, whether for fun or a possible career? Johnson reminds late starters that they need to stay focused. “Every class has a purpose,” she says.

Perhaps changes will happen on the local level. Will friends and parents be more willing to go to dance recitals or watch the dance team during halftime? Will more seats for concert dance have warm bodies in them? Are the people who watched the show more comfortable around dance, or with the idea of letting their sons dance? I hope that the answer to all or at least some of these questions is a big yes. One tends to get a bit dreamy sitting in the big chair.

How to Make a Good Thing Better
Now that So You Think You Can Dance has brought dance to mainstream America’s attention, what else could it do to expand what dance means to people? We’ve gotten the idea that dance is an economically viable profession, and that’s good, but there are other aspects of dance that could use more visibility.

Just because So You Think is entertainment doesn’t mean there can’t be some representation from the concert world. Modern dance would be perfect—after all, it’s a homegrown art form. I would like to see some ballet presented on that stage as well. If hip-hop and krumping can share the stage with ballroom, is ballet such a stretch? And how about including world dance forms down the road?

And as for choreographers, there’s no reason why concert-dance people can’t be included in the mix. I can think of several whose work has broad general appeal: David Parsons, Seán Curran, and Aszure Barton (the young Canadian whose work has been championed by Baryshnikov), for example. An ideal time to bring in some choreographic savvy would be for the opening group pieces and those “dance for your life” solos, which all end up looking the same. Since the participants are being judged as dancers, they should not be downgraded if their own choreographic chops are less than stellar. Putting more emphasis on ensemble work (to get out of the rut of duets that always seem to tell similar stories) also sounds like a good idea.

While we’re at it, why not use some of the filler time that’s usually given to recording artists to spotlight dance companies, especially those that have diverse repertoires? I could see Ailey II, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Momix, and Philadanco fitting in nicely. Why, even the Academy Awards spiced up its show with Pilobolus’ clever rendition of nominees for best picture. This is a dance show—why not show viewers some professional dance? And what about including a professional critic on the panel of judges?

Now that the show has a steady audience, expanding the range seems like a natural progression. Shows like this one can play an important role in emphasizing that dance is a big place with room for many styles and tastes. —NW