Latest / Making The Impact - A Dance Competition Podcast / Boys in Dance

Transcript

Boys in Dance · Making The Impact - A Dance Competition Podcast

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the table at a dance competition?
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly what are the judges looking for anyway?
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: This is making the impact of dance competition podcasts.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Each week we'll cover a different topic related to the world of competitive dance from the perspective of the judges behind the table.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Did you know that the original ballet dancers were men?
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Dance forms around the world have been braced male dancers for centuries, yet sometimes in the US, there is a stigma surrounding boys to dance.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Today we are joined by three of our fantastic male judges and dancers, Eddie Bennett, Colin St.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: And Ralph Dinners, to talk about their journey through the dance world as night.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: The highs, the lows, and everything in between.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: They'll share personal stories, ideas for costumes and boys, and tips for studio owners to retain male students.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: Hi, podcast listeners.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: This is Courtney with a quick note about today's episode.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_02: We here at Making the Impact and Impact Dance Adjudicators celebrate and appreciate the beautiful diversity of all dancers.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: Today's episode focuses on the male-identifying members of the dance community, and our wonderful guests are speaking from that perspective.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_02: We hope you enjoy the episode and always welcome your comments and suggestions for future topics.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_02: Right, y'all.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to this week's episode of Making the Impact.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: I'm your host, Courtney Ortiz, and I am here with my co-host Leslie Mueller.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_02: Hey guys! Today we are talking about boys in dance.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_02: We have an amazing panel of three IDA judges who are all fantastic, amazing, wonderful male dancers in the industry who are here to talk about this fabulous topic.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: And to kick it off, we are going to start with Colin.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_02: Colin, can you tell us a little bit about yourself, where you're based, where you grew up, what you're currently doing, any career credits you want to share?
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_04: Sure.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I grew up in southern Missouri, the Ozarks.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, and I lived there all throughout my growing up.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_04: I went to college there, I went to Missouri State, and I started dancing probably around the age of eight or 10.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_04: I always thought it was a little bit later than a lot of other boys, but as I started working, I found out that a lot of boys kind of started, what seems like later, but you know, around 10, 12, started in tap class at the local community theater.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_04: My dad was the artistic director there.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_04: So took tap class, took jazz class there.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_04: It wasn't until I was in school at Missouri State that I started to really get into um any sort of technique classes.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_04: So that was later on when I was in school there.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_04: After I graduated, I moved to New York City and was there for nine years.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_04: And while I was there, I did a lot of musical theater work.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_04: Most of my work was regionally, so I got to travel all over the country and perform in musicals.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_04: I started out in some of the non-equity theaters in the Northeast doing like holiday reviews in New England and then spent a long time out in Arizona.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_04: I went back and forth to a theater out there for off and on for about four years, did some summer stock.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_04: I was in Illinois at Little Theater on the Square.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_04: I did five shows there.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_04: I did um, gosh, Little Funny Me Happened on the Way to the Forum, Fiddler on the Roof, Will Rogers Follies, um, Spam a lot and anything goes, spent a season at Theater by the Sea doing West Side Story and Wizard of Oz, was at Tenth Theater doing Drowsy Chaperone.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_04: And I just recently relocated back to Missouri a few months ago.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_04: I've been back in Springfield, and now that I'm here, I am teaching Pilates at a studio and teaching dance at that same theater that I started working at.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_04: I started teaching there within the first like two weeks of being back.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm teaching a jazz two, a jazz one, and an experienced elementary school jazz.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: Congrats, Colin.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: All right, next up is Eddie.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_03: Hi.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_03: Hi, everyone in Podcast Land.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_03: I'm Eddie Bennett, and I started out dancing later on.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_03: I started with uh gymnastics in Garland, Texas, and dance was not really it was harder for a boy to get into dance in Texas in a suburb of Dallas.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_03: So I started out in gymnastics and then musical theater in my local community theater.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_03: And then I moved to New York in '96, right out of high school, and I started auditioning.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_03: I had my first job with Barry Lather and Helene Phillips in two months after that.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_03: And then I started doing national tours, theme parks, cruise ships, regional theaters, and then Broadway.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_03: And I've been on Broadway now with Chicago the Musical for 15 years and 20 years all together with the tour added in there.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_03: And I also met one of my best friends who I became a choreographer for, Debbie Gibson, who's a pop star, and I became her choreographer and backup dancer.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_03: And uh yeah, and now I'm still doing it.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_03: I just got off of Broadway last week.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome! And our final guest is Mr.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_02: Rob Gibbs.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_02: Hi, everybody.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_02: Hello.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_05: Hi.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_05: Um so I am originally from a little bitty baby town in Arkansas called Marvel.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_05: Um uh born and raised there.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_05: I started taking classical piano lessons when I was five years old.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_05: A couple of years later, I started taking classical voice lessons.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_05: And then when I was at the ending of middle school, I started taking classical dance lessons.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_05: So just like the other two guys, a little later in life.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_05: When I was a junior in high school, I left home to dance full-time with a studio in Memphis, Tennessee.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_05: And then in 2007, I moved to New York City to go to the American Musical and Dramatic Academy of New York and graduated there in 2009 and have worked off Broadway regionally and internationally since then.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, doing just normal old review shows and book musicals.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_05: Most of my resume actually is with a chorus line.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_05: The original depiction of it directed and choreographed every time by Mitzi Hamilton, who was in the original tapings of the musical.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_05: So I feel like I have absorbed as much information about that kind of world as I possibly could.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_05: And I still live here in New York City after 12 years.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for being with us tonight.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: As actually Rob and Colin know, our episodes are all based on blog topics that we've covered throughout the years.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: So Rob and Colin actually were both featured in this original blog article from May of 2017.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: This is a vintage article.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: Vintage.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's called Let's Hear It for the Boys.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so we also had some thoughts from IDA judges Patch David and Stephen Cardona.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: So if the listeners want to refer back to that, you can head on over to the blog, www.impact danceadjudicators.com slash judges blog to read more.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Guys, let's jump right in.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: I am really curious because nobody mentioned this in their little introductory bio.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Did any of you guys grow up with male teachers?
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_03: Oh.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_03: Kicking it off.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_03: I can say no.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: No, you didn't.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, no, I didn't, but well, because I didn't start dancing until I mean I was always in community theater and and danced there, but I didn't really start dancing dancing until I moved to New York and I got my first job as a dancer.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_03: And I thought, holy crap, if I'm, you know, gonna do this, I just got cast as a dancer and I have very little training.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_03: You know, I was a gymnast at the time.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_03: And it was a sink or swim moment, you know.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_03: Bear I was in a show where it was Barry Lather, which was a style dancer on one end, he got to hire six people, and Helene Phillips, who is a technical dancer, who got to hire six people on her end, and they had to share a cast of 12.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_03: And so for Barry's show, I was like almost like the star of it.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_03: And for Helene's show, she was like, What do I do with this guy?
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_03: You know, and for me, it was it was a moment where I was like, I'm gonna, you know, I he was my uplifting, you know, you're good, don't quit, you're the best.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_03: You know, in my show, I've got to work with her people, she's gotta work with you.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_03: You know, so he was always giving me the boost of confidence while she was kind of lighting the fire under me to get better because she just thought I was so bad, you know.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_03: So those two things clashing together really was a great moment for me to go, okay, if I'm gonna do this, I've got to start working on technique, I've got to soak this up like a sponge and and do my job that I've been hired for.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, absolutely.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_03: He was my first basically male choreographer, you know, and male mentor in that sense.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's you know, kudos to him.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm glad he took you under his wing.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_04: I would say I had male choreographers growing up, but not male dance teachers.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_04: Like I would have, I would learn numbers from from some male dancers, but I didn't really have any um consistent male like technique training growing up.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_04: It wasn't until honestly college that I had like regular dance from from a male, from a male dance teacher.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: What about you, Rob?
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_05: I had musical theater teachers growing up, doing community theater in Arkansas.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_05: And then when I went, when I moved to Memphis to to dance at that studio, my studio director, who is also my cousin, was very she wanted everything for me that I could get.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_05: So she knew that I was just a huge sponge and was trying to absorb as much as possible.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_05: So anytime that there was a national tour that was going through Memphis, Tennessee, she would reach out to every cast to see who wanted to come in and teach, preferably male teachers, that they would come in.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_05: I would skip school and would go to the studio during the day when they didn't have shows and have privates with them.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_05: And then our ballet mistress, her partner, her now she's married to him, but he was um a principal dancer in Boston Ballet, and he did the exact same thing.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_05: So when he would come to visit her and she was in rehearsals during the day, I would go to the studio and would have ballet privates with this incredible dancer of Boston Ballet.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_05: So I got a lot at the very beginning.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_05: It was I was very lucky to have that studio director.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: Rob, how do you do how do you feel like that like ability to have some male influence in your earlier dance training influenced how you teach now?
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_05: You know, it it is it was hard because it was also such a pivotal time because you're you're a teenager, you're hormonal, you're trying to get through life, you know, you you're the only, probably the only male dancer in the studio at that time.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_05: So you're just trying to figure out how to get through that.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know that it really impacted the way that I teach so much.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_05: I just know that it impacted my drive and my hunger for making sure that I got to do as much as I possibly could with those men.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, I had incredible female teachers growing up as well.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_05: The male teachers were just there to be able to teach me ways to jump or like the keys to success of you know how to get into, you know, like a fourth position grandplier at the bar.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_05: I remember spending a lot of time in those kinds of things because our bodies, most of our bodies as men, don't work in the same way, especially like hip rotation as women do.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_05: So to be able to have someone like that to be able to teach you is it's kind of it's it's awakening at all times to be able to have that kind of clarity when you've only had female teachers up until that point.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: Colin, do you do you sort of feel the same like you ended up in college before you had some male like technique teachers?
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: Do you feel that same sort of influence as Rob?
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_04: I think it it definitely opens your eyes when you finally have that that influence.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_04: It's almost like you've been you've been trying to figure something, you've been trying to go about something one way, and now someone's finally telling you, you know, the destination's the same, but try going about it this way.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_04: And it's kind of that light bulb moment.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_04: But I will say, like a lot of things, as I reflect back, like style can for a male, can still be taught by a female teacher.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_04: You know, there's certain things, lifts can be taught by a female teacher.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_04: There is something I feel like that is gained though from a male learning from another male.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_04: And now that I'm teaching back where I was um, you know, growing up, taking dance, it's it definitely influences the way I teach the boys.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_04: I have more invested in teaching them than I thought I would because I've been on that side of it.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, you want to push them because you want them to do well, but there's a nice way to do it.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, totally.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that goes for men and women teachers for sure.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_02: We had three male dancers at my studio growing up, and we didn't have any male teachers at my studio.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_02: So all of the teachers that were there were all females, and they really taught us how to, you know, partner.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: I I feel lucky as a female dancer to have grown up in an atmosphere with other males so I could learn the fundamentals of partnering in ballet, in jazz, in lyrical, doing lifts, things like that.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_02: But I was always kind of curious to know a male's perspective of growing up without a male teacher influence because a lot of the males at my studio did end up going to ballet conservatories or um one went to SAB, one went to Baltimore School for the Arts, then went on to the Fordham Ailey program, and they did receive, you know, that male interaction in in the class growing up in their training.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_02: So it is interesting to hear.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_02: Did you have any male dancers in in your studio growing up?
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: No, not until high school when sort of like these boys, like our our community theater boys and our high school theater boys were like, oh, you know, if I want to be in Footloose, like I have to be able to dance.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, three of my very best friends in high school were boys and came over to my mom's studio to learn how to dance.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, because they found this opportunity again a little bit later in life.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: But we didn't have any male teachers.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so I know, you know, just knowing them from their perspective, I think they would have liked to have had that, to have had that.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: But uh, you know, just the fact that they were getting some dance instruction from somewhere was really valuable because all of them went on to two musical theater careers, you know, just based on the couple years of high school training.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I wish we would have had male teachers.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't even have male teachers.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: I really think I only had two in college.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh guys, what do you think uh in terms of because I know y'all all teach, uh there are so many uh situations out there like many of you were in where you only had female teachers.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: How do you think what kind of advice can you give to female teachers out there who have male students and maybe live in a smaller town, don't have access to those, you know, male teachers on a consistent basis?
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: How can we help them help their students?
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_05: I think that growing up in in this day and age is so lucky, and it's that those people have no idea how easy they have it to just log on to YouTube and to see, or Instagram or Facebook, or even like people's Vimeos, like just to be able to see anything that they wanted to see, every dance genre, every age dancer, every level dancer, and to be able to study something like that just to just to show if they have a male dancer in their studio just how to mimic someone.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_05: So find someone uh that is doing the genre of like a jazz dance that they're doing for recital this year, and find someone that does that style really well, and to be able to just sit and and figure out their mannerisms is it there's like a it's a no-brainer, it's literally at your fingertips, and we're all sitting on our phones at all time anyway, and they're constant I know teachers are constantly looking for music because of like Facebook groups and everything, and that's like incessant with costuming.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_05: So just take that second window, that second tab open, and just look on YouTube for male dancers.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_05: It's so easy.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_05: I still do it myself as an adult, like to try and mimic, or if I'm going into an audition and I know who the choreographer is, then I look at that choreographer's reel to see exactly what they're looking for, maybe in the audition the next day.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: So smart.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: Eddie, what about you?
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think?
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_03: I agree.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_03: I feel like a lot can be helped.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, uh if they're going for their own choreography, a lot can be just helped in the arms.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_03: If I have guys in my room, I go make do your own kind of arms, figure them out yourself, and let let me see them on you what feels good, you know, just keep it nice and strong.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_03: There's so much that can be done with the arms alone.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_03: You can keep footwork the same, change the arms.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_03: That can help you right off the bat.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, that's a great, that's a great point.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_02: And that was something that I was going to eventually go into with a question on your end, but I'm the same way.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm not saying that this is the right way, but I always and always have as a teacher given an a separate option for specific steps to the male dancers in the room to make them feel comfortable if, you know, they don't feel comfortable with, you know, putting their hands on their hips and shaking their booty, you know, like if that's what the step is.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_02: So I'll give them an alternative of maybe just like a strong weight transfer or a weight shift or something to replace that.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_02: So that's something I've personally done.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_02: I'm happy to hear that other teachers, Eddie, you're doing that as well.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_02: And it seems the other uh Rob and Colin are also kind of in agreement that that's something that teachers can utilize.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_02: But something that I was curious to kind of hear is your thoughts on that.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_02: Do you feel that there always should be that different?
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_02: You know, when when do we it is it okay to just leave it as is?
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_02: And it's the guys can obviously dance just like the girls, why not?
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_02: Or do you, as judges in that scenario, expect to see that strong like masculinity on stage from male dancers in a competition setting, or is that not a big deal?
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_02: What are your thoughts on that?
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_04: I think when you go back to like foundations, I think it's important to teach boys how to dance in a way um that is traditionally more masculine.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_04: That is, if they're wanting to go into a field of musical theater or do partner work, there is a certain stylistic element that is, again, traditionally more masculine.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_04: And it's important to show them where to carry their weight, where to hold strength, positions of the arms, all of that.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_04: It's important to teach them that it's going to make their career, it broadens their career, it makes uh them more marketable.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_04: When it comes to competitions, and especially with the climate we're in now, I think it just it's reading the style of the piece and the people that are in it, and maybe opening up that conversation to these are the options of style within this piece.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_04: You're able to take whichever one you want.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_04: It's important to be able to know how to do all different styles within that.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_02: Does anybody else have any thoughts on that topic?
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_04: I do.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I was thinking Rob might.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_02: I want to hear.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_05: I do.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_05: Of course.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_05: I I think so.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_05: The question at hand is whether or not to worry about choreographing boys differently than girls.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_05: So here's here's my strongest opinion about this.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_05: I think when you put someone in a group dance and they're not dressed like the rest of the group, or they are a feature in a piece, then they are never meant to look like everybody else.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_05: So, in that instance, that since we're talking about boys, most of the time, almost all of the time, there's a group of girls with one male, and he is usually dressed completely differently.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_05: So I think the uniformity of the girls is great.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_05: That's what you're shooting for.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_05: You're looking for cleanliness, of course, at all times.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_05: There's nothing that you can do to uh a male dancer in black slacks and a blue shirt in a lyrical group with girls in blue dresses that he's going to blend in.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_05: So you have to be able to separate that out, knowing that he can do a double pirouette or he can do a grand soda shot, whatever that choreography is, but he's never going to look as uniform as everybody else.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_05: So there's an opportunity to find a way to be able to set him differently so that he so that he's not pulling focus more so than he already is, but that it's that it fits into the cue of the piece.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: That makes total sense.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: And what a good point, too, that like inherently in like you said, in a group number, if you've got a boy in black slacks and a blue shirt, there's just there's just a visual difference no matter what.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: So you might as well take that opportunity to showcase here is this way this person moves differently.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: Here is a way I can you know put him in a different place that, like you said, features what he does well and uh not necessarily accentuates the fact that he is different in a great way, but uh that does uh let it be that, because it is that.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_02: Eddie, any thoughts on this topic or yeah.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I was just sitting here thinking to myself, like, I don't know if anybody else in this group has seen it, but uh last year during competition, a few times I saw a group number with a bunch of girls in heels and a guy in heel.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_03: For me, I'm like all four, but I'm I'm also for the fact that if you're Going to go in that direction, the boy is going to be have to be the feature.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_03: You know, in one or two numbers that I saw, he's like off to the left or off to the right.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, my eye is going to him every second because he's a guy in heel.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_03: So if you're gonna go for that, then the boy has to be the leader of it, and he's gotta slay.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, I've I've definitely seen a few male dancers hit the stage in their like stilettos and and own it and kill it.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, I I applaud, I absolutely applaud it.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_02: I love every second of it.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, side note, I went to an audition last week and there was a male dancer.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_02: We were, it was girls and guys, and there was a male dancer in his Laduka boots, and he was ready to go.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_02: And he didn't dance with the girls, he went in the groups with the guys to audition it, and he showed everybody up.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like he made it look easy as anything, owning it and knowing what suited him best.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_02: You know, he's like, I can show the world that I can do this garangete in a Laduca boot and make it look easy breezy.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_02: And it was it was actually so inspiring to me.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_02: So I love when I see dancers, male dancers come to the stage and you know, attempting to dance in heels.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_02: It's so hard for us ladies that we do that all the time.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_02: So I I'm always inspired and I support it in a million ways.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_02: But I do, I do agree.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I I think that it depends on the style, like Colin said.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_02: It definitely depends on the style of the routine.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it needs to make sure it it fits when especially if a male is gonna go the heels route.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_02: But overall, um I I prefer to see the foundations laid out as uh very much like what Colin said, making sure that the dancers understand um, you know, how to dance, the certain style that will help their career moving forward if that's the route they choose to go, because you never know what a choreographer is going to expect as far as the style of male dance that they want to see.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: We should always talk about costumes because, you know, as as most of us know, the boys' costumes in the catalog are like there's like three and they're all very bad.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: How can we help guys?
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: How can we help these studios costume their boys properly?
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: What do you any suggestions would would help?
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_03: I think black stretchy pants are always a good go, you know, like black stretch jeans or anything like that.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, the the dad pant is kind of gone.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_03: And I mean, like I when I see it, I'm like, gosh, that looks so dated.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of white sock and black shoe.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_03: And it's just, you know, a basic, you know, wardrobe that you can dance in, you know.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I know uh for me personally, uh, if I have a concert to go to, or you know, I put my costumes together and it's a black stretch.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_03: I have the basics, a black stretchy jean, a blue jean I can dance in, uh, you know, like a khaki, you know.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_03: So I mean something that moves and is cool.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, we we all know what's cool now, right?
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you would hope.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_04: I think you can go now more of the regular streetwear route than finding the jazz catalog route for things that are appropriate for boys that they can still move in.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, my audition wardrobe changed over the past 10 years, and there's so much more now that you can wear from street to studio.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_04: I will say that there's a fine line then with balancing, if it is a group number, what the girls are wearing.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_04: So, do you want to have all the girls wearing the glittery dress from page seven of the catalog and then the boys dressed from the gap?
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_04: And then that looks kind of weird when they're on stage together.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_04: So, how can you bring those two together maybe find a balance so that it's not just the same colors, but we are living in the same world?
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_05: I think, like going off of what Colin said, it a lot of it has to do with fabrication.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_05: For me, when I sit at a dance competition or like a dance recital and I see boys coming on stage, it's it goes one of two ways.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_05: It's either that it was a complete afterthought, and you can tell that the choreographer was like, Oh gosh, I completely forgot we have to get something for Jake to wear because he's the star of this number and he he doesn't have anything.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_05: Also, then so when Colin was talking about are is the boy in the gap and the girl is in whatever, she's like in an evening gown, it's not it's not gonna it's not gonna mesh well on stage, but you also have to take into consideration if you're under stage lights.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_05: It it it changes the way that materials look and feel on stage.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_05: So you have to be cautious of those kinds of things.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_05: Like if it's a stretch lycra for a girl's dress, and then you put the boy in a cotton tank top, it's never gonna look like you're in that you're living in the same world.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_05: But I know last year I helped a lot with with a studio because they have tons of boys, and they needed they needed costumes.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_05: It was their year, like for it was their end of the year, like performance, whatever.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_05: And some of them didn't have costumes, or they had costumes and they weren't happy with it, and they had gone like the normal route of like, well, we're gonna rent a tuxedo vest and put black skinny jeans on them.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_05: And there again, it's the fabrications, they just don't match well.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_05: So there's so many options now.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_05: There's there's brands, there's companies that we all audition in here in the city that are accessible um through online.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_05: There's also a really wonderful company that I sent so many of the boys to last year that I know of ASOS, ASOS.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_05: One of the one of the young gentlemen last year bought like a sequined bomber jacket and matching sequin shorts for his solo.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_05: So it was like, well, nobody else is gonna show up in that because their dance teacher decided that it was okay to just buy the fake tuxedo shirt with a lycra tie on it.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_05: So you just as much effort as people put into the other side of the block for costumes of like hovering in and Swarovski rhinestones, right?
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_05: Just put a couple more Google searches in to look up Lululemon pants.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, I I think that and in like a teacher's defense, which you know, I I've heard this is what I've heard from some teachers, is that it's just easier to just order it all at the same time.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_02: So whatever the matching boy costume is in the costume catalog is what we're gonna order, even though it might not be the most flattering and it might not be the prettiest costume or the coolest costume, but hey, at least it matches, and and there was a boy option.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_02: And I think in that being said, I think there's a lot of teachers who will base their costume choice around the fact if the costume catalog gave a boy option, if they have a male dancer in the dance in the class.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't think that's fair, and I don't think that's the right route to go.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_02: It to me that just comes across honestly a little bit lazy.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_02: Like Rob said, just take the extra effort you have to, and it'll it'll make all the difference.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_02: And the dancer will then feel confident on stage and not feel like, oh man, I hate these ja black stretch spandex jazz pants that you're making me wear when they'd rather feel comfortable in like, you know, dress pant that has some stretch to it that looks flattering on their body type and their, you know, their look.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_02: So it's a definitely uh a hot topic, I think, that our boys deserve to have or feel their best on stage at competition and look their best just like the ladies.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: So well, and I think we are a little lucky too in in this day and age with the trend of like you know, girls have been wearing clothes from HM on stage for years now.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so if the girls are wearing a t-shirt dress and booty shorts, then the boy can kind of have that same sort of casualness.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: So at least we are sort of in that day and age where like, yeah, obviously for a Broadway jazz number, we're really hoping for him to go on that same, you know, trendy, clean, yeah, you know, on point kind of look.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: But I think there was somebody suggested to me once that, you know, if if you're in a costume catalog and you know, your dream girl costume does not have a boy option, buy another girl costume in like an extra large or double XL.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: So you have the fabric.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then you can chop up the fabric and you know, make a uh pocket square or make a tie or do something so that it does tie it in.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: I don't remember who said that, but it was a brilliant suggestion because okay, well, you're gonna spend the money anyway.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: You need to charge him a costume fee, you know, just like the rest of your students, studio owners.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: So use it to buy that fabric essentially, and you know, you kind of have something more unique also.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, my my c uh studio growing up, all of my costumes were custom made because my teachers never wanted me to do that whole thing, which was very lucky.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_05: But we so then my costume designer would take the girls' costumes and would like make me a tuxedo jacket, but would pipe my lapel in the same material as their skirt or as their if they wore like um we did a circus number one year and the girls wore thigh-high pink and black socks, so she took the socks and rolled it around the piping of my lapel.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_05: So I matched them perfectly because it just tied back in.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_05: It doesn't have to be the exact same like yellow polka dot bikini material, and you just make him a button-up like or t-shirt.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_05: It could just be pops of it throughout.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_05: Because again, he's not he's never gonna look exactly the same if you have a girl on stage in a mini-skirt and he's wearing black dress pants.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I kind of want to segue into a little bit of current events pop culture.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I think we all remember podcast listeners, maybe unless you were living in another country or under a rock, there was this whole big shebang a couple months ago with Good Morning America and a news anchor who poked a little bit of fun at the Royal Prince George for taking and enjoying ballet.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: There was a ton of backlash online about it.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: There was a ton of backlash on TV, and it, you know, ballet for men kind of got a little bit of an upswing of attention.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: And Rob was a sort of present, he not sort of, he was present for this sort of event that happened on Times Square immediately following that situation.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: I want to hear a little bit about that experience, Rob, and and what it was like to be there with so many male dancers.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, totally.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_05: It was a grandioso kind of event.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_05: It it took us all by surprise, actually.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_05: My partner was the one that spearheaded the entire event.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_05: The comment in question, I I believe happened on maybe a Thursday on Good Morning America.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_05: And then, of course, it was it was huge.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_05: It was huge here, especially in our community here in New York City.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_05: People were hurt, people were very upset about it.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_05: So uh Sam, my partner, created a Facebook event saying that he wanted to do something to be able to show the world.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_05: It wasn't meant to be spiteful, it wasn't meant to be hurtful, it wasn't meant to be derogatory in any way.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_05: It was just to be able to have a voice of the fact that boys dance too.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_05: And literally that was our hashtag for the whole thing.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_05: So the entire weekend we we were able to I can't take credit for it.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_05: I was just I was just here with it for support.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_05: The entire weekend was was gathering people and sending out emails and trying to figure out exactly what we were going to do.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_05: So on that, I think it was Monday, right?
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_05: Was it Monday morning?
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it was a Monday.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, so Monday morning, we showed up in Times Square in front of Good Morning America, the recording building, um, at like six o'clock, I think it was, or something.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I think we showed up at six o'clock.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_05: Everybody else said that they were gonna be there at 6 30.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_05: We ended up with over 300 people, all shapes, sizes, genders, levels, any kind.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_05: We had hip-hop dancers there, we had men in point shoes, we had women in point shoes.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_05: The the wonderful thing about it was we got more, even more press about it because Travis Wall became attached to it.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_05: He brought on um Robbie Fairchild, and we also had Alex Wong there that morning.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_05: There it was, it was a huge, huge body that turned out to be uh literally just a like a peace and love sit-in, but with ballet dancing on the streets of of New York and Times Square in a very safe area, of course.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_05: But we did it for for a really long time while while they were filming Good Morning America.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_05: We weren't looking for um TV time, we weren't looking for um I mean, an apology would have been nice, yes, is what we were thinking at the time.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_05: And it all happened.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_05: It all did.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_05: It was it was reversed.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_05: I think that that correspondent, she felt terribly about it, um, apologized very deeply, and it has been it has been so promising since then.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_05: It's been a really, really great experience.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it was amazing to watch all of that.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_02: I was attempting to go partake in the class, and unfortunately, the wonderful MTA did not allow me to make it at six in the morning.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_02: But then I came home and I just literally was on my Instagram feed and my Facebook feed watching the videos flood in of the New York City dance community coming together for this special, special moment.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_02: And it was it was so beautiful.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm sure a lot of the listeners probably remember this very because you know it took place in August and it wasn't that long ago.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_02: But if you didn't have a chance to see any of those video montages that came about from that day, it's very inspiring to see.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_02: And people are grandeteing on the concrete.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, they they didn't care.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_02: It was just it was for the love of dance, and it was a beautiful, a beautiful day.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm so happy that you were a part of that, Rob.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_02: And thanks, shout out to Sam, who is also an IDA judge, who uh made that happen uh with all of these fantastic uh male dancers in the industry.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_05: Oh yeah, totally.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: You guys all started dance uh either middle school or later.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: For those boys who actually started earlier, the trend seems to be in studios that by middle school the peer pressure starts, the football season starts, the you know, STEM activities start, like all these other things, just I mean, even just like with girls.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: Girls like to do other things too once they get older and everything else happens.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: But with boys, you know, the the interest in dance art drops off in middle school.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, from what I've heard from studio owners.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: How is there any way that you guys can think of to continue to retain male students, um, to retain the interest to keep them involved?
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because I feel like there, you know, there's I see so many boys come through and then stop, and you just think, oh, the potential.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like if they could have just stuck it out one more year through that bullying, or if they could have just stuck it out one more year and like, you know, did soccer and dance, you know, how how how they could have been amazing.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: How can we how can we help them?
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I think that's that's gonna be an ongoing question.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_04: You know, it was when we were growing up, certainly was before we were growing up.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_04: Things have gotten well, actually, I don't know.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_04: I I can't speak to it.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_04: Have they gotten better?
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_04: Have they gotten harder?
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_04: Maybe, maybe it depends on where you are.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_04: I think representation is super important.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_04: If you can get those male choreographers, those male dance teachers in the studio, great.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_04: If you can get enough boys to do a boys technique class, fantastic.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_04: Then they're not the only boy in the studio with a bunch of girls, you know, in a in a number or in a class.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_04: I think it can really help just to have that kind of group mentality, that union.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_04: Then you have your, you know, you have your base there.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_04: And then to what Rob was speaking to earlier, you know, find those people, even if it's online, even if it's on Instagram, if it's that representation that it's out there, I think that's super helpful.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_04: You can feel super very isolated if you're the only boy in your studio.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_04: But even if it's in an academic setting, if it's in school, like write a paper on your favorite male dancer.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_04: It forces them to do the research, it forces them to realize it's out there, and then I think that can soften it a little bit.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_04: And then just finding that base of support within the studio or the theater wherever you are dancing to, you know, to help with the non-dance related stuff that goes along with it for all of them.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_04: Just giving them that support outside of, you know, the dance technique side of it.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I think I think it's like that old saying, you know, if you hold a sand, hold sand loosely, you hold more of it instead of really tightening it and losing a lot of the sand.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_03: I think when they're starting to pull away, you have to kind of go with that feeling for them, but maybe just lessen it.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe say, oh, let's just do one number this year, you know, let's just do, you know, a group number with you so that they still feel like they're part of it without having to pull away completely, you know, like let the string out a little.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe they're not gonna do three solos, maybe they're not gonna be in every number anymore, you know?
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I think actually everything that we have said already so far, if studio directors and teachers take all of that to heart and actually put those um action plans into play, it will create an energy in the studio space in that learning environment to build hype around it.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_05: If you're if if you're giving them a costume that they hate, then it's another reason.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_05: It's another tick on their list to be like, I just don't think I'm that interested.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_05: I don't feel like I'm a priority because uh because of whatever reason.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_05: Like, you know, the girls got their costumes and all of them were covered in you know, sequins and swabs stones, but I got a Walmart t-shirt.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_05: You know what I mean?
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_05: Or it's taking that that liberty to be able to show them a video of Robbie Fairchild doing something from New York ballet to be able to give them like a helping hand to say, like, look, you know, he's he's not the tallest guy in the world, he's not the most muscular guy in the world.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_05: Like maybe you could find some sort of interaction or reaction from them to find someone that looks like them that is also a successful dancer to be able to give that kind of inspiration behind it.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_00: If you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_03: I think I would just say trust the uniqueness of you, that there isn't another person like you.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_03: And you know, yeah, I'm you know, not the most muscular guy in the room, and I'm not the tallest guy in the room, but there's only one me.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_03: And this is what I find myself telling a lot of at the stage door.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_03: You meet a lot of young performers coming up, and they're always like, tell uh, what's one piece of advice you could give me?
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, trust your individuality.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_03: There's only one of you, you know, and I'm sure we've all heard you're too short, you're too skinny, you're not muscular enough, you know, this and that.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_03: But there you can bring something to the stage that nobody else can, and nobody else has.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_03: And always trust that, you know, don't try to be a carbon copy of the person next to you.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_03: Be you and and fully you.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_04: I would say to myself to stop censoring myself, you know, allow yourself to to dive into it, whatever that is, headverse, as opposed to being worried of the reaction of others.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_04: I think I grew up being so careful about how others would react to me.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_04: And in the long run, it doesn't matter.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_04: And I would love to have been able to go back to, you know, seven, eight, ten-year-old Colin and just tell him to let it go, you know, just embrace it fully.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_04: I wish that I had started earlier.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_05: I wish that I had maybe taken it a little bit more seriously, you know, like working on double tours in ballet class and not not been like, well, I'm the only guy, I'm the only one doing tours, so a single is probably good enough.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_05: If I could maybe just like push just a little bit further, but I was in the studio six days a week as it was.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_05: So it was, it was always I I just danced nonstop.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_05: So maybe that's what it would be.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_05: Just to if you know early on that this is your career path, like every step along the way is a stone to where where you want to get.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_05: Just make sure that you're stepping on the right ones.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_02: We hope you enjoyed this week's episode all about boys and bands.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_02: Shout out to our special guests Rob, Colin, and Eddie, for joining us on this great topic.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_02: Follow our guests on Instagram, rob at rob.kid, Colin K at Mr.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_02: ColinK, and Eddie at Euphorium54.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_02: A quick shout-out from one of our sponsors in IBA affiliated competition, Axis Dance Competition, where Linda Diamond's years of experience brings you the vitality of a new beginning.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_02: Teachers, studio owners, dancers, and parents have shared what they want in a dance competition, and Axis is here to deliver.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_02: This innovative yet traditional event promises to be a combination of fun, professionalism, and passion.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_02: Their goal is that each dancer leaves with a smile on their face and the incentive to be the best they can be.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_02: Axis is eager to provide every performer with an opportunity to celebrate dance.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_02: To learn more about Axis Dance Competition, head to their website now at AccessDance Competition.com.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have a question you've been dying to ask a judge?
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now's your chance to send us your questions.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_00: We might answer them on the show and give you a shout out.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_00: Submit your questions to us on our website at www.impactdanceadjudicators.com slash podcast via audio or text.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you choose to remain anonymous, or Courtney will give you a shout out.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_02: If you liked what you heard on today's episode and want more, leave us a review on Apple Podcasts.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_02: The more positive reviews we get, the more great content we can bring to you all about things dance competition.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_00: Head over to Apple Podcasts to rate us and leave us a review now.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_00: Coming up in the next few weeks on Making the Impact, we've got technique over tricks, interviews with competition owners, taking critical feedback, plus bonus QA episodes with Courtney.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_00: Be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify and tune in every Monday for new episodes.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_02: We're so glad you joined us for this episode of Making the Impact Advanced Competition Podcast.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for tuning in.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_02: Till next time, keep dancing.