Today, I interviewed an ex-dancer, my mom, about her time dancing. Here’s what she said: Dancers of America: How old were you when you started dancing? My mom: 5 years old DOA: What was your favorite part of dancing? My mom: Performing on stage and the costumes. DOA: Would you dance again? Why? My mom: Yes, it's a great way to stay in shape. DOA: What style did you do? My mom: Classical ballet, including pointe. DOA: If you could do a new style you’ve never done before, what would it be? Why? My mom: I think I would choose jazz. I really like the music and the rhythm of the dance. DOA: What wa ..read more

I have been dancing for 11 years. That's a long time! As much as I love to dance, sometimes I can lose motivation. This is normal and happens to all dancers. How do you stay motivated? First, identify what you're feeling. This feeling of losing motivation is called burn-out. It's completely normal and common. Fighting burn-out isn't always easy, however. Just try thinking of why you started dancing and how much you loved it when you weren't burnt-out. Think about how much you've improved since you started dancing, or even in the past year. How much you're capable of now as opposed to years ag ..read more

Over the summer, since dance was out, I took classes at a new studio-- Millstone Dance. For classes during the school year, I go to Infinity Danceworks. I decided to try something different and go somewhere new. Today's article is all about that. I took different classes at Millstone Dance than at Infinity Danceworks. At Infinity Danceworks, I take ballet and jazz. However, at Millstone Dance, I took a hip hop class. I was in for a surprise! The hip hop class I took taught me about all different kinds of hip hop, mostly break dancing. I have never done breaking before, so this was challengin ..read more

You've all heard of ballet, and most likely hip hop too. The two styles couldn't be more different. Ballet is graceful and elegant, while hip hop is, well, the polar opposite; forceful and hard-hitting. What would happen if we fused the two? Artistic Director Homer Hans Bryant already has! Hiplet, made in the 1990's, is a genre of dance that showcases ballet and pointe technique to fast-moving hip hop music. Although it sounds fake, Hiplet is as real as it gets, and is practiced in European countries, including Germany, France, Spain, South Korea, and Hong Kong. Although hip hop is lacking in ..read more

Last night, I saw "A Chorus Line" with some friends. This play is about dancers who came from different families auditioning for a role in a chorus line. Each person auditioning comes from a different past and explains their past with a song and dance. Later, the director chooses 8 dancers to be in the chorus line. Throughout the show, I learned an important lesson about dancing and the dance world in general: although you may come from different backgrounds, dance unites us. The show had many different characters in it that all had challenging childhoods, along with a reason to dance. All th ..read more

True or false: Only musicians know how to count and understand music. That is false! Dancers have just as much musicality as musicians, and today is the day you learn all about that, DOA readers! As most of you probably know, music is typically counted in 4s. If you listen to almost any song and start counting to 4 when the song begins, you will find that there is a constant rhythm in the song, right? Dancers like to use this constant rhythm in the melody to choreograph their routines. This helps them to find which moves work in the dance, how they should be done, and on which counts of the s ..read more

Recently, I have been taking break dancing classes! Because I normally do ballet and jazz, break dancing is a whole new world for me. Usually, in ballet, dancers use strength in their legs and core. In break dancing, you are using more arm strength. Also, your posture and technique are different when breaking than when you're doing ballet. Today's post is all about comparing and contrasting the two styles ..read more

Recently, I have been looking around online. I found a lot of articles involving questions that non-dancers have for dancers. Many people on Buzzfeed.com were wondering about us dancers in the article "23 Questions Dancers Need To Answer Immediately." Today, I've decided to answer some of these real-life questions. Skills Why do dancers always inform people of how many hours of dance they have each day? Here's the thing. Dance class is the equivalent of soccer practice during soccer season; you have to go. And practice isn't just for fun a few times a month. It's a full schedule of rehearsals ..read more

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