Excellence Takes Time!

It’s the ultimate goal in our world. We all strive for it, but only some get it and many don’t. We sometimes get it one place, and not at another. It is that holy word on high to a competitive dancer…

PLATINUM.

Over the past few weeks of competitions and seeing outcomes different here and there, I have really started to think about what it actually takes to get a platinum ranking or an overall high score routine. Sometimes, there are those pieces that just take our breath away. They seem so effortless and that these kids just breath and this beauty comes out of them. Then, there are the others that are a little rough on the eyes, but you can tell the kid is doing the best they can, with what has been given to them. So what is it that gives those dancers that edge?

In my honest and humble opinion, it’s time. A lot of people want that high score or that platium but do they wannt to put in the work and the time for it?

Of course, it has all to do with the training that you are getting, but for sake of argument, let’s put those equally strong soloists into the same studio setting, with the same teachers at the same capacity as the others as scheduled by the studio required classes. They’ve each had the same amount of time to learn their choreography. Once that choregraphy is done, then what? That there is where the issue sometimes lie. Once a piece is learned, there is always room for growth and improvement. After every single competition, there is feedback given and that serves as a huge opportunity for us as teachers and choreographers to get a fresh view on what we see day in and day out. Outside of these opportunities, lie even more opportunities.

Platinum rankings take a lot of rehearsal. They take a lot of fine tuning, and what seems like nitpicking. It is combing through each and every step over and over again in order to get it crystal clear. It is working through each transition with a magnifying glass, making sure that the feet don’t sickle and we are rolling through our feet to stand. It is taking some of the private rehearsal time to work at the barre on the foundations of dance in order to perfect each technical aspect of the piece. Some people can handle this scrutiny, others cannot and that is okay.

Along with time, comes money. Extra rehearsals come at a monetary cost, as well. You have to pay your choreographer, teacher, or rehearsal director for their time. There is normally a studio fee, too. Time isn’t cheap, but in the end, if it is truly what you want, it is worth it. It can make the biggest difference in your performance and scoring. 

You have to stop blaming the competitions of those you are competing against for your shortcomings. It has nothing to do if the studio has been coming here for 25 years. It doesn’t matter who does their choreography. What matters is how much effort you put into your rehearsals. It comes down to what you chose to do with your level of commitment. Specifically speaking about solos, it is all on you. You have no one else on stage with you. In regards to groups, it is what you are presenting in those few minutes on stage. You can’t say a certain competition only likes contemporary, or that they favor hip hop. It comes down to what you present in those 3 minutes on stage. Judges don’t know that it is your personal best. They also don’t know if it is your personal worst, either. While at the end of the day, yes, it is someone’s opinion, but are you presenting the strongest evidence for them to form their opinion off of? Ask yourself that question every week. 

In the mean time, do what you can. Review your dances. Think of questions you can ask your teachers. Stretch. Time doesn’t always require money. These are things you can do on your own. 

Keep working hard, kiddos.

XO,

#DanceTchrProbs 

The Double Standard of Dance – A Letter to Parents

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Yesterday, a fellow teacher friend of mine and I got to talking about some things in the dance world and finances came up. We started to then talk about how big of a double standard dance has when it comes to a lot of issues. In regards to it being an extra-curricular activity, it falls into the other activities as vocal lessons, piano, hockey, baseball, football, volleyball, etc. 

Just like dance, you have to pay for those coaching and mentoring services. In dance, I feel like people are actually OKAY to go without paying their bills. In my experience across the country, people who are involved with club sports pay those bills on time without question. 

In dance, if we sit a kid out because their parents didn’t pay their tuition, we become to mean teacher or owner. In sports, it’s just fine. In piano and vocal, you don’t get those lessons if you don’t pay. If a dance doesn’t show up to rehearsals and are pulled from dances, it’s mean and singling them out. In sports, it is understood that if you do not practice, you will be benched. 

So why is it that dance has such a double standard? Do people think that all we do is frolic around in tutus and tights? The answer…? Absolutely we do not.

We don’t pull them to be mean or single them out. We pull them from their classes and dances because we must teach them that there is always a consequence for their behaviors, whether positive or negative. Trust me, we don’t want to pull them from dance. We know how much it hurts them and we know how much they love it. When we pull them from activities, remember that it is no one’s fault but yours. Most of them can’t drive and most of them don’t have the money to pay the bills that you signed a contract about. It is your responsibility to do so, so when I hold my end of the contract up, don’t come after me.

We teach them the responsibility or showing up prepared for classes. We teach them the value of teamwork and dedication. We teach them that there is a right and wrong way to do what we do. We teach them the importance of hard work and dedication. We instill in them that in order to grow, you must be dedicated and hard working. We show them that you don’t always get what you want, but you will get what you need. We teach these young adults to be athletes AND artists. We teach these kids the same exact things that sports teaches them. So why do people think it is okay to go without paying their bills?

For the most part, the money due to your studio is not staying within those walls. Studios serve as a service to transfer funds. Your costume money goes to the seamstress or the catalogue company that they ordered from, not the owner. Your rhineestone money goes to who we bought the rhinestones from, not the owner. Your competition fees go to the competition, not the owner. The convention fee goes to the convention for classes, not the owner. Even what you pay for tuition goes to things like paying the staff, electricity, water, cleaning supplies, office supplies, etc. So when youu are late on your bill, the studio is late on their bills. When you don’t pay your tuition, the teachers and studio owners and directors that you love so much and your kids admire can’t pay their bills. 

So next time you think, “My dance bill can wait,” think again. Look at the bigger picture. This is just as much a business as your hairdresser, your nail tech, Starbucks and Walmart. 

With all of this being said and off of my chest, understand that we do love your kids and truly appreciate your business. This is just a friendly reminder that while this is what we love and are passionate about that, at the end of the day, it is indeed a business.

Thank you,

#DanceTchrProbs

#TechniqueTuesday – Turn Out For What? Everything.

It’s been awhile since i have posted a blog for #TechniqueTuesday, and I found this one very important to touch base on. This past weekend, I sat through roughly 400 dances, give or take a few. Of course, the competition spanned many styles – even some clogging and Irish step dance, which was refreshing to see between the ‘regular’ studio styles. As always, there was a ton of lyrical and contemporary and lots of ballet. The one thing that I am always aghast at is the lack of attention to true balletic technique in these styles, especially ballet.

You would think that if you are competing ballet, that there would be attention to the use of true turn out, not faking it from the ankle. I don’t know how many times I cringed at the sight of pique arabesques on a completely parallel foot, out fouettés a la seconde that, when dropping into the plié, I saw the knee cap pointing straight to the audience, or the developpé a la seconde that was neither parallel or turned out, but turned in. Yes…turned in, towards to center line of the body. 

Growing up, the use of turn out was drilled into my brain. It is second nature. So much so that I started to walk in a turned out position. When I was a student, and even now as an adult and educator, when I sleep, I make sure my pelvis is neutral and I turn my legs out when I sleep. (I sleep on my stomach in a side attitude, basically.) I was constantly thinking about the rotation of my hips. We spent hours warming up those joints to get them nice and mobile. If our supporting legs weren’t turned out, we were reprimanded. If our hips opened up to cheat an arabesque, we were reprimanded. There was zero tolerance of such discrepancies and disrespect to the art of ballet technique, even in a lot of our jazz pieces. 

As I left the auditorium Sunday night, I busted out my trusty ballet dictionary and went to see what it said about the use of turn out. My good friend Gail Grant defines turn out as “the ability of a dancer to turn his or her legs and feet to a 90-degree position. This turn our, or en-dehors, is one of the essential of the classical dance, giving the dancer freedom of movement in every direction.” 

After reading that, I got even more upset at the amount of lack of turn out in these dancers. I asked myself, “Why, as a teacher, would someone not correct this issue and ultimately limit their dancers?” The Holy Grail of ballet spells it out loud and clear. Turn out improves the range of motion and movement in EVERY direction. One of the aspects of choreography that I pride myself on is giving the dancer or dancers I am working with an adequate skill set while still challenging them within the choreography set on them. I do not give them anything that isn’t as technically sound as possible for their level. Every dance does not need fouettés. Not every dancers is flexible. Not every dancers has beautiful feet. Why do we feel the need to give these lofty skills to dancers that we know are not at that level to execute these skills properly? 

I constantly tell my dancers to dance with what they have today, while still striving for improvement. If you only have 35 degrees of external rotation, or turn out, I want you to use it every single last degree of that turn out. Consistency in using the turn out will build up the strength and improve your turn out. Of course, very few people will ever reach a true perfect turn out of 180 degrees. That’s not what I am asking for in a dancer. I want you to use what the good Lord gave you and use it to the best of your ability. 

Teachers, I am implore you to start correcting this massive technical deficit in your dancers. Get your dancers at the barre, stand in a parallel first position, then rise to a quarter relevé, engage the tailbone and glutes and use the inner thigh to press the heels forward before lowering into their turned out first position. In their battement tendu, get them to rotate to a parallel position and back to the turned out tendu. Make sure they don’t sink into the hips. Focus on building the strength of the muscles that serve as rotators around the hip joint and in the legs. If you aren’t sure, educate yourself so you can educate your dancers. Attention to detail is imperative. 

Dance is not easy. We know that. Dancers must be multitaskers. We have to think about every aspect of our body while looking graceful all at the same time. We need to know out choreography so well that our body has memorized it through muscle memory. We spend hours and hours rehearsing to perfect a three minute dance. We spend hours working on the basics, stretching and wamring up before we even dance! There is so much we have to be mindful of. It is easy to forget but you have to make a clear choice to point your feet and straighten your legs to make it a habit. Start to focus on the amount of turn out you are using. 

To quote the dance movie classic, Center Stage, “Use what you have and turn out!”