What do you do when you have a student who’s extremely talented, naturally gifted and a brilliant performer but their attitude outshines the aforementioned? How do you handle the lack of respect, the inappropriate comments to peers, the insults to your studio and the all-around negativity? While it may seem tempting to bite your lip because these type of talented dancers make your studio “look good,” the long term ramifications can affect your business, the precedent you’re setting and the example you’re setting for the other students ..read more

It’s time to take a deep dive into your overall business operations. Additionally, look at how do you get your current families to register for next year and which of your teachers and staff you want to retain. These three year end practices are all VERY important factors to getting your new season off to a great start ..read more

This is a follow up article to the “Sometimes You Don’t Have All the Answers, and That’s Ok!” I recommend that you read that article as well because both articles work together and will help you when you are hit with a crisis ..read more

Studio owners, how much thought have you given to measuring yearly progress amongst your dancers? Sure, the “eyeball it” method works when your teachers are in the studio with them, day in and day out, but sitting down and actually deconstructing their progress in many different areas will give both your students and their parents an individualized and tangible look at the scope of where they were, where they are going and where they would like to be going forward ..read more

It’s inevitable. At some point in owning your dance studio a student is going to want to part ways and stop dancing. If you’re lucky, it may happen only a handful of times over the course of your career, but the reality is it’s going to happen ..read more

Ever think of what you can do to enhance the learning curve in your dance class? While dancers are often taught “how” sometimes we forget the “why’s,” “when’s,” and “where’s” things came from and happened ..read more

Conditioning programs for dancers should be an essential part of any training program. Along with regular technique classes, “cross training” will help provide increased cardiovascular, strength, flexibility and endurance benefits. It will also increase core strength and muscle tone and will help dancers in all areas of their body awareness ..read more

Dance teachers spend countless hours with our students in the studio week after week and year after year. It’s sometimes easy for the lines of the relationship to blur in terms of dance teacher to student vs. friend to friend. In a sense you do become part of a second “studio-family” and role model whom they look up to ..read more

Welcome to my Motivational Blog that appears on Dance Teacher Web each and every month. Need some motivation and inspiration to see things through? …You’ve come to the right place ..read more

The debate over competing multiple solos and similar group numbers often comes up in dance teacher discussion. Sometimes the notion is to showcase their talents in every genre and take center stage as much as possible. While it's commendable for a dancer to possess the confidence and commitment to take on all that choreography, it can become overkill and work against the dancer competing ..read more