One of the nation’s strongest studios is Columbia City Jazz. It is led fearlessly by Dale Lam, a woman whom I have grown to admire. The studio excellence comes from the focus on training, set forth by Dale. She has grown to be a notable name in our industry and continues to do so. Without further ado, here is my interview with Dale Lam!

DanceTchrProbs: Give us a little bit of your personal training and dance background?

Dale Lam: I didn’t grow up in a competition jazz dance school world. I actually grew up as a musician training in piano and cello. I couldn’t sit still for very long so I began dancing in school musicals because I could sing and dance. I loved street dance too. Back then it was called breakdancing. As I got into my teens, I realized I needed ballet so I started [taking ballet classes]. The most important lesson I learned from my first ballet teacher was, “It’s not what you don’t have, it’s making the most of what you do have.” My next big influence was when I had the opportunity to train with Frank Hatchett in NYC. He taught me to not only use my technique but to live in the music. He called that “VOP”… VOP is “The marriage between the music and the movement.” Now my biggest influence is Ms. Denise Wall, who has been mentoring me for the last 3 or 4 years now with teaching students everywhere I go, body awareness, increase range of motion and strength. This is a huge passion in my teaching. Ms. Denise is the Queen and I am her handmaiden.

DTP: What was the driving force behind starting Columbia City Jazz?
DL: I didn’t begin by starting anything. I fell into all of this. I was hired at a ballet school to teach Jazz to what was left of a rapidly deteriorating jazz program there. Looking back now, the driving force was the relentless handful of jazz students that wanted more than anything to do something other than the occasional walk on in the annual Nutcracker Ballet. They wanted to move. They wanted jazz.

DTP: When you started CCJC, what were some of your biggest struggles as a business owner?
DL:I didn’t understand what those struggles were going to be until we left the ballet school and opened our own school to house CCJC company. I was just trying to make sure that the kids had a ‘home. I didn’t know about licenses and how to become a legitimate 501C3, how to do any of the paperwork, getting the initial capitol to up fill an entire warehouse space with what was necessary to make a dance studio [properly]. I didn’t know that location is everything. I made a lot of mistakes. I didn’t know that I needed to hire mature and knowledgeable teachers instead of people who are just great dancers. I put parents on the Board of directors and I almost lost my school with that mistake. I made lots of mistakes, but I learned from them [all].

DTP: How many students does your studio now host?
DL: We are really small, just like me haha. I’m 4’10” but I walk around like I’m 6 feet tall because I feel 6 feet tall. But we are really a small group. I have always hovered around 120-150 students. That’s not much for the mega things we do in bringing in master teachers from all over the country. As the years have gone on, I LIKE being small. I like working with each student and having the time to work on each one’s specific needs for improvement. We are a small 501C3 not for profit and we do outreach programs in our community. My husband, Les, writes grants to subsidize the dance education of our members and students. So our focus isn’t the same as a for profit studio.

DTP: What do you feel separates CCJC from other studios?
DL: We put training first. Our focus is dance training to prepare for college and professional careers in dance. We mentor dancers once it is time to leave the studio once they graduate high school. We do 3 to 4 dance conventions a year, but we follow the format of a ballet dance conservatory. We do dance training 11 or 12 months a year, depending on if we go to a nationals. It’s intense dance training weekly and intense yearly supplemental master class training in the studio with professional choreographers. We give exams to each company level like a ballet conservatory so we hold the students accountable for the instruction they are given. We also do two major performances in a theater each year which helps supplement fundraising to further the education of our members. We are a pre-professional company and training school so that’s what separates us. We do have recreational classes for those who enjoy dance but aren’t requesting a preprofessional track. We also have serious dancers who supplement the rest of their summer by going to ballet and contemporary modern summer programs

DTP: CCJC has been named one of the Top 50 Studios by DanceSpirit. What do you think has been the reason for your growth and success?
DL: A structured curriculum, awareness and determination of what it takes to be a great dancer, a relentless drive each day to constantly raise the barre, and the knowledge of why they are here in the first place.

DTP: This is one of our first questions from my followers. They want to know how do you deal with teachers that aren’t pulling their weight or doing their job up to standards?
DL: We try to prevent that kind of problem by having prospective teacher audition by teaching one of our classes . We also check their bios to see where they studied and who they studied with. Do they have a degree in dance or dance education? I also have a teaching syllabus/curriculum and every teacher I hire has to do continuing education with me. They go through the way I train dancers and the order in which I do the classes. This way the education provided to our students is cohesive. We do 3 or 4 teacher sessions a year. We also fundraise to send all of our teachers to The Dance Teacher Summit for extra training in how to handle problems, new teaching techniques, take dance classes, and to meet other teachers and network.

DTP:  How many hours a week are your competitive dancers in the studio? How many of those hours are in ballet classes?
DL: Haha! The senior levels take 12 hours of strictly classes – no rehearsals in those classes. Plus we do approximately 8 hours of rehearsals over the weekends between saturday and sunday since there is no school.. 5.5 hours are devoted to ballet. If you count the separate ballet rehearsals, we add another 3 hours to that 8 hours of rehearsals. Summarizing: We train and rehearse about 20 to 24 total hours per week at the highest level and the younger dancers do about 15 hours of total class and rehearsals with ballet being the most hours they take. I don’t consider us a competition studio because we only require 3 conventions /competitions like that a year with nationals being required every other year. Our dancers don’t consider themselves ‘competition dancers’ because the focus is on training and education. We’re a pre-professional preparatory program and our students are looking past graduation and what comes next.

DTP: How much of your choreography is done in-house and how much is done by guest artists?
DL: 50% of our choreography is done in house, the other 50% is done by guest choreographers and former students now dancing professionally.

DTP: Do you think there is a benefit or setback to either in-house or outside choreography?
DL: The end result, the completion of a piece, done by outside choreographers is not the only benefit. The process of an outside person coming in to do work is great experience for the dancer’s training, even if they just get to audition but don’t make the piece. The choices that outside people make change with each of them that comes in. They all have different styles and different ways of working through the choreography process. I have a style and my dancers know my style better than dancers who don’t train with me. It’s good for my dancers to work with outside people they have never worked with before… it shakes things up and keeps them on their toes.

DTP: Do you prefer conventions or competitions? Which are your favorites of each sort to attend?
DL: I like my kids to TRAIN. I like them to put classes first and to go through an audition process as a training tool. If convention and competitions both offer those things, I feel they are both good choices, but dancers who already know a piece or a solo, etc. and rehearse it day after day, week after week, month, after month Could benefit performance skills. But in the real world of dance, mastering the art of auditioning is imperative for a dancer. Conventions are important to us because of the classes and networking possibilities. A good example of that would be two of my former dancers now members of Shaping Sound. If they had never met Travis Wall, Teddy Forance, or Nick Lazzarini at the conventions and master classes, they probably wouldn’t be where they are today. Of course, I’ll bend over backwards to help any of my dancers looking for auditions, agents, college choices, contemporary companies… etc.

DTP: This is another question from our readers – How do you deal with parents that can tend to be overly vocal and get upset if they don’t get their way in regards to their kids?
DL: Haha! My biggest influence in the past 4 or 5  years is, and probably always will be, Denise Wall. She has helped me with understanding how to deal with overly vocal parents. Her quote:  “I don’t let unprofessional people make professional decisions.” If I was brave enough to tattoo that on my forehead, I would do it. We are the expertise. We trained in dance. I try very hard to be clear in the face of a parent’s uncertainty if and when they feel their child should have something they don’t. My dancers have to audition for everything, every piece, every role, even company levels. So I tell my dancers, “Your daily classes are your lessons, the auditions are your exams. Do the work in your classes and  you will start excelling at the exams.”

DTP: What is your favorite part about teaching?
DL: Seeing the look of surprise and joy in a student’s face when they know they are better than they were before they took the correction. I get goosebumps.

DTP: What inspires you most?
DL: Dancers who  #NeverSettle. That’s my hashtag..it says it all. Those dancers who keep raising the barre, raising the standard.

DTP: This is another question from some of our followers – As studio owners and teachers we run in to a lot and sometimes I find myself wanting to throw the towel in. What keeps you going?
DL: Knowing that throwing in the towel is NOT an option. These kids/dancers depend on me to be their constant when even some of their home lives are not constant. I don’t expect them to give up so I can’t either. It’s just not an option.

DTP: What are some valuable lessons that you wish to pass on to every dancer that you have learned throughout your experiences?
DL: You can learn so much in the face of disappointment and what seems to be your failure, if you just try to figure out what the next step needs to be you can rise above it. Dancers who have known struggle in life, dance from a different more honest place. Never Expect anything, hope for everything. Take responsibility for your future. Talent isn’t the only thing that gets you through life as a professional dancer. Have a good work ethic, be humble and appreciative. You are only as good or as valuable as the last job you did, so make it good.

DTP: Do you think there are some kids destined for greatness or can anyone be cultivated?
DL: I teach my students that they make their own destiny.

DTP: When did you realize that owning a studio was your calling?
DL: Owning a studio has never been my calling, teaching is.

DTP: Another question from our readers – How did you go about opening? Investor? Loans? etc?
DL: My husband does all of that. I can’t even balance my check book. There is always a dreamer  in a relationship, that’s me, and a person who makes the dreams a reality, that’s my husband.

DTP:What has been your most effective way to advertise?
DL: Location, Word of mouth, and having a program at the school that produces a strong reputation nationwide.

DTP: Who have some of your dancers gone on to work with?
DL: Travis Wall, Teddy Forance, and Shaping Sound Dance Company; Disney Paris and Disney Orlando; Pitbull; Mia Michaels in the movie Rock of Ages; Carrie Underwood video “Something In the Water”; the FOX series Glee; SYTYCD Top 16; The HBO Series Boardwalk Empire; Jason Parsons Dance Company; Billy Bell’s Dance Company; Jaci Royal’s Royal Flux; Bad Boys of Dance with Rasta Thomas; Dancing With The Stars with Mandy Moore; London Contemporary Dance School; The Kirov; Principle with The Royal Birmingham Ballet in England; Crazy for You on Broadway; Cats; The Las Vegas Show “Legends In Concert”; Norwegian Cruise Lines; Feld Entertainment; Celebrity Cruises; Kinky Boots on Broadway; and American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco.

DTP: Give us 5 random facts about yourself!
DL: I love music, I can’t cook anything but rice,  I love DareDevil on NetFlix… I am claustrophobic; and I love the smell of honeysuckle after the rain.

Thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule and interviewing with me! I know my readers, as well as I, really appreciate it! Insight from successful directors is always gold.

For more information on Columbia City Jazz or Dale, check out the studiowebsite, or follow her on Instagram and Twitter!

Thanks for reading!

XO,
#DanceTchrProbs