The Casual Dance Teacher's Podcast

Maia
Welcome to the Casual Dance Teachers podcast. This is your host, Maia. I am so excited about today's very special guest here to talk to us about the secret dance technique.

Do you know what it is? Stay tuned. I will tell you in a second. Let me introduce today's guest and maybe you'll guess what the secret dance technique is by the end of the intro.

Today's guest is April Lorenzi. April has performed around the world, including dancing a lead role at Motiongate Dubai theme parks, Parque de Atraccion in Madrid, and on a cruise ship, as well as performing in various shows and entertainment activities at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. She's also worked with contemporary dance companies and dinner shows and has taught and choreographed dance in several states across the United States, working with dancers of all ages and abilities.

April is also the author of The Secret Dance Technique, Unlocking the Mental Skills Every Dancer and Person Needs. And she's here to share with us about mental dance technique and how we can improve our dance training and education from a mental standpoint. April, thank you so much for being here. I'm so excited to get into this topic with you.

April
Thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited to be here.

Maia
I just want to get right into it. I want to hear, to begin with, kind of how you got into the field of studying the mental side of performance preparation and helping prepare dancers and train dancers from a mental standpoint.

April
Yeah, so I actually, I started this book because I found how helpful it was for me and how it really revolutionized how I approach dance from everything, from how I did things in terms of productivity, from how I learned information, from resilience, from confidence.

It really changed how I both performed and how I was outside of the classroom. So it actually started from just seeing this as kind of like a secret that really revolutionized how I approached everything about dance.

Maia
I did see that you studied psychology in college, correct?

April
Yes.

Maia
And is that where this started?

April
Yes. So I started with a BFA in dance and also in psychology. And I actually, while I worked at Disney during my college, this made me not be able to graduate on time. So I actually, because of this, I wound up being able to complete with dual degrees in psychology and performance psychology with a minor in dance. So I actually kind of fell into it, that it wasn't actually the case. And then because I fell into it, I was like, wow, performance psychology is such a fascinating field. And it really started to help me.

Maia
That's so interesting. So how did what you learned about performance psychology play into the work that you did? It sounds like obviously you were already working in college, and I'm sure you need some mental toughness to stay in character and create magic at Disney every day. And then in your career after that as well, what were some of the key components that really stood out to you from your psychology training?

April
So one thing that I found super helpful is the idea of changing how you feel about performance, your performance anxiety, as we would traditionally call it. So we think about things when we're getting nervous, for example, before an audition or before a show, we think about it as maybe a negative feeling. But if we think about it, we get sweaty palms, we start getting a little bit jittery. And all of this we can interpret as yes, we're dreading this event that's about to happen. We're feeling really nervous. Or we can think about it as we're actually super excited because those experiences are the same physiological responses in the body. So when I started to think about it differently, I began to approach both performances and my rehearsals differently because I was really excited to go there. So if you think about it in terms of excitement, we are holding our energy in our body differently. And we actually need to have a little bit more energy when we're performing. We don't want to just be neutral and not and have kind of an apathetic attitude. So it actually helps us. Now, if we're super nervous, then we're going to hold our attention and our stress differently in our body.

And for example, when I was in college, I got a note that I was holding my stress in my sternum. And I was thinking about this all the time when I was in class because I was like, this is going to affect your grade. So I had to think about having a super stressed out sternum and I'd be like, relax your sternum, which would make me have an even more stressed out sternum.

So the way I was thinking about it was actually making things worse. So changing my mindset really did help.

Maia
Wow. So do you have any specific training tools if you're working with younger students? You know, I think for professionals or collegiate dancers, even that's kind of on them to start to like, learn that process, read your book and find the resources to do that. But with us teaching students, as I say, that's my experience, you know, high school and younger. Are there any particular ways to talk about this or exercises to use to approach having a healthier mindset and funneling that into having positive energy in your performance?

April
Yes. So I think a big thing is what's important is like as dance teachers, we have this super cool ability to have the kids want to listen to us because they want to be there. So we're this resource for them that they really like look up to us. So I think if we can instill this healthy way of approaching challenges in a way that is exciting and fun, it's a game versus it's a potential to fail or to get rejected.

We can instill that just for all of life so that they can think about challenges in a new way as, oh, we can do that. One way that we can bring that into the classroom is by approaching a growth mindset, whereas we think of the kids, they can get better. And we instill this mindset that, you know, for example, I'm not a lefty or I'm not a hip hop dancer. I'm just a ballet dancer. Maybe they joke about it, but it becomes ingrained in their brains. And the more they repeat it, the more they're subconsciously thinking that that is the case.

So if instead we maybe help them stop that and say, OK, you're not a lefty yet and just a simple change. And this is there's a great book on this by Carol Dweck, Growth Mindset, which talks all about this. And she's really the prime researcher on the topic.

There's another concept called grit, which is passion and perseverance towards your long term goals, which is by Angela Duckworth. And she has a fabulous book on this as well. And this is showing that talent gets you there, but effort counts twice as much.

So if maybe instead in the classroom we focus on these concepts and this is our redefinition of success in the classroom, then they can take these concepts into their daily life as well.

Maia
Yeah. So two of the words that stuck out to me that you used as being formative in your own experience were resilience and confidence. I think a lot of the discussion that I see online among dance teachers is that the students that we're teaching now don't seem to have the same levels of resilience and confidence that we sort of expect them to or maybe that they had a decade ago. You know, there's a lot of different language and a lot of different opinions around that. But my first question is, do you think that's true that today's students are lacking in those areas more so than former generations? And if so, do you have any pointers to help instill that?

April
I think what's tough and even just me as a dancer as well, I think what's tough is definitely social media. You definitely have a lot of access to seeing what other people are doing and it can be really easy to compare. And I think that that can make it difficult to feel like you can keep going when it looks like it's such an incredibly competitive industry. And so for that reason, actually, one of the things that I had talked about in the book is using social media to kind of help you and not hurt you.

So thinking about this is actually really inspiring that these people are achieving such great things. And that shows that it's possible for me as well. So kind of like flipping that perspective on it in terms of if I think that if dancers nowadays are less resilient, I don't know, I'm not sure if I know if that's the case or not, but I know that it can be quite tough because there is so much competition, right? But if again, if we use that to kind of inspire them.

So in terms of building resilience, one thing is if we are confident and we have outcomes and experience, we'll build these resilience. So one of the ways to have confidence, it's a little trick from it's called The Alter Ego Effect, which is by Todd Herman. It's a lovely book.

And basically what you do is you create a character that is kind of like your superpower character. And this is what he talks about in the book. One famous person who does this is Beyonce.

She actually created the character when she first started called Sasha Fierce. That was a empowered version of her that didn't fit who she was at the time, but she became that person when she was on stage. So for me, I didn't do exactly an alter ego, but I did kind of, I called it my power character.

And this was the person that, yes, I had these traits, but I couldn't tap into them all the time. So basically I called it a supercharged version of me. And so if you put on these different kind of a character when you're in these moments, even though technically it's you, then you can start to feel, okay, this is this version of me.

And I'm able to tap into this at any time. So when I go into that audition or so when I go into that dance class that I'm not comfortable in, I have this ability to put on this power character and be the person. And this is not about faking anything.

This is about tapping into those parts of you and heightening them because you are able to be that person. And then the more that you're able to do this, you see, you have a proven track record of, okay, I can do that. And then that allows you to feel confident in going back and then being resilient.

Another thing with resilient as well is making sure that you go down and you track those successes and you write them down and you date that. So you can go back and you can see, oh, I have done this before. I have been resilient. And you know that you are capable.

Maia
I love that. I actually was just recently having a conversation and this is not the first time in my life that I've had this conversation that I said that I'm an introvert. And someone said, no, you're not. And I was like, uh, yeah, I definitely am. Like I have a hard time reaching out and I need to kind of refuel, kind of come into myself and be alone to refresh.

Anytime I do any kind of performance or even a podcast interview like this, like I need to be in silence after this for a little bit and process. And they're like, but you know, you're not like you go on stage and you sing and dance and you like to talk to people. And I'm like, that's, yeah, that's like a different part of me and it fulfills something. But that's like my version of Sasha Fierce.

April
That is so incredibly relatable. I'm actually the same. I'm an omnivore, I would say, but yeah,

Maia
Yeah, yeah, maybe me too.

April
Yeah, that's so funny. But I love that you brought that up. And I think probably a lot of dancers can relate to that.

Maia
Now, another question that came up for me as you were talking about the competition aspect of it, I know that a lot of performance psychology is more geared towards competitive sports. And you've really carved out this niche of studying it in relation to dance. And I'm curious if you find that a lot of your research is geared towards competition specifically, or if there are some aspects of it that you've found that will still apply to dancers that are just doing it for personal fulfillment on a recreational level?

April
Yeah, so actually, so my degree is an interdisciplinary studies degree with a focus in performance psychology. And I think that that kind of really made me interested in a bunch of different things. So not actually just specifically performance psychology, so also cognitive psychology, personal development, so a bunch of different fields.

So my research is actually tailored to kind of this different fields that I felt very helpful. And that was part of the reason why I wrote the book is because I was finding these tricks that were being applied to top CEOs or different sports people, and it was easily connected to dance. But there was no books that were specifically connecting it to dance.

And I was like, oh, this is so perfect. Or even productivity books that alter the way that we have our thought processes, but simple tricks that really are game changing. And also, like, for example, how we learn.

So all of these tricks are applicable in the dance field and out of the dance field. And I think that what's cool about bringing it into the dance classroom is that we can build it in the classroom because the kids will listen to us. They love dance. You are not the math teacher where the, you know, if they don't like math, they don't like science or the dance teacher. They want to be there. And then they can use these tricks for helping them, you know, learn how to learn.

And they can go learn in the classroom better with it. And that applies to the recreational dancer to the competitive dancer. And I actually think the casual dancer could even be super impactful because we're really catering this environment that they're really training for life in our classroom. You know, they're training these life skills. So that hour, maybe their only hour they take a week could be training them on multiple facets for sure.

Maia
I was going to ask you about that, too. It's a perfect transition. Like, what are some areas of life outside of dance - Because looking at - I'm going to read this off to make sure that I don't butcher it. The exact title of your book, The Secret Dance Technique, Unlocking the Mental Skills Every Dancer and Person Needs. So I know that you have a lot of just general life applications for this as well. And I'm curious if you could highlight a few of the areas, maybe in your own life or just in life in general, where you feel like this will really help everybody?

April
Yes, well, one is that I'm currently living in Spain. And so I tackled this goal to learn a second language.
And because I was finding that these tricks, these mental skills kind of felt like a little secret to life. Like, oh, wow, this actually really does help you get to these crazy goals that I never thought I could get anywhere close to. So I was like, oh, it's kind of like almost a game, right? Thinking about it, it's kind of fun. So one of them was learning a second language. You know, I wasn't taking formal classes or anything, but I'm now in Spain. So I applied a lot of these same principles to learning a second language.

For example, a lot of it is confidence and going up and speaking and actually just trying or being resilient in, hey, I just totally, I forgot how to say Buenos Dias, but tomorrow I'm going to go try again. So using these skills that I applied to dance back into just having a conversation with the locals in a cafe. Another thing, a very applicable skill is in terms of memory skills.

So there's something called like mnemonic devices in terms of memory aids to help you remember things better. And so one of these mnemonic devices is chunking, which is where you take bits of information and you put it together into smaller components in order to remember it better. So for example, a phone number, we block it off with a three and four.

So in dance, we have our eight counts that we use. So that is a way of chunking. But again, that's based on levels.

Like, for example, if I know a pas de bourree, a pas de bourree, that would just be one chunk for me, whereas someone else, maybe if they're a more beginner dancer, a pas de bourree is three separate steps. So how could this be applied to life? Well, now when I'm memorizing in Spanish, when I need to memorize different concepts, I can see that, oh, I can chunk these separate concepts together to help me remember the next day, you know, a phrase, for example, a sentence, three words together. And then once I get used to using that, then the next day I can add on to that and that becomes a chunk.

Maia
Hmm, yeah, I love that. I had heard of that concept of chunking before and the phone number analogy or example of it. But yeah, of course, that's what we naturally do in dance. And I think that's one area where I do see students sometimes get a little down on themselves or struggle if I'm moving through choreography and there's a part that they just can't get or there's a step that they're really struggling with. And to have that concept in the back of my mind of is there a different way that I can chunk it or break it down for them into something palatable and then say, let's just achieve this one small chunk, i.e. the pas de bourree, and then we'll make a note that you got it, you know, during this class and or do like a checkmark or a chart of that to help them push through that mental block. I can see that being super applicable and helpful.

April
Right, yes. Yeah. Another concept is that sleep actually helps it like encode the information into your long term memory. So I always before when I was dancing, and I was like, oh, my goodness, I cannot remember this for the life of me. I would always visualize it before I went to bed and make sure I did like a quick little mental run through. And I found this very helpful. And so they say that it's sleep helps encode it into long term memory.

Maia
Would you recommend I've talked about this the subject before I'm going to circle back to it to get your take on it. I always feel a lot of pressure with only having students generally an hour a week for that technique style that I'm like, pushing out movement, right? Like, that's my goal. They're here to dance. I got to get them moving. But it sounds like doing something like sitting down and doing a visual exercise or journaling about our achievements, things like that can really help too. So would you recommend taking just a little snippet of class time to do some of these mental exercises? And have you ever experienced that actually being used in a classroom and what the effect was?

April
Yes, I actually started to do that over the summer. Actually, I implemented a little bit of these concepts just to teach it beforehand and then go into the dance class. And I found a difference in the way the kids approach class both before and after the class.

It felt for one, it felt like a more supportive environment. I felt like, you know, I think sometimes we can get a lot in our heads as this book is, right? And we're thinking about ourselves, myself included, when I'm taking class, sometimes I'm very focused on myself versus when we think about, oh, we're all in this together and we're all having these thought processes. And we're thinking about these insecurities in dance or different things that might go wrong or, oh my goodness, what was that last eight count that this choreographer is throwing at me, right? When we make it in a human environment, they're all having these thoughts.

We kind of work differently together and we are able to relax into the class and see it more of a learning environment and that we're all in this together. So that was one thing. And I think that the level of effort and being able to go and like take risks as well, because we were redefining what success and failure looks like in the classroom, right? So success being intrinsically motivated, where we're feeling motivated to do something, we're here to get better, but we're not getting this trick right away, right? Or we're not doing this so that we get this specific role. We're doing this to improve ourselves. That allows you to be able to relax and take those risks and to know that if I mess up, that's not my definition of failure. That's my definition of success because I went for it. So it's just these little tweaks. And I also brought the confidence alter ego effect into the classroom. And I was hearing about it for the next week. I was like, I'm Sasha Fierce. Or before performance, they were like, oh, I can't wait to be whatever their name was for themselves. So I think that's super cool.

Maia
Yes.

April
So I definitely saw a difference.

Maia
Oh, I love that. Thank you. I also just so much appreciate that you are so well researched, and you have so many resources already that you shared with us. I will link your book, the link to your book and allow people to access more resources directly in the description for the episode. But would you mind also sharing ways that folks can connect with you that are listening?

April
Yes. So I'm active on Instagram at april.lorenzi as well as Facebook april.lorenzi. I also just recently created a sub stack to start to share some tips. So sub stack is kind of like a blog. That's also april.lorenzi. And I have a little podcast there that I'm just reading my sub stacks as well. But that's also on sub stack.

Maia
So that's awesome. Again, so much this topic. I really appreciate your being such a champ because I did not prepare you. I threw like so many questions in so many different directions at you. So is there anything else that we didn't touch on so far that you wanted to add anything that's really important to you from your own research that you want to share before we close?

April
These soft skills such as creativity or emotional intelligence, researchers have found that 85% of career success stems from these different skills that we don't traditionally think of or may pay as much attention to. So we have this unique ability as educators and dance teachers and just for ourselves as well to be able to be training these. So if we incorporate these, we can really help the kids.

And also as we help the kids, we're helping ourselves because we're training it ourselves. And I'm always training and we're always learning these skills. So it's super exciting that we have this ability to do this both in the dance classroom and for life as well.

Maia
Amen. And probably for the vast majority of our students, you know, that's going to be more important than training them in the dance skills. You know, of course, we all want to give our students the opportunity to do whatever they want professionally in the dance world. But the vast majority of them, like they need it for all sorts of other careers. So that's a great, great closing tidbit. Thank you.

April
Thank you very much.

Maia
Do you have a favorite quote that you want to share as well?

April
I love the idea that every no is just a yes to something better. So it's never a no, it's just a redirection and for what's right for you.

Maia
Yay, that's perfect. What a great way to wrap it up. Thank you again so much. This was absolutely amazing, mind blowing. And I can't wait to listen back because there was just so much there. I feel like it's going to take a few listens to, again, sit by myself and just process it all and go through everything that we just talked about.

April
Thank you very much. I really enjoyed this conversation.

Maia
Hey, everyone, it's Maia back to wrap up the episode.

I wanted to share a quick note that I got from April after we completed the interview that just asked me to clarify that while she does have her undergraduate degrees in performance psychology and psychology, as well as extensive research and lived experiences, she's not a licensed or practicing psychologist. So the insights that she's sharing are based on her own personal studies, experiences, and interviews with other dance professionals. I hope that helps clarify things.

And of course, I just want to say thank you again to April. This perspective really helped me. I found it so interesting and educational, and I can see the application for my own students.

So I'm really excited about it. In addition to thanking April, I want to thank GB Mystical for the theme music that you hear at the beginning of the episode. If you haven't already, I also want to put a plug in to join us on Facebook in the Casual Dance Teachers Network and follow the Casual Dance Teachers Podcast on Instagram, as well as leaving a review on whatever platform you're listening.

Thank you again, and I'll see you on the next episode.