The Casual Dance Teacher's Podcast

Maia
Welcome to the Casual Dance Teacher's Podcast. I'm your host, Maia. No matter who, what, or when you teach, I'm here to share all my best tips and tools along with real and practical conversations with fellow dance educators to help you be the very best dance teacher you can be.

Let's talk about it. Hello, everyone. I have such a treat for you today.

Hopefully, you have been listening right along and you will recognize today's guest. We have Jess Grippo back on the show. And you might be saying, oh, yes, I was waiting because earlier in the season, actually the very first episode of season two, I shared some of my conversation with Jess where she really honestly was kind of coaching me through my own personal journey of trying to figure out what was going on in my life when it came to being a dance teacher and how to navigate my transition away from having a steady weekly dance teaching position with a studio.

If you missed that conversation, I will link it in the show notes. You can go back and listen. But what happened was we got so into that conversation of her kind of, you know, really mentoring me and giving me a lot of feedback about my own personal situation.

And then within that same conversation, we kind of did eventually pivot into what I had initially sort of envisioned the conversation being where we talked a little bit more generally about what does creativity look like for dance students and what can we as educators do to help facilitate that and not hinder it and also make sure that we ourselves are fulfilled creatively and not hindering our own creative potential in any capacity. So I decided to break that conversation up into two parts. You may have already heard the first part, as I mentioned, or you can listen to it now by using the link in the show notes.

And now here's part two, where we really get into that more general conversation and some tips about what people can do to tap into their creativity and help facilitate creativity of their students. And before we get into that, I do want to give you a quick refresher on who today's guest is, what she's all about. So as I mentioned, today's guest is Jess Grippo.

She's a dancer, writer, and a creative coach and the founder of Dance Again, which is an adult dance studio that helps people reconnect with movement and creativity. She's also the founder of Words That Dance, a boutique agency that helps creatives bring their true message to life online. Over the past decade, Jess has guided hundreds of people back to their creative spark through classes, coaching, and her bestselling book.

And her work has been featured by Women's Health, TEDxNYU, Lincoln Center, and more. Now this is going to be a little bit of an abrupt jump into the conversation because keep in mind we had already been chatting at this point. So get ready to hear more of my wonderful conversation with Jess Grippo.

All right. So one of the other questions that I wanted to ask more related to dance teachers in general, and maybe some patterns that you've seen with dance teachers in the more sort of conventional studio setting and in your own training growing up. Are there certain patterns that you see in the way dance is conventionally taught that you think might put up barriers in students' creativity and actually prevent them from tapping into their true creative potential?

Jess
Yeah, that's a great question.

And it kind of does transition nicely because what I was just saying, like how I've noticed with trained dancers, even as adults, being a little bit, it takes a little bit more for those of us, including me, to get into our more intuitive creativity, right? The side that doesn't have technique or rules or things like that. And I share this as someone who I've taught kids a handful of times over my career. So I'm not like, I haven't done a ton of like children's dance curriculum and stuff like that.

But I have done some and I know a lot of teachers who do. And I think it's, I mean, it's like with anything, when we start learning, like what is right, quote, unquote, what is wrong, it activates something in us, especially as kids that it's like, oh, well, I have to do it right. Or, oh, if I am not getting this piece of this pirouette or whatever, then I'm not good enough.

And depending on what other messages that child is getting in their life or to put that thought in their head. Oh, I'm not I'm not a dancer, this isn't for me, or I'm just not creative. And I see this, even though I don't have experience, a ton of experience teaching kids, I have a ton of experience teaching adults and coaching adults.

And I can tell you that most people I've worked with who open up to me and especially in the coaching process, but sometimes even just in a dance class, everyone has a story from their childhood about a moment when they either learned that they weren't a good dancer, learned that their thighs were overdeveloped or something, that they couldn't be a ballerina, that they learned that like they were too tall or that these moments are still with the adult 10, 20, 30, 40 and up years later. Right. So I do think that sometimes in like a super technical environment, it can shut down our creative impulses because of the need to like want to fit in or want to do it right.

And at the same time, if you are going to be a dancer, it is important to learn dance technique if you're going to be a dancer in a more traditional sense. But I think what happens is there's maybe not enough room for just pure creativity. You know, kids are able to like, I think like there's the creative movement classes when you're like super young.

But after that, I don't think there's a lot of creative prompts that are a part of that curriculum.

Maia
Yeah. Isn't that interesting that we start with creative movement and then we get further and further away from it, the more advanced the dancers get?

Jess
Exactly. Exactly. And then by the time you're a teenager, it's like, I mean, I remember even when I was like auditioning for ballet companies, I was what, 17, 18, right? And one, I think it was Oakland Ballet. They were like, and now we want each of you to like write your name and dance across the floor one at a time.

It was like this improv and I like almost had a panic attack in the room because I was like, what does this even mean? How do I do this? I was like so scared. Yeah. And because I was just not used to, I was not used to that.

I had none of that was a part of my training. There was not one moment where I was told to just dance the way I want to. So you do that enough.

And like there's, you know, we kind of lose that that impulse. But I think the dance world is a microcosm of the larger world around us because there's that pattern everywhere, right? Where it's like we nurture young kids and their creativity. But very often it's then like then you're in school and you have to like it quickly becomes like there's less and less room for play as we get older. Maybe that's part of the problem.

Maia
Yeah. So I guess sort of a precursor to my next question, do you work with clients that don't have movement experience or dance experience? Are you primarily working with people that have danced at some point in their life?

Jess
Yeah, I work with all kinds of people. They don't have to have dance experience and both in the dance classes and in the coaching, especially like a lot of people maybe always felt like they were a dancer inside, but never had a chance to do it all the way to former professionals who are now at a juncture in their life where like they're not dancing and they want to recreate that world for themselves. Yeah, really. It really can vary.

Maia
OK, perfect. So aside from setting aside designated time, which I know for myself has always been really important and and trying to get out of our typical setting where there are other environmental factors and distractions and things. I know you talked about that.

Outside of that, are there other sort of universal tips that you find, whether it's for dancers or for anyone that's looking to kind of tap a little bit more into their own personal creativity that could help them do that?

Jess
I would say making space, I think that that's just huge, like having space, even if you don't know what to do with it at first, like making that space is so important. And then the second part is that movement for anyone, whether or not you call yourself a dancer, have any experience at all, but like getting in your body. And even if it's not dance, but like moving around and stretching in a weird way before you sit down to do your other creative work, like things like that, like moving your body can actually open up your mind. And I think it's an underutilized tool that can really benefit so many of us, especially creative people.

Maia
Yeah. Going back to you, and I know this is going to maybe kind of seem like it's coming out of left field.

But before we close, I wanted to ask you a little bit also about like your your writing, because I know outside of dance, that's also another component that you do. Can you tell me a little bit more about that as well?

Jess
Yeah, sure. I think I've always been a writer, even before I was a dancer in a way, like thinking back to like my childhood and stuff and writing books when I was like, you know, like 10 years old, like my own little versions of books.

But when I started, like I mentioned, the creativity coaching business back in the day, the real like there was a main driver behind that, which was my weekly newsletter. I called it Creative Fridays at the time. And that weekly creative practice for me about writing about my creative process and putting it out there was like a big driver of the business and how it grew and just having an outlet for me to to put things and process them and in the act of processing them to also help other people.

So I mean, journaling for me to this day is one of like my go to tools, just personally speaking. But it definitely been a huge part of my life and my career as well. I wrote a book called Dance With This Book.

It's actually connected to those 13 free prompts that I was telling you about. So there's like a book that you can read along with it for just some stories to kind of like help with the inspiration. And along the way of starting my own business, doing the creative coaching business, launching Dance Again, running that, I had met so many other creatives.

And entrepreneurs and I was part of masterminds with them. And, you know, and I started just having this knack for helping people with their writing too, because I was just doing it and I was studying different kinds of marketing and copywriting and things like that for my own businesses. I got really good at it.

And so I quickly learned like, oh, this is also something here, too. So I also run a copywriting business. I call it Words That Dance to help other business owners get things moving with their website, newsletters, blogs, other marketing avenues.

And that's also a really fun thing as well that is it's so similar. It's funny how it's like, I mean, two different industries, right? Like dance classes for adults and then like copywriting. However, both of them to me are really about coming back to the truth that's in us and then expressing that through us.

Right. So whether that's with our bodies and dance or with our words and our voice and the work that we're putting out there in the world, it's like it's that similar vibe of like, let's do it authentically. Let's not just stick ourselves in a ballet class if we don't want to really be there.

But that's what we think we should do. Let's not just put a template of AI copy up somewhere because we think that this is what it should sound like. Like, let's write from our soul.

Let's really connect. And beyond just expressing that authentic stuff within us, it's that putting it out there that allows us to connect with other people. And then when we connect with other people, we're creating community.

We're working together where we're not so alone in this world anymore. And that, I think, is the real medicine that then allows us to grow and to build a better world together.

Maia
Oh, yeah, you're so right. That authentic expression is very lacking in our current world. And yeah, I can definitely see like genuine both mental and physical health benefits of reclaiming that. Yeah, I just want to recap because you've touched upon so many different resources. And I know personally, I definitely do want to follow up on some of those resources that you gave for my personal situation. But could you direct us? Where can we go to get in touch with you and access all of that?

Jess
Yeah, so JessGrippo.com is my website, J-E-S-S-G-R-I-P-P-O, P as in Peter, dot com. You'll see at the bottom there, you can sign up for my newsletter, The Whim.

And after you sign up for the newsletter, I think I send you in one of the emails a list of all the free resources in case you can't find them other places. But on JessGrippo.com, you'll also see there's a link to Dance Again. On that page, you'll find the free dance challenges.

It should all be laid out there. The copywriting is there as well. But that's kind of like my home site where everything branches out of.

So yeah, feel free to message me there if you have any questions. And I'm happy to include a link to like the 13 Day Series and other resources for you that if you want to show notes.

Maia
Yes, definitely. I will do that. And then my final question, which I'm sure you have probably a lot, but do you have a favorite quote pertaining to dance or creativity really in any form?

Jess
Yeah, I think my favorite one is a tie. I want to say, which is it's kind of probably so many people's favorite.

So I'm going to say the one that might not be as well known from Anais Nin, which is and I'm going to paraphrase it. I had to create a world of my own. A climate, a country, an atmosphere in which I could live, breathe and reign when destroyed by living. That I feel is the purpose of every work of art.

And again, that's not exactly because I don't have it in front of me right now, but I have it almost memorized because that has been kind of the theme of art in my life for a very long time.

Maia
Yeah, I think that could be directed straight to my soul. Thank you for that one.

Jess
You're welcome.

Maia
Hi there, friends, this is Maia hopping back in, really wanting to say thank you again to Jess for the conversation that she allowed to unfold in such a sort of unique way because none of this was really scripted or even anticipated ahead of time.

It was very off the cuff and she totally went with the flow, answered all of my questions so eloquently, gave me so much great feedback and things that we could try. And I have to say, since having this conversation way back over the summer of 2025, I have delved into sort of exploring my creativity using a lot of these tips and I have found it so fulfilling. I miss my students in a way like I always knew that I would.

I love my students so much that I worked with on a weekly basis. And so there's that little bit of missing that component of it. But I think the fact that I had this conversation so early in what would have been my normal weekly dance season and got this feedback from Jess to try exploring all these different angles and writing and just playing around with movement by myself and reading and using the material that I read as prompts.

It has made me feel really creatively fulfilled to the point where I'm not desperately missing teaching regular weekly dance classes, and I'm so grateful for that. So just join me in thanking Jess. I also want to thank everyone in the Casual Dance Teachers Network Facebook group.

That's been a very fulfilling space for me, as well as the Casual Dance Teachers Podcast Instagram page. And of course, thank you to GB Mystical for the fabulously creative theme music that we use here on the show. Go do something creative for yourself.

Go have fun. I will see you on the next episode.