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!”

Get out of the mirror!

They’re in every studio, no matter where you take class. They’re meant to be a teaching tool, but often times, they can be damaging to a dancer.

Now, I’m not saying to ban mirrors from studios because they are very important. They allow us to look at our bodies and see what we need to work on. We are able to take a look at our alignment for ourselves. We’re able to see what our teachers are showing us without disengaging our frames. They allow us to see how many turns we can do and how high our jumps are.

A dancer can also rely on their mirrors too much. Not only can they rely on them, they read in to what they see.

“I’m too fat.”
“I’m too skinny.”
“I’m too tall.”
“I’m not tall enough.”
“My legs are short.”
“I’ve got broad shoulders.”

The list goes on and on. While yes, it is very important to be aware of these things in dance, one mustn’t let these be all that they see in themselves. We have to learn to work with what we’ve got.

There’s a lot to be learned away from the mirror. Dancers learn to observe in a more fine tuned way. It forces them to ask questions since they can’t see what you’re doing in front of yourself. They must be more observant. There are a few instances where they won’t always have a mirror so it’s a great challenge. It’s also something good for them as they don’t have to stare at their reflection in the mirror – judging themselves, comparing them to the dancers next to them.

Every now and again, we should allow ourselves to just dance and rely on the technique we have. Or not at all. I’m constantly telling my students to stop watching themselves in the mirror. During improv exercises, I sometimes tell my dancers to not think about their technique at all. It is very important to find how our body NATURALLY moves in order to grow as movers and artists. It’s what sets us apart from the dancer next to us. It can eventually be the driving force in our choreography, giving strength to our voice. It helps us find our niche in the world of dance. Each one of us is so beautifully different in size, style, technical level and exposure – that’s what keeps the dance community to fresh. There’s always a new vision to watch and choreographic voice to embrace.

Mirrors are a huge advantage and learning tool, but can also turn sour. As instructors, it is our job to give our students moments in which they can benefit away from the mirror. As students, it’s your responsibility to remember that you ARE good enough. We all have things we need to work on, but if we allow those things to infiltrate our mentality, we become stagnant and our growth is stunted. Don’t let that happen to you because the world will be missing out on your full potential. There’s a place in the industry for everyone. Don’t let you be your biggest downfall.