Love Playlists for Jazz & Hip Hop

Posted in Music by Cait (The Dance Buzz)

And we have come upon our last Valentine’s playlist! Click here for previous weeks (tap, children, lyrical).

This week’s playlist is everything else I found that didn’t fit under certain heading – mostly for jazz or hip hop, with a little classical ballet mixed in at the end!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little series… have a great Valentine’s Day!

JAZZ
Stereo Love – Edward Maya ft Alicia
Somebody To Love Remix – Justin Beiber ft. Usher
Seasons of Love – RENT
One Love – David Guetta
Bad Romance – Lady Gaga
Groove Is In The Heart – Dee Lite
Heartbeat – Enrique Inglesias

HIP HOP
Love Lockdown – Kanye West
Countdown – Beyonce
Good Feelin – Flo Rida
You Make Me Feel So – Cobra Starship
BALLET
DJ Got Us Fallin In Love – Sunny Choi
Love Story – Taylor Swift
The Heart Asks Pleasure First – Ahn Trio

12Feb2012

February Pinspiration: Dance EVERYWHERE

Posted in Pinspiration by Cait (The Dance Buzz)

This month’s Pinspiration is all about dancing everywhere… except the studio! I wish this would happen more often in real life.

Keep up with The Dance Buzz on Pinterestfor more dance inspiration.

Paul Taylor Dance Company; Photographer: Jordan Matter Source: Acts of Flight

Continue reading →

10Feb2012

SOBuzz: Family & Friends Discount Dilemma

Posted in Uncategorized by Cait (The Dance Buzz)

Just watched a great video from Marie Forleo discussing the “friends and family discount” that could easily apply to any dance studio owner.

When you own your own business, your friends and family often want to support you, but sometimes they are looking for a discount in return. The message of the video below is whatever you choose, be clear and upfront about your policy.

If you can’t afford to give discounts because you’re just starting up or because you simply value your time, say so (in a polite way of course) and give them the opportunity to choose another dance studio.

Marie offers a script (around 2:14 in the video) to say to your family and friends when you don’t have a discount and I’ve adapted it so it works for dance teachers and studio owners.

“I’m so excited Susie wants to take dance. Know that I’d never expect you to choose my dance studio because of our relationship. Before she registers, make sure that our studio is the right fit for you because I don’t offer a friends and family discount. If you want to move ahead, here are the tuition rates and available classes.”

This gives them an ‘out’ if they were only looking for a handout and let’s you be clear in advance without all the uncomfortableness that would come if you let them know this AFTER she signed up for classes.

What’s your policy for friends and family? Share in the comments!

4Feb2012

Video: Fading Music Using GarageBand

Posted in Uncategorized by Cait (The Dance Buzz)

The Dance Buzz debuts its first video!

If you’ve ever needed to fade a song to fit a time limit or your choreography, the OS X program GarageBand has some great features that make it really easy to do.

GarageBand was made for recording music or making podcasts, but we are going to use it to end a song early and fade it out. This is one of the easiest and simplest edits to do.

For those who want technical nitty gritty: I’m using GarageBand ’11 (version 6.0.4) on my MacBook Pro, which is running OS X Lion.

Give me a shoutout in the comments if you found this video helpful or informative – I’d like to do a series of videos showing more complicated edits. Would you be interested in that?Video transcript and more tips (not included in the video) after the jump:

Continue reading →

1Feb2012

February Blog Challenge: A Day In The Life

Posted in Blog Challenge by Cait (The Dance Buzz)

It’s that time again… time for another Dance Blog Challenge! If you want to read more about why I’m doing this, read this post. Then come back and join the fun!

This month’s blog challenge is “Day In The Life” post. Take one of your busiest dance days, bring your camera (or camera phone) and take lots of pictures from the moment you wake up until you return to bed. Or if you’re an overachiever, make a video!

This month’s challenge is a bit more involved than last month’s, but that’s what makes it fun. I will try to vary the ‘involvement’ of each post so if you’re not feeling quite up to the challenge this month, do an easier one like January’s photo challenge or wait to see what March brings.

Post your photos or video (with or without narration… its up to you) on your blog and leave a comment with the link here!

I can’t wait to see what everyone’s studios and dance lives look like! And if you’re not actively taking or teaching classes, you can participate too… I want to see what you do in your job or school everyday. And snap a quick picture of an arabesque in the hallway while you’re at it… the point is to have fun!

Just make sure if you do take pictures of other people that they are ok with you putting their lovely faces on the internet. Or use photo editing software crop or blur their faces 🙂

Think your life is boring or need ideas of what to document? Keep reading after the jump for ideas.

31Jan2012

Monthly Recap

Posted in Uncategorized by Cait (The Dance Buzz)

Happy 2012! Here’s our recap of the first month of 2012… it’s been a busy one for me – how has your January been?

Make sure to check back tomorrow for February’s “Blog Challenge”!

Link love:

Are you on Pinterest yet? If you were, you wouldn’t have
missed this awesome picture!

What You Missed From The Dance Buzz

Results of Top Dance Blog 2011!
Dance pinspiration over at my pinterest page
Things I tweeted
Music inspiration
January’s Dance Blog Challenge and all the awesome participants: Personal Dance Firsts
We joined in on Dance Advantage’s January “Circle Time” post about setting goals.
ASCAP, BMI, SESAC? Music Licensing Break Down

Dance Happenings Around The Internet

How To Date A Dancer (Tights & Tiaras)
How to build sound-absorbing acoustic tiles for your dance studio (Squirrel Trench Audio)
If Your Boys Wore Tutus (Marias Movers)
Combining Dance With Poetry (Dancepulse.org)

30Jan2012

Love Playlist for Children & Tweens

Posted in Music by Cait (The Dance Buzz)

This playlist is super sweet!

Until Valentine’s Day, I’ll be doing a different “Love” themed playlist every Monday. (See previous here).

This week’s playlist is for children and tween classes.

Enjoy!

http://widgets.itunes.apple.com/itunes.html?wtype=4&app_id=null&country=us&partnerId=30&affiliate_id=http%3A%2F%2Fclick.linksynergy.com%2Ffs-bin%2Fstat%3Fid%3DQaW75AlCQx4%26offerid%3D146261%26type%3D3%26subid%3D0%26tmpid%3D1826%26RD_PARM1%3D&ww=300&t=Children%2520%2526%2520Tween%2520Valentines&d=Sweet%2520little%2520Valentine%2527s%2520playlist%2520for%2520children%2520and%2520tweens.%2520From%2520The%2520Dance%2520Buzz%2521&pl=0,328975652,253615319,25516790,284401623,274594,280215891,219582775,61676286,330879379,287347170,394755226,373014284,283992711,444901560,258604737,303289570,107654365

Tween songs are further down on the playlist.

Using a blog reader and can’t see the playlist app? Click the “read more link” to see the full playlist

Continue reading →

25Jan2012

SOBuzz: 1099-K, What the wha??

Posted in Uncategorized by Cait (The Dance Buzz)

Do you accept credit cards? You may be receiving
a 1099-K this year.

If you're a business owner who accepts credit cards or PayPal at your studio, you might have received (or soon will) a new document for your taxes this year, the 1099-K.

You may be asking yourself, "why am I getting this and what the heck do I do with it?" while subconsciously rubbing your temples from the tax headache that's starting to form.

Don't fret! It's actually not a big deal! (Unlike the Dance Buzz, who is most definitely a big deal… I'm going to pull on my tax smarty-pants and see if I can shed some light on what is up with 1099-Ks)

WHY DID I GET A 1099-K?
A new law was passed that requires businesses who process payments (like PayPal or your credit card merchant) to report the amount of sales they processed and for whom it was processed (you). They filed a 1099-K to the IRS reporting the sales they processed for your business. That means that the government knows how much sales you did through credit cards. And you will report this amount on your tax return as part of your gross sales.

It is a way for the government to make sure everyone is playing fair and reporting all of their sales. In my opinion, I think it is in result of the major growth of online businesses. This new law will help the IRS ensure that people who do a lot of business online are reporting their sales. In the past, the IRS had no way of knowing how much income you received from credit card sales, which is an online business' primary method of receiving income. Ok, I'm off my soapbox now. Back to the subject at hand.

Read what the IRS has to say

Did you receive a 1099-K for your studio?

I ACCEPT CREDIT CARDS BUT DIDN'T GET A 1099-K. WHAA?
You might actually not have to worry about it – you will only receive one if you had more than 200 transactions this year and more than $20,000 in gross sales.

OK, NOW WHAT DO I DO WITH IT?
If you have an accountant, give it to him or her. They will need it to prepare your taxes.

If you do your own taxes, you are going to use this number to breakdown your sales income.

I STILL DON'T UNDERSTAND, SHOW ME AN EXAMPLE

Read more »

23Jan2012

Love Playlist for Lyrical / Contemporary Class

Posted in Uncategorized by Cait (The Dance Buzz)

Until Valentine’s Day, I’ll be doing a different “Love” themed playlist every Monday. This week’s playlist is geared towards lyrical or contemporary dancers. After I made the playlist, I realized it tended to go to the darker side of love – the heartache or wanting. All the better to ’emote’ with, I guess! As my students would say, “this song needs an angsty lyrical face.”

[Links open up in iTunes]

Love Remains The Same – Gavin Rossdale – an uplifting song
My Love – Sia – hauntingly beautiful
She Is Love – Parachute – simple and soft acoustic guitar
A Little More of You – Ashley Chambliss – mellow
Like You Do – Angel Taylor – very “pop” and bubbly
I Will Show You Love – Kendall Payne – updated love ballad
Be Be Your Love – Rachael Yamagata – 3/4 rhythm, bluesy
The Book of Love – Peter Gabriel – beautiful song for all ages
Thinking About You – The Big Scary – slow and steadily tugging on your heartstrings
Fools In Love – Inara George – another 3/4 time! Lamenting about fools in love
Jar of Hearts – Christina Perri – no need for description, there’s a reason it’s overplayed…
Piece of My Heart – Keri Noble – song about leaving a piece of yourself behind – I used this as a duet for sisters when one of them was a high school senior

22Jan2012

Setting Goals: One Step At A Time

Posted in Uncategorized by Cait (The Dance Buzz)

One step at a time… like learning
ballet positions.

Want to read more about setting goals, specifically for dancers and dance teachers? Check out "Circle Time" at Dance Advantage. January 2012's topic is "Setting Goals".

January is the perfect time of year to talk about setting goals for the New Year.

As a person who wears "many hats" (dance teacher, studio owner, blogger, wife), its important to set goals in each area of your life.

And what's even more important than setting goals is figuring out how to accomplish them!

Are you serious about wanting to accomplish your goals?

Well, here's an exercise you can do to help SET and ACCOMPLISH your goals for 2012. You will need at least 30 minutes to an hour, so set aside some time for yourself. This is time for you. It is important. Do it.

Take out a piece of paper and label columns with all the different areas of your life – don't forget to include a column for personal goals or family!

Here's an example of what your column heading might be