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High School Dance: Building Trust & Teaching to the Whole Student

November 12, 2021 by 4dancers

High school is typically a time of questioning and curiosity for teenagers who are known to be rule-breakers and risk takers. However, more and more I find myself among high school students who want to conform and not push boundaries too much during class. I find that my students need and crave a sense of belonging. They want to feel like they fit in, to not stand out too much, but at the same time they do appreciate the celebration of their individuality.

As a teacher, I am constantly working on getting to know my students as learners, as people, and as movers. When I meet my students where they are at, in their knowledge of my subject matter, and who they are as individuals, I can start to instruct and coach them in a more holistic manner. Working towards understanding students’ perspectives enables me to make strong connections and those connections build trust. When trust occurs, students begin to take on more risks and challenge their own growth.

How do we build authentic trusting connections with our students?

It takes time to get to know each of my students. I make time daily and weekly to ask my students questions about their lives outside of the classroom. I ask them to explain how they can apply what we are learning in class to their lives outside of the classroom. Blending together curriculum with “get to know you” activities can help at the start of the busy school year to build those relationships quickly. Even though relationships do take time to build, it is important to begin that process right from the start. I try to be open with my students and share things about myself as a teacher, a dancer, and a person so that they get to know me as well. 

Teaching with patience and in an unassuming manner can take practice. It is very important to always work with students and not against them. I remind my students that I am on their side and that my goal is to help them learn and grow. Asking students questions to learn their perspectives and any issues that they might face can always help me differentiate my instruction.

How can teaching to the whole student allow us to challenge our students to push the edges of their own creativity and craft?

Building bridges between student to teacher and student to student creates trusting relationships within the class. I work to promote an environment that celebrates their uniqueness while also building the class as an ensemble. It is in this way that the students in the class grow together as a whole and learn to grow within their own skills as individuals.

Process. Process. Process. 

Support their process with the time and space needed to make work, edit work, take risks, edit work again, take more risks, and so on. Teaching students about editing and revising their choreographic work so that they try a variety of choreographic choices allows them to build their creative capacity as well as think more deeply about choreographic choices. 

I like to ask my students to explain how certain sections of their dance relates to their concept. This can be a very challenging question for many students and calls for higher order critical  thinking. Some students struggle with this question and then I need to probe a bit more. What do you want your audience to understand or feel when they see this part? How could you change the space/time/energy of this section to better accomplish your choreographic goals? 

In order to get to a point of being comfortable with being uncomfortable, students must feel a sense of belonging to the whole class. In this way, they are able to feel confident being part of the group but also being unique in their individuality. When students get to this point in feeling connected to the class, that is when I see them take those risks and really find deeper growth in their learning. 


dancer posing upside down
Janet Rothwell

Contributor Janet (Neidhardt) Rothwell has been a dance educator for over 19 years. She has taught modern, ballet, and jazz at various studios and schools on Chicago’s North Shore. She received her Principal License from National Louis University, her MA in Dance with an emphasis in Choreography from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, and her BA in Communications with a Dance Minor from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Throughout her time in graduate school, Janet performed with Sidelong Dance Company based in Winston-Salem, NC.

Currently, Janet teaches dance at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, IL. She is the Director of the Mélange Dance Company and assists in the production of the Winter and Spring Dance Concerts at Stevenson High School. Janet has also presented multiple times at the National Dance Educators Organization Conference. She regularly seeks out professional development opportunities to continue her own artistic growth.

When she isn’t dancing, Janet enjoys practicing Pilates, yoga, and playing with her children.

Filed Under: 4teachers Tagged With: building trust in dance, choreography, high school dance, teaching dance, teaching high school dance

COVID-19 and the Love of Dance Challenge…

June 18, 2020 by 4dancers

I so glad to be able to let you know about a just-launched charity effort to benefit the dance community, specifically dance studios – The Love of Dance Challenge.  As we all know, the COVID-19 crisis has devastated the dance community, especially studios — which are the foundation of our training, and create a springboard for the art. Like so many in our community, studio owners are facing financial challenges, and many are facing the reality of potentially closing their  doors for good.

The Love of Dance Challenge is the brainchild of Kaycee Cope Jones and Bri Zborowski, co-founders and co-owners of Apolla Performance Footwear. Here’s how it works:
-Donations are being given by industry leaders — each donor then will “challenge” three more friends / colleagues to also donate, all for the love of dance. (Think of the Water Bucket Challenge for just dance!)
-Anyone can enter to win experiences that they may never have again – with just a starting donation of $10, you can choose which prize(s) you will be entered to win. You can also donate cash, if you don’t want to enter to win anything. All donations / proceeds go towards helping dance studios survive this crisis, and allow the dance world to come together for the Love of Dance Challenge.
-Dance studios from all over the world can apply to be considered for a monetary gift raised by this effort. All applicants will be vetted thoroughly and are required to complete the StEPS 2020 Initiative (see below).  A lottery then selects the qualified applicants who will receive the financial gift.

ALL monies raised goes completely to dance studios, to help them survive and keep going.

The StEPS 2020 Initiative is a major part of this Challenge:
It stands for Studios for Equity, Prevention, and Science. StEPS is a brief online course that involves education for studio owners in:
1) Racism in Dance

2) Sexual Abuse Awareness, Prevention, and Response

3) Bringing Dance Science to the Studio4) Gender, Inclusion and Integration in Dance
Further information can be found here.

I hope everyone gets involved with this wonderful effort, and passes it on to as many dance colleagues as you can. I am so proud to be involved in it (as part of #3 above — Bringing Dance Science to the Studio) –and we can all be proud of becoming part of this industry-wide effort to help our hurting dance world.

Thank you –with Love– Jan Dunn, Editor, Dance Wellness

Filed Under: 4dancers, 4teachers Tagged With: Apolla Performance Footwear, Bri Zborowski, covid-19, dance, dance charity

The Mirror as a Training Tool in Dance Class

January 21, 2019 by 4dancers

Students in dance class with mirrored wall. Photo by Lori Teague.

I’m so glad to be able to share the following article from Sally Radell, MA, a longtime colleague in dance medicine, on the faculty at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. Sally’s research for many years has been in looking at how using the mirror affects the dancer — we have posted information on this topic from her before on this site. Sally recently presented her latest research at the October 2018 IADMS (International Association for Dance Medicine and Science) conference in Helskini. It was valuable information, and thought-provoking, to put it mildly! So here you go — take care and happy/safe dancing!  – Jan Dunn, MS, Dance Wellness Editor


by Sally A. Radell, MFA, MA

The process of building ourselves as dancers is a long and arduous process. Years of technical training are required and certainly the more efficiently we train the more successful we are at building the technical skills needed for professional performance.

Dancers should not underestimate the importance of how they feel about their bodies in the studio and how this impacts the quality and effectiveness of their training. In fact, research has shown that a dancers’ psychological health and well-being can improve or impede their classroom or stage performance.

The Mirror in the Dance Studio

One classroom tool that has caused some concern in the technique class is the mirror. It is so familiar in the dance studio that many of us take it for granted. Teachers frequently use it as a classroom management tool to visually bring the class together when teaching new material. The teacher has an optimum vantage point when facing the mirror, demonstrating the material with the same physical facing as the students, and simultaneously viewing them as they learn it. This provides for ample correction opportunities and can be an efficient use of time when teaching short classes. However, NOT using the mirror in teaching generally requires the instructor to face the class directly and do a mirror image demonstration of the phrase material. This requires more concentration and focus for the teacher. Whether or not to use the mirror in the studio can be a complex problem for teachers.

Students tend to love having a mirror in the studio. It provides students immediate visual feedback and a constant stream of information on ones’ alignment and performance of a dance phrase. The mirror also provides students an opportunity to fix their hair, examine how they look in their new tights and inevitably compare their body to those of other dancers in the studio. The mirror is a potent tool with distraction powers that can be overwhelming and difficult to manage for most students.

One cannot help but ask the question — is the mirror a helpful or harmful tool in the dance studio, or perhaps a bit of both? Most of the literature on this topic comes from dance instructors and their use of the mirror in the classroom. Opinions vary. Some instructors feel it is a useful tool to check and correct ones’ line or the performance of a particular phrase. There have only been a few formal research studies, primarily focusing on ballet, which tend to discuss the disadvantages of mirror use.

Dance students in mirrored classroom. Photo by Lori Teague.

Disadvantages of Mirror Use in the Studio

  • Students may develop high levels of self-consciousness and self-criticism from starring at their images in the mirror.
  • There is a high temptation for students to compare their physical images to other dancers (or the teacher) in the room which can lead a dancer to feel badly about her body.
  • The use of a mirror can lead to a dancer feeling “disconnected” from her proprioceptive body awareness which is needed for efficient training. This can delay optimum development of a dancers’ technical skills.

New Mirror Research

Further research has recently been done which probes a bit deeper into mirror use with dancers of various skill levels and in different styles of dance. For example, a recent study was done comparing beginning and advanced ballet dancers. The beginning dancers reported using the mirror enthusiastically, while the advanced level dancers discussed the importance of limiting mirror use in class in favor of focusing on the physical sensations of the movement to stimulate technical growth. However, both levels of students felt worse about their bodies by the end of the semester. This suggests that training on how to use the mirror sparingly and efficiently does not help a dancer feel better about her body in class. Perhaps the mirror is just too potent a tool to be used effectively at any level of dance training?

Other recent research compares the impact of mirrors on the body image of modern and ballet dancers in both mirrored and non-mirrored classrooms. By the end of the semester both the modern and ballet students in the mirrored classroom felt worse about their bodies. However, the students in the modern and ballet non-mirrored classrooms felt better about their bodies by the end of the semester. Overall, perhaps these results suggest that the negative impact of the mirror on a dancers’ body image can transcend styles, at least between modern and ballet styles?

As research in the area of mirror impact on body image grows, evidence is mounting on the potency of the mirror and its capacity to harm a dancer’s body image beyond the confines of ballet. I strongly encourage dance teachers and students to reconsider their use of the mirror in the classroom and explore alternate methods of achieving what the mirror seemingly offers. Without a mirror in the classroom dancers can fully focus on their proprioceptive learning and the sensation of movement in their bodies. This will ultimately keep their focus fully “in their bodies” which is the most efficient route to feeling good about themselves and developing the optimum technical skills required for professional careers.


Note: This post is an update to the previous post we have on the site, also authored by Ms. Radell. View that post here.


Sally Radell
Sally Radell, MFA, MA. Photo by Jon Rou.

Sally Radell is professor of dance at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. She holds a BA in dance from Scripps College in Claremont, California, an MA in dance from The Ohio State University, and an MFA in dance from Arizona State University. She came to Emory in 1987 to start a degree program in dance. The substantial growth of the program and success of this endeavor is one of her proudest professional accomplishments. Ms. Radell has been active as a choreographer, teacher, performer, administrator, dance critic, and somatic educator. Over the past twenty years she has conducted research on dancers, body image, and the mirror and has published in professional journals including Journal of Dance Medicine & Science, Research in Dance Education, and Perceptual and Motor Skills. Professor Radell has also presented nationally and internationally on this topic with different organizations including the American Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance and the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science. She is committed to the promotion of psychological wellness for dancers.

Filed Under: 4teachers, conditioning Tagged With: ballet classroom, dance class, Dance studio setup, Emory University, Mirrors in Dance Class, Mirrors in dance studio, sally radell, teaching ballet, teaching dance

Dance and Literacy

January 6, 2019 by 4dancers

by Janet (Neidhardt) Rothwell

For the past three years I have served on the Literacy Committee at my high school. Being a member of this committee has opened my eyes to not only how important literacy is in students’ education but also the various ways in which I can use literacy as a teaching tool for dance. Each year, I work with a Literacy Coach to create various instructional tools to embed literacy within my dance instruction.

I have used a variety of graphic organizers to guide students’ thought process during formative assessments on movement sequences, feedback on choreography studies, and self-assessment/reflection. One organizer that I really enjoy using is the Frayer Model. It is a model with four squares all connected with a rectangle in the middle. (See image below) I am able to change the language of each square to adjust how I direct my students’ thought process on different topics.


Was the use of this tool effective? Why?


In this example, I placed a choreography tool in the center (this example was for Levels) and scaffolded questions in the boxes.

Box 1: Definition of the tool

Box 2: Where was this tool included in the choreography?

Box 3: What variations of the tool were used?

Box 4: Where/How else could it have been used?

While students watch their peers perform their group dances they fill out this form to provide feedback. This process helps students to formulate their ideas and train their eyes to watch for these tools when watching a dance. At first, I thought this process might take too much time but once we got started it was very quick and I saw greater comprehension and clearer feedback from my students as a result of using it. Having students fill this out allows me to know if they understand the choreography tools being taught in class.

After completing this process of using the Frayer model, I observed more fully developed choreography works and deeper conversation from my students about choreography tools. This heightened knowledge for students allowed them to become “dance insiders” in that they could now use terms and concepts that translate to improved performance.

Adding dance literacy to the dance classroom can deepen student understanding of dance concepts. If we want to create artistically literate students we need to take the time to teach them our vocabulary and engage them in our language of the arts. This is just one simple strategy to add literacy components to a dance class. I have come to appreciate experimenting with other methods of literacy embedded instruction.

I always tell my students to be “thinking dancers” and not just “imitators of movers.” I think that teaching dance language in greater detail and putting dance vocabulary into context provides them with the knowledge they need to be a successful thinking dancer. Being thoughtful about how we introduce our dance terminology and concepts also allows this information to be approachable and applicable. Watching the light bulbs go off in my students’ heads is always a great moment, and I have found that using some specific and purposeful literacy strategies in my dance instruction has created more of these moments.


dancer posing upside down
Janet (Neidhardt) Rothwell

Contributor Janet (Neidhardt) Rothwell has been a dance educator for over 15 years. She has taught modern, ballet, and jazz at various studios and schools on Chicago’s North Shore. She received her Principal License from National Louis University, her MA in Dance with an emphasis in Choreography from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, and her BA in Communications with a Dance Minor from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Throughout her time in graduate school, Janet performed with Sidelong Dance Company based in Winston-Salem, NC.

Currently, Janet teaches dance at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, IL. She is the Director of the Mélange Dance Company and assists in the production of the Winter and Spring Dance Concerts at Stevenson High School. Janet has also presented multiple times at the National Dance Educators Organization Conference. She regularly seeks out professional development opportunities to continue her own artistic growth.

When she isn’t dancing, Janet enjoys practicing pilates, yoga, and playing with her children.

Filed Under: 4teachers, Teaching Tips Tagged With: choreography, choreography tool, dance and literacy, Frayer Model, janet rothwell, movement sequences, teaching dance

Dance Conference: Energize – For Dance Studios & Teachers

June 12, 2018 by 4dancers

We love a good dance conference, and we recently heard about this new offering for dance studio owners and teachers that takes place in Chicago in August. Energize provides a space for these professionals to gather, network, get the jump on costumes, and take advantage of a variety of different seminars designed to help them take their businesses to the next level. We talked with Suzanne Gerety of Dance Studio Owner and Revolution Dancewear about the upcoming event and got some great insights we’re happy to pass along to you here…


Suzanne, can you tell readers a bit about yourself and how the idea for Energize came about?

Sure! I’ve been helping dance studio owners start, run and grow their business since we launched Dance Studio Owner back in 2008. I was born into the dance studio life as the daughter of a successful studio owner. Our studio is celebrating it’s 45th season this year. My mom, Kathy Blake and I also are the columnists for Dance Teacher Magazine’s “Ask the Experts”, which we’ve been writing for them since 2011.

In 2013, Dance Studio Owner became part of the Revolution Dancewear family of brands – REV UP Brands –  and we are truly grateful to have reached thousands of studio owners world-wide with our mission to help them keep their passion for dance alive as they grow their business. We offer membership to our website and through those resources studio owners can get exactly what they need to find more students, increase student retention, develop loyal faculty, staff and students and overcome any challenge with the business such as problem parents or studio drama.

Energize came about from our entire creative team at Revolution. Since we have been doing events over the years at our headquarters in the Chicago, IL area such as a live fashion show, shopping events, seminars and trainings, it made sense to combine all of those great events into one awesome weekend for studio owners, teachers, and their staff.

Now that we have four versatile brands that help you run your studio successfully it is a great opportunity for our customers to have time with us in person to learn how to get the most out of each resource. Our costume and dancewear flagship brand; Revolution Dancewear, our elite performance line; Tenth House, our Studio Resource; Dance Studio Owner and our online Dancewear and Costume Sales for studio owners to sell to parents; Nimbly.

What is the thing that makes Energize unique from other dance conferences? [Read more…]

Filed Under: 4teachers, Dance Conferences Tagged With: Dance Competition Costumes, dance conference, Dance Costume, dance studio, dance studio owner, Dance Teacher Conference, dance teacher magazine, DanceStudioOwner.com, dancewear, Energize, Energize Dance Conference, kathy blake, recital costumes, REV UP brands, Revlolution Dancewear, Revolution, Suzanne Gerety, Tenth House

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