Thera-Bands for Dancers: Improve Balance

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Here's some other posts you might enjoy:  Preparing to Exercise, Foot & Ankle Exercises or read all the posts here: Thera-bands for Dancers
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Today's post contains exercises you can do in class or at home to improve your muscle strength.  Before you begin, remember to review our exercise tips.

Benefit to dancers: Strengthened hip flexor muscles and improving balance on one leg (which helps with turns and static poses).

All of these exercises need the band to be stabilized by a stationary object low to the floor.  At home, this could be a sturdy table, bed post or other heavy piece of furniture. In class, you could use a partner – just remind the students to check their bands for small tears which could cause the band to snap.

Slow Degages to the Side (Hip Abduction / Adduction)
Loop the band around your ankle and attach the other end to the sturdy object.

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Winter… already!?

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It's snowing here in New York (in October!  The horror!) and I am feeling less than motivated to prepare my lesson plans.

Nothing like a little Pinterest pretty to get inspired…or waste some time before I have to go outside!

This is what I feel like (except much less elegant):

Winter Wedding
Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company (with actual snow machines)

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Business: Avoiding the Growth Trap

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Room To Move StudioJust read a great small business article by Jay Goltz at the New York Times:

Avoiding the Growth Trap

Worth a quick read if you are a business or studio owner considering expanding your business to a second location or doing other “growing”.  If you’re like many small business owners, you are constantly looking for ways to improve your business or opportunities to expand.  It is hard to shut down that entrepreneurial spirit that may have even prompted you to open in the first place!

“It really comes down to priorities. Do you want to take outside capital and the “partners” that come with it? Do you want to take on more risk? More employees? More travel? More stress? More potential aggravation?”

Mr. Goltz also makes a good point that sometimes business owners get so caught up in growing their business and expanding that they forget to check if they are still making a profit!

“I have also figured out that business is not just about growth…it is also about making a profit, which many companies seem to forget as they grow themselves out of business. Business is also about understanding that bad things happen…choosing to over-expand instead of being prepared for this kind of stuff can put the company in jeopardy. “

Look before you leap, and really take a hard look at all the possibilities when you are considering expanding. Sometimes its the right move, but sometimes things may be better off left alone.  Figure out your priorities and you will figure out what is right for you and your business.

New Music Monday: Halloween Playlist

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Tired of the playing the Kidz Bop version of "The Monster Mash"* or "Who Let The Ghosts Out"* for your halloween class yet?  Here's a fresh group of creepy and spooky songs just in time for the spooky season!

* Here's the link to that album in case you're not tired of it! Kidz Bop Halloween Party (Deluxe Edition) - Kidz Bop Kids

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&t=Halloween%2520Playlist%25202011&d=From%2520The%2520Dance%2520Buzz%2520Blog&pl=0,434962720,182920863,157192623,388158217,434961477,18623845,362996073,201458527,283170189,266397084,265518008,304173796,139988983,338722113PRESCHOOLERS
Boogie Monster – Recess Monkey Boogie Monster - Tabby Road – your kids won't be able to sit still when this song starts playing
Harry's Haunted Halloween Circus – Ralph's World Harry's Haunted Halloween Circus - Ralph's World At the Bottom of the Sea
Looking for Dracula – Charlotte Diamond Looking for Dracula - 10 Carrot Diamond
Dressing Up – The Wiggles Dressing Up - Hot Potatoes! The Best of The Wiggles

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SOBuzz: New Season Wisdom 2011

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Hooray!  We just finished our first month of our 30th season at my studio and everyone is starting to calm down and get into the pattern of the new season.  It is always a busy and exciting time when we go back to school and back to dance school… new faces and new classes!

Here’s what I learned from the start of this season:

  • Repeating the same thing as last year and expecting different results really is insane… I did labels again this year for the preschool classes only to have TWO stuck to the marley this year.  Note to self: you are insane.. no more labels please.

  • No matter how long you have been in business, you have NOT heard it all.  There will always be a parent or student ready to supply you with a question that you are unprepared for.  This year’s winner:  Does she need to wear tap shoes for tap class?
  • Don’t put any book/magazine in the waiting room that you actually want back in one piece.
  • When decorating your studio remember – pink with never go out of style, but consider the few (or many) boys you also have at your studio.  Are you scaring them away with all that pink?
  • While this may be your 5th year (10th, 30th, 50th!) teaching, to some of your students (and parents), it is their FIRST DAY of dance.  Take time to enjoy the magic of their first experience and memories in the making.
And my mantra from last year:
  • You can’t please everyone!
Hope you survived your first month back and best wishes for a wonderful season!

Teaching Tip: Sticky Tendus

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I got this visual teaching tip from watching my ballet teacher’s preschool and Ballet 1 classes.

Her class was practicing tendu and the students had very slow and articulate feet during their parallel (preschool) and turned out (Ballet 1) tendus!  After class, I asked what her secret was and this is how she teaches tendu:

1.  Take out your imaginary piece of gum and chew it up so its really sticky (in the preschool class, everyone gets to say what flavor/color gum they are having)

2.  Take out some of your sticky gum and put it under your toes!  (An explanation of why we only do this with imaginary gum and never at home is also given at this point)

3.  With straight legs, try to slide the foot out… but the toes are very hard to move!  Finally we get all the way out and the gum pulls us back to the starting position.  Repeat while teacher says “sticky sticky (foot slides out) tendu (close)!”

4.  Repeat with the other foot.

As they progress during the year, the teacher only needs to say “sticky sticky tendu” and the students recall the sticky sensation and slow down while pushing through their toes.  I think this imagery would also benefit older students – after all, who doesn’t love a little silliness in their class every now and again?

Hope it helps you or your classes!  What teaching tips do you have for tendus?

Teaching Tip: Spaghetti, Meatballs and Pancakes, Oh My!

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This creative movement idea was inspired by this Fruit Tree post at Maria’s Movers and the comments from Zan (of Hullabaloo Danceshop).  Zan describes her “turnip dance” in the comments and I loved the idea so I’ve been trying it out with my Modern I / Creative Movement class (ages 8-10).  We have changed it to fit our needs and the kids have come up with different food names (since most of them have never eaten a turnip).  We tried to keep it to somewhat healthy foods.

Our food stretch goes like this (movements in parentheses):

Spaghetti, toast and… pizza?
Ok there’s no pizza stretch.. yet!

Flat as a pancake (lie on back)
Round like a meatball (contract and roll into ball on side)
Stretch like spaghetti (stretch long on side, keeping balance)
Flat as toast (lie on belly)
Up like a banana/mermaid (cobra or mermaid pose*)
Flat as toast
Stretch like spaghetti
Round like a meatball
Flat as a pancake (repeat other side)

The only trouble is they always say they’re hungry after we do this stretch!

*Some days we do cobra pose (leaving feet on the ground and using hands to push up to stretch back) and some days we do mermaid (lifting feet and kicking arms off ground balancing on belly) – also known as superman pose.

Happy dancing!

Tap Teaching Tip: The Snappy Shuffle

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This year I have three classes of 1st and 2nd graders in tap / jazz combination class and we are focusing on increasing the speed and clarity of their tap steps.  I've noticed that they are still doing the large "baby" shuffle — where they use almost their entire leg to swing the foot back and forth to make the sounds.

I was trying to think of a way to help them understand the faster shuffle and we came up with the "snappy shuffle" which we practice during tap barre.  The "snappy shuffle" is a quick shuffle that is small and the dancer uses the knee to do most of the work (lifting the knee up and down as opposed to bringing the whole leg forward and back).

I am having good results so far.  The kids love "going fast" and enjoy the challenge of doing "steps like the big girls/boys".

Now we are working on translating that same "snappy shuffle" into our other steps, like irishes (shuffle hop step) and buffalos (leap shuffle leap).

Here is our tap barre that I use for a warm-up, lately we've been using "He Could Be the One – Hannah Montana to give you an idea of the tempo.

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New Music Monday: Currently Loving…

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Short music post today – just wanted to share three songs I’ve been loving lately!

Titanium (David Guetta feat. Sia) – My go-to warm up songs for my older students.  I’ve been using this in tap and jazz classes as it has a nice steady beat and hasn’t been overplayed on the radio yet.

Timshel (Mumford & Sons) – This is a hauntingly beautiful piece that I’ve been using in my lyrical/contemporary classes.  Easy to put emotion into it.

I’m In Here Piano/Vocal Version (Sia) – I can’t help it – I love Sia’s voice.  You might recognize her from “Breathe Me” a few years ago.  I just love the different sound she has. I’ve been using this song in lyrical and jazz class for a cool down.