Latest / Making The Impact - A Dance Competition Podcast / All About Across the Floor and Progressions

Transcript

All About Across the Floor and Progressions · Making The Impact - A Dance Competition Podcast

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_03: Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the table at a dance competition?
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly what are the judges looking for anyway?
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_03: This is Making the Impact, a dance competition podcast.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_03: Each week we'll cover a different topic related to the world of competitive dance from the perspective of the judges behind the table.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_03: Today I'm Making the Impact.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_03: We're joined by the King and Queen of Across the Floor Progressions, Terrell Mitchell and Kelsey Nelson, who school us on their favorite methods, tips, and tricks for creating epic across the floor combinations.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_02: Hello everyone, welcome to this week's episode of Making the Impact.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_02: I'm your host, Courtney Ortiz, and I'm here with my co-host, Leslie Mueller.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_02: Courtney, we're back at it again.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_02: We're back, and I am absolutely so excited for this week's episode.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_02: It's one of my favorite things to do in class, and we're talking about across the floor.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_03: With two of the most incredible dance teachers that I know, two of our favorite returning guests.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_03: Um you will have heard them on previous episodes.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_03: We're gonna let them introduce themselves shortly.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah, I'm just we've been looking forward to this episode again because I think it's one of my favorite things to do in class too.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_03: Go across the floor.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm stoked for everybody to hear all of the tips and tricks and advice and information that we have to share today.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and our two guests are like the best across the floors ever.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_03: Like just epic, like so good.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: So good.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_02: And and I hope that everyone, we're gonna have to have maybe in our show notes, we should have a few links to some epic across the floor progressions from our guests to share that can live on forever, where everyone can click and go look them up and say, Oh, that's what they're talking about when they say a progression across the floor.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_03: And that's what they talk about when they're saying epic.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_03: And the cool thing about these guests is that they are so generous with their information.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_03: Like you will always see, I'll just go ahead and say who they are because you guys know it's on the show notes, uh, Kelsey and Terrell.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_03: They're always sharing their content to say, if you're interested, use this.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_03: This is mine, but please use this, which I think is amazing.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_03: So um, we're really excited to hear from them today.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: And like always, before we jump into our episode, we want to tell you a little bit more about our sponsors.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_02: If your dancer has a passion for ballet and classical training and wants to attend a unique seven-day summer intensive, then join us at Francisco Gela Danceworks Ballet Plus Intensive, taking place in sunny Miami, Florida this June 9th through the 15th, 2024.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_02: Ballet Plus is an in-depth intensive leading students towards developing a strong technical foundation in ballet, modern, and jazz with a highly refined and authentic artistic voice.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_02: And guess what?
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_02: If you attend the Ballet Plus Intensive this summer, then you'll also get a chance to dance with me.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_02: I'm thrilled to be returning back for my second year teaching jazz and musical theater at this amazing event.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_02: And I would love to see you there.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: The Ballet Plus Intensive is open to intermediate and advanced dancers ages 10 through 22.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_02: Come jumpstart your summer training and join us at Ballet Plus with Francisco Gela Danceworks.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_02: Use the code MAKINGTHEIMPACTINAL CAPS when registering on their website to receive$75 off tuition at FranciscogelaDance.com.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you to Franciscogella Danceworks for being our season five premiere sponsor.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_02: Hope to see you in Miami this summer.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: All right, dance world.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_02: Let's jump into this week's episode.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_02: And I am so pumped for this one because we are talking about one of my favorite things in the history of dance going across the floor.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: I think that so many dancers are probably excited to hear this one because I know when I go and teach at studios and I say, guess what we're about to do, y'all?
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna go across the floor, and everyone's like, yeah! And they start screaming and they're so pumped about it.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: Like kids love to go across the floor.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: But we're gonna talk all about that in full detail as to what should you be doing across the floor?
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe some tips and tricks, maybe talking about different genres outside of just jazz dance for the across the floor chat today, with our two spectacular guests who are joining us.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_02: And guess what?
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_02: They're both returning guests, but they haven't been here in a minute.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_02: But we knew we needed both of them on this chat because they have the most epic across the floor progressions you have ever seen.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: Get into it, y'all.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_02: The very first guest I'm excited to welcome on this week's episode.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_02: You may remember her from season one, episode 15, competition kindness etiquette at the event.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_02: And twice in season one, season one, episode 25, cross training during quarantine.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_02: The queen of across the floor.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_02: I'm excited to welcome back Kelsey Nelson to the podcast.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome, Kelsey.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_02: Hi, everybody.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Excited to be back.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yay! I can't believe that you were on two episodes in season one, but we obviously pivoted and did a cross training during quarantine episode because like it was a global pandemic.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_03: I looked at that title and I was like, oh, that really was a long time ago.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard to believe it was that long ago.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: It feels like that was recent.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, it's been it's been a hot minute.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm excited to be back and chat.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we're we're so happy to have you back and chatting all things across the floor.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_02: I absolutely love what you're doing in the dance world and for all of your strength and conditioning work, but also all of your progressions that you post all the time on your platform.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you for everything that you do and sharing your passion for dance with your students.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: We're excited to have you chat all about this today.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_02: But before we jump into that, would you mind refreshing everyone's memory since it's been a minute, four seasons ago, since you've been on?
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_02: A little bit more about you, where you're based, where you grew up, any training and career credits.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm originally from Kansas, the Midwest, all the way.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a graduate of Oklahoma City University, which is school with Miss Leslie.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: And yes.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I currently reside in Tampa, Florida.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: I've been here for ooh, 15 years, hard to believe.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm currently pursuing more of in-studio guest teaching, choreography, doing a lot of like teacher seminars and those kinds of things to help integrate more cross-training, conditioning, technique progressions, style development all within studios all over the place.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of where my career has taken me.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: The performing, the teaching, the choreography has all led me to exactly where I think I'm supposed to be in this current moment.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm very excited about what my future looks like, even though it's a little uncertain in this current moment.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: I'm really excited for you because I saw you post about how you were at a studio, you know, like full-time out of studio, and now you're doing like more guest work, like you said, more residency type of stuff and coming in, popping in, teacher trainings.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_02: Like go go you.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_02: That is so awesome.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_02: And I also think it was probably a little scary at first to like take that leap and make that change in your life and schedule, but I think you're gonna be hugely successful.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yay.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_02: Well, wishing you all the best this season and can't wait to chat about this with you.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_02: So thanks for joining us.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_02: Our next special guest is someone that I continue to admire from a distance, have yet to meet this person in person, and I hope that changes sooner than later.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_02: They were on a previous episode of ours in season two, episode 40, keeping Jazz Dance Alive, the King of Across the Floor.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_02: I'm excited to welcome Terell Mitchell back to the podcast.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome, Terrell.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_05: Thank you, thank you.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_05: I'm excited to be back.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we're so excited to have you.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_02: And that was one of my favorite episodes of all time, our jazz dance episode.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_05: I enjoyed it, yeah.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_02: I still will not forget who got up and had to prep try you.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_02: We were practicing the preparation.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_03: You cannot put your heel down in a fourth position jazz prep for a return.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_03: You can't do it.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_02: It is not possible because we tried it while we were recording the episode.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_05: You are you already know my thoughts on that.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_02: Go back and listen.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_03: Season two, episode 40.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_02: Well, Terrell, we're thrilled to have you back.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_02: And if you wouldn't mind uh reminding everybody a little bit more about you.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_05: Sure, yeah, I'm excited to be here.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_05: I originally am from West Virginia and then um ran to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, uh got my BA in dance at Point Park University, and then moved to Houston, Texas, been there for also uh five uh 15 years and just kind of planted roots.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_05: I danced for for a company there that I loved, and then that kind of while I was doing that, transitioned to a company director position at a studio and did that for 10 years, fell in love with education, and then I just from there I got picked up with a Dupree dance convention and I've been doing that ever since, and it's been life-changing.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_05: I'm now the administrative director for Dupree as well as their contemporary jazz faculty member and thanks, yeah, and it's just been yeah, it's just been a huge life change.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_05: I similar to what Kelsey is saying, I think it's um exactly where I'm supposed to be right now, and I'm just absorbing all things education and loving it, really loving it.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yay! Wow, that's awesome! Congrats on that.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_02: And thank you.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, I'm I'm so happy to have you both here.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_02: Let's jump into this fun chat.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_03: Yay! Across the floor.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, Courtney, I think you're right.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_03: I think there's many, many, many students who love the across the floor moment in class.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_03: And I understand why I always loved across the floor myself.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_03: And I want to know from both of you your thoughts on when you teach an across the floor combination, just thinking very generally and big picture.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_03: What are what are the concepts that you're trying to pursue in across the floor that you can't necessarily teach when you're static in the center?
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_03: I want to know because I think that's important for parents to understand, even dancers to understand who maybe don't love across the floor, which I don't know those people, but they probably exist.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_03: You know, why, why is this important?
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'll I'll I'll dive into that.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: When I talk about progressions or across the floor work, there's several things that I focus on that I really try to hone in, whether the kids are six or 18 or adult.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: And some of those things that I really try to focus on are going to be weight transfers and direction changes.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think that those are like two like foundational key components that I think sometimes people skip over.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: So those are two things that I really, really, really try to focus on.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then also trying to integrate, integrate transitions in and out of skills so that it's not so that that's creating variety and changing things up for the dancers, but still focusing on the like technical execution of those skills.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: So that way they don't get used to doing the same exact preparation over and over and over again, because then that translates into choreography, and that's where I find a lot of hangup sometimes, especially when I go to like guest teach somewhere and the kids are used to prepping or doing something a specific way, because that's just how they train it over and over again.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then something else that I personally try to do is keep it so that they're doing things on the right and the left on both sides.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: So I never like say, oh, we're doing the right side, or now we're doing the left.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: So in like an extension combo or bot mock combo, they're still gonna be their right and their left leg is still gonna be going into the air to challenge that so that way the dancers are more just like well-rounded and have less of that like mental hang-up when it comes to like going across the floor and the process of learning it and applying all that information.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of where I come from when I'm focusing on progressions.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_05: So yeah.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_05: And for me, I love to take everything I have focused, you know, several months on in the center and then immediately adapt it to across the floor.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_05: I like wide movement.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_05: I'm six foot two, so I what I want to make sure I'm covering space, but I want my dancers tall and short to be able to understand that that aspect.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and similar to Kelsey, the traveling, the transitions, the shift of weight, the direction changing, all of that is will always be in every single combo.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_05: No matter what I do, no matter what style or genre, it will include all of those elements.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_05: I also like the not just the the wide the widening of the body.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_05: Uh dancers tend to think just legs, and I'm like, no, I want to feel more expansive.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_05: But what I love doing across the floor is how you can focus on the round shape of a room that you don't usually see.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_05: So, like I, you know, we'll go maybe we'll go forward, but then you're curving up.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_05: Now you're coming down on this diagonal.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_05: And right now, what I'm focusing on with my dancers is understanding that that's also a tool you could use for improvisation before creating choreography.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_05: So we do it like with jazz technique where I'm doing you know, intermediate to uh basic to intermediate steps, but we're also doing it with just movement phrases where it's non-technical so that they're still having to figure out how to use the traveling and transition steps when there's not like a three-step turn or you know, a super technical element in it.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_05: So yeah, so it's it's definitely I I like it.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_05: Imagine just taking you know a dance phrase from a combo and simply just take your dancers across the floor and just say, Go do this, and it has to travel.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_05: It's incredible what you see happens, you know, in that.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_03: I absolutely love the idea of not just going across the floor.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_03: Like we say across the floor and we think you're going in one direction the whole time, probably horizontally, but when you're adding in those elements of let's take a curve, let's take a diagonal, let's take a let's go back here for a second and then come back this way, like that's I feel like I mean it sounds so simple, but like I don't do that.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_03: I should do that.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_05: I honestly I think the stigma of that is because as educators, we get that view.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_05: Like we stand in the front, we get that view.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_05: That's why we do it.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_05: But if you also stand facing them, you get that view as well.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_05: Or if you stand behind them.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_05: So I think that's why it is.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_05: But honestly, that translates to choreography.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_05: And that's all we see side to side, and we're not using, you know, all four corners and stuff.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: So and I think too, because I do, I do the that same like idea, like I want them to face all different directions as they're moving and changing.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I, when I'm doing that, I'm also looking at them and seeing maybe areas that like maybe body alignment or where their weight's placed, or all of that kind of stuff.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it's giving me as a teacher different vantage points to be able to see how their movements moving through their body, facing all different directions, because facing the front, you might see one thing.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: But then if they're prepping to the side or even facing upstage, yeah.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how can they learn how to project through the back of their body when they're facing upstage and they learn that through progressing across the floor and through those like phrases?
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: So it's super beneficial.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_02: Oof, I love everything that's happening so far in this chat.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_02: I have so many thoughts.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_02: And something that came to mind um while you were both sharing was Tyrell, how you mentioned that you were 6'2.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_02: And it's funny because like, Kelsey, how tall are you?
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_02: Like five, six and a half.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_02: So you're like average height.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_02: Leslie and I are shorty over here.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_02: And I know that like the way I approach my choreography within my across the floor progressions are designed for my five two body.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_02: And I always tell dancers who are tall, who like the rockets that come and take my class.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, sorry, y'all.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_02: You have to figure out how to dance like me now, how to travel grounded like me, because that's how tall I am and that's how I move.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_02: And you have to like be able to adapt.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_02: So, in the same sense, Terrell, obviously you're dance, there's no one in class that's six two in your as your student, but they have to figure out how do I dance tall and long and and and grounded at the same time and still travel in the same way.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_02: That's the you know, the beauty of working with different choreographers and different educators is that their style is going to be different and it might suit someone and it might not suit someone, but how do you make it work for you?
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_02: And that's always the definitely a challenge.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_02: But my goal, I always say an across the floor, and or I just tell dancers, I'm like, your goal is to get from here to there because it's an across the floor.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_02: We need to be traveling for our lives.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_02: Do not dance underneath yourself.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_02: If it is going back and forth, I want you to go all the way over here, then go all the way back.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_02: And also for dancers to understand not even just different directional changes and angles, which I'm a huge fan of and support.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's important for dancers to understand this is stepping on the quase versus this is stepping flat versus this is stepping upstage.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_02: Like they need to understand that and being aware and like like really fine-tuning those details will make them a stronger dancer overall.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_02: But there are so many times when I create a progression and the dancers will over-travel or under travel.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_02: They have to kind of figure out how do I get the entire progression out in the space that I'm given, but not cut anything short at the end.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_02: Like you have to already be in your head in this.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_02: I'm speaking more on the advanced level at the intermediate advanced level, but like if you have already gotten halfway across the floor in a progression when you know there's a chasse step leap at the end, you're gonna, you're not gonna be able to do your leap.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_02: So you gotta go backwards and figure out how do I travel a little bit less, but it gives me enough room to still execute that progression from beginning to end.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_02: And that's something I think dancers struggle with.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_05: Um, I I stop the entire class with every single dancer who does it.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_05: It just my quote, and I say that my dancers will laugh, but I'm like, if you don't have enough room to finish the combination, something's wrong with you.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_03: That's what I think.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_03: Because you created it.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_03: You, sir, 6-2 man created the things you can do.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_05: And I do.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_05: And I and I, you know, I sometimes give my dancers like the tips and the tricks from when I was training.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_05: But like, yes, if we're doing leaps when I was a young dancer, yeah, I'm gonna travel so I don't have to do as many because it's hard.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_05: Like I'll I'll share that on occasions with them, but I'm like, no, you, you know, there's there's a reason I have this at the end of the combination.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_05: And, you know, we we should be able to have a conversation about that, but we can if you didn't, you know, if it's incomplete.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_03: And I think there's we'll get to this whole point part of the conversation, but also if you have made it across the floor and you can't finish the combo, where did you start?
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_03: Did you start halfway across the floor?
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_03: Because you probably did.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_03: Because if you had started over by the wall, you would have been fine and maybe could have done it twice.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_03: But we'll get there.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_05: You know, each group, they want to they want to inch score.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_05: I don't get it.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: During COVID, when we had to separate and be all spread out, I had my kids stand along the back, and I've actually kept that so that they're not laying lining up on the side, and then they can watch in the mirror and they're not as tempted to like talk and socialize.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: They can see what their um classmates are doing, see and hear the corrections, and it gives them the entire space of the floor, which I really like enjoy giving them that room and like the freedom of almost like they have an audience because they're fully their classmates are fully engaged and watching what's going on.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like a two-for-one, right?
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: They get those notes and they get to see it and they get all that space to then be able to execute it later on.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: So that's something that I started doing.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: So that way they are not inching and inching and inching, and then like clumping on the side, right?
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because then when they're all standing there talking or distracted or don't start on the right count or all of that kind of stuff, then that like takes away from me being able to actually educate because I'm just doing like crowd control.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: On the side.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_02: It's just like across the floor etiquette.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, let's let's go there.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_02: I'm since we're here.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_02: Since we're here, let's go there.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_02: I yes, I it is it is a huge pet peeve of mine when you say across the floor and everyone run, run, run, run, run over to the side, and then who's the line leader and freaking out about who's the line leader?
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_02: And then I'm like, y'all, you're like halfway in the middle of the floor.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_02: Let's back it up.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_02: And they don't move.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_02: They just like pile on top of each other and don't back up.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, please get go.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_02: Like, don't you want to have the maximum amount of space to live your dreams across the floor?
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I want you to.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_02: So I love this idea of having them, you know, stand on upstage across the back.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_02: It's just the etiquette of getting them to understand how to do that and teaching them that, like from you know, their very first time going across the floor at whatever age.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_02: Because if you implement it young, then it'll just they'll have that etiquette right away.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_05: My advanced class, when I go across the floor, I treat it like a call and response.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_05: So it's a little bit taxing on me, but I do it for cardio purposes.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_05: So when you know, the first say three people go across the floor, they you know, they have to make their way around back in time as I'm demonstrating the next combination.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_05: So they're they're running across the back, also looking to see what I'm doing, and it's just flow.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_05: And then after a certain amount of exercises, I stop.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_05: Then I talk about the feedback and all of that.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_05: But it is like so essentially they're not sprinting, but they are moving very quickly back around.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm already, you know, pot of a ray, double pirouettes, all of all of the things, and that way I'm never stopping the music and speaking about.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_05: It or I'm just throwing.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_05: And even if I'm not doing it full out, they can still see that I'm this is the exercise and it's just going, going.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_05: And they go back, they go across the floor doing it on the right, come around, they do it on the left.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_05: So it's like um just constant movement.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_05: But one thing that is huge about that for me, uh, etiquette-wise, is that when you go across the floor, the three across the floor, the person that is the furthest upstage better start downstage the next time.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_05: Or else happens, or what's happens is they stop and then the traffic piles up.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_05: Like this is you're interrupting the flow.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_05: Now we have to wait a whole eight count because you know, and that to me, it it it forces them to be aware and it also forces them to be accountable.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_05: And that's it's just super important to me.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_05: And another thing that I do is I instead of going across the floor in lines so that they're not doing like who's going first, uh, you know, one eight count of six, seven or five, six, seven, eight, and I'm pointing at three people and one of them might have their back against the wall and they have to sprint out to go like their turn, you know what I mean?
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_05: So it's again, it I don't really have to it's not fun anymore because now my dances are very much like staying on top of it.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_05: But when it when they weren't, it's like, oh, you you have you cannot shut off in a dance class, period, but you cannot shut off when you're going across the floor because it is like it's moving.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_05: You're you're traveling through space.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_03: So I love that.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_05: So those are the things that I'm gonna do.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_03: I'm scared of your class.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I'd love to go in that.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_05: Especially when we're going across the floor because they the only thing in my and my dancers will always reject this statement going across the floor is not hard.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_05: It's just a lot of stamina in my class.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_05: So it's like I'm everything you've done, you've done so many times, but now you're having to, you know, push the pace and all of that.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_05: So it's a little bit of a kicker to the start, as well as staying on top of your technique and stuff.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_02: I'm blown away if your dancers don't think it's hard because the videos that you've posted, I'm like, dang, that's hard.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_05: They think it's hard.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, I don't think.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my god.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_05: To me, center work is harder because I'm like, you're this quick plies and all this.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_05: Now, again, you gotta widen, you gotta travel directly.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_05: Like it's so to me, it's like if I get to use a full plie, that's easier than cutting it off and still expecting to get in the air really high.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_05: So to me, it's like if you figure out when to breathe, where to breathe, it's gonna make it a little bit more chill than what you would see when they're sprinting with wide eyes across the floor.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: One of my like etiquette things in class that I really try to hone in on is learning full out.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm very passionate about that once the music turns on and I am watching you and giving you feedback, you shouldn't already know the steps.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I tell them that when we are progressing across the floor, that is not your time to learn the steps.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: We should already know them.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I teach rather quickly.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: My advanced progressions are four eight counts at least, and they incorporate a lot of different things.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: And my goal for them is to develop that skill to learn with detail and awareness and presence.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: And the only way they can do that is by doing it full out.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I always talk about this is a training class.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: You are training your dance technique.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just like a football player wouldn't go to practice and be like, I'm gonna not actually throw the ball on this like drill that we're doing.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna mark that I'm gonna throw the ball and then the actual game, I'm gonna, I'm gonna be able to make the pass.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, that's what progressions are.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that's like you're training your body to be able to like move quickly, change directions, pick up choreography.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're not doing that in a like a full out state, you're just wasting my time as you're going across the floor because now I'm just telling you what the steps are.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not actually able to help refine and educate you on how to make them better.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: So that's like one of my like etiquette things.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like if I see a kid like marking it, I'll be like, is that your full out?
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because I don't, I don't think that that's full out.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't want to have to be giving you corrections on what the steps are here in about 30 seconds.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_05: So I'm gonna piggyback off of that.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, that I will say this.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_05: I think that it's gotten way too crazy with marking it when you're learning it.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_05: I hope just listening to that statement you just said, I hope everyone who listens to this amplifies that mentality.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_05: Because I I'm actually in Oklahoma right now doing a residency at a university, and this university and the last one I did, that was the norm in college.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_05: They were learning it in a mark.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_05: And I was just like, this isn't, we're strangers to each other.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_05: You know, you know what I mean?
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_05: And so I said today, I was just like, if you're marking this while you're learning, you you haven't come to class yet.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_05: You haven't, you're not, you're not here.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_05: And then one question I did or I asked was, are you doing everything you possibly can in your training to set you up for the career that you want?
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_05: Because now's the time.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_05: And I'll say that to my students in this one hour class, are you doing everything you can to achieve that one goal that is, you know, might happen at the end of the season?
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_05: So I think I think, Kelsey, ex exactly that is how you learn it is just going to give more opportunities.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_05: So, like when you say they're wasting, you know, it waste your time, it also wastes their time.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_05: Because I'm like, you only have this much time in this class to gain this skill, this strength, this what this refinement, and you're taking away multiple opportunities and you're only gaining few.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_05: So like the amount that you're taking away does not outweigh what you're getting if you have that marking mentality.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_05: And it's tacky, it's just tacky.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_05: It's just tacky.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: I always talk about adding value, right?
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you're not adding value, you're taking value away.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: And like you don't want to take value away from your class.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: And you like it's it's disrespectful to yourself, right?
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: If you're marking, but it's also disrespectful to your classmates' time, to your teacher's time, um, to all of those things.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like we want to add value to this like educational experience.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: And at the end of the day, is it that way we're coming to class is to get better at something, and therefore we need to actually be doing it.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: And like getting my students that I, whenever I teach, wherever I go, to understand that like these progressions at times are going to be set up to make you fail, quote unquote, so that you can learn something to then apply that knowledge to do it again.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: So we're not doing these progressions to like be perfect at them.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: We're doing them to learn how to be better dancers.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: And the only way you can do that is by fully executing it at your highest level.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then I can give you actual feedback that will help you be better, not just get you to where you already currently are, if that makes sense.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_03: And that's why they're called progressions.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_03: Because it's progress is in the word.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_03: We're making progress, we're doing things over and over again and hopefully getting better every time.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_05: And we, Leslie, we have to repeat the combinations.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_05: You could repeat those combinations for a month.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_05: It's okay.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_05: And I feel like dance teachers are afraid to do that because it comes off as boring and the kid, you know, the kids get so I am I'm okay being the boring teacher.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_05: You still cannot finish that pirouette and a passe releve.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_05: So we have to do that.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_05: So we're doing that again.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that's important for the parents to hear too, because you know, I guess if and again, a same football analogy, I don't know.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_03: I don't, but if I was not a person who understood dance, I might walk into my kids' class on Parent Watch Week or what to watch the TV or whatever they have and say, they keep doing the same thing.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_03: They're just doing the same thing and not understand why.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_03: But this is why.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_03: The this is why.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_03: And if your kid is coming home saying they're bored, maybe the question is not, well, maybe we should find something else for you to do, but is are you applying yourself?
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_03: Are you doing, are you paying attention and do getting better every week?
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_03: Or are you just kind of sitting here not applying yourself?
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_03: Therefore, you have to do it over and over again and you don't feel like you're progressing because you're not.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's um I do like a like a session when I go in and work with uh teachers on progressions, and something that I talk about is um progressions versus drills and understanding the difference between those.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: And a drill to me is something that's like focusing on a specific skill or part of a skill or how that skill is being executed by the dancer or something that they need to work on.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_00: And those things like we repeat on a regular basis, right?
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: And then we take that knowledge and then put it into our progressions.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: So like when I'm working with a beginner dancer, we do a lot of drills and build up to doing a progression across the floor once we've taken all those drills.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then once I get to my advanced students, well, we're doing more progressions across the floor.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: And when needed, we're throwing in a drill here or there to really like refine something that they might be struggling with.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: So that's like how I approach it.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: So there is repetition within the variety of maybe how the steps are put together might be different, but the the repetition of that drill prior to doing it is going to be the same, if that makes sense.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_02: I want to chime in because I'm so glad you gave us the definitions essentially of what the difference is between drilling those bot maws and those pirouettes and those leaps across the floor versus making up creating a progression that incorporates those technical skills.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_02: Because I think everyone at majority of the studios only do drills across the floor.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_02: And that is why when someone comes in or a new teacher or or their regular teacher says, let's do a progression, the kids don't know how to to unwrap their head around a mini combination across the floor.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_02: And that's why they're not even learning it as you're teaching it.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_02: Like like what you were complaining about mentioning before, Kelsey, about they need to know it when they go across the floor.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_02: It's because they're not doing the progressions at all.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_02: So when, and I know this for a fact as a guest teacher because I do progressions in every single class I go to at every studio I go to.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_02: And my one of my pet peeves is I teach you the progression and I ask if anyone has questions.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_02: No one's practicing, no one's thinking about it, no one has questions.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, okay, so when I put the music on, we're gonna do a musical mark and you're gonna go across the floor and it's gonna be great, right?
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_02: And they're like, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_02: I put the music on an epic fail disaster.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's just, you know, it's and I just don't understand.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_02: I can't wrap my head around it.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, if you aren't even practicing when when I was teaching it to you, how do you think you're gonna get it across the floor?
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_02: And I think it's just going over their head because it's not being taught regularly in the studio.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_02: They're just drilling things across the floor.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_02: How high can I get my Batma?
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_02: How many quadruple pirouettes can I do?
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_02: How like how many leaps can I do?
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_02: You know, instead of actually combining those skills into progressions, which I think should be a part of the technical classes, whether it's weekly or monthly at least.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_02: We need that to be happening, I think, in in classes.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_02: I'd hope so, but classes are short sometimes.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: I think nowadays it's like there's so much focus on the like technical tricks that a leap and turns class is focused on just executing leaps and turns, not how can we phrase those and put those together to actually create for like movement.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think that like studios aren't actually teaching a lot of that like foundational stuff young enough when it comes to like weight transfers and direction changes and spotting and all even tempo change.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: So like it's very even.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so then when it comes to like incorporating that along with the bot mod that they've practiced 200 times, they don't know how to put those two things together and realize that they actually can aid and help one another to properly execute.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I think teaching the value of the progression and going back to like how you're saying, like parents are saying, like, oh, well, they might just be doing the same thing or trail, like you do the same thing for like maybe multiple weeks if they need to, the value behind that.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: So why are we training it this way?
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: Why are we putting all of these things together in this manner?
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and explaining that to the kids, the students, the parents will help them understand that they're getting way more value for their dollar and their time when the progressions are being taught that way rather than just how high can we kick our leg 20 times in a row?
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_05: Well, I also think too the I don't think the basics are being taught early enough, but I also don't think the basics are being upheld in an advanced class.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_06: Yes.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_05: So like I just, you know, before I before I ask you to do a leap in second in my most advanced class, I'm going to give you an exercise that's going to get your pelvis in the air.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_05: That's it.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_05: Like I don't need to split your legs yet.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_05: I need to make sure that you can elevate, you know, and I I feel like that's what's missing.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_05: I need you to do a chasse.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_05: I need you to do chassis across the floor in plie in my advanced class.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_05: I need you to do chassis across the floor jumping in my advanced class.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_05: Because again, that's building up to the leap and second that I'm going to have you do.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_05: And I feel like once they get to a certain age or ability, I should say, and when I say ability, I feel like in this day and age, ability is based on a certain skill set, like uh with you know, how what kind of jumps, what kind of turns.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_05: Whereas to me, uh the ability encompasses a lot more than just that.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_05: You know, I have dancers who can could probably never or probably never have done like something like a switch leap, but can jump so high that if I asked them to try it, they would at least be high enough to attempt it.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_05: Whereas there's some dancers who are, you know, are doing all of these things and they're so low, and then you're risking all you know injury and all that because you haven't, because you stopped doing that.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_05: That's like another example is most advanced dancers will struggle with four struts across the floor, two pivot touch.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_05: Why?
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_05: Tell me why.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_05: Please tell me why because it's because it's because we stopped we stopped training it and we only include it in choreography now.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_05: So like when I ask you to walk like this, this, this, this, and this, you can only do one of those because you only do it in choreography, whereas my progressions are across the floor.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_05: I we're walking in every class.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_05: We're tripling, we're trip doing triplets.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_05: We have to do all of that stuff, you know, because it's necessary.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_05: And what's going to make it advanced is how I change this direction, how I add a drop to the floor, roll back up, triplet back, you know what I mean?
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_03: Listeners, you can see us all listening.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_03: You can't see us, but you can't we're all nodding and praising praising the Lord.
• 37:17
  unknown: Yeah.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_05: So I do, I want, I want, uh, like I want us all to just honestly, because I I do do this often, even you know, as exhausted as we as we are, I check in with my accountability level for myself because I need them to be set up.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_05: I need you, I need them to be set up.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_05: So that way, if if they don't get what they want, whatever, I at least know, okay, I'm doing everything I absolutely can to prepare you with an abundance of skills.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_05: But it it is weird to me when I go in and I'll do a teacher training with studios and I just I ask all the hard questions right away.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_05: And one of them is, are you moving more or are you facilitating?
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_05: So I don't need you as a teacher to demonstrate.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_05: However, you put your arms out in second position when you when you, you know, teach the pot of ray combination, the way you are holding your stature is going to be the example that they need.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_05: And then everything other than that or under that is a non-negotiable.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_05: And so it's like if I'm standing this way and this is my presence in this training class, you have to meet me at least there or higher.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_05: And so I try to encourage the teachers, especially the ones who don't have the confidence to move more, you don't have to demonstrate you don't, but your presence is what they're lacking.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_05: That that refine that refinement that you still have, you you have you have to get in there.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_05: So I think, you know, reminding those dancers, especially at the advanced level, that your beginning and your basics, they're not going to always say beginner and basics.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_05: If you stop doing it, you're gonna have to go back.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_05: It's gonna bite you in the butt at some point.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_05: And it's probably gonna be in that fun choreography that you love with a guest choreographer who's now incorporating it a different way, and you're like, wait a minute, but then they look at you and like, this is just you learn this in combo three, four classes.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_05: Like these are pivot turn.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_00: I love that you bring up like the advanced kids like going back to that foundational work because something that I do in my classes, especially with students that I teach on a regular basis, is like every at least once a month, and especially before like a competition or performance, like I circle it all the way back to like that really foundational like work and getting the kids to just be hyper aware of like that like foundation of how are we how are we doing these these fundamental things?
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_00: And the kids always love it.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: They always are like, I love doing this, I love going back and like refreshing and like revisiting this because it makes me feel like I'm actually like a better, more well-trained, more advanced dancer than I even realized because this, like, I'm aware of the details and the refinement of this work.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_00: And every time that we do that, they they feel even better about it.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: So it's something that I try to like circle back.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I might give them really challenging progressions for a few weeks, and then we're gonna go back and we're gonna do fundamental work and really like dig into that and then take that and use it again.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: So it's kind of like those full circle moments, so that they are they're taking that information and then applying that throughout the the more advanced work and then circling back again.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I love that, I love that you brought that up.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_02: Our season five premiere sponsor, Francisco Gella Danceworks, will be hosting a unique seven-day intensive this summer in Miami, Florida.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_02: Ballet Plus is an in-depth intensive leading students towards developing a strong technical foundation in ballet, modern, and jazz with a highly refined and authentic artistic voice.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_02: Intermediate and advanced dancers ages 10 through 22 are able to attend this exciting week-long event with over 60 hours of dancing from an exceptional faculty, including Francisco Gella, Busha Marie Sorzano, and even me, Courtney Ortiz.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_02: Dancers will take a variety of different classes like ballet, points, musical theater, modern dance with live percussion, Horton, contemporary, conditioning, Pilates, repertoire, and so much more.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_02: Parents will even have a chance to sit in and watch certain classes throughout the week.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_02: And all dancers are eligible for scholarships to future Francisco Gela Danceworks intensives.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_02: After teaching at the Ballet Plus Intensive last year for my first time, I was blown away by the amazing training these dancers were receiving throughout the week and the high quality education from all of the instructors.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_02: I highly recommend attending this intensive to up your technique game and elevate your training.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_02: Mark your calendars to attend Ballet Plus from June 9th through the 15th, 2024, and register now to receive$75 off tuition with our exclusive podcast promo code.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_02: Use the code MAKINGTHEIMPATING ALL CAPS when registering for a Ballet Plus Intensive at FranciscogelaDance.com.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_05: I just think a lot of teachers are invested in, you know, establishing those roots.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_05: But those roots from the beginning hat that's what's blossoming into you know something great.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_05: And it's like you can't, I always say this like go back to the roots, and that's hard.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_05: That's the hard stuff.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_05: That's even though it's like, you know, pulling up your passe and holding it on passe relevant, like you did that so many times as a young, you know, training artist, but now it's like, why is that so hard for you now?
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_05: Or why is that hard for you to do after a double PROA?
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_05: Where you know, when you were nine and you were obsessed with how long you could balance it because you're finding, you're still figuring out the mechanics.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_05: Now that you've figured out the mechanics of what makes X, Y, and Z work, you think you have it in the bag.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_05: So it loses that fight, that urgency, if you will.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_03: I love how passionate you guys are about this, and clearly this is why we wanted you here.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_03: And I just wanted to remind our listeners, we literally said the same thing in the Back to Basics episode we just had.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_03: Teachers have to be excited about the basics.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_03: Because if we're not excited, if we're just oh that's a pivot turn.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_03: Y'all know a pivot turn, right?
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_03: You just do a pivot turn.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_03: Then nobody's gonna be excited about that pivot turn from age five to age 55.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_03: Listen, me too.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_03: I love a pivot turn.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_00: I sprained an ankle doing a pivot turn because I'm just giving you life as I did that pivot turn.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_03: So, like, not for nothing.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_03: Be excited about the basics because then it will, it will just the excitement will stay with these kids forever because it stayed with us.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_03: Somebody was excited about a pivot turn in all of our lives when we were little.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, I have two things I want to say.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_02: And one one thing before we get off the etiquette chat, I have to chime in with this is something that I want dancers to work on.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_02: And you know me, I love to count.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_02: So obviously, yes, count in your across the floor because I give you a count.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_02: Please do that.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_02: But I want dancers to learn how to count themselves in across the floor.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_02: Please and thank you.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_02: You, oh my gosh, the teacher should not have to say five, six, seven, eight every time it's time for the next group to go.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_02: If yours go to the last thing, if I literally tell you that the across the floor is four counts of eight, you should know exactly when it's time for you to enter into the space.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know what else to tell you.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_02: You should be counting, you should be doing it in your head with the people that are going before you.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_02: You should be watching them.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_02: You should know, okay, that's their last eight.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_02: I'm getting ready.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_02: Five, six, seven, go.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_02: I want dancers to get out of that being like spoon-fed, getting counted in, because it is going to make you a stronger dancer and mover and a stronger, stronger with your musicality.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_02: But also, again, staying engaged in the class, like we talked about.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_02: You can't just be daydreaming and thinking about what you're gonna eat for dinner tonight.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_02: Like you have to be in the moment or you're not gonna be successful.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_02: And if I have to be like, oh, start over, we have hold, you know, again, like Terrell said now we gotta start over and you're wasting my time.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_02: And you're wasting your essentially, you're late.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_04: You're late.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_04: It's like you're showing you're showing, you showed up late.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_02: So that's my one uh etiquette thing that I want to encourage for dancers and studios to start teaching their dancers how to learn how to count themselves in.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_02: But let's talk about the left side.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_03: The dreaded left.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_02: I would love to hear your thoughts on the left side.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_02: I think I know what they are, but maybe we just need to remind teachers the importance of the left, remind students of the importance of the left because I know for a fact that when I go to studios and teach my progression on the right, and then I scare them with, okay, let's do the left side, and they didn't know that was coming, they're not prepared.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_02: And I always then have to, you know, make it a teaching moment and say, listen, you should already have reversed it the moment you got over to the right side.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_02: Your brain should already be thinking about how do I do this on the left?
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_02: Not again waiting for the teacher to show you how it's done.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_02: You should be smart and already thinking about it and being one step ahead of everyone else in the room because that's gonna make you more successful.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_02: So tell us your thoughts on doing the left side.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_02: Do you have any advice to teachers out there on how on why they should be doing it?
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_02: Any ways to uh any tips or tricks for students on how they can get better at reversing?
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_05: I do.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_05: Let's call it the other side instead of the left side, and let's remove the conversation about it.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_05: It's just not, it's not don't stop the music to do the left side.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_05: No, no, don't.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_05: You know what I mean?
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_05: Don't even teach it.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_05: If you you go from the right, it goes right to the left.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_05: So I know for me, that's one thing that sticks out for when I'm watching different uh like leaps and turns or or uh progression classes, is that it's common, and this is also how I was trained, you do it on the right several times, get your feedback, do it, stop the music, and you break it down on the left, which creates the oh my gosh, this is the hard side, or this is my you know weaker side.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_05: And for me, I make sure every single exercise transitions to the opposite side.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_05: Like there's no pausing, there's no, so if you're going across the floor and you're coming around, you're going across the floor on the left.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_05: I'm not gonna take you from the opposite side of the room.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_02: I love that.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_05: And that way it's like just go, and then we'll talk about you know feedback.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_05: Another thing I do is if you know stage left is going across the floor, group two is coming from stage right.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_05: So, you know what I mean?
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_05: So that way it just keeps moving.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_05: But I think what happens is that we we want to build a set set a certain um limit, I should say, of technique.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_05: And with the time that we have is why I think people heavily focus.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_05: But again, it bites you in the butt.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_05: And that it doesn't bite you in the butt when someone comes in, it just bites you in the butt in general.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_05: It's it's completely foreign to the body, foreign to the mind, to where you it really does lessen the experience for a dancer when they are around a teacher who's just that's just naturally what we do, and you're not used to it.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_05: And I'll ask a dancer to their face, you know, do you do the left?
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_05: And they're like, Oh no, we don't do that, and it breaks my heart.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_05: And I don't I don't say anything to them in that moment, other than it's important that you're doing your opposite side.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_05: Let me tell you why.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_05: If you're doing this on the on the right, you're pushing off your left.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_05: So let's train that left side to get it a little bit stronger and to get the confidence in it.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_05: But it became negotiables years ago.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm like, this shouldn't be, there was never a conversation about it.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_05: Like it just my I you should at least have similar leaps and and turns and all of that.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_05: And you can if the training allows you for that.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_05: You can't.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_05: It's there's there is a complete opportunity if it's facilitated.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_05: So it's just I think removing the conversation and the stigma of the left side, and you just call it call it the opposite side, call it the other side.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_05: And that in itself is hard.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_05: But I also know for some teachers, they have to like stop and that's like, no, then you have to you need to prepare yourself.
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I was wondering I was gonna ask you what your so you grew up, I assume, like many of us, probably a lot of us, you go across the floor, you do it a couple times, you stop, you reverse it, you talk about it.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_03: How did you decide that doesn't work?
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_03: I could do this better and and and do what you're doing because to me, my my brain wouldn't automatically work like that because it's just not what I grew up with.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_03: I'm so curious.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_05: That's exactly why I did it.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_05: Because I it took me, I was taking too much time out of class for me.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_05: And the left side at that time was my weaker side.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_05: And so I'm like, this is I I don't actually think in my heart I wanted it to get better.
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_05: I just like I don't, I don't want to do and then I got to college and it's like left double pier wet out of and like I don't dare raise my hand and say, can I do that on the right instead?
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_05: Right in college.
• 49:57
  SPEAKER_05: You know what I mean?
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_05: It's like left, you're gonna do a left leap here, and I'm like, oh and that's when I that's when I knew I was like, oh, I have to change my focus before, you know.
• 50:07
  SPEAKER_05: So in college is when I was just like, let me figure this out on the left beforehand, which is what we want our kids to do now.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_05: It's like I don't want this to be like a conversation.
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_05: And I wanted it to flow like just naturally for me.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_05: And it does.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, when I tell you I can, as I'm teaching in my body, I'm like, oh, you know, 20 years ago, I would have been like, wait, I need a couple, you know.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_05: So when a dancer does say, you know, can you can you go over the left?
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_05: I immediately say no, it's opposite of the right, and then I put on the that's it, that's all it is.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_05: Because I just I just think it's important that you struggle, you struggle through that.
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_05: And then have that conversation with yourself.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_05: And like, yes, it's not because you're bad, it's because you don't care enough to get this side better.
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, like you want you you want it to be better when someone asks you to do it, but you don't want it to be better naturally.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_05: So that's why it's such a struggle.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, but no, we do as we as dance educators, we do.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_05: We absolutely have to care so much about the things that they don't care about because we know the purpose.
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_05: If we lose that purpose, again, it will catch up to you.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_06: Yes.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_05: And you don't you don't want you don't want your dancers misrepresenting their training.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_05: So, like, just set just set them up for all kinds of success, and then you know, it's worth it.
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_00: Everything you just said, yes, yes, yes.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_00: I definitely don't use the term left or right.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_00: I use other, and that is because how I base my progressions and how I put them together, they're doing things on the right and the left in the progression.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_00: So calling it the right side or the left side doesn't really make sense because they're using both sides.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's just reversed when you do it the second time.
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_00: So getting them to understand that concept that helps has helped my students eliminate that like mental block of the quote unquote bad side because they're having to do both as they move through this space.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_00: There's not that time for them to like evaluate or judge or lessen their like thought process of themselves.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_00: They're just thinking about how do I do this next step?
• 52:13
  SPEAKER_00: And something that I started doing over COVID because of, you know, dancing in living rooms and garages is there was not a lot of space, right?
• 52:22
  SPEAKER_00: So immediately taking whatever, however, they're moving through one side, and how does that feed into immediately go in the reverse on the other side and creating phrases like that has challenged, and then I integrated that into my classes once we got back in the studio.
• 52:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's challenged them to be able to immediately start figuring out that opposite side with no hesitation.
• 52:46
  SPEAKER_00: I do at times stop and say, okay, now you get to figure out the other side.
• 52:51
  SPEAKER_00: I do.
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I never teach it to them.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then they go across the floor and crash and burn.
• 52:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 52:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then we have that conversation about why did it go that way for you?
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_00: Why was it not as good when you figured it out versus when I taught it to you?
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_00: And it comes down to they weren't holding them accountable, themselves accountable to being full out.
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_00: They weren't holding themselves accountable to working on the steps that challenged them.
• 53:19
  SPEAKER_00: They weren't holding themselves accountable to um paying attention to detail.
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_00: They were relying on me or other people.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_00: I also get on the kids about if they ask a friend, like, what comes next?
• 53:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be like, nope, nope, there's no asking questions of friends.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_00: You have to figure it out for yourself because when it comes to when it comes to an audition or when it comes to learning choreography, or when it comes to a job, like you have to be able to trust that you are capable of doing it on your own and not relying on a teacher or a classmate or a castmate to be able to get you to the result you want to get to, right?
• 53:58
  SPEAKER_00: You have to figure that out.
• 53:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's the space of setting them up for failure and then learning those lessons and then going back through, and then we break it down and then we talk about it, and then we figure out where did we struggle?
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_00: What's holding us up?
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_00: Why did that not go the way we wanted it to?
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_00: And having those honest conversations with the students, and then taking that information and then helping them learn how to be better students.
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_00: So at the end of the day, like my biggest passion is how can I teach these kids how to be phenomenal students?
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_00: And that's going to translate into everything they do, whether that's dance-related or not in life.
• 54:33
  SPEAKER_00: And it comes from learning these progressions and being reliant on ourselves and figuring out both sides and all of those kinds of things.
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, yes, it's the body, right?
• 54:43
  SPEAKER_00: Safety and balance and making sure that we're preventing injury, but it's also like teaching them those like skills to trust and have confidence in themselves.
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_00: And those kinds of things are what I'm really trying to hone in on through my class process, if that makes sense.
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_02: Oof.
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I love all of this.
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_02: I want to start seeing other side.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_02: I definitely say left side.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I definitely do all the things that uh Torella told me not to do.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I stop the music, I help guide them through the left, I say good luck.
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_02: It depends on the scenario.
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, even at my classes at Steps on Broadway, which is with professional dancers, they do have different leveled classes.
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_02: So sometimes it might be adults that are in advanced beginner, and it's like, I can't really expect them to just like go, because they they're already struggling with the right side, and then there's no way they're gonna figure out how to reverse the left.
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_02: So I want to break it down for them.
• 55:36
  SPEAKER_02: And you want them to come back.
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_02: Right, exactly, and I want them to come back.
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_02: But I love, I love how you both shared that you incorporate both sides with within the progression across the floor and say, please reverse the the other side.
• 55:50
  SPEAKER_02: Like just using that language in the classroom, I think is gonna be light bulbs for teachers and students to again knock it in their head about, oh my gosh, this is my this is the left, and I am stressed and scared.
• 56:02
  SPEAKER_02: So, really, really fantastic advice.
• 56:05
  SPEAKER_00: One more thing, if I can say it really fast, is that it helps so much too, as a choreographer.
• 56:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like being able to just have my students do whatever I want them to be able to do.
• 56:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like you three are gonna do this, this uh leap and second on the left, you three are doing it on the right, you guys are gonna do this and that and whatever, whatever creates like so much more opportunity for like creativity in within choreography.
• 56:33
  SPEAKER_00: And like the dancers themselves are not like upset or mad that they're having to do a particular leap or jump or turn on a side because they've trained both and they they are close to equal, right?
• 56:47
  SPEAKER_00: We're not symmetrical, so it's not gonna be perfect, but they have that ability to just go with it rather than like stress over those moments.
• 56:55
  SPEAKER_00: And as a teacher and a choreographer, it just gives us so much more freedom, too.
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_02: Couldn't agree more.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's such a that's such a great point.
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_02: I'm so glad because especially when I walk into studios that I don't work with on the regular and don't know how they're training during the week.
• 57:11
  SPEAKER_02: I'm walking in hoping that they're able to do whatever side I ask them to.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_02: If I want to have a mirror image and a nice symmetrical vision on stage, if I need other dancers doing the left bot ma, you can't roll your eyes and give me sass about it.
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_02: That's my vision.
• 57:25
  SPEAKER_02: I'm the choreographer, and your job as the dancer is to deliver.
• 57:28
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I don't understand.
• 57:29
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I mean, I'm sorry about it.
• 57:31
  SPEAKER_02: Like, and it that's like what really immediately it just tells me that you don't train the left when dancers give me pushback and I ask them to do a side.
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, like you said, Kelsey, we're we're gonna I and I always say this too, we're gonna always have a favorite side.
• 57:45
  SPEAKER_02: Every single dancer in the history has a favorite side, but our goal is to get both sides equal.
• 57:51
  SPEAKER_02: You can still have a favorite.
• 57:53
  SPEAKER_02: You can say, if someone says do a triple peer wet, which side are you picking?
• 57:57
  SPEAKER_02: I'm probably picking the right, but I'm gonna hope that I can do that triple peer wet on the left too.
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_02: And it's definitely happened in auditions for me where they've asked, can you do a left side of this?
• 58:07
  SPEAKER_02: Can you do a right side of this?
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_02: And it might be your quote unquote bad side, but that could make or break it for you on a job.
• 58:13
  SPEAKER_03: I think on our World Caribbean ship, there were several members where we it was very symmetrical.
• 58:18
  SPEAKER_03: You had it was somebody who was on the right, somebody was on the left.
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_03: And I remember being like appalled that I was asked to do a calypso on the left because like my right one wasn't even that good.
• 58:27
  SPEAKER_03: And you're asking me to do this on a moving ship.
• 58:29
  SPEAKER_03: And so like I did it.
• 58:30
  SPEAKER_03: I think it ended up fine, but it never felt good.
• 58:33
  SPEAKER_03: But it was, you know, and that's what I think too is important to like, yes, you might have a favorite side.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, something might be more flexible.
• 58:40
  SPEAKER_03: And it might not ever feel good, but it might, you might be able to make it even enough to pass, you know.
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 58:47
  SPEAKER_05: Take your classic Batman second and imagine it on the opposite side.
• 58:52
  SPEAKER_05: It's like mine, you know, one's to one was to my ear and one was like, you know, to my ribs, but it wasn't one to my ear and one to my tongue.
• 59:02
  SPEAKER_05: That's what you know what I mean.
• 59:03
  SPEAKER_05: That's what you see, and effort-wise, you see like, oh, you didn't even plie as deep.
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_05: And then, you know, that's just a plie.
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_05: But I think that too, it's just not, it's there's no care for it because it's just not upheld and it, you know.
• 59:17
  SPEAKER_05: Do it, do it because you're supposed to.
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_05: That's really what I wish I could say.
• 59:21
  SPEAKER_05: Do it because you're supposed to, because your body needs it, your mind needs it.
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_05: Because at some point you're gonna stress out, but at least get it to where you're proud of what it looks like, even if it doesn't.
• 59:39
  SPEAKER_02: Something to think about too, just like with your mention, Leslie, about the left calypso and the Royal Caribbean show, just for like in heels on a ship.
• 59:46
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 59:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm moving shipping.
• 59:48
  SPEAKER_02: For all of the listeners out there or dancers who might not understand how the professional world works, pending what type of show you're doing, you are filling a track that is already designed.
• 59:59
  SPEAKER_02: The choreography is already designed.
• 1:00:01
  SPEAKER_02: So in Leslie's scenario, the track, the dancer that was before her and before her and before her, whoever was the first one might have been a great left-side calypsoer.
• 1:00:09
  SPEAKER_02: And guess what?
• 1:00:09
  SPEAKER_02: Now Leslie, years later, is filling this track and that is her job.
• 1:00:13
  SPEAKER_03: Again, it is wearing her costume from 10 years ago.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_02: Like that's again, like the end goal.
• 1:00:19
  SPEAKER_02: Like you mentioned, Terrell, like at the university.
• 1:00:21
  SPEAKER_02: Like, are you training to be ready for the career that you want to have?
• 1:00:25
  SPEAKER_02: Because you never know what's going to be presented to you as a professional in the career.
• 1:00:30
  SPEAKER_02: Your goal is to deliver to the choreographer or fill that void of whatever the material is.
• 1:00:36
  SPEAKER_02: And you never know.
• 1:00:37
  SPEAKER_02: Like you might be thinking, well, they didn't make me do the left calypso in the audition.
• 1:00:41
  SPEAKER_02: So why are they making me do it in the choreography?
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_02: Because that's what the choreography is.
• 1:00:45
  SPEAKER_02: And sorry about it if you're like wishing you were the girl on stage right and doing the right side calpso, but not today.
• 1:00:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, not today.
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you just never know.
• 1:00:54
  SPEAKER_05: And to circle that back around to like, say, a basic or a beginner class, you know, dancers don't know how to roll off the floor yet.
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_05: So going across the floor and doing like step step drag, step-step drag, roll to the floor, stand up, repeat, like that's that's transitions into choreography, right?
• 1:01:13
  SPEAKER_05: And then you, you know, are you stepping up with a pointer split?
• 1:01:16
  SPEAKER_05: Are you stepping up with your heel?
• 1:01:17
  SPEAKER_05: Are you stepping up on the right?
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_05: Are you correct?
• 1:01:19
  SPEAKER_05: Did you roll the right way?
• 1:01:20
  SPEAKER_05: Did you roll the, you know, are we are we stepping out to roll?
• 1:01:23
  SPEAKER_05: Are we tapping under the roll?
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_05: All of those things, like, I mean, my dancers only know how to do them because I put them in like across the floor across the floor, you know, exercises.
• 1:01:32
  SPEAKER_05: So and and again, like what Kelsey said, just put your right and your left in the same com, you know, combination, especially when it comes to things like that.
• 1:01:42
  SPEAKER_05: That's just just just like doing chassis right and left across the floor.
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_05: That they're ne you know, they're like, oh, we got this.
• 1:01:47
  SPEAKER_05: And like, okay, well, we should be able to do that with every exercise.
• 1:01:51
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that's I just want to shout out to some of the teachers out there who are probably like, this sounds like a lot of work.
• 1:01:57
  SPEAKER_03: It sounds like a lot of work because it is a lot of work.
• 1:02:00
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm even thinking back to when I was teaching regularly, I wasn't doing that much work to create my across the floors.
• 1:02:06
  SPEAKER_03: I was doing, let's do some butt mods, let's do some, you know, it wasn't very varied until you got to the more advanced people, but you can give more variation within your across the floor even to younger kids.
• 1:02:18
  SPEAKER_03: And then my my issue would be for my personal brain, I would have a very hard time creating it in that it could already go across the floor to the left.
• 1:02:27
  SPEAKER_03: My brain does not want to create that way.
• 1:02:29
  SPEAKER_03: So to any teacher who's out there thinking that, like, I feel you, that sounds hard.
• 1:02:33
  SPEAKER_03: And it would sound like I would have to do a lot of pre-prep for myself to make that happen.
• 1:02:38
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that's a really kind of a mind-blowing thing for me at least to hear from you guys that that's what y'all do because it is a lot more work.
• 1:02:46
  SPEAKER_03: And like I commend you.
• 1:02:48
  SPEAKER_03: And like next time I teach a class, I'm gonna, I'm gonna spend a week on my progressions and caregiving that.
• 1:02:54
  SPEAKER_05: I think it's worth at least trying.
• 1:02:55
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 1:02:56
  SPEAKER_05: I think it's fun.
• 1:02:57
  SPEAKER_00: If I can give you a suggestion or give the teachers a suggestion out there.
• 1:03:01
  SPEAKER_00: Something that I talk about when I'm working with teachers on creating progressions is working backwards.
• 1:03:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I only create my most advanced progression.
• 1:03:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then I take that and I knock it down and take a few things from that that I want to focus on for my intermediates.
• 1:03:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then I take that and I knock it down and I say, okay, what's a drill I can create that focuses on something that is worked on in the intermediate for my beginner?
• 1:03:27
  SPEAKER_00: So everybody's working within their skill set to that like same goal.
• 1:03:31
  SPEAKER_00: So we're training all of our dancers from beginners at five to advanced at 18, that same like progression, right?
• 1:03:40
  SPEAKER_00: Of how to get to that most advanced work.
• 1:03:43
  SPEAKER_00: And we're starting it in the beginner class.
• 1:03:45
  SPEAKER_00: So when I'm prepping my classes, I only create those most advanced, and then I take a look at it and I literally take that, and then I just knock an eight-count or two off of it, adjust some tempos, change how many direction changes I have or rate transfers, maybe get a slower song, and then we take that and then we use that.
• 1:04:04
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a way to get everybody working to that same level.
• 1:04:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of teachers try to start at the beginners, and then like the the anything's possible, right?
• 1:04:15
  SPEAKER_00: Which is great, but then it's hard to really hone in as an educator.
• 1:04:19
  SPEAKER_00: What are we solely trying to focus on here?
• 1:04:21
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why I work backwards and find that it gives me a more direct path to like what is my goal for my students as an educator, and then like then I'm able to find that in every class, if that makes sense.
• 1:04:35
  SPEAKER_05: And I'll say this too.
• 1:04:36
  SPEAKER_05: I know this is not done regularly, but I set a goal per month per class so that I'm like, no, I by the end of this month, I must.
• 1:04:46
  SPEAKER_05: And I don't even discuss it with them.
• 1:04:48
  SPEAKER_05: It's just like I must get through this to the point where I can see, okay, like they they know it.
• 1:04:54
  SPEAKER_05: It might not be gre you know perfect, but what that what I get to do the next month is take that and now I'm adding it to choreography.
• 1:05:00
  SPEAKER_05: And you know, and now you're dancing and you're trancing, we're adding movement to it.
• 1:05:04
  SPEAKER_05: But I just for me, I need to know.
• 1:05:06
  SPEAKER_05: I can't, I'm not just gonna go, here's my year-long goal.
• 1:05:09
  SPEAKER_05: I'm like, no, I need let me, you know.
• 1:05:12
  SPEAKER_05: And I try to encourage my students to do that too.
• 1:05:14
  SPEAKER_05: What's your you know, what's your goal for this class?
• 1:05:16
  SPEAKER_05: And it's hard for them.
• 1:05:18
  SPEAKER_05: They're like, I don't know, we just got off the school bus.
• 1:05:19
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know.
• 1:05:21
  SPEAKER_00: I was just gonna say, like, having them set like a clear intention for class is key in any class that you're teaching, but also like having them um understand like that the progressions and the across the floor is that bridge between your technical warm-up, where we should be focusing on body awareness and use and activation and strength and all of those things, and choreography.
• 1:05:46
  SPEAKER_00: So those progressions are that is that bridge that's connecting those two things.
• 1:05:50
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're not fully developing that and like crossing it all the way, you're never gonna get to that like successful choreography.
• 1:05:58
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're not doing a really like intentional warm-up, you're not going to be set up to do those progressions, which therefore you're never going to be set up to do that choreography.
• 1:06:06
  SPEAKER_00: So trying to get them to like understand that aspect of it too and that goal, I think is super important.
• 1:06:14
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I'm so glad you said that.
• 1:06:16
  SPEAKER_02: Because I think that a majority of of studios are skipping warm-up and going straight to progressions and then maybe a combo or something, or doing a 10-minute warm-up and then jumping straight to combo.
• 1:06:26
  SPEAKER_02: And something's missing in in the equation of what a dance class structure should be looking like.
• 1:06:32
  SPEAKER_02: And obviously there's a limit on studio space and time and whatever the reason may be.
• 1:06:37
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, we only have a 45 minute class.
• 1:06:39
  SPEAKER_02: How can we get all this done?
• 1:06:40
  SPEAKER_02: Like yes, that is true, but we shouldn't be doing things in our choreography that we haven't yet practiced in training, FYI.
• 1:06:48
  SPEAKER_02: And where do we do that?
• 1:06:50
  SPEAKER_02: In progressions and center work in our training class, not attempting something for the very first time.
• 1:06:56
  SPEAKER_02: And that goes to all the way down to something like you mentioned Terrell, like a roll on the floor.
• 1:07:00
  SPEAKER_02: You should have rolled on the floor in class at some point and learn how to point your feet and step up toe ball heel before you do it in your lyrical solo.
• 1:07:08
  SPEAKER_02: Like you like it has to be happening in training.
• 1:07:11
  SPEAKER_02: That's what training is for.
• 1:07:12
  SPEAKER_02: And that's also why we wanted to put this episode as well as our back to basics episode at the top of the season because in this month, which is still October, I hope that everyone's still training and not immediately focusing on choreography for competition.
• 1:07:26
  SPEAKER_02: Because I know.
• 1:07:28
  SPEAKER_02: But it but you know it happens.
• 1:07:32
  SPEAKER_05: And that goes to all style like I I'll never teach a contemporary class where I don't go across the floor.
• 1:07:37
  SPEAKER_05: Like it's you just you know what I need you to I need you to know what we're gonna do in the center you know for our phrase work before you know but I also I can't tell you how many times I've gone and guest taught and they're like oh they're already warm.
• 1:07:50
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 1:07:50
  SPEAKER_05: And I was just like no they're not not for me.
• 1:07:52
  SPEAKER_05: They're not not for being warm.
• 1:07:54
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 1:07:54
  SPEAKER_05: And that again it sets that intention and you know I'm I'm working on jumping in and out of my warm up right now but responsibly because I'm like I need to be I'll jump into demonstrate and I don't need to be and so I'm like I need to like have you know facilitate a little bit but I also am trying to not be too in it so I can go around and really correct placement and I'm doing that this week at the college level and it's been eye-opening to be like you know oh you do you do need a reminder that your weight needs to be further over the slit, you know.
• 1:08:26
  SPEAKER_05: So I I just I yeah I feel like the importance of it I can't I will always be on a soapbox about it but like all of that is what it makes up a dance class.
• 1:08:37
  SPEAKER_05: It's part it's part of it.
• 1:08:39
  SPEAKER_05: And it doesn't have to go in every dance class but if you are a studio that offers a specific leaps and turns or progressions class there should be goals tied to that for for each level and then the exercises should suit and it should be a like at least a month goal so that you can see at the end of that month okay I need to carry this over to the following month.
• 1:09:01
  SPEAKER_02: And if you're doing a leaps and turns class in your schedule that should not replace a jazz class just saying yes.
• 1:09:08
  SPEAKER_02: We need both.
• 1:09:08
  SPEAKER_02: It's that should be the elective to the jazz class jazz class comes first then if you want to add the leaps and turns and practice your drills and practice your all the things to then be doing progressions and center work in combinations in the jazz class to work on the style and the execution and the transitions and adding those technical elements into the progressions across the floor.
• 1:09:29
  SPEAKER_05: Learn how to leap and turn in the center and then learn how to travel them even more.
• 1:09:34
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's what I think that also is replacing a lot of what's happening is this whole new wave of leeps and kicks and technique jazz yeah techniques.
• 1:09:43
  SPEAKER_02: I don't even know I've never even heard of it.
• 1:09:44
  SPEAKER_05: I'm like okay that's fine but yeah I and I think again it's it's how we it's how we communicate it I'm picky on things like that.
• 1:09:54
  SPEAKER_05: It's like well what kind of technique?
• 1:09:55
  SPEAKER_05: Correct.
• 1:09:56
  SPEAKER_05: Or if a dancer says like do you do you want our arms in an L for our Botma and I'm like what did you just say to me?
• 1:10:02
  SPEAKER_05: Like did you just say L No we're not no we're not going to talk like that because it's a it is important.
• 1:10:07
  SPEAKER_05: There are some aspects about what we do that we shouldn't change you know the tradition and how we speak about dance and and all of that.
• 1:10:14
  SPEAKER_05: It'll make dance I think in my opinion it'll make us fall even more in love with it.
• 1:10:19
  SPEAKER_05: And that's what I say to kids all the time now and out of this entire class I need you to figure out a way to fall in love with something.
• 1:10:25
  SPEAKER_05: You know what I mean?
• 1:10:26
  SPEAKER_05: That way you can hold on to something when you're walking away like oh I was a train wreck on that exercise but like oh I you know I got deeper in my plie traveled further is something you you're falling in love with that then.
• 1:10:36
  SPEAKER_05: Like it amplifies it the next time and if you keep doing that then it goes back to that like okay I I love this overall instead of just like I love this and that.
• 1:10:46
  SPEAKER_00: I love that I um at the end of my classes specifically like technique based ones progressions, conditioning classes, anything of that sort I always ask the kids like what's their biggest takeaway?
• 1:10:59
  SPEAKER_00: What are you taking away from this class that you're gonna use in another class um because even if they were a complete disaster going across the floor and struggled hardcore like what's something that you're you learned from that experience and how are you going to use that?
• 1:11:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it really changes the kids' perspective away from like I kicked my face or I did eight turns away and more into like um I realized that like opposition and pushing through the floor is going to help me do more pirouettes.
• 1:11:32
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 1:11:33
  SPEAKER_00: So getting them to like dig into that aspect of it more and the appreciation for what they got out of the class, especially when it's really challenging in them and really pushing them, I think it helps bring that like love and just like value to the the overall class experience.
• 1:11:50
  SPEAKER_05: I do the same thing with the takeaways and I facilitate it with the question of what did this class call you out on?
• 1:11:58
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah I do like what what did this and I'll sometimes I'll do that individually for exercises like oh what did this exercise call you out on and then you know talk you know because they kind of that for me because my classes are pretty intense training I breaks that like okay you know we can be silly for a moment.
• 1:12:14
  SPEAKER_05: And then it's like okay now from what you called out what what are you going to do differently you know so it's that sometimes that question does shake it up but the I I did that because the what is your takeaway from this sometimes holds in like intensity and kids get a little afraid and um I'm very big on like I need you to be a part of the conversation.
• 1:12:33
  SPEAKER_05: I can't stand a silent class.
• 1:12:35
  SPEAKER_05: So and you know dancers and understanding like you you have a contribution to make to this class.
• 1:12:40
  SPEAKER_05: Do you want it to make a negative one or a positive one?
• 1:12:42
  SPEAKER_05: So like allow yourself to just communicate share your feelings that's a contribution.
• 1:12:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 1:12:47
  SPEAKER_05: Especially if it's you know if it's open to do that.
• 1:12:50
  SPEAKER_03: Courtney we got some like holistic educators on this podcast today.
• 1:12:56
  SPEAKER_03: The best in the biz.
• 1:12:57
  SPEAKER_03: I know I'm like man what what would my life have been like had I had teachers like you guys who asked these questions of their students early on.
• 1:13:07
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
• 1:13:07
  SPEAKER_03: I think some of that happened later on in my life but like you are asking young people to self-reflect on something they do for fun.
• 1:13:15
  SPEAKER_03: You know what I mean?
• 1:13:16
  SPEAKER_03: And I don't know that everybody's asking those those questions and I can only imagine like how that's building good human beings also.
• 1:13:24
  SPEAKER_03: So kudos to y'all.
• 1:13:25
  SPEAKER_03: Y'all are awesome.
• 1:13:26
  SPEAKER_02: Kudos to y'all and what a great chat this was.
• 1:13:30
  SPEAKER_02: Wow I am so inspired.
• 1:13:31
  SPEAKER_02: I'm taking so many tips from both of you and gonna be implementing that into my class next Monday at Steps on Broadway.
• 1:13:38
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna say the other side I'm gonna go straight into the left.
• 1:13:42
  SPEAKER_02: It's gonna be great.
• 1:13:43
  SPEAKER_02: I can't wait for it.
• 1:13:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I hope that everybody that was tuning in and listening, I hope dancers who I mean there's a lot of great great stuff in here for the dancer.
• 1:13:52
  SPEAKER_02: So I hope that you are listening and a lot of the dance teachers, I hope that you're listening as well because there's some really great tips that you can start implementing into your classes as you train weekly in any genre of class whenever you go across the floor or do progressions.
• 1:14:07
  SPEAKER_02: So to our guests Kelsey and Tyrell thank you so much for joining us.
• 1:14:12
  SPEAKER_02: We love having you back on the pod and how we always have our guests lead us out is with one final thought on the topic for today, which is all about progressions and across the floor.
• 1:14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Ready, set go I think the biggest thing is don't be afraid of them.
• 1:14:27
  SPEAKER_00: And as teachers don't be afraid to shake it up I think we get really stuck in like how we do things and feeling like this is the norm or this is comfortable.
• 1:14:38
  SPEAKER_00: So don't be afraid to shake it up don't be afraid to try something new and dancers don't be afraid to be bad at it.
• 1:14:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's how you're learning how to get good at something so like embrace the challenge as you progress through the space and just be open to the feedback and the excitement from your teachers that they're wanting to share with you because it's only gonna it's only going to help you be a more well-rounded and successful dancer in whether that's competition life or post-high school dance or career.
• 1:15:09
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that's my biggest my biggest thought on all of this.
• 1:15:12
  SPEAKER_05: And then I would say for the dance educators, don't forget that some of the amazing things that we learned in our training years still work.
• 1:15:22
  SPEAKER_05: And it's okay to revisit those and even if we're adding you know innovative things to it, allowing ourselves to remember that like this isn't dated.
• 1:15:31
  SPEAKER_05: This is important that you know we use some of these tools and to carry those tools out through all levels forever and to support their failures and let them fail similar to what Kelsey said.
• 1:15:42
  SPEAKER_05: So it's like remind them that if they're gonna make a mistake make sure it's a big mistake so that they can learn from it.
• 1:15:48
  SPEAKER_05: But if they're making mistakes because the effort is low, that just sets them up for disappointment.
• 1:15:52
  SPEAKER_05: So embrace the mistakes and celebrate the mistakes and encourage that to allow them to turn it into something beautiful.
• 1:16:01
  SPEAKER_02: We hope you enjoyed this week's episode all about across the floor and progressions.
• 1:16:06
  SPEAKER_02: Special shout out to our fabulous guests Kelsey and Tyrell for joining us back on the podcast.
• 1:16:11
  SPEAKER_02: Be sure to follow them on social media.
• 1:16:14
  SPEAKER_02: You can find Kelsey on Instagram at KJN Dance and Tyrell at T Mitchell227.
• 1:16:22
  SPEAKER_02: To learn more about Kelsey's teaching offers for in-cdO classes and teacher seminars visit her website at Kelseynelson.com and Tyrell will be hosting his first professional dance concert called Spaces which is designed to connect pre-professional dancers with professional dance makers.
• 1:16:37
  SPEAKER_02: Learn more at htxconnect713 dot com.
• 1:16:43
  SPEAKER_03: Don't forget to follow Making the Impact on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Podcasts, and pretty much everywhere you listen to podcasts.
• 1:16:49
  SPEAKER_03: And if you want more exclusive episodes, support our podcast by joining our Platinum Premium membership for only$5 a month.
• 1:16:56
  SPEAKER_03: Join now at Impactdanceadjudicators dot com Slash Platinum Premium or click the link in our show notes.
• 1:17:03
  SPEAKER_01: Be sure to check out IDA affiliated competition Elevation on tour Elevation on tour is redefining the dance competition and convention experience.
• 1:17:13
  SPEAKER_02: Driven by a commitment to service integrity and innovation Elevation on tour is constantly evolving to ensure the best for your studio.
• 1:17:23
  SPEAKER_02: Engage, embrace and elevate your dance experience at Elevation Dance Convention.
• 1:17:28
  SPEAKER_02: The convention atmosphere is carefully crafted to promote inclusivity, personal growth and character development.
• 1:17:35
  SPEAKER_02: With their inspiring faculty, Elevation on Tour empowers dancers to return to the studio with the newfound energy and love of dance.
• 1:17:43
  SPEAKER_02: Elevation on Tour competitions offers three performance levels, stunning awards and a distinguished four judge adjudication panel, including two specialty critiques for choreography and technique.
• 1:17:54
  SPEAKER_02: Don't miss out on the teacher hospitality suite and dedicated warm up area at every location.
• 1:18:00
  SPEAKER_01: For more information about Elevation on Tour, visit their website at ElevationonTour.com and find them on Instagram at ElevationOnTour.
• 1:18:09
  SPEAKER_01: Stay tuned for our upcoming episodes on making the impact including being a swing, keeping dancers safe from harmful situations in the industry and our next studio spotlight.
• 1:18:19
  SPEAKER_01: We'll see you next week for our next episode.
• 1:18:21
  SPEAKER_01: Until then keep dancing