The Casual Dance Teacher's Podcast

Welcome to the Casual Dance Teachers Podcast. While it might feel a little bit early, we are getting into the time that I'm going to start taking you through all of my little tips and advice for preparing for your recital. So if you have any kind of end of the year performance, I'm working on preparing you that you and your students are as comfortable and as prepared as possible within the last couple of weeks of class before you go into rehearsal time.

Let's talk about it. All right, folks. So today's episode is another one of my sort of list style episodes.

And I'd love to hear your feedback on how you feel about these episodes. Basically, what I do is just jot down a bulleted list of a bunch of different ideas, in today's case, all about preparing yourself for your dress rehearsal week. And I'll just read it off.

And if I feel like I need to elaborate on something, then I'll have a little bit more discussion about it. I just want to know with these episodes, they're super, super packed with information, which is really my goal. I just want to share as much as I can with you and prepare people as much as possible.

But I'm not sure if it's too much information, if it would be more helpful if it was actually a little bit more organized, fleshed out a little bit more, more palatable. So I'm not throwing so much at you at one time. So if you could share with me either get in the Casual Dance Teachers Network Facebook group or hop on the Casual Dance Teachers Podcast Instagram page and shoot me a message or leave me a comment and let me know what you think about this style of episode.

Is it too chaotic? Or do you like having all this information thrown at you? Okay, here we go. I'm talking about recital prep. That could mean a bazillion different things.

So I'll tell you kind of what's on my list here. These are all things that at least at one point in time in my career as a dance teacher, I maybe didn't think about until I was at a rehearsal the week of the recital. And then I was like, Oh, that would have been really helpful if I had thought about that, written that down, told that to my students or made some kind of plan for that before.

So I'm looking at your last few weeks of class time in the studio before you get into rehearsal before you get into recital. Is there a way that you can incorporate all of this information into those weeks and making sure that you your students and even the parents know all of this information so that they're really, really prepared for rehearsal week and you're not getting bombarded with so so many questions in the moment in rehearsals and getting stressed out. Maybe not all of these will apply to you.

But again, these are all things that at some point in time came up for me. And I felt like, Oh, that's not something I thought about before. But if you're doing any kind of recital or showcase, you should think about them.

So starting out with basic things that you should know and think about, you don't necessarily have to rehearse with your dancers. What are your lighting cues for the dance? Do the lights fade up? Do the lights come up quickly? Are the dancers already on stage when the lights go up or do the lights come up first and then they enter? Music and lights start and end at the same time? Or does one start first and one come in later, etc. Those are all things that you just need to know so that you can communicate those with your lighting and sound technicians.

You may also want to rehearse or go over that with the dancers if what they do on stage or how they enter and exit is influenced by the lighting and music cues. In addition, is there any kind of curtain cue? So for example, if your piece happens to be the first one after intermission, and there is a curtain that needs to open, it might be important to share that information with your students so that they know to line up behind the curtain and what that's going to look like if they don't have experience with that before, etc. Also related to musical cues, I think it's very tempting for us as choreographers to start the movement right when the music starts.

I've fallen prey to this and seen other dance teachers struggle with this when they're rehearsing their pieces, where in the studio, they will say, Okay, I'm going to start the music, is everybody ready? And then they play the music and the dancers kind of know when they're hitting play. So even though you've practiced getting right into that movement as quickly as possible, and it maybe is even a little rush with that, once you get to the point where the dancers have no idea when that music technician is hitting play, it can make things fall apart if they're supposed to start right on the first count of the music. So having some kind of cue, whatever that may be, do you need to add like one extra note and edit it in at the beginning of the song? Does a dancer need to give a breath cue in the silence like or something like that? How are your dancers all starting together? Maybe that's not an issue because you've choreographed in a little buffer with the music or they're just walking onto stage when the music starts, but make sure that you know and make sure that your dancers know.

Now the curtain opening and closing at the front probably is not going to affect the vast majority of our performances. However, one thing that I always rehearse with all of my dance classes is entrances and exits and lining up in the wings. Obviously, you need to know and your dancers need to know what wing they're entering and exiting from.

And with your experience dancers probably going to take two seconds to just tell them and they know. But with younger dancers, I do quite a bit of rehearsal with letting them know where the wings are, what the wings are, how far back in the wings do they have to stand to make sure that nobody can see them and reminding them if you can see the audience, they can see you when we're lined up in the wings, you need to be back. Also, with less experienced dancers, are they lining up in a blackout on the stage? So they need to be prepared for how do you find glow tape? How do you find your mark based off of the other dancers around you even when it's dark? Again, there's a lot of different scenarios depending on how your recital is set up and how you've choreographed your dance.

But make sure that all dancers, especially young and less experienced dancers know if there's going to be any kind of blackout and where and how they're lining up and also exiting. I've seen plenty of instances where the dancers get on stage, they do their dance, they hit their final pose, there's a blackout, and then they just stay there and they forget to leave the stage because they just their minds go blank and they just forget to get out and go in the wings or they start like talking and pushing each other. Cocoa and the audience can hear that.

So practice your entrances and exits, especially with young dancers. And even with experienced dancers where you may not need to practice entrances and exits. It's important that you get information yourself about what the dance before and after yours is doing for their entrances and exits.

This is something that I often forget to think about. But I don't want to tell all of my dancers that they are all to line up and enter from the downstage right wing, for example, and then come to find out that the previous dance that goes right before them and exits in a blackout was told to exit downstage right. That could really throw the dancers off with their transitions.

So just make sure that you know obviously what the order of the show is. And keep in mind entrances and exits and where bodies and people are going to be between each piece. Other dances may also have props or some kind of set piece that needs to be transitioned off the stage before your dancers can go on.

So it's all well and good to tell them, hey, as soon as the previous class exits, you get on stage. But let's say the previous class threw flower petals and they need to be swept up. You got to know that and your dancers got to know that or if they have a big set piece and your dancers have to help wheel it off.

We got to know that in advance. So make sure that you are well informed about the full order of the recital and any logistical considerations with any of the dances, not just the ones that you personally choreographed and are in charge of. If your dance has props or a set piece, you also want to think ahead of time about how that's getting on and off stage, right? Who's in charge? Are there responsible dancers in your class that you want in charge of distributing all of the props to all of the dancers? Let's say it's a cane.

Is one dancer going to be in charge of those canes and distributing them to each dancer and then collecting them at the end to make sure they're in safe hands when they're not in use? That might be a good idea. Is there an adult or backstage helper that's going to be in charge? And another thing, especially with less experienced dancers, is making sure they know how many dances ahead of time they should be lined up. Every studio I've ever worked at has had backstage helpers and they've had some sort of system for this, but I find especially when you get the dancers that are still young, but they're not the little baby dancers that have a helper that's with them all the time.

That's telling them exactly what to do and where to go. So these young dancers that aren't teenagers yet, but they're, they have some independence. They're semi in charge of themselves and they often want to line up for their dances so far in advance.

And then you have this sea of young dancers that are just wired and eager and ready to go. They're right backstage and they still have like six dances before they're supposed to go on and perform. That to me is too much.

So make sure your dancers know, A, when they should kind of all get together in the backstage area, do a head count, make sure everyone's dressed, ready to go. And then B, when they should be actually entering the wings and being completely silent and what that process looks like. And then C, if there are any props or set pieces or anything else at play, besides just getting the bodies on and off stage, how far in advance are we navigating that situation? Okay, a couple aesthetic things to go over ahead of time.

Hair, makeup, accessories, these are all conversations that I make sure to have with each and every one of my classes in the last week or two of our studio practice time. And again, many of these are studio policy, but I still make sure to have an individual conversation with each class. Hair is usually an obvious one.

We talk about how should your hair look? Is there a hair piece that you need to have in your hair? Where does that go? How should your makeup look? How heavy, what colors, etc. Earrings, are there required earrings? Are you required not to wear earrings? What's your policy on that? And then I was about to say with older dancers, but I'm seeing a lot of younger dancers to that often come into my class with manicured nails. So if you have any kind of policy about not having bright colored nail polish on during a recital, make sure that you are communicating that before rehearsal week because you don't want parents spending a bunch of money to get their kid a manicure, and then they have to take it off for the recital.

So talk about is nail polish allowed? Earrings, tattoos was one that I was thinking about with regard to older dancers. Do they need to cover up tattoos? Or do you have a policy on that? And tan lines. I can think of more than one occasion where the day of a recital, the dancer went out in the sun all day in like a tank top and showed up with a sunburn.

And I'm like, No, everyone knows the day of the recital, you sit around and wrap yourself in bubble wrap, and that's it. Don't go outside. Why did you go outside today? That's not right.

So talk to your dancers about tan lines. I'm joking about not letting them go outside. But in reality, you don't want them to come in sunburned not only for aesthetics, but because that's going to affect their performance sunburn makes you like physically ill, it drains your energy.

So you do want to have a conversation with dancers about making sure to take care of their bodies in general. And with the tan lines, there is sort of an aesthetic thing that goes along with that. But that's not the primary concern.

You may want to talk to your dancers in a really gentle way about fueling their bodies. And I say that because I know it's so important to a preserve the dancers autonomy and what they know is best for their bodies and not preach any kind of disordered eating or food conversation. But reminding dancers that feeding and fueling their bodies is an important part of getting warmed up and ready to perform and ask them to make some kind of plan to make sure that their bodies are fed and fueled throughout that week could be valuable to them.

Just like you, dancers are gonna be really busy that week, they're going to potentially be there for long hours, and they might not think to bring healthy food unless you have that conversation with them in advance. I think it really depends on the age of your dancers, the maturity of your dancers, what your relationship is with them and what your own relationship is with, you know, food and fueling the body and if you think that you can talk about that in a healthy way. But it is something to think about if you want to include that in the conversation to prepare dancers for the long hours and energy consumption of recital time.

Sort of the last category that I'm seeing within this long list of things that I have here is etiquette. I've touched upon this already briefly, but just a couple things to go over with dancers. A, is there some kind of curtain call or a bow that they need to be prepared for? Do you need to practice that? When do they need to get ready for that? How are they lining up backstage? So making sure we know how the bows are working.

Also during rehearsal time, are there rules about what can they eat while they're in their costumes? So not coming at the food conversation from a place of controlling what they eat, but preserving their costume. How are they supposed to do that? Are they allowed to wear their costume to rehearsal or do they have to change once they get there? Are they allowed to eat in it? Do they have to have it covered up? All of those considerations. Are there rules about dancers watching either the rehearsals or their performances? And how does that work? Also, whether they're allowed to watch from the theater seating or from backstage or just when they're lined up in the wings, are they allowed to cheer on and or clap for their fellow dancers, especially dancers that go to competitions? I think we see this trend.

Maybe it's not a trend. I guess this has been going on for a long time. But for me, the first time I went to a competition, I was like gagged at the weirdness of just randomly cheering in the middle of a dance.

It was so weird to me. It was not how I grew up whatsoever. I think there's pros and cons to both.

Like I'm not trying to hate on the cheering that happens at competitions and being encouraging. That's just again, it's kind of its own culture, I think that doesn't happen in the concert dance world. So what kind of vibe are you going for at your show? Do you want dancers to be open to cheering from the wings? Or do you want dancers to kind of stand back and just act as the performers and let the audience do the cheering and clapping? If you have dancers with quick changes, make sure that they know if there's designated quick change area, know who's going to be helping them with quick changes.

If you can work that into your rehearsal of entrances and exits, making sure that you kind of have a plan if one dancer needs to shoot off first to get ready for a quick change or might be coming on last because they're coming from a quick change, have all of that worked out in advance and potentially assign helpers to be there to help dancers that need it with quick changes. And I also like to use some of my class time within the last month or so of classes to go over a warm up specifically for the dancers to do on their own backstage. Something that's specific to the dance, you know, do they need to do ankle rolls, head rolls, work out their shoulders, what is it that they're really going to need for the dance that's super simple, that they can do on their own and let them know to do a warm up and kind of when to do it too, right? If they have to be lined up three pieces before, should they start doing their warm up eight pieces before, then finish the warm up, get out of whatever their warm up clothes are with their costume underneath, then line up and then be ready to go, you know, what is the timing of that going to look like? And then if you have some kind of lift or a challenging step in the dance, the dancers might want to kind of mark through that or go over it or practice it as a group before they go on.

I find that that can really help with dancers that have like this mental block around this one move, especially if it's partner work or a lift, and they're like, oh, so stressful, this one part, and usually it's like the part that they've practiced a ton, and they have it down really well. And then like something else really simple goes wrong, because they were so stressed out about the other part, they forgot the easy part or something like that. But whatever it is, if there is a part of the dance that you feel the dancers should be practicing together, or doing a quick mark of or doing a quick run of before they go on stage, talk through all that with them get that set up, make sure that they have a plan in place to get together and do that backstage even without you.

And for my little little kids, I feel like I could do a separate episode about this. But I'm just going to share this one tidbit with you that helped with several classes of young students for me that were complaining about stage fright or not wanting to dance in front of people. I got that complaint quite a bit.

When I taught pre ballet, which was years ago, I don't teach pre ballet right now. But every year, sometime in the last couple weeks of classes, I would read them the book, The Berenstain Bears Get Stage Fright. It's a really cute little story about the Berenstain Bears being in a school play, and Brother Bear being really confident, he's got his part down, and he's out playing with his friends and telling Sister Bear not to worry about it.

And Sister Bear is so nervous, and she has really bad stage fright, and she's so scared. So she just practices her lines over and over again. She's at home doing her lines in front of her stuffed animals.

And when the big play rolls around, Sister Bear goes on, she does her part perfectly and Brother Bear freezes, because even though he knew his part, he didn't practice. So it has a great moral for the students of practice makes perfect, and helps them get over their stage fright. And you say, look how much we're practicing in class.

And you can also practice on your own in front of your stuffed animals. And it genuinely has really helped. I have had two students I can think of, and I don't know if there's others where it just helped to like a small degree, but two students I can think of off the top of my head that literally were like frozen, like wouldn't even practice the dance, because they were telling me they were so scared.

And we read this book, and I talked through with them about how the practicing was going to make it so they could do it on stage. And they were fine, completely fine on stage, did the whole dance, no issues. So that's my little tip for that.

I'm going to tack on just a couple more quick things that I think you should go over with parents. This is another one that I think maybe should be its own episode. And I feel like no matter how many things I had on this list of like, these are things to go over with parents.

It doesn't matter. They'll ask you again, they'll come up to you at dress rehearsal, they'll have other questions, it's fine. But these are just a couple, again, that I think should be addressed directly with parents in the last couple weeks of class.

One is at the end of the recital, and possibly even the rehearsal, depending on how your rehearsals are set up. When the students do their final bow, what happens next? Does the curtain close and are students dismissed one at a time by an adult? Does the curtain stay open and the students are dismissed off the front of the stage? Do the students go into the audience and mingle? Do they have to go backstage and gather their things first? Is there a check in a checkout process? What does that look like? After curtain call can be in some cases, mass confusion. And I think addressing it in class is the best way to prevent that.

Also, how early should dancers and parents arrive? This is another one where you're going to have some on both ends of the spectrum, the ones that come late, and the ones that come so early, they're like knocking on the door, eight hours early wanting to move in. So make sure they know how early is appropriate, and how late is appropriate. And finally, I mentioned this for dancers, but what is the policy with parents not only being allowed in the auditorium, but being allowed backstage.

So are parents allowed to go back and forth backstage and into the auditorium during shows? Are parents allowed to go backstage during rehearsals? Are parents allowed to video from the auditorium during rehearsals? I don't think there's any limit on the number of times that you can go over that same information with both parents and students, even if it's in, you know, your studio policy, recital policy, an email that went out, general announcements. I really don't think you can say those things too many times and give parents and students too many reminders. So those are kind of my top three that are specifically geared towards the parents.

And that, while it by no means is an exhaustive list, is my pre-recital end of year class checklist. I hope it will really help you just think through everything, be very prepared for this year's rehearsal and recital week, and get your students super prepared and confident too. I'd love to hear anything that maybe I missed.

Again, what you thought of this episode and how I structured it. And finally, anything that you learned from the episode that maybe you hadn't already thought about. Come and share with me on Facebook in the Casual Dance Teachers Network or on Instagram at the Casual Dance Teachers Podcast.

As always, huge thanks to GB Mystical for my theme music and all of you listening and sharing on our social media accounts already. Happy recital time and I'll see you next week!