Category Archives: Teachers

Rock Star Camp Day 5: Performance

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See more about our camps here – Rock Star Theme Camp.

Day #5 Set List

  • Warm-Up:  Creative Movement in center & across the floor
  • Class Time:  Practice all dances
  • Craft Time:  Giant Tickets / Programs
  • Snack
  • Class Time:  Dress Rehearsal
  • Performance!

On the last day of camp we put on an impromptu performance in the studio for family and friends.  Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera for the final day of camp, but I will try to describe everything as best I can.

Main Craft: Giant Ticket / Programs
You Will Need:
– 11 x 14 Construction Paper
– Crayons

We cut out rounded shapes in the corners to make the tickets look more “ticket-ty”.  The dancers decorated them for their audience.

Ideas for what to put on tickets: “Admit One”  “Dance Camp”   “Rock Star Camp”
Ideas for back of ticket (program):  Cast list, show order, message to audience

As our audience members came into the studio, our dancers went out and presented them with their ticket / programs.

Showtime Playlist!
We ended up with a great group of students who were hungry for choreography and learning, so we learned eight little combinations, which was so much fun!  We started off with our four tap songs and then took a quick break to change our shoes.  Then we finished up the show with our jazz & creative movement routines.

Rock This Town by Stray Cats
Old Time Rock and Roll by Bob Seger
Rock Around the Clock by Bill Hailey & The Comets
We Built This City by Starship

QUICK BREAK

Baby I’m a Star by Prince 

Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah by Paula Abdul

Itsy Bitsy Spider by Little Richard

Rock Star by Hannah Montana

We had a great week and I hope you enjoyed coming along with us!

Rock Star Camp Day 4: Bling Bling

Posted in Studio Life, Teachers by

Read more about our camp here!

Day #4 Set List

  • Warm-Up:  Jazz warm-up and across the floor progressions
  • Class Time:  Jazz class – learn dance #3
  • Craft Time:  Sunglasses & Necklaces
  • Snack
  • Class Time:  Tap class – learn dance #3
  • Fun Time:  Relay Races
Playlist
On Day 4, we learned our final dances to “We Built This City” We Built This City - Now That's What I Call the 80s by Starship and Hannah Montana’s “Rock Star”Rock Star - Hannah Montana 2: Non-Stop Dance Party.Since we needed more time to practice our dances, we kept craft time shorter than the other days.

Craft #1:  Blinged-Out Sunnies
Supplies:  Cardstock or Folders, Gem Rhinestones, Glue, Paintbrushes

Teacher Prep:  Cut out glasses from cardstock.

Using glue and plastic gems, decorate glasses.

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Rock Star Camp Day 3: Glitter, Glitter, Everywhere

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Read more about our camp here!

Day #3 Set List

  • Warm-Up:  Jazz warm-up and across the floor progressions
  • Class Time:  Jazz class – learn dance #3
  • Craft Time:  Microphones, Picture Frames, Stars
  • Snack
  • Class Time:  Tap class – learn dance #3
  • Fun Time:  Alphadance
Playlist
For Day 3, we lip-synced with our microphones to “Rock Around The Clock” Rock Around the Clock - Rock Around the Clock  and did a fun jazz dance to Little Richard’s rockin’ version of “Itsy Bitsy Spider”Itsy Bitsy Spider - Every Child Deserves a Lifetime

Main Craft: Glittered Microphone Heads
Supplies Needed:  Styrofoam balls, glue, paintbrushes, glitter, hot glue, painted tube from Day 2

1)  Apply glue to styrofoam balls with paintbrushes (we put the balls on a fork to make “glitterizing” easier).

2) Dip in glitter and repeat until covered. Set aside to dry.

3) *Teacher Step* Hot glue glittered styrofoam to painted tube (from yesterday’s step).


Microphones and guitar necks drying.

Our forks wouldn’t fit in the small tubes so we let them

dry in the guitar necks.


Craft #2: Picture Frames
Supplies:  foam sheets, foam stickers, hot glue, photos

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Rock Star Camp Day 2: Rockin’ Guitars & Hats

Posted in Studio Life, Teachers by
See more about our camps here – Rock Star Theme Camp.  

Day #2 Set List

  • Warm-Up:  Jazz warm-up and across the floor progressions
  • Class Time:  Jazz class – learn dance #2
  • Craft Time:  Guitars, Hats, Microphones
  • Snack
  • Class Time:  Tap class – learn dance #2
  • Fun Time:  Limbo & Beanbag pass
Microphone bases (left) and guitar necks (right)

Main Craft: Guitars

You Will Need:
– Various cardboard boxes (tissue boxes, shoe boxes, pasta boxes, etc) – 1 per guitar
– 1-foot piece of cardboard tube (wrapping paper or paper towel tube) – 1 per guitar
– Construction or contact paper to cover box
– Rubber bands (6 per guitar)
– Crayons (2 per guitar)
– Paint & paint brushes
– Hot glue gun
– Glue sticks for glue gun

1.  Paint cardboard tube.  Set aside to dry.

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Rock Star Camp Day 1: Tie-Dye

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.See more about our camps here – Rock Star Theme Camp.

Day #1 Set List

  • Warm-Up:  Creative Movement in center & across the floor
  • Jazz Class:  Learn Jazz Dance #1
  • Craft Time:  Tie-Dye T-Shirts & VIP Passes
  • Snack
  • Tap Class: Learn Tap Dance #1
  • Game Time: Obstacle Course & Freeze Dance

Main Craft: Tie-Dye T-shirts
You Will Need:
– T-Shirts
– Fabric Dye (pink, yellow, blue, purple)
– Buckets
– Rubberbands

We keep it basic and mix up 4 or 5 different buckets of fabric dye outside the studio (we have a sidewalk with a faucet, which works perfectly).  The kids design the t-shirts inside with rubberbands.  If you want design ideas, here are a few good tutorials.   

We skip the soda ash step and just let the kids dip in the buckets. The shirts end up pastel, but it works for us and keeps it simple.  Once the kids are done dipping, we rinse the shirts out under the outside faucet, unwrap them and hang them up to dry.

Tip #1:  Some kids will want to use one or two colors, others will need to dip in every bucket.  For this reason, avoid darker colors like maroon, navy blue and hunter green – mixing will result in a brown t-shirt!  I recommend at least getting red, yellow, purple and bright blue.

Tip #2: The tie-dye will stain skin and dancewear / shoes.  Our kids bring smocks, but inevitably someone splashes and ends up with polka-dot tights.  In our welcome letter I let parents know we will be tie-dying on the first day in case they don’t want to wear their “fancy outfit”.  We tie-dye in bare feet and with our smocks on to avoid most of the mess.

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Dance Etiquette & Advice

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Kind of loving this post at These Are The Lives We Lead about dance etiquette.  My favorite parts:

Love dance!
  • “NEVER mark. Why pay for a class and mark until you get into groups? Groups occur for MAYBE 10 minutes. Most of which you’ll spend trying to figure out the parts you’ve been marking.”
  • “Touching your toes and sitting in a grande plie 2nd for a minute does not a sufficient warm up make.”
  • “Be hungry to know everyTHING about your art; ESPECIALLY its history. you would not be here without those that came before you.”
  • “If you don’t make the youtube video, don’t get the job, or don’t get called out for the “special” group; it doesn’t mean you stop coming to class. In fact, the very opposite. You KEEP SHOWING UP. perseverance and SHOWING UP is often how a job is booked.”
  • “.. know that dance does not come over night.  Or over months.  Or even years.  It happens throughout a LIFETIME process that is to be adored despite struggle.  Love every second of it for genuine reason and you will probably find yourself doing all this naturally.”
I wish all of my students read and understood this.  Good advice for getting the most out of your classes!

How To Get A Clean Music Edit Using GarageBand

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For our 200th post, I am excited to debut the second video in our GarageBand Tutorial Series:  How To Get A Clean Edit Using GarageBand (see How To Fade a Song here)!

Check out the tutorial below or click the jump for a full transcript with additional notes that aren’t in the video.


 Side note…  200 posts!  I feel like that is an exciting milestone.  Fellow bloggers – do you get excited for “milestone” posts?  Or do you celebrate your blog’s “birthday”?  Or am I alone in being dorky?

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Review: Ballet Words of the Week

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I am happy to report back with a review of the “Ballet Words of the Week” that I received from Dance Teacher Press in Dance Advantage’s giveaway back in February.
We were more then mid-year through our classes when I won the Words of the Week booklet, Ballet Combination Book and Ballet Step by Step.  I brought all three tools into the studio for my teachers to use and I will say the one getting used the most is the Ballet “Words of the Week“, probably because it was the easiest to integrate into our syllabus.
The Words of the Week is made out of calendar-sized sturdy cardstock and is spiral bound.  It fits nicely in a dance bag or it could be hung on a wall.  We keep ours on our studio bookshelf.  The colors are bright and not too girly, which was nice since I have a few boys at the studio.  It includes 50 terms, which cover basics to more advanced vocabulary.

I ended up using the word booklet once a month with my Ballet I class and they always looked forward to it.  This class is age 7-9 and it is their first year of ballet.  I would bring out the book after our stretching time.