Just For Fun: Recital Readiness Series with Tiffany Henderson

Do you have trouble keeping your youngest dancers' attention in class while preparing them for the recital? Try these tips for keeping your classes fun and engaging all year round.

1. Just For Fun 

Add in Seasonal “follow me” dances that can easily be added to your class without taking up too much “recital prep” time. 

This month,  we add our “The Bunny Jive” dance activity each week to add in Springtime fun. A “follow me” dance is one that can be easily executed just by watching the dance teacher with repetitive phrases and a standard chorus.  

2. Skill Building 

Take challenging steps or phrases from the recital dance and add it into other parts of the class. 

For example if the challenging phrase is an Irish tap step, make sure to add that into your tap warm up and at the tap barre for extra practice. This will make more time for adding in the fun seasonal dances that keep your classes magical!

Want more insights and practical advice? Join me for a dance studio owner weekend getaway to Pinnacle Dance Conference and Retreat this July 20-21, 2024 at the Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain.

Meet Tiffany Henderson 

Tiffany Henderson is an industry leader and dance business expert. Tiffany owns and operates multiple Tiffany's Dance Academy locations in Northern California. Her video-based teacher training system and curriculum, Twinkle Star Dance, is currently implemented in 300+ dance studios worldwide.

Teaching Holiday Recital Dances

Recitals are an important tangible goal for our dancers. They are also crucial to our business success. 

This week, we are busy preparing for our upcoming Dancin’ Holiday Magic and Nutcracker shows. I make it my goal to get as many of my dancers to participate in two shows per season - holiday show and spring recital. 

Here are some teaching tips to prepare your preschool and school-aged dancers for the stage: 

Spatial awareness is as important as teaching the steps in the recital dance and will continue to be crucial in their dance training as they grow up. I recommend using the following:

• Single line marley tape in the studio

• Glow tape line onstage

• Have dancers hold hands and pull apart until their arms are extended

• Imagine a “Pretend dancer” in between each “real dancer”

• Dancers practice in the same space each week in class

• Practice entering and exiting stage in class

Sing the song with them with arms while seated before you stand up to teach the dance. Sometimes when they are standing and facing the mirror they become distracted and miss the choreography. They can only learn if they are focused. When standing they are also thinking about what their feet are doing. Learning the words with arms first is best.

When teaching them, talk through the dance until you see their attention start to fade. At that point do the dance with the music and continue past the section that you taught them. They should be able to follow along with you and do that dance. 

They will give half of what you give them. When you teach babies you have to give 200% energy and enthusiasm for the movement as well as exaggerate your arms and steps.

Only work on the recital dance for 10 minutes max in each class. This should be a part of what they are learning and running the dance 2-3 times in each class will keep them excited and eager to come back to class the next week. 

Free Webinar

On top of offering the Twinkle Stars and Showstars Curriculum and Choreography subscriptions, Tiffany strives to provide real-time business insights from her experience of owning and managing multiple dance studio locations. Each month she holds free webinars. Learn more: https://www.twinklestardance.com/webinars

Meet Tiffany Henderson 

Tiffany Henderson is an industry leader and dance business expert. Tiffany owns and operates multiple Tiffany's Dance Academy locations in Northern California. Her video-based teacher training system and curriculum, Twinkle Star Dance, is currently implemented in 300+ dance studios worldwide.

Keeping your preschool dancers engaged as you enter Recital Season

Do you have trouble keeping your youngest dancers' attention in class while preparing them for recital? Try these tips for keeping your classes fun and engaging all year round.

1. Add in Seasonal “follow me” dances that can easily be added to your class without taking up too much “recital prep” time. 

In April we add our “Bunny Hop” dances each week to add in Springtime fun. A “follow me” dance is one that can be easily executed just by watching the dance teacher with repetitive phrases and a standard chorus.  

2. Take challenging steps or phrases from the recital dance and add it into other parts of the class. 

For example if the challenging phrase is an Irish tap step, make sure to add that into your tap warm up and at the tap barre for extra practice. This will make more time for adding in the fun seasonal dances that keep your classes magical!

Meet Tiffany Henderson 

Tiffany Henderson is an industry leader and dance business expert. Tiffany owns and operates multiple Tiffany's Dance Academy locations in Northern California. Her video-based teacher training system and curriculum, Twinkle Star Dance, is currently implemented in 300+ dance studios worldwide.

Solving Pandemic Problems - Maintaining your Stamina

“Maintain that motivation to go from A to B and to keep your focus on that target without any weakening. That is called tenacity; stamina in your motivation.”
- Arsene Wenger

I am making an effort to maintain my stamina as we near a year of Covid-19 shutdowns. This led me to some interesting findings about Olympians who compete at the highest level and how they stay motivated. 

What separates an Olympic athlete from others is how they use their minds to overcome and compete. Here are five things we can do to maintain our stamina: 

1. Positive Thinking

   “If you tell yourself something long enough, you will make it true.” Make sure your inner dialogue is positive.

2. Use Visualization

   See the positive outcome of the future. If you can see you, you can be it.

3. Make Short Distance Goals

   How does Tiffany complete a 4 mile Run/Walk? “Complete short distance goals equal long distance endurance.” I set short, achievable goals to keep myself motivated.

4. Plan for Setbacks

   We have to be able to REGAIN our focus when things go wrong. Olympic athletes have a structured daily routine that they follow religiously. Any setback is in the past and they get back to that routine immediately following a loss or disappointment.  

5. Practice 10 minutes of Daily Peace

   What brings your mind peace? For me it is cooking dinner with and for my family, long walks, spending time with my dogs. 

Need more inspiration? You're invited to a Pairings Party! Join Twinkle Star Dance and Revolution for a fun, virtual shopping party. Enjoy an up-close look at costumes for recital themes like Aladdin, Decades, and more! 

RSVP here: http://evite.me/4gTWcp3uku

Solving Pandemic Problems: Recitals and Show Profits

In a typical season at our dance studios we announce our Recital themes and measure for costumes in October; we continue to sign new students up on a case-by-case basis until we close enrollment in February; dancers perform in the Recital early-Mid June and our season ends June 30. 

As of today we have yet to announce our Recital themes or dates for 2021. 

Because of Covid-19 our theaters are not allowing rentals until July 2021 so we are looking at pushing our recital to late July/early August. For Plan B, we have outside venues. For Plan C we have in studio filming and a virtual performance (much like we did for our Holiday shows). 

In talking with Twinkle Star Dance studio owners each week I know I am not alone when it comes to getting creative with Recitals this year. 

Recitals are an important revenue stream for our business as well as a tangible goal for our dancers and staff to work towards each season. Keep in mind with increased Covid-19 precautions like limited capacity (including performers) we will have to consider our expenses and how to cut costs to produce our shows.

Three quick cost saving Recital tips: 

1. Cut down on Recital expense and/or use your studio as a low cost alternative. 

2. Combining classes for Recital or performance experience will allow you to maximize expensive theater cost. 

3. Use Twinkle Star Dance choreography to cut down on back and forth (your valuable time and energy) with your teachers.

Over 300 affiliated studio owners put Twinkle Star Dance into practice in their business and here is what some of them have to say: 

“We have not done a holiday show in years.  With enrollment down we needed to bring in more income.   By using Twinkle Star Dance we assigned each age group a dance and all the teachers are able to teach the same choreography, allowing us to easily combine classes for our show.”

Carolyn Coskren, Dance Inspirations

“Ms Devyn loves the twinkle star and show stars curriculum, it helps her so much in preparing confidently for her littles and level 1 and 2 classes. She appreciates both the documents and the video choreography that is so helpful and time saving for her in putting together as many classes as she needs to prepare through the week.! It’s a plus that the program is so put together and easy to utilize. Also our parents appreciate knowing that the dance curriculum our studio uses is quality instruction and in progression for each students ongoing dance education.” 

Tanya Kimber, Apologia Dance & Martial Arts

Want more inspiration? Join us live for Studio Owner OVERCOME a two-day virtual conference experience presented by dance studio owner and industry leader, Tiffany Henderson, featuring intimate conversations with women business owners and experts. 

Network from the comfort of your home! Studio Owner OVERCOME is scheduled for January 14-15, 2021 and will contain Live Q+A with Expert Panelists, Business Sessions, and Inspirational Keynote. We will be releasing the schedule and class descriptions for Studio Owner OVERCOME very soon.