The Instructor's Dance Floor

In the dance industry, career-ending injuries are all too common. As a dance teacher, coach, or instructor, it is important to be aware of some of the most common dance injuries. According to a study by Dr. Raj Deu and Hopkins Medicine, the following are injuries often seen on dancers: Hip Injuries Snapping hip syndrom  Hip impingement  Labral tears Hip flexor tendonitis  Foot and ankle injuries Achilles tendonitis  Trigger toe and ankle impingement  Knee injuries Patellofemoral pain syndrom  Stress fractures Metatarsals  Tibia Lumbar Spine Sesamoids Arthritis  Knee Hip Ankle Foot As a teacher, it is important to listen to your students if they are complaining of pain in these areas. It help them distinguish between pain and an injury, you can ask them the following questions: Does the pain keep you up at night? Is the pain already present before you start dancing? Does the pain increase with activity? Doe...

I personally struggle with a very specific problem... I swear my back leg is straight in my leaps and arabesques when it in fact not straight. If your dancers are experiencing this, there might actually be a medical reason. According to the editor of Dance Teacher Magazine, Deborah Vogel, meniscal tears, swelling, trauma, or arthritis might all be the culprit. There is also the possibility your dancer is not properly working their turnout. If your dancer's kneecap of their leg is dropped towards the ground in arabesque, the leg will appear bent if it is in fact straight. Lastly, your student's body type may be the reason. If the student has a naturally knobby knee that protrudes forward, it could appear bent while they are trying to straighten it.

While we as instructors are so passionate about seeing our dancers improve, it is important to sometimes take our experiences with a grain of salt. From excuses like "I didn't have time", or "my Mom didn't tell me," we have heard them all. This article , is full of dance teacher reactions that we are all-too familiar with. 

Every dance instructor is familiar with the look of sheer terror you receive back from your students when you ask them to improv. The following are a few tricks I have used to get my students more familiar with the concept of improvisation. Use a variety of popular of familiar music. If your students are more familiar with the music, and know chorus, versus, builds and the counts, they will be more comfortable adjusting their movement to suit the music. Of course they will not always know the music, but this is a great trick for improv novices.  Go across the floor. By letting your dancers move from one side of the floor to the other, they will have freedom in how long they take across the floor. However, there will still be a controlled direction.  Be creative. Ask them to focus on one body part, or use floor work the entire time, use a prop, not to implement any technique, use a partner, pretend to be an animal, etc. This will get them more exposed to moves or styles the...

In this awesome piece of news, renowned director of the Martha Graham Dance Company, Janet Eilber, teaches Harvard Law students an excerpt of "Lamentation". After teaching choreography to the students of law, she continued to inform them about copyright and other legal issues in the dance world. If you would like to see this this awesome article, click on this link.

If typical ballet barre music puts you to sleep, there is a CD with a variety of music that may be a bit more your speed. This article  highlights an album for ballet barre and center music that  is engaging for the listener, with a variety of moods and arrangements from different ballet scores. Also, the selections for barre run two times consecutively so your students can do both right and left side without you having to restart the music. This CD is definitely a huge asset for every ballet teacher who'd like to mix up their music selection!

Recently, I have seen many articles floating around social media sites claiming that competitive youth sports are not worth the steep prices and excessive hours that you must dedicate to them in order to truly succeed. Of course, included in this list was competitive gymnastics, dance, and cheerleading. While I understand that at times families must dedicate a lot of time and resources to these activities, I completely disagree with the statement that it is not worth it. As a dancer growing up, I learned the following invaluable traits and lessons: Discipline Patience Humility Sometimes you don't get everything you feel you deserve You shouldn't give up when things get hard, you should push harder You are your own best advocate True satisfaction from becoming a better athlete and person Treat others, especially your superiors, with genuine respect Use your failures to motivate you, instead of discourage you Envy is your worst enemy  These lessons translated...