It's 9:08am. My first coffee was downed hours ago, and I'm gently sipping my second, trying to keep my energy up for the long day ahead. Sequin-clad dancers scurry on stage and strike a pose. “Good morning and welcome to the stage, act number 32, 'Hollywood'! This is Judge number 3, Katie McGinnis, good luck!” Over the next two to three minutes, my eyes are darting back and forth. I'm entering and adjusting scores, doing my best to fairly judge performance quality, technique,

Check out our podcast episode on this hot topic! Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts! Whether we hear it from teachers, judges, directors, or casting agents, the importance of technique is a constant topic of conversation in the dance field. As dancers, we work tirelessly to hone our technique, ultimately striving for perfection—or as close to it as we can possibly get. Whether you’re a budding ballerina, future Broadway star, or Beyoncé’s next backup dancer, the time you devote

The smell of freshly sharpened pencils, the crispness of blank notebooks, and the empty pages of a pristine planner waiting to be filled can only mean one thing: it’s time to head back to school! But those sights, scents, and feelings are only part of the fun for dancers. Back to school also means back to dance with a fresh start for a new season. Maybe it isn’t the smell of new pencils, but rather pointe shoes that makes your heart flutter, or the sight of that new leotard i

Sweet, sweet summertime - lazy days and late nights, sleepovers and family vacations - we look forward to summer as a welcome reward for a productive dance year. While everyone, students and teachers alike, should absolutely enjoy the relaxed pace of the summer season, there is also a wealth of knowledge to be gained from continuing your dance training in between recital and company auditions. IDA judges and teachers Kelsey Nelson, Maddie Kurtz, and Jessica Olinik share with

Check out our Podcast Episode on this hot topic! Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts! Author: Marissa Staniec Every dance studio must have a social media presence. That’s just the world we live in. It’s how we access our studio’s community, including parents, dancers, faculty and guest teachers. It’s a great way to create revenue and bring attention to your studio. It also helps build your brand. You have to make sure you’re posting the things that are going to bring people throu

The clock strikes midnight on December 31, and suddenly, it’s January and we’ve hit the ‘reset’ button on our lives. In addition to being my favorite time of year—hello, competition season!—the new year is marked by a fresh start and, with that, a chance to create exciting resolutions. These resolutions range from personal to professional, so what better place to set new goals than in the dance studio? Goals can be big or small, short or long term, but it’s important that we

Check out our podcast episode on this topic! If you are a dance teacher, chances are you fall into one of two categories - you are either the dance teacher with a seemingly endless supply of choreographic ideas, costume designs, and song choices, or, more likely, you sometimes find yourself stuck for an original concept, passing on every costume you see, and hoping that Dance Teacher Network will come through with a song suggestion you haven’t thought of yet! The IDA judges i

Higher. Faster. More. Stronger. Better. Those are the words we use when asking our bodies to dance - higher battements, faster shuffles, more pirouettes, stronger arms, better focus. 15 competition dances? No problem. 21 credit hours, 18 of which are dance? Sure, I got this. We ask so much of our bodies, and often, we neglect to give them the proper fuel to achieve the results we’re looking for. Dancers lead a rigorous life, whether going between school and the studio, or reh

Check out our recent Podcast Episode inspired by this Blog Article! It's that time of year again - choreography has been brewing in your brain for months, ideas swirling in your head, countless hours of searching for the right song, and now it’s time to get to work! Some studios set choreography over the summer to get it out of the way. Others take it week by week, doling out little sections of the routine. Regardless of how you put it on its feet, the common denominator for

Check out our Podcast Episode on this topic! Ah, the ever elusive male dancer. In the competition dance world, he appears at a young age, perhaps the son of a dance teacher, stealing the hearts of judges and audience members alike. As time moves on, he may continue his training, and become the next Gene Kelly or Nick Lazzarini, or, as is often the case, he moves on to another activity, never knowing what might have been. Today we hear from several unique perspectives on the e

Author: Joey Ortolani I often tell my students and their parents, “Some days you have a good dance day. Some days it’s just not in the cards. But there are certain elements to performing, and competing, that don’t require you to be on it, whether as an individual or as a group.” If so many things are out of your control when you hit the stage, why not control ALL the things you possibly can so you can focus on doing an amazing job on your routine? The element of PRESENTATION