Margaret Tracey works on the fundamentals with Boston Ballet School student Daniel Goldsmith. Should your students know their ABCs (Agrippina Vaganova, Bournonville and Cecchetti, that is), or focus on only one ballet technique? Until about 30 years ago, there were firm do-not-cross lines drawn between the various ballet techniques. Russian dancers, trained in Vaganova […]
Seems impossible to imagine summer from within frigid January, but it is indeed time to begin making plans—whether competition nationals, teacher training or preparing for your own in-house summer program. The 2012 Dance Teacher Summer Study Guide (page 60) is full of options for teachers as well as students. Whether you’re helping your advanced dancers […]
Seen & Heard At the Dance Teacher Summit At the 2011 Dance Teacher Summit in July, 13 studio owners acted as ambassadors, leading seminars throughout the weekend and chatting with teachers at a booth in the exhibit hall. Ambassador Tiffany Henderson, owner/director of Tiffany’s Dance Studio, spoke to DT about her Summit experience. Tiffany’s Dance […]
Remember when you attended your first convention? And how exciting (and scary!) it was to take class from a famous teacher? Today, many of the dancers your students emulate from television and the concert stage also teach at dance conventions. What an opportunity it is, for instance, to take class from DT cover girl Brooke […]
Selwyn’s outreach students get excited about male choreographers. Keep male students engaged in dance class. It’s your first day at a new school. You’ve gone over your lesson plan and moved the desks out of the way. Now, you’re staring at a sea of young faces, several of whom—mostly the boys—are eyeing you warily. Chances […]
Dressed in street clothes, Daniel Ulbricht is more compact than he appears onstage. He also looks younger than 27. That youth is part of the reason his new role as artistic advisor for the Manhattan Youth Ballet is generating some buzz. What a thrill it must be for the teens to study with this buoyant, […]
When I first became an editor, there was quite a debate about whether or not to use the word “winning” when it came to dance, so I learned to write about competition using phrases like “she was awarded a trophy,” or “she placed first.” Though I understand the perspective held by many in our field—to […]
Philadelphia’s Headlong Performance Institute crosses disciplines to create whole artists. The first assignment students get when arriving at Headlong Performance Institute is to create a three-minute self-portrait. They can use whatever idiom they choose—dance, theater, song, visual art or a mix of genres. And that’s just the beginning. They’ll spend the next 14 weeks studying […]