Encouragement for everyone

Encouragement
Everyone needs encouragement, some of us more than others. There are little dancers that dance no matter what you say or don’t say. They are motivated like crazy and work the same way. Then we have the little timid kids, the uncoordinated ones or the ones that might have had a careless remark sent their way. “You are such a clutz” or “I bet that dance teacher is having a hard time making you learn how to dance”, “When are you ever going to learn to skip on two feet?”, “You know you have to be slim to be a dancer” and the list goes on.
We as teachers don’t know what has been said to these little dancers. The little ones trying to learn to skip, tie their shoes, put their tap shoes on the correct feet, the older ones trying to learn to turn, the even older ones working on arabesque and développé height and still others that might be feeling like it isn’t worth it to keep trying.

Remember to keep reminding them how far they have come and where they are now and not how far they have to go. Say things like “remember when you couldn’t skip, and then you worked really hard and kept trying and now you can skip like a pro?” Reminding the intermediate student of how high they could développé in second last year and now how high their leg is going after working on it for a year, how many chainé turns they could do last year (probably none if they were just learning them last year) and now they are turning like a champ, and remember to do the same thing for your helpers, student teachers, office help and teachers. We all love a pat on the back and a reminder that we are getting better and better.
Just one of the things dance classes teach everyone is:
We don’t know how to do it now
We work really hard
We never quit
And now we know how to do it
This is not only a dance lesson but a life lesson and a great one to learn at an early age. We can do whatever we want to do and put our minds to learning how to do it, working really hard, never giving up our dreams and then one day Voila!! We did it!

You can do it too! Remember when you only had 10 students and now look at you!
You did it!!!!
And remember: There’s no crying in dancing school.

Combating those winter blas

The Winter Blas

Winter blas can strike any time between December and whenever spring finally gets here. In the states where it gets cold and snows it is usually the worst but Southern states can have them full force too. 

When they hit your dancers be sure you are prepared. Do something to shake up the class. In the really younger classes you might have crazy hair day, weird tights day or wear makeup day. You can have a ‘dance with your friend day’ where the students bring their friends and the friends dance in the class with the regular students (be sure you have something that day that the non- dancers can do plus, offer free tights free ballet shoes or free registration if they sign up for classes). I love to pull out the stories to dance. You can always make up some or order some to have for these special occasions.  You might get the wedding march and make some brides bouquets or bridesmaids flowers and so some steps that you have been working on to this music with the dancers holding the flowers. You might let a different students lead each barre exercise, or let them wear hats for the lesson. Take pictures! You must do SOMETHING to keep them interested during this time or they will drop out or you will start to get those phone calls: “she just doesn’t want to come, she says she doesn’t like it any more, she says her friends are better than she is” etc...... Nip all this in the bud by creating excitement at the studio during the winter bla months. I used to take my Great Pyrenees dog to the studio with me in Colorado and he just sat in the very back and watched or slept. I would let the dancers say goodbye to him and let them hug him goodbye if they wanted too. Another studio in Colorado Springs had a resident cat that lived in the studio. Just stayed there all the time and the dancers could pet it and visit it when they were there.

Another thing you can do is get out your scrap book. I hope you are keeping one of pictures you take in class, at the shows, recitals and any other place where your dancers are. It is fun to look back and see the kids at a younger age. They get a kick out of it too. It only takes 5 minutes in the middle of class to do this then put it away. You don’t want to do it at the end of class because the moms are listening outside the door and won’t hear any music and then you will have to explain what you were doing. 

Let me know what you do to pep things up in the winter.

And remember: There’s no crying in dancing school.

apprehension about the recital (the kids, not you!)

Apprehension

I was talking to a friend of mind last week about her granddaughter (age 7) who takes dance (in another state). She loves dance and has been dancing for 3 or 4 years. Yesterday her grandmother told me that she didn’t want to go to dance this week. When asked why, she told her grandmother that she was worried about messing up the show dance. Apparently they had started the recital dance and the teacher had TOLD them it was their RECITAL dance and right away this little perfectionist started worrying about making a mistake on the stage. They started something new and she probably didn’t feel like she had learned the first step perfectly. I never told my young students “This is your RECITAL DANCE" or today we are starting "OUR NEW RECITAL DANCE.”  Oh, boy, those little perfectionist start to worry right off the bat. It really is better not to talk about the show, the costumes, anything about the recital at all until much later in the year and closer to the show date.  They will peak in enthusiasm and in the quality of the preparedness too early and start on the down slope before the show arrives.  This goes for showing them a picture of the costume. You will have lots of excitement at first but 4 months later it is old news and then it falls on your shoulders to keep that excitement and newness alive for 4 months and that is hard to do with little kids that don’t have that much conception of time.

More about winter Blaaas next post.

And remember: There's no Crying in Dancing School