What’s it like when your boss has known you since you were 2 years old? Or when your workplace is the same place you met your first set of friends in and where you learned your first dance steps? Strange as these scenarios might seem in any other industry, it’s a situation many dance teachers […]
April Cook never planned on becoming a dance teacher, but it seems her unexpected career path was meant to be. After all, her natural tap talent and thoughtful teaching practices have made her a wildly popular tap educator at Broadway Dance Center (BDC) in New York City. Cook grew up dancing at a school in […]
When you’re a dance-obsessed tween or teen, there’s little you relish more than new gear. Roughly 20 years since leaving home, I can still imagine my beloved local dance retail spot—Village Dance Shoppe in Wayne, Pennsylvania—down to the smell. I loved rummaging through racks and sifting through leotards and skirts, figuring out how to stretch […]
Books make wonderful holiday gifts for the young dancers in your life as well as for your studio lobby or school library. And, luckily, 2021 was a fruitful year that produced a wide array of new picture books for aspiring dancers filled with words and images that delight and inspire. Here are some of the […]
How do you become a great dancer? Dance, dance and more dance. At least, that was the prevailing wisdom when I was young. My fellow dancers were routinely pressured to quit playing other sports, and I even got a note excusing me from running in P.E. class. But during that time, I also discovered that […]
The first time I met Talia Favia, I was a young competition kid at Center Stage Performing Arts Studio in Orem, Utah. Talia had come to set some choreography on us, and as she taught the very first phrase (which was so difficult, I probably couldn’t do it even as a professional), I injured my […]
When Rennie Harris University (RHU) launched earlier this year, it was a long time coming. Like, 20 years long: Harris first had the idea for the street dance teacher certification program in early 2000, and it sat on the back burner as Harris prioritized the many other projects on his impressive resumé—from his Rennie Harris […]
In late 2020, New York City Ballet principal Megan Fairchild came to the jarring realization that she was going to waste precious years of her career waiting out a pandemic. So, she got started on a few other life goals she had in the meantime: adding to her family tree. “I didn’t want to get […]
More than a year after the pandemic took a foothold, the COVID effect is still impacting school and studio dance teams. As we head into the second dance season during the pandemic, some COVID policies have loosened, but many dance coaches are still finding they have to adapt aspects of their programs for the short […]
Whether it’s the tale of a Hopi child preparing for her first butterfly dance or the story of Jenna, a Muscogee (Creek) girl in Oklahoma who dreams of doing the jingle dress dance at the next powwow, there are so many dance books that you can explore with your young dancers during National American Indian […]