The Casual Dance Teacher's Podcast

Hello my loves, happy Valentine's Day. Thank you for tuning in to the Casual Dance Teachers Podcast with your host, that's me, Maia, for a special Valentine's Day episode. Let's talk about it.

We're definitely doing things a little bit differently on today's episode, so if you're new to the podcast, this isn't our typical structure. I do try to focus heavily on really practical skills and tips and teaching advice for dance educators, but today is a day of love and I'm celebrating that by just sharing some stories of what dance educators around the world love about their job. I think especially when we are focusing on trying to improve our skills as dance teachers, always on the hunt to do better for our students and make them better, it can be so easy to fall into negativity and see the things that we're not doing, the things that we're not loving, the things that we're not getting the results in that we want, and it's important to step back sometimes and remember that we just love this.

That's what it's all about. I'm sure all of us love dancing and probably have loved dancing for a very long time, and in addition to that, whether you didn't fall in love with teaching dance until after you started doing it, you got into it maybe because you loved just the art of dance and then you fell in love with teaching along the way, or you loved education and sharing your knowledge with others and you found dance teaching as a way to do that and have loved it since day one for that reason, there's so much to love. So in a few minutes here, I'm going to share a few little blurbs that I got from some of you listeners, and I want to say thank you so much to the listeners who submitted love stories to me to share on today's episode.

I wanted to start really sappy, I'm sorry, just bear with me on this, but just saying how much I have absolutely loved every second of creating and building and working on this podcast. I am definitely someone that has loved teaching dance from day one, and I think my passion has grown a lot deeper over the years as I kind of came into my own and learned what worked and started to hone my craft as an educator in addition to as a dancer. I've just fallen deeper and deeper in love with the actual art of teaching dance.

And it got to the point where I was so filled with passion and love for what I do that I had to share it with a wider audience than just like my local fellow dance teachers as much as I love them too. I am happy to have this platform. And I'm so happy that people are listening.

That's amazing in itself. But I really didn't anticipate the connection and the relationships that I would build through this podcast. Some of it you hear on the air, you hear the conversations that I have with fellow dance educators and artists, and I've had some guests that are so so fabulous, and just blew me away and made me fall so much deeper in love with what we do collectively.

And then in addition to that, I've been able to maintain a lot of the relationships with those guests, keeping in touch with them and continuing to share, and then also to pass on those relationships to all of you and see the listeners start to form relationships with some of the guests that I've had on that they found out about through the podcast, or with one another because they find out that they both are listeners on the show and begin talking about their common ground as dance teachers because of that. It's really, really cool. And I guess in a way, that's ultimately what I should have been thinking what happened when I created a podcast, but I think my expectation was really low.

And it was just kind of about me having an opportunity to share and kind of get this like pent up excitement and enthusiasm out in some way. And now it's turned into something way bigger than that and way bigger than me. And I'm really, really grateful for that.

And I just want to say thank you. And I love this show so much. And I'm really, really excited to continue it.

With that being said, I think this is a great opportunity to announce my plans for the podcast, which is that I will take a brief sort of late spring, early summer break. So it's not going to coincide exactly with the school year. But what works for me is taking a break around my dance studios recital time, because that's a hectic time.

And that way, it's just one less thing on my plate to have to pour myself into the podcast during that time. So I will take a brief hiatus from publishing new episodes starting at the end of April, and launch season two at the beginning of August. That's still quite a ways down the road.

But I just wanted to let everyone know that that was the plan season one will be coming to an end in a couple months. So we still have plenty of new content that will be coming out over the coming weeks. And some real gems.

I've been working really hard on the rest of season one for you guys. So it's going to be incredible. I'm really excited.

There's a lot to love. And we're already working on season two, actually, which is so insane to say. But this way, we can all get a little breather around recital time and then come back in with that renewed energy, that renewed love for what we do and hit the ground running from there.

Okay, that's enough of the stuff. Sorry about that. Hopefully you're still with me and excited to hear what some of our listeners said about what they love about teaching dance.

So first of all, shout out to Reddit. You guys really came through for me and thank you so much to the Reddit community for submitting these casual dance teachers network on Facebook. I'm sorry, I'm a little disappointed in you because you're my oh, geez, that's what I first launched before I got on Instagram or Reddit.

I'm grateful to every single one of you. Again, I'm not trying to shade anybody. But my Reddit users really came through.

So I'm going to read just a couple brief little paragraphs that were submitted to me from listeners about what they love about teaching dance. And I'll start with Candace who teaches at main square in Toronto, Candace shared. So I teach dance at a community center.

I love teaching dance because it allows the children to express themselves and be confident that they could master a skill through many attempts. I tend to teach in an anti oppressive manner. Instead of rigidity, I emphasize the importance of fun and being comfortable in dance and moving around.

I believe that dance class is great for children to develop relationships, friendships and work with others. I usually teach creative movement, ballet and hip hop. Some of these classes are with a caregiver and some are without.

I enjoy the with caregiver classes as I love seeing parents encourage their children to work towards understanding the movements and having fun. Love that quote from Candace. Thank you so much for submitting that Candace I really like teaching in an anti oppressive manner.

And if you guys want more information about that, I think a good place to start as far as the podcast goes would be the episode that I did with Nicole Perry talking about consent informed dance practices that would really help support teaching in an anti oppressive manner if you're curious about how to do that. The next submission that I want to share with you is from Melissa De Niro from Torquay Dance Academy in Torquay, Victoria, Australia. Melissa wrote, I love the creativity of dance and there are endless choices and ways to move through space.

I love how connected to my body I feel and how it allows me to meditate and look within but also project out storytell and entertain. I love teaching dance and having the privilege to witness a student connect to their body, build confidence and feel safe to be themselves. Having students believe in your creative vision and put in effort to perform the story you create is the greatest privilege.

I remember when I took on choreographing Bohemian Rhapsody across two different classes, who would eventually come together on their different sections and unite and having them all trust the process to create such a memorable number will always stay with me. I wish I could see that piece. First of all, Melissa, if you can get with me and share any clips from that piece, I would love to share that in the network, because that sounds incredible.

In addition, I just wanted to also mention my conversation with April Lorenzi. If you haven't listened to that yet, that's a great conversation regarding building students' confidence and allowing them to connect with their bodies and help foster your creative vision by giving them that confidence and that perseverance that Melissa's talking about here. So I love that Melissa is doing that work in Australia.

April is in Spain right now. She's talked about doing that work on the podcast and I'm here in the US. I am definitely going to implement that as well.

So thank you again, Melissa, for sharing that. This next submission is from a previous guest of the show, Laura Ward Moran. If you haven't listened to Laura's guest episode about preparing students for collegiate dance programs, I highly recommend it and I recommend it to everyone.

I really thought going into that episode in that interview that it was going to be geared more towards a specific kind of teacher and teachers of more rigorous programs. And really, Laura's perspective is so great. She had something in there for everyone and changed my own perspective about preparing students for their futures, whatever that may be.

So go back and listen to that. Here's what Laura sent me about what she loves about being a dance teacher. My name is Laura Ward Moran and I have been a dance educator for the past 26 years.

I'm also the owner of Unparalleled Pursuits, where I mentor studio owners and dance educators, as well as the founder of the Mid-Atlantic Dance Educator Summit. What I love about teaching dance is the opportunity to engage with so many different people through a shared interest, whether that is collaborating with a colleague, being in the classroom, passing on the knowledge I have learned to the next generation, or participating in networking events. I enjoy the collaboration.

Additionally, I will never tire of the joy I feel watching my students truly love and succeed in their dance pursuits. So well said. I could not agree more with this and I love the collaboration aspect as well, which is why I'm so excited that Laura has actually given me the opportunity to be one of the presenters at the Mid-Atlantic Dance Educator Summit this July.

So my presentation is going to be delving into curriculum planning. Not only will I just be presenting and telling you about what I do, but I actually have a customized workbook that all of my participants will get. We will work together during our time to actually fill out the workbook to plan for one of our own classes, our actual goals, the actual things that we want to teach.

And by the end of that session, we'll have a super clear picture of what the curriculum is going to look like for our entire dance season for a given class. And you can super easily recreate that same process for any and all classes, styles, levels that you teach. So that collaboration, that networking, working together with fellow dance teachers, that's all going to be part of that.

Now, if that doesn't sound like something you need, I would still highly encourage you to check out the Mid-Atlantic Dance Educator Summit in July because Laura has set it up that you can choose your own classes. There's multiple classes, roundtable discussions, events going on within every time period in the event. And when you sign up, you can actually go in and enroll in the classes that work best for you.

It's customized. It's going to be an amazing, vibrant, collaborative event. And I could not be more excited.

Please go to Laura's website, UnparalleledPursuits.com, and you can find out all the information about Unparalleled Pursuits and everything that Laura Wurm-Moran offers through that business and also the Mid-Atlantic Dance Educator Summit and how to sign up to join us for that event. Mandy Cox, who teaches at DanceWorks in Odenville, Alabama, shared, I've been teaching in Alabama since 2000. I have loved teaching dance and 2025 will be my 25th year to do so.

My favorite part is teaching my dancers to tell a story through their movement. We are always careful to pick a song that can express feelings, emotions, and story. When their eyes light up and they hit that specific choreography and look at you and you can squeal, yes, that's it.

There is so much joy. The emotional connection you make with your students, especially when you can create a safe space, is such a blessing. We love our studio, DanceWorks, in Odenville, Alabama.

Small town with big talent. I can definitely relate to that, being from a small town myself. Small town with big talent.

Yes. Amen. Mandy, that is so awesome.

I love the joy aspect, just remembering to have joy. I'm recalling actually so many conversations that relate to that. If you haven't listened to my conversation with Maria Daniel on the show, she talks a lot about that and using the joy of the dance to ignite social change and students' mental health.

She does a lot of work around that and is just such an expert in that field. Amy Bush also shared a lot in my conversation with her that you can go back and listen to about connecting students with artistry. So when Mandy here is talking about expressing feelings, emotions, and a story and their eyes light up, I'm just thinking about my conversation with Amy and all of the different facets of artistry that she talked about and how to really draw that out of your students and coach it to be better and stronger and connect them even more.

So if you are looking for some more resources regarding that, be sure to check those out as well. So that's really all I have for you today, guys. It's a short and sweet one.

It's all about love today, whatever you're doing. Hopefully you're not like, ew, Maia, like you are leaning into this theme way too much. But you know, I love a theme and I love dance.

So what am I going to do? Take some time, give yourself a pat on the back, show yourself some love, show your students some love if you're teaching, and just celebrate our love and our passion and our joy for what we do. Thank you again. I can't say it enough, but just thank you so much for sharing that love and that joy with me through this podcast.

It's really, really special to me. I truly mean that. If you have not already tapped into this beautiful, supportive, and loving community of Casual Dance Teachers, be sure to join us on Facebook in the Casual Dance Teachers network.

You can also connect with me on Instagram at the Casual Dance Teachers podcast. And as you now know, I'm also on Reddit as the Casual Dance Teachers podcast. Speaking of love, I think I may have just shared this once before.

So only my my most dedicated listeners will know this, but GB Mystical, who wrote our theme music, is my cousin. He's insanely talented and has so much great music and does production work. So if you need any of that, be sure to check him out.

In addition, thank you so much to my newest partner, Dance News Daily. If you're not familiar with Dance News Daily already, you can probably figure out from the name that this is an amazing source to get daily dance news. Dance News Daily.com is the website with tons of up-to-date dance news from all different genres.

And it's from all over the world. There's articles about new works being created, classes, the latest literature on dance. It's so amazing.

But my favorite feature is the daily email. So on the website, Dance News Daily.com, you can sign up for free. And you can get a daily email that has links to all these different articles from different news sources, telling you what's new in the dance world today.

Obviously, with the podcast, it's really helpful for me to stay up to date on what's new in the dance world. But as a teacher, I think it's also so important to steer my dancers towards getting news and reading about what's going on in the dance world. And it can be really overwhelming.

And they might go to sources that I'd rather they not get their information from. Like I don't want them just going on TikTok to get the latest in the dance world. So to have it all in an email that you can encourage your students to subscribe to, but that you can also just open real quick every morning, scan through, grab what's relevant to you, share it with your students.

And it can be like a headline of the week type of tradition that you start with your dance classes and just a really great learning opportunity for everyone. So be sure to check out dancenewsdaily.com and subscribe to the Dance News Daily email. I do have a quote that goes with the theme to close us out as well.

I found this quote from Kaman Kojuri and thought it was just perfect for today's theme. We dance to seduce ourselves, to fall in love with ourselves. When we dance with another, we manifest the very thing we love about ourselves so that they may see it and love us too.