4teachers – Page 71

In The Spirit Of Thanksgiving

November 21, 2009 by 4dancers

bd093 — Copyright 2005, Catherine L. Tully

With Thanksgiving upon us, I thought I might do a post on the body. As dancers we need to remember that the body is something to be thankful for. It is our instrument of expression.

As I have grown older, my body has been less able to meet the demands I place on it and it is also more prone to injury. One day I may not be able to do any of the things I could in my prime. I’m already experiencing the unplesant fact that I can’t do a grand jete or execute a flawless fifth position without feeling it in my knees. The body ages, and with it, our ability to perform at peak levels disappears… [Read more…]

LinkedIn & Twitter For Dance Professionals

November 20, 2009 by 4dancers

There is good news for dance professionals who use both LinkedIn and Twitter–you can now combine the two. LinkedIn is offering you the ability to add the “Tweets” app so that you can share what you post on Twitter with those on LinkedIn. You can also allow your Twitter account to be visible on your LinkedIn profile. It pays to utilize social media as much as possible, so try to set aside a few moments to take advantage of this new pairing if you can.

Teaching Tip: Adult Ballet Class

November 18, 2009 by 4dancers

If you are new to teaching adult ballet, there are a few things you may want to consider. Teaching adults is not the same as teaching kids–there are a different set of concerns, and they are often coming to class for different reasons. Here are a few things to keep in mind that can help get you started off on the right foot (sorry for the bad pun!):

+ Ask about injuries. This is a very important thing. Many adults will have some type of physical issue that can limit them in certain ways when it comes to taking ballet class. I have a student with a hip replacement, one with a bad ankle and one with a bad back. You absolutely must know about these things ahead of time. Don’t try to play doctor–ask your student to check with their physician about what they can and can’t do in ballet class–and remember to follow up so that you are aware… [Read more…]

Dance Product Review Requests Now Accepted

November 13, 2009 by 4dancers

I’m happy to announce that 4dancers will be moving into the area of product reviews for the remainder of 2009 and into 2010. We will be accepting any dance (or dance-related) product for impartial review and will be posting them here for you to read. You can expect to see things such as:

DVD/CD reviews
Clothing/bag reviews
Book reviews
Dance gift reviews
Textbook reviews

We are also interested in reviewing products that are designed for dance studio owners, such as dance flooring, barres and software.

If you have something that you would like us to evaluate and review, please send an e-mail to:

info (at) moonbeamdigital.com with the words REVIEW REQUEST in the subject line.

*Please note that we cannot meet timeline requests for reviewing products. We will do our best to attend to reviews in a reasonable time-frame, but are not able to guarantee publication at a particular time. Products sent in for review will not be returned, and all reviews will be impartial. We look forward to seeing all the wonderful things that are out there in the world of dance and sharing them with our readers!

Teaching Tip: The Two-Minute Rule

November 10, 2009 by 4dancers

teach If you are just beginning to teach young children, you may want to keep in mind what I like to call the “two-minute rule”. Little ones tend to bore easily, so besides presenting an energetic demeanor, you can also make sure they pay attention by limiting each exercise to about two minutes or so (give or take).

This means some advance planning. If you have a 40 minute class and teach in two-minute segments, that means a lot of different activities! Still, you can use the same ones over again each week–just make sure that you add a new one from time to time to change things up a little bit.

If you are stuck for new ideas, take a peek at this piece I wrote some time ago for Dance Teacher on how to use games to teach a dance class for young students. It should give you some tools you can use.

Anyone else have any tips? Feel free to share them here–it’s nice when we can all help each other out!

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