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224. Together We Dance - Behind the Scenes · Anything But Routine

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: We don't wait for the rhythm to lead.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_02: We make the rhythm.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_02: We code.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_02: We create we delete the two anything but routine.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_03: So the other day we kind of were talking about uh we were in a TWD meeting or Together We Dance competition meeting and started talking uh about the history of of these events, how they've grown over the years, um, all the all the different different things that have happened, and we thought it'd be fun to kind of just do a little informal uh interview with Cindy or discussion with Cindy on kind of how how everything got started and and the why behind it, I guess.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_03: So maybe that'd be a a great place to start start.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_03: Cindy is uh or mother.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_03: What was the idea behind starting uh these competitions?
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think in the very beginning, we were so central Minnesota heavy that we just thought let's bring these schools together and do kind of a little we first called them festivals, and and I don't think we had judging or anything, but then we went to have a judging, and it was just basically to promote excellence and you know to be kind of like playing basketball and never having a game and you're just practicing all the time, and we would do shows, but we wanted to start goeting.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: Cool, mostly to up the level of excellence and get them going.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: And uh the first one lasted an hour and a half.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: It was only kick, and it was held in Brainerd, and we had judges come in, and afterward, the Monday after, I got so many phone calls because Brainerd sort of dominated everything.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't have class sizes back then, so Crosby was against Brainerd and Little Falls and Staples and all these different cities.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: So my phone was ringing off the hook that it wasn't fair.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: So my husband told me it was the st most dumb idea I ever had.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: He's living to eat those words.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, and I think that kind of goes back all the way to uh 1995-ish, yeah, is kind of what I what I'm thinking here.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_03: Um so they've been around for quite a while.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: Quite a while.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: They've just grown so much.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's daunting for our office, for our staff, and some of the areas.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um well, one of the reasons for growth is we added, like I said, the first years were just kicks, so they were a lot shorter.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: But now that we added jazz, lyrical, hip-hop, pong, what am I missing in solos, the days have just exploded because most of the kids are, you know, I would say a lot of our kids are cross-training to the other styles.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_03: For sure.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_03: And we I think we probably also expanded, you know, the ages and have have started bringing in younger great, you know, younger kids who start competing earlier than than we used to do, which adds obviously length to length to the day.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_03: But it also, I think, again, in a discussion we had the other day kind of talking was it it's raised the level for sure.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, for sure of you know these these kids.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_03: And as then they get older, their teens are even more prepared and and better better off.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: They lock in earlier.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I was watching the TWD last weekend, and I was just blown away by the level of how how good the kids have gotten.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: They've really gotten better, and um, you know, my daughter Allie, who teaches in Brainerd, was like, Oh, I gotta go back to the drawing board and try to beef up our dance because everybody's getting so good that it it it makes you want to, you know, up your game a little.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the great thing about it.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: I think the other thing that has really helped are are the the cross-training into the different styles, but the solos have made, you know, I used to think solos were kind of dumb.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, we're precision dance, why are we doing solos?
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: This was a long, long, long time ago that I thought that way.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: And boy, have I seen the fruits of the labor of the kids.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I always tell our soloists, I don't really want you to be thinking about, oh, I have to win, I have to win, which they still do to some degree, but mostly I want them to think about I'm having to get out there on my own, carry myself, and do a great, you know, you you get better because you know you can't hide in the back row.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: You have to carry yourself and you have to be able to do all the skills.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: So subsequently, they're working on Sundays, they're working on their days off on their solo, and I think that's helped our teams immensely.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, for sure it has.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so yeah, one other one other kind of fun fun fact, I guess, or or something to talk about is I remember, you know, years ago you guys talking about one of these first events, I believe it to plays up in Moorhead.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_03: Oh yeah.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_03: As the days kind, you know, as back then, obviously probably the timing of it wasn't as big as it is now, but um we didn't didn't do it how we currently do it, where we're going side A to side B or staggering award ceremonies throughout the day.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um what well we used to wait and do all the awards at the end of the day because they weren't that big of events.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: And the one you know, when they finally started exploding a little bit, I went when not they weren't exploding yet, but they were getting large.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't think of oh, we better do intermittent awards during the day.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember the event and I remember my kids that were dancing that year.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: It's kind of weird to think about, but um we just we we got shut down by the Moorhead fire marshal because there were so many people in the building, it was scary.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: End of the day, yeah.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: So everybody stayed all day, there was nowhere to sit.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: Where now we pretty much have it down to a science, and hats off to Amanda for that because she's the one that schedules all this, but it's like she's got a formula for how many teams we need to do, you know, how many competitions we have to do before we clear the arena and move the crowd a little bit.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: And the A B.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: I remember the other night I was like, Oh, I wonder why she has this going A B A B.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: So the kids were facing different ways, and we had two sets of judges.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: Well, she was right, we would have been too crowded on one side.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: For sure.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_03: So we've always a method of the madness.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: There and it and we learned all this in the school of hard knocks, you know.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: It the way it's so organized right now and runs so well, I just have to say it's because of great note-taking and going back and trying to get it better.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: My some of my high school kids just went out to a competition in Las Vegas, and they said it ran an hour behind, and they had the people almost missed their flights.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: It caused a lot of confusion.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, we appreciate that we stay on such great schedule.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: Part of the people, you know, one of the things that keeps us on schedule is you guys that announced, Joel's one of the announcers, Matt Wallace, uh, Jared Hoppe, and Mike Mikey.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: I can never say his name.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: Weiss and flu.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: Weiss and flu.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: They they keep us on schedule, and you they know how long they have to get that crowd off the floor to get on to the next one.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: You know, everybody's excited when they win.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: They don't want to leave the floor and you're having to shoo them off, basically, but that's how you keep them in look keep them keep them on time.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: This episode is sponsored by Just for Kicks Camp.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: We offer camps for coaches, studio owners, and dancers, of course.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: And some of our Minnesota camps boast a thousand kids at them.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: We do camps on location at your school or studio if you wish.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: And boy, if you go to camp, you come home a stronger coach and way stronger dancer, and your team really pulls together.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: Click on camps on the Just for Kicks website for more information.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so kind of I guess a couple more, couple more thoughts or questions, like we talk about um you know, the growth of these events through the years, um and you know, how many people it takes really to to pull these off, not only the planning and the packing of the trucks and the hauling all this stuff, but um you know what's a what's a typical day, one of these days like for you know, a just forgets program director, let's maybe start with director instructors.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, program directors.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like I I was watching somebody, a couple directors on the last Sunday, which was more small tones on Sunday, and some of them had like 20 performances.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, I I've done all the different jobs, and I really feel being in the back with the kids all day is the toughest job.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's it's just like a little too much noise sometimes, a little too much confusion, and you're trying to keep every class up, and a different one comes in, you know, every hour or so, and you're just crazy and you're out on the floor, but new kids are coming in, and so you have to have somebody back there watching it, and and you have to be on.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: And it it one of the moms last night was asking me, How do you guys remember all those routines for all the ages?
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, you know, they just get in your brain.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know what the but um yeah, that's definitely the hardest job.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of steps.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of steps.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: I think at the Brainerd competition the day I had teams competing.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: I had 13,000 steps, but I think the highest I've been at is nationals, I've been up to like 25,000 steps.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: You you get that's running it too, though.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: You get a little crazy.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: So directors' jobs are hard, but I also think I don't know how you guys do it, announcing all day.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_03: Like, what did you announce on Saturday from 7:30 in the morning till 9, 15 at night, I think.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: And no breaks hardly, like very little breaks.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: I know you don't eat the whole day, you do it.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: And um, but you have to sound as exciting at the end as you did at the beginning, and that gets really tough.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: But you have to be that way with the kids too, when the new kids come in.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: We were laughing that we have minis first, which is you know, we's in minis are are kind of the hardest because they all have their parents there, and in they have their dream duffels and their tents, and you're like, okay, we have no room to dance now and practice.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: But uh, we were talking, would we rather have them at the end or the beginning of the day?
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: And all the coaches were like, beginning of the day, you know, because it's the hardest.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: But okay, so let's talk about prep here in the office, what it takes.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I I mean, I I think it's already, you know, we're now, I guess, getting closer to the end of another week where we're we're heading out later today.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_03: But I uh the prep honestly starts the mon the Monday we get back from the event with the unpacking of everything and reshuffling through things and organizing.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: So for the store, for example, we we now have everything.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: Don't we have codes on them now so they can get scanned all the trials?
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, some of them.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the biggest things that was a change is our black cases.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: You've probably seen at the TWDs that the product is wheeled in and wheeled out.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: That was a game changer for us because we used to have cardboard boxes.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: I remember hauling them.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it has cut down setup, and take and then they stay in where they're supposed to be when they get back.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: We know it's organized, it keeps it organized.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: So that's great.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_03: All that planning.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_03: Then you have the you know uh getting wristbands ready, getting all the reports of who's paid and move hazards there, who what towns are coming, have you know the printing the programs.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: Last minute changes, oh hold that program, you got you know, somebody the different things.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, and then you know, so that's kind of the the the prep work into the week, and then it's also having meetings, planning, starting to talk nationals and all all of that.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_03: Uh but then at the at the events too, a lot of our our office staff travel to these events, you know, whatever town they might be in.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_03: Um and so it's it's you're kind of going seven days a week.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we call the Mondays after, you know, TWD hangovers and they are a real thing.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: And it really you kind of don't recover the whole I mean, I feel like still I don't know if we have from the last yeah, I feel like we don't all the time.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: You're kind of just running on empty and adrenaline, but uh and we always say, well, take a couple days off during the week.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: We tell people that, and everyone's like, we can't, or we won't be ready for the next one.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: And we do bring in a lot of temp people on weekends that don't work in our office, but the I call them like the brains of of the operations almost need to be here because they know what needs to be done next.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: So it gets really tough.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_03: So maybe we could kind of get into that.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_03: We are we're gearing up for it.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, and and this current year, just a couple also fun facts.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_03: When we're done with nationals, we'll have had 19 different events this year.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: 19 events, but that doesn't mean days.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_03: No, we have sixty-eight days if you include the holy moly stuff.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_03: Sixty-eight long days competition.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_03: Um and obviously it kind of finishes with with nationals, which is almost turned into an entire week-long thing at this point.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: But maybe kind of take us through anything anything on that or well, I just want to bring up the fact that we went we were having an event at the you say the name of it, R RCTC.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: RCTC.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's the It was Nationals.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: It was our nationals at the map at the community college in Rochester, and we were just outgrowing it.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: At one point, we were like, if it rains today, we are done because our shoot was outside and we were just busting at the seams, and people were everywhere.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: You just it wasn't even safe, really.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: So during the day on Sunday, we some of the main staff went over to the Mayo Civic Center where we now are holding nationals, and I had made an arrangement to meet with the people over there, and I have pictures where these guys are all walking behind me going, no way, we can't fit, we can't fill this, it's too expensive.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: We can't fill this place.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: And it is expensive, but boy, have we blown up since we've had it there.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: I um I don't know how many performances are there that day, but we are on four floors.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: Even contemplating five, we think by next year we'll be on five floors.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: So that means, you know, four announcers all day.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: It means judges like crazy.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: So let's talk judging.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: They have judging training in early, like I think it's in December and January.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: We have a couple different ones.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: They're all virtual on a Zoom because people are from all over, so we couldn't come together, and we are having another one soon where they're pulling together and just recapping what's happened so far this year.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: But I think at nationals we will have 85 to 90 judges.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: So it's just some people just running the judges.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's incredible.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: Mackenzie Graham's in our office here is now overseeing that, and it's like crazy to make sure, you know, and to evaluate them, make sure they're doing well.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: At nationals, we go to dropping high and low scores.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: So we up how many judges we have from three to five.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: We'd love to start doing that at more events if we could locate more judges.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's just hard on, especially during the dance season.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of our judges end up being coaches, and when the season's over, or college kids, and when their season's over, we can get more judges.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: So that's kind of neat.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: But um let's talk solos a little bit.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: I think this year we are at 956 solos right now.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: That's just incredible.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: And all these kids have gone to a great deal of work, so we're excited about that.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um I don't know how many dances we're up to.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_03: I can't remember that, but I remember for the meeting we're in yesterday.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_03: I think it was as of right now, around like 7,500 uh participants.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_03: Wow, we'll be at nationals.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: I know Rochester really loves it when we come to town because every hotel is pretty much full.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_01: I think they said it really gives a boost to their economy.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um compared to other dance studios, comparing just for kicks competitions to those, I think one big difference, because we've checked those out and gone to them, is that we we feel that we are really competing because we do first, second, third, fourth place or whatever.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of the other competitions, they come up with all these fake awards to make everyone feel like a winner.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: And we we we love everyone to feel great, but we have real winners and people that don't win.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: And it can be a problem, but we want it to be a real, like we're shooting for the stars, trying to get better type of situation.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: I think one of the neat things at nationals is the coming together of everybody.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: This year we have a team coming from the state of Washington for the first time.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, last year we had Colorado come so from farther away.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: We get the Midwest a lot, but it's harder to get some of our farther away ones.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so one other thing unique to nationals is we do pin trading at nationals, and each of the cities has their own unique pin that they can do.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: And if they don't want to do that, they do the clothes pins and they pin each other.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_01: I know I have a pin that um they said they lost my pins, and and I said, Oh no, they're not lost, they're in my closet in my office, and so they ordered 4,000 more.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I have a lot of pins if you need a pin from me.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: Did you get a pin?
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, wow.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: So you have a pin this year.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: So there's gonna be a lot of you got to go ask for the pins.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I will always do pictures if you want a picture.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_01: I never mind doing that.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: And something else unique to Nationals are masterclasses where they're free, so it's just an added value for going to nationals.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: We will be having some days of clinics upstairs in one of the ballrooms where you can go up and work on your turns or work on your kicks or work on your leaps, and that'll be coming out soon.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: But plan to attend those because they're really fun.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: Can't think of anything else.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: We just are excited to get to Rochester and do that big national event.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: And hopefully, we have a few more events left here.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_03: We have three or four more three or four weekends.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, three more weekends, and then we'll be ready to hit national.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: So keep kicking.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for tuning in today.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_02: Make the rhythm, we call, we create the routine.