Learn from Another Studio's Success

If you have a competition team at your studio, check out this short interview with The Dance Center in Tuscaloosa, AL in Dance Teacher Magazine which offers sage advice and new ideas that could help freshen up your competition team and program. For the teachers, they suggest attending competitions as "an audience member" and "spend time observing the competition process."

Ideas such as:

• Bring in guest teachers and choreographers
• Hold team-bonding activities like their annual lock-in
• Do community service projects such as adopting a family during the holidays

For more details and some great information, read the article in its entirety here: http://www.dance-teacher.com/content/competition-high-five-rebecca-tingle-and-melissa-verzino

Advice: How to Teach Adults

Thinking of building an adult dance program at your studio? Here's a fantastic article from Dance Teacher Magazine called "Feature: Night School" with advice on how to get started, attract adults, and teach them. It's fairly long, so here are some highlights:

• The Joffrey Ballet School attributes their 150% growth in the adult program to the weeklong seminars and intensive dance workshops they added to their calendar for adults. 
• Most adult classes are between 6:30 and 9:00 p.m. 
• Teachers are vital to an adult program's success, as adults are drawn to classes in which they love the personality of the teacher and connect with him or her. Connecting with each student on an individual level also keeps their interest high. 
• Teachers should be highly aware of how an adult feels in class. It is challenging for an adult to try something new, or come back to ballet after a long time. Make sure your corrections are positive and constructive so they don't feel it's personal criticism. 
• Safety is of utmost important as adult bodies are much more limited than that of children. Do not push them beyond what they can do or handle. This includes strengthening the core and including exercises that are gentle on the joints like the knees and hips, and take a longer time to warm up.

Expanding Your Studio

Dreaming of owning your own studio one day or already do own one? Well, don't miss this article from Dance Teacher Magazine - Business: Branching Out from Dance Teacher Magazine. It offers great advice from very successful studio owners on how to grow and expand your business, such as "smart staff selection," good communication, knowing your market and doing your research.

Advice: Establishing Authority as a Young Teacher

This article from Dance Teacher Magazine offers some excellent advice on how young teachers can still be respected by students who are close to their age. Advice like establish boundries by staying professional, always come prepared, keep a watchful eye on the students by giving them corrections, get more education, and keep your cool when you make a mistake.

You can be professional by being "approchable, but not friendly," the article reads. Also, be cautious outside of the classroom as well by declining invitations to social events with your students or social networking online.

Coming to class prepared cannot be stressed enough. Knowing the combinations you're going to give and having music prepared will boost your own confidence, which will also boost your authority.

The article also stresses the importance of keeping yourself educated by attending workshops, going back to school, and getting educated on anatomy and the science of the body. One well-respected dance teacher certification program that only requires one week a year is Dance Master's of America.

To read the original article, "Theory and Practice: Become an Authority,"click here.

Daniel Ulbricht, NYCB principal, teaching a class at the Rock School

Teacher Tip - How do you teach technique and a love for dance?

Katy Spreadbury, JUMP Alternative Convention Ballet teacher, posing with Jeff Amsden

Because dance is both art and sport combined, teaching technique and a love for it are equally necessary. Students won't put forth the effort and discipline it takes to dance if they have no passion for it. The difficulty comes in balancing the two, and being careful to encourage dance students while holding them to high standards and demanding excellence. I am constantly struggling with this, especially teaching teenagers who love to push the boundaries and do less work, but at the same time crave discipline, a teacher who will stand her ground, and lots of encouragement. I remember being a teenage dance student, and how one little comment from a dance teacher could either lift me up and give me confidence, or break my heart and make me want to quit.

Dance Teacher Magazine often highlights excellent teachers who are kind and caring, but also strict and have high standards. Watch this interview with Katy Spreadbury, the ballet teacher for the 2010 JUMP Alternative Convention who is known as the convention sweetheart, to hear dance teaching philosophy that combines love and discipline.

Here is Katy's bio, from the JUMP Website
As a dancer, Katy grew up and trained in Worcester, Massachusetts. In her youth, her talent was recognized by competitions and magazines alike. She’s been named Miss Dance of America, America’s Choreographer of the Year, and Capezio’s Future Star, as well as having appeared as a featured artist in both Dance and Dance Spirit Magazine. As a professional, Katy’s dancing has taken her all over the country. She is continually sought after as a guest artist, has performed alongside legends such as Ben Vereen and Karen Ziemba, and has most recently danced as a featured performer for the Astaire Awards in New York City. An amazing performer who teaches with a kind heart and a strong will. Her undeniable technique and passion for dance is evident every time she teaches. As an instructor, Katy is recognized to be an incredible motivator, a positive spirit, and a fountain of knowledge. She has quickly become the sweetheart of the convention circuit, and continues to remain in high demand throughout the country as teacher who wants to make a difference.

Learn More About Winging and Sickling

Here is a beautiful example of a winged foot - not too much prolongation.

I found this article in Dance Teacher Magazine, Theory and Practice: Winging (and Sickling) It, to be very helpful for not only spotting sickled feet and how to fix them, but also being wary of winged feet. Both can be signs of weak ankles. This article outlines exercises dancers can do to strengthen the ankles to prevent injuries. Check it out!

Some Highlights:

• Dancers with weak or untrained ankles are more likely to sickle their feet
• Winging can become dangerous if that foot is supporting weight, so use caution when teaching students to wing their feet.
• "Those teachers who approve of winging should explain how a winged foot fits into the classical line as a whole, to prevent winging from becoming an empty affectation."

Partnering Tips

Dmitri Roudnev, a former soloist with the Bolshoi Ballet, has a video on dancemedia.com that won the Dance Teacher magazine Editor's Choice for Video of the Month in February. In this excerpt from his full-length DVD, "Partnering with Dmitri Roudnev," Roudnev focuses on the placement of the male dancer's hands and how they should shift as she changes positions. His partner in the video is former Bolshoi soloist, Irina Zibrova.

For more videos from Roudnev, check out his website and online store at http://www.balletmethod.com/shop/ . He also has an entire collection of ballet class music, based on his own technique and class philosophy, which focuses on strong accents and tempos. 

Finis Jhung Instructional Videos

I really enjoy watching Finis Jhung's instructional videos. He is a famous teacher who has devoted his post-dance career to teaching professional dancers in New York City. He has an amazing ability to break down ballet into simple, easy to understand steps so that everyone can learn. I am considering attending his weekend workshop this August in NYC.

Here's his bio from his website - Since 1972, Finis Jhung has been one of New York's most sought-after teachers because of his singular ability to make ballet accessible to dancers of all talents, ages, and body types. His innovative teaching techniques are based on years of studying the world's best dancers in performance and on video and finding that these extraordinary artists prepare for balances, turns, and jumps in ways not taught in the traditional ballet class.

Here is a video teaching partnering techniques for the Nutcracker grand pas de deux. http://dancemedia.com/v/3237

Here is another, breaking down center work, showing how even beginners can do more interesting floor work than standing in one spot and repeating.
http://dancemedia.com/v/3220

Teaching Tip: How to Teach the Martha Graham Contraction

 Marni Thomas and Fanny Gombert at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance

Here is an excellent video and article on how to teach a Martha Graham contraction, taught by one of Martha Graham's former dancers. The contraction is still very prevalent in modern choreography today, and is a skill that must be mastered in order to dance modern and contemporary dance well.

The article that corresponds with the video is below.

Marni Thomas, by Jennie Dalzel
Taken from Dance Teacher Magazine, February 2010 

Marni Thomas teaches the Graham technique with an  unparalleled intensity and animation. As a master teacher at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance in New York City, Thomas boasts more than 50 years of teaching experience and a deep understanding of the Graham syllabus gained from dancing, assisting and teaching with Graham herself. Thomas’ greatest gift, however, is the ability to bring life and vigor to each movement for her students.

Before launching into a demonstration of the Graham contraction and release, Thomas explained that other Graham teachers may have varying approaches to the technique depending on their generation, as Graham herself continued to update and alter her movement vocabulary. “From 1926—when Martha Graham started teaching and choreographing—until now, there have been generations of us teaching her technique, and we’re not all the same,” Thomas says. “So neither the teachers before nor after me are going to do exactly what I do.”

But in spite of any pedagogical deviations, the core message of Graham technique remains. “Martha wanted to create movement that people could use to express how they felt,” Thomas says. “She wanted to get at what goes on inside people; what she called ‘their inner landscape.’” Thomas explains that the contraction and release—the core of Graham’s technique—is an organic way of speaking through movement and breath. “When Graham began working on contraction and release, there were no facial expressions that went along with the movement; emotion was articulated by the torso only.”

In class, Thomas stresses that students find their own contractions—not imitate or mimic another dancer’s movement shapes. A Graham contraction is not a pose that can be built from the outside, in, Thomas says. “It’s an action.” It has to come from the inside, first.

Here, Thomas teaches two Graham contractions: the soft, “Lyric” contraction, and the dramatic, “Percussive” contraction.

Marni Thomas, a member of The Martha Graham Dance Company from 1958 to 1968, was a demonstrator and teaching assistant to Martha Graham for 11 years. She was among the first generation of young women to perform Graham’s original roles. In 1968, Thomas and her husband David Wood established the dance major at the University of California, Berkeley. Thomas later moved back to New York City and directed the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance for four years from 2003 to 2006. Since then, Thomas has continued to set repertory and teaches Graham technique at the Graham School, now directed by Virginie Mécène.

Dancer Fanny Gombert, originally from Rodez, France, is an advanced student at the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance. She is currently a Graham II company member.
The Lyric Contraction and Release:

1. Start in an upright, seated position, and inhale. Lifting the base of the lower abdominals, exhale, and begin to curl the lower back and round the pelvis.
   
2. Keep an open sense of energy, even as the front of the chest curls. The head should follow the curve to make a full circle. To begin the release, initiate an extension from the base of the pelvis and stretch into an elongated straight line.
   
3. Extend through the entire length of the back, stretching into a long diagonal. Keep the head in line with the neck and spine, and do not open or arch the ribs.

Note: Do not allow students to sink when contracting. When students are sitting up, place your hands on their shoulders. As students contract, their shoulders should remain connected to your hands.
The Percussive Contraction and Release:

1. Sit upright with a straight spine. Inhale.  
2. Exhale sharply from the lowest abdominals. Energy surges upward and breath is let out through the torso.
3. It’s as if something sharply strikes the pit of the stomach.
4. Maintaining the contraction, bring the focus forward and fold over.
5. As in the Lyric Contraction, begin the release by extending the base of the spine and reach through a long, straight line of the back. Finally, recover to the initial upright position.

Note: Many students mistakenly carry contractions in their upper backs.  Make sure contractions are initiated with their pelvises and are deepest at the base of their spines.