Halloween is just a few weeks away, which means it’s officially time to start prepping your fabulously spooky costumes! Skip the classic witch, unicorn and superhero outfits, and trade them in for some ghosts of dance legends past. Wear your costumes to class, and use them as a way to teach a dance history lesson, […]
It’s the middle of the semester and two dancers are sitting out of class, you’re worried about one student’s mental health and another has developed an eating disorder. Sound familiar? College can be a tumultuous time. To help address the additional demands of being a dance major, some schools have found strategies for enhancing wellness […]
Space to rehearse and perform. Guest teaching gigs. Relationship building. Deepened college curriculum. Financial support. These are valuable gifts to artists and college departments alike. The CUNY Dance Initiative (CDI), now heading into its sixth year, successfully embraces and supports both artists and students, dance companies and theater/arts departments. They have become a model example […]
In an adult ballet class, Kimberly Chandler Vaccaro noticed a woman working so hard that her shoulders were near her ears. “I was going to say something about her tension, but I didn’t want her awareness to go there,” says Vaccaro, who teaches at Princeton Ballet School. Instead, she told the dancer to remember that […]
Any teacher who works with little ones knows that props can make class time run much more smoothly. That said, it’s often difficult to find the right mix of tools that will both capture a child’s attention and are manageable enough to carry around from one location to another—or pack up and store easily. Anything […]
Celebrated New York City Ballet principal Sara Mearns has recently been exploring collaborative possibilities with dance artists outside ballet. Just this year she was guest artist with Lori Belilove & The Isadora Duncan Company, and performed on Broadway in her husband Joshua Bergasse’s choreography for I Married an Angel. This summer she appeared in a […]
Q: What tips do you have for creating end-of-year performances that teachers, students, parents and administrators will all be happy with? A: This can be tricky. When I worked as a teaching artist in public schools, the classroom teachers would ask me to help them prepare a dance primarily made by the teacher or by […]
For all the time we spend talking about feet, we think it’s time we did a deep dive into toes. Those little piggies bear a lot of weight, endure painful blisters and help your students soar across the classroom day after day. So, to show our toes the love they deserve, here are five exercises […]
It’s finally September, and we are SO ready for the exciting new dance year ahead. We’re confident that the life lessons you will be teaching, the pristine technique you will be perfecting, and the compelling choreography you will be creating will be better than ever! But first, you’ve got to break the ice on that […]
Q: I can’t straighten both legs and maintain a closed fifth position. I believe it’s mostly because one leg is longer than the other one. What can I do? A: It sounds like you have a true leg-length difference rather than a functional discrepancy. A true leg-length difference is when the length of the bones […]