The benefits of adding plants to your plate are vast. Whether you’re a vegan or vegetarian (or neither), plant-based snacks can offer a unique mix of enriching ingredients without compromising nutrition or flavor. With a focus on balance and practicality, your snacks should be easily accessible and digestible for easy refueling on intense dance-teaching days. Here are five delicious and well-balanced plant-based snacks that cater to dancers’ specific needs: Banana and Almond Butter Wrap Getty images. Spread almond butter on a whole-grain tortilla. Add sliced bananas and a sprinkle of chia seed ..read more

The Evolution of Competition Contemporary The post evolution-competition-contemporary/ appeared first on Dance Teacher ..read more

“There are so many ways to make a positive impact through dance,” says Amy Bramlett Turner. “The National Honor Society for Dance Arts has been a vehicle for us to recognize all that our students do.” As a chapter sponsor of the NHSDA Secondary Chapter at Hot Springs World Class High School in Arkansas, Turner witnesses firsthand how “membership is something students can be proud of and strive for.” When Turner watches her student dancers graduate bearing their blue-and-white honor cords and pins, she can’t help but be proud. Their involvement in NHSDA has cultivated their leadership skills an ..read more

Celebrated choreographer Antoine Troupe is taking his years of creative success and giving back to the next generation of dance students. His journey wasn’t always easy, but, through challenges, he developed tools that make him uniquely fit for guiding tomorrow’s dance superstars—starting with the students at his school, Troupe Dance Company. Troupe’s introduction to dance was informal. He explored movement through social dancing at parties, freestyling and battling friends, and training himself through DVDs and music videos while growing up in Fairfield, California. “I would try to mimic ever ..read more

Since New York City Ballet principal dancer Jacques d’Amboise founded National Dance Institute in 1976, the nonprofit arts education organization has championed a simple yet profound truth: Early exposure to the arts can transform a child’s life. Grounded in its renowned teaching pedagogy, NDI has impacted millions of school children—in New York City and across the world—through its rigorous, joyful, and inclusive arts programming. With NDI, students develop self-confidence, a lifelong passion for learning, and an understanding that with dedication and hard work, they can achieve their goals ..read more

Spring is an exciting and busy time for dance teachers. For many of us, the season inspires change and new beginnings. Maybe you’re looking to upgrade your teaching skills or refresh your choreography. Or maybe you’re looking to switch teaching jobs or acquire new ones. If that’s the case, you know that the process can be challenging. Finding new teaching gigs aren’t like an average job hunt where you send in your resumé and do an interview. You’ll likely also be expected to teach a trial class, share a video reel and/or demonstrate how you connect with the students. And at every step of ..read more

Ask competition judges which style they adjudicate the most, and they’ll likely say “contemporary.” It is an absolutely packed category at most events. But what exactly is it? Contemporary dance doesn’t have a codified technique. True to its name, it looks remarkably different now than it did 10 or even five years ago. And at this point it’s several generations removed from its closest competition-world ancestor, the “lyrical” style of the 1990s. With its blend of lyrical, modern, postmodern, and commercial dance, comp contemporary is full of possibilities. Here, three competition-dance educat ..read more

As Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater celebrates its 65th anniversary year, the organization has embarked on an initiative to honor the legacy of its founder, Alvin Ailey, by providing free educational resources through PBS. This past February, the first installment of a new eight-part documentary series on Ailey’s life and work, titled Portrait of Ailey, premiered on the PBS LearningMedia website, which provides free classroom-ready resources for educators. The series will continue to roll out episodes for online viewing in April and September (the first two episodes, “Alvin Ailey’s Texas Roo ..read more

On a cool afternoon last November, Linda Past Pehrson, just a few days shy of her 77th birthday, warmed up backstage at the Peridance Center in New York City. She was wearing the white tutu she’d spent the previous evening ironing—her costume for the latest Performing in NY Showcase, organized by Kat Wildish. Pehrson’s group of 20 adult recreational dancers were up first in the sold-out show, dancing to music from La Bayadère with choreography by Matteo Corbetta. By day, Pehrson is an executive assistant. Evenings and weekends, she’s a dance class devotee: She typically takes six day ..read more

In this hour-long discussion, renowned dance physical therapist Marika Molnar provides expert insights on the anatomy of the ankle, causes of injury, and ways to correct overpronation. New York City Ballet principal Tiler Peck also demonstrates simple and effective ankle-strengthening exercises. About Marika Molnar  A physical therapist, licensed acupuncturist, and founder and president of Westside Dance Physical Therapy in New York City, Molnar is also a health and wellness coordinator for the New York City Ballet and School of American Ballet.  She is a member of the Internationa ..read more