by Nancy Wozny | Sep 13, 2017 | Studio Owners
Help your dancers improve their performance—and scores—with this advice from veteran competition faculty: Martha Nichols, Judy Rice and Suzi Taylor. Connect with your ensemble. Everyone can be dancing at the same time, but not necessarily together, because they...
by Joanne Chapman | Jun 16, 2017 | Teaching Tips
Q: What’s the best way to help my students get over stage fright before competitions? A: I think the best way to deal with stage fright is to take steps to minimize it. First, I make sure that my dancers are as prepared for competition as my staff and I can...
by Andrea Marks | Jul 14, 2015 | Uncategorized
Balagna (in black) teaches her students how to make the most out of the competition experience. Seen and Heard at the Dance Teacher Summit Steppin’ Out—The Studio Lee’s Summit, Missouri 450 students Phyllis Balagna has been taking her students to conventions and...
by Andrea Marks | Nov 18, 2014 | Uncategorized
Tony Meredith, on the June 2008 cover of DT with his partner, Melanie LaPatin. Heads up, ballroom fans! The largest pro/am ballroom competition in the world is happening next week. For the 37th year, dancers of all ages and experience levels will take the floor at the...
by Andrea Marks | Aug 1, 2014 | Uncategorized
You can catch this lady teaching at this weekend’s Dance Teacher Summit in NYC! We hope to see you there. Check out Mandy Moore’s thoughts on tricks, “floppy anger dancing” and more in her interview with DT: Moore (right) teaching at JUMP To...
by Dance Teacher | Dec 30, 2013 | Uncategorized
In the December issue, DT staff reflects on their favorite covers of the year. Editor in chief Karen Hildebrand picked June. “My vote goes to the Studio Business issue with Jennifer Owens and Julie Jarnot of Artistic Fusion. I have deep admiration for artists...
by Nancy Wozny | Oct 1, 2013 | Uncategorized
How to Survive Competition Catastrophes Students of The Dance Studio of Fresno will never be caught walking from the dressing room to the stage without their flip-flops, and for good reason. This year, one of them stepped on an open...
by Kristin Schwab | Oct 1, 2013 | Uncategorized
Playing to Win: Raising Children in a Competitive Culture by Hilary Levey Friedman 298 pages, $29.95 For her book Playing to Win, Harvard graduate Hilary Levey Friedman spent nine months observing competitive dance through the lens of two Boston-area dance studios...
by Joanne Chapman | Aug 1, 2013 | Uncategorized
Q: I’m so sick of seeing other competition teams doing fouetté turns to the same old song, but I worry that deviating from such an obviously successful formula won’t translate into competition success. What do you think? A: I understand exactly what you...
by Joanne Chapman | Jul 1, 2013 | Uncategorized
Q: Once the awards have been handed out at competitions, my kids’ reactions are all over the place if we don’t have a clean or even sweep of awards. Do you have any recommendations on how to deal with resulting jealousy issues and self-confidence problems that pop up?...