The Casual Dance Teacher's Podcast

Hello and welcome to the Casual Dance Teacher's Podcast. This is your host, Maia. In case you're just tuning in, let me tell you that we are currently in the midst of a unit on the podcast all about recital prep.

So regardless of the type of recital that you have, I have a number of different tricks and things that I've learned over the years being involved in putting on recitals that I'm sharing with you. Today's episode is a really fun one where I'm going to go through what's in my dance bag, recital edition. Let's talk about it.

Hello again, and thanks for coming back to hear what's in my dance bag at recital time. I have not done a what's in my dance bag general episode of what I carry with me to regular classes throughout the year. But in light of it being recital time and trying to prepare, especially new teachers or those who don't have a ton of experience with recitals for what to expect and how to be as prepared as possible, I thought it would be fun to share some of the things that I always make sure to have with me during any rehearsal time as well as the actual recital time itself.

I've mentioned this before, but I will just repeat that this is again, me approaching this time as a teacher, someone that is responsible for rehearsing my own pieces within the studio setting, but I'm not the one that's actually putting on the recital or organizing it. I'm sure many of you listening are and there might be some good pointers in here for you too. But this is not going to be a comprehensive list of everything you need to bring with you if you're the one that's like singularly in charge of the whole recital.

This is just what I have on hand to be responsible for myself and my own classes. And the first thing on that list is having a printed out copy of the schedule for all rehearsals as well as the show order and highlighting the parts that I'm involved in. That way, of course, I know when I need to get my dancers ready, when I need to be ready, what the order is.

I can answer questions backstage if they're being thrown at me while the studio owner is wrapped up with other parts of that process. So that's very important for me to carry around with me. And in addition to that, on this printed out paper, I write in the lighting and music cues for each of my pieces.

That way, when we come into rehearsal time, and I'm communicating with the lighting technician and or the music technician, I can just spout out right off of that piece of paper. When do the lights come on? Is it at the same time as the music? Is there a delay? Is it a fade? If you have the luxury of having like different lighting design options, that's great and jot those down as well. But this way, I'm very organized.

And I'm not hesitating to answer those questions when I have to quickly go on stage and set those cues for somebody else. In addition to that, I will make notes either on this piece of paper or a separate piece of paper of the hair, makeup, any hair pieces, accessories and tights for each piece. This is really important because I have a hard time keeping track in the chaos and commotion of recital time.

I always get questions about this, like, which side of our bun is this little hair piece supposed to stick in? Was there a hair piece for this and I lost it? Or did it not come with one? What color tights am I supposed to be wearing for this? And if it's different for different pieces, I really like to have this written down because I also find that even if I know the answer, if there's like a lot being thrown at me during this time, I might forget or have a really hard time answering those questions. So having everything written down where I can just refer to it is great. And yes, most of this information has already been shared with the students and the parents.

That's not the point. If you have an emergency question that you have to answer on the spot, it's good to have this information in front of you too. With that said, if there are additional rules that your studio owner set out, or if you're the studio owner, and you sent out an email with all the rules or, you know, the way people have to act or what times they have to be there, things like that, I would have at least one printed copy with you.

Because it does help if you are getting a lot of these questions, as opposed to just saying it was in the email, like, yes, that's what we want to say, right? The reaction is like, Oh, my gosh, why? But if you have it in writing, and a lot of times there's heightened emotions around this time and people are stressed, as opposed to just being like the bad guy that's like, no, you have to do this. You can pull that out and say, well, it says here on this list of rules that the dancers have to stay out of the auditorium during dress rehearsal, etc. Again, that's going to differ between every studio.

And for me, I think because I'm not the studio owner, and I'm just a part of this recital that the studio owner is putting on, it's super important for me to never undermine any of the rules or the things that the studio owner has set out. So I don't want to, again, just be trying to answer questions off the top of my head of what I feel is appropriate. It has to be consistent.

So studio policy, having that printed out recital policies, rehearsal policies, anything that the studio has published or said about this time and how the dancers and the parents are supposed to be showing up for it, have it they are printed out in writing. And of course, you can ask your studio owner for this. Many of them will give you that in person, but just making sure I have it in my bag, carrying it with me easily accessible throughout the entire rehearsal and recital time period.

The last thing as far as like paper stuff, this has all been kind of like just notes and stuff to carry with me is during the initial rehearsals, I do like to jot down notes as I'm watching because generally, the way that I've done it at the last couple of studios that I've worked at has been, you get an opportunity to rehearse the piece a couple times on stage with some notes in between before you get to dress rehearsal where it's you just kind of got to let it go and just hope for the best, right? So during my dance season, when I'm in class, I tend to have a binder. But what I found is that for these rehearsals, when you're in a dark auditorium and are watching in real time and wanting to take as many notes as quickly as possible. I want a very small compact little notepad and a pencil or pen that writes really easily or even a marker so that I can try to write as legible notes as possible as quickly as possible.

And it's super easy to hold in my hand a binder is way too unwieldy. In addition to that, you might want to have a book light with you that you can clip on to your little notepad or your clipboard. So it's really easy to take notes, even if the auditorium is dark.

If you don't have a book light, maybe bring a flashlight just in case you have to navigate around the dark auditorium. Of course, most of us have phones for that. And the other thing that you'll want your phone for, which I know we're going to have our phones anyway, but just like, make sure it's fully charged and you have your charger in your bag.

Because you might also want to video with everything happening so quickly at rehearsals. If you don't have time to take notes, or you don't feel like you can effectively take notes quickly while you're watching, you could video the rehearsal on your phone, then that night or like the next morning, go back and watch and then you can come up with a few quick notes to give the dancers before they go on stage for their dress rehearsal, for example. Number one most important to me is going to be snacks.

Snacks are very important to me. These rehearsals can get really long being there for the recital can be long hours. And it's important to me to have snacks that I know are going to fuel my body.

And if I know I'm going to be there for a really long time, I also like to scope out how am I going to get an actual meal in me. Four granola bars is not going to cut it over the course of a long day. So am I bringing a cooler that has a substantial meal in it that I can eat? Are there parents that are organizing some kind of meal exchange? I've seen that done at rehearsals and recitals in the past where parents of students that are in a lot of numbers will all coordinate to bring things so that all the dancers get a meal together, which I absolutely love.

Let me tell you another idea that my studio owner implemented at our rehearsals last year that blew me away with how ingenious this was. She had a food truck come to the auditorium and park outside during our dress rehearsal. How ingenious is that? Have any of you done that? Having a food truck there so that dancers can get something substantial and it wasn't like a junk food truck either.

Like I know a lot of them sell like fried Oreos, which is probably not what you want. But this was like it had substantial food and kept the parents happy, right? You don't want anyone getting hangry. And then you could get a substantial meal.

Maybe your auditorium is also near an actual restaurant or multiple different restaurant options. I'm in a rural area. So that's not always an option.

And having the food truck there was amazing. And again, I'm not privy to the information like what kind of arrangement they had. But if you are a studio owner, I wonder if there's a way that you get some kind of like reciprocal cut of sales, or it can leverage that into some kind of profit.

I don't know. But think outside the box. I just thought that was a fabulous idea just from the sheer point of having food.

Of course, water and coffee for me. I mean, if it's late at night, I try to stay away from the coffee, but I usually have to have at least like a thermos of water and a thermos of coffee with me. And then a couple other things that I like to have with me, especially for dress rehearsal and recital days, just to help out my students in a pinch.

Now, they should be responsible for these things realistically. And I think it's great to have a conversation with your students ahead of time saying, hey, these are some things you might want to pack in your dance bag. But being the nice, generous dance teacher that I am, I always carry these little extras with me in case of an emergency.

One would be like a little small sewing kit with like just some safety pins, some needles and thread, just the very, very basic, some double sided tape in case of any costume emergencies. Of course, I always bring bobby pins and hairspray and or hair gel with me. I really like to go around and just check people's hair backstage because that's something again, I feel like the studio owner, depending on the size of the studio, might not have time for all of those little nitpicky details and catching everybody.

So if I'm going around making sure that everyone has adequate like bobby pins and gel in their hair, I think that's just like a little thing that I can do to help out and having them on hand. So I'm not like yelling at people for being unprepared, but actually helping them out. Just in case, I also like to make sure that I have ibuprofen with me, that I have TheraTape for taping anything, hopefully you don't need it, and ice packs.

Now, generally, I find those are things again, that the studio owner will have on hand, but knowing where they are, where to access them, making sure that if there is an issue with one of your students or any student that's backstage, that you can be available to help with that as much as possible. And I also like to have, I just bring a tennis ball because that's really easy to carry in a bag. A roller is just too big and too bulky to carry around.

But having a tennis ball for myself, if I'm getting like I've been sitting all day, and I'm getting stiff, and I can like roll out my feet or my ankles or on my back feels a great. And also for your dancers, you could have like a whole bag of tennis balls, maybe and give them some encouragement to make sure they keep rolling out their muscles, staying warm, all of that. Okay, this one is not going to be doable for everyone.

But I have done this for the last, I don't know, I think five years probably was the first time that I was like, I have to start doing this. And I've used them every single year since I started bringing them, which is extra pairs of tights. I don't expect anyone to like buy tights out of pocket.

But if you can collaborate with the studio owner to say like, do we have any extra tights that can be on hand in case of a tights emergency? Or for me, I've just always had like gently worn pairs of tights that I had 5,000 of them anyway, I don't use that many of them. So worst case scenario, if the kid uses my tights and walks away with them, it's not the end of the world. But if there is a run in a tight or like a stain gets on the tight or something, and then I'll be like, you know what, I have an extra pair I'll bring a couple pinks and a couple tans.

And I have used at least one pair of tights and lent them to a student every single year. And I think one year I didn't end up getting them back. No big deal.

They were, again, just like an old pair that I had lying around. So that's just a recommendation. Different studios probably have different policies and systems in place to cover for tights emergencies.

But I've always personally brought some just in case. Okay, we are getting to the end. The last two things on my list are for downtime.

Now me. Am I crazy for this? I just love the whole rehearsal process and getting to watch my own dances come to life on stage for the first time as well as getting to see the other teachers and the other choreographers work on stage often for the first time. So I just lean into it.

I mean, I'm not saying I don't ever get grumpy or hangry or whatever during rehearsal times I do. But I just really enjoy immersing myself in the process and just like soaking it in being backstage with the students helping out as much as I can being in the audience and watching the pieces as much as I possibly can. So I don't really do anything to fill my downtime.

But if you feel like either you've seen the pieces a lot or your schedule is set up in a way that you're going to have a lot of downtime during the rehearsal process, make sure you have something in your bag like a book. Yes, it can be a game on your phone or something you can do on your phone or some work that you can bring with you. So you're still being productive during that time.

And it's not a bad idea to have some kind of little toy or game for young kids if you're backstage and noticing that your younger students are getting distracted. Now, this is another thing that most studios have some kind of system already in place. They might have parents or helpers and have a variety of games and activities set up to keep the students occupied.

And the youngest students probably are going to have less downtime backstage during rehearsal time in general anyway. But I have gotten in the habit of having some kind of little sticker book or a little puzzle or one of the games even that we play in class with my younger students that I will then carry with me to the rehearsal. So if I see that there's a student running down the hall, or there is a class that has a helper and the helper is doing their best, but they're starting to get a little bit out of hand.

I can pull that out and say, Hey, guys, remember you guys loved this game during class time. Why don't you show so and so whoever is helping how you play it any kind of little distraction that's quiet and compact and easy to do backstage, kind of as a last resort, right? I've never been like solely responsible for like wrangling any of the classes because I have other responsibilities as a teacher during this time. But if I notice that something is needed this way, I'm prepared.

So that's what's in my dance bag recital edition. I would love to hear what the parallels are how similar my list is to yours what I missed what you feel like maybe is overkill that you would never bother to bring that I do bring. Let me know on the casual dance teachers network on Facebook or on our Instagram page, which is just the casual dance teachers podcast.

And while you're still listening to this episode before you leave, if you haven't already, please leave the podcast a review. It really helps me reach more dance teachers so we can all have the most successful dance recital ever this spring. Talk to you soon.