Latest / Making The Impact - A Dance Competition Podcast / Homeschooling and Dance - What's Right For Your Dancer

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Homeschooling and Dance - What's Right For Your Dancer · 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?
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly what are the judges looking for anyway?
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: This is Making the Impact, a dance competition podcast.
• 0:15
  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.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: While homeschooling isn't a new phenomenon, in the dance world, it's evolved into a convenient option for dancers looking to take more classes at times that work for them and their family.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Today on Making the Impact, we're joined by homeschooling dance mom Dana Thompson and studio director Rachel Edelbrock to share the details of their homeschooling experience.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: Hey y'all, welcome to this week's episode of Making the Impact.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'm your host, Courtney Ortiz, and I'm here with my co-host, Leslie Miller.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, Courtney, and happy day after Valentine's Day.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Aww, what did you do?
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: Anything exciting?
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, just a little bit of candy, a little bit of flowers, you know, your traditional Valentine's Day things.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yay.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I was in charge of Valentine's Day this year.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: So in charge.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: I uh my my boyfriend, uh Love You Jake, he hates Valentine's Day.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Understandable.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure a lot of uh a lot of guys do.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's a lot of pressure.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's a lot of pressure.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: I see that, yeah.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: And actually you can probably relate to this because we are both February birthday babies.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: And it's just a lot.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like with a birthday birthday.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's about to be your birthday.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like Valentine's Day really is it's either before or after both of ours.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, Valentine's Day does come up, I feel like, pretty quickly after Christmas and New Year's.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, oh god, I have to spend more money.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I can exactly.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not a huge fan, per se, because I feel like you should express love for the people you love all the time.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, I I do appreciate the candy.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I like the candy.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: I like a moment to like go out to somewhere that I don't go to all the time, have a little a new experience, new dinner, maybe like actually get dressed up and put some makeup on and wear a cute outfit.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, everyone's doing it and it's all overpriced in New York City, and you know, you gotta make reservations a million years in advance.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: But it's like an excuse to go out.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Which actually somehow feels a little bit more special because you're not surrounded by all the other people doing the same thing.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and especially in the city, you just you see the the last minute people.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: I love the last minute people.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's like 10 o'clock at night and you're coming home from like your planned date, and you see the guy like going into the Dwayne Reed, like, oh god, where are there still flowers left?
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like, oh no, sir, not that.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: Well, to all of our listeners, hope you had a lovely Valentine's Day.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: And we are here on Making the Impact today to talk about an interesting, unique topic, which is homeschooling and dance.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: There are a lot of dancers out there in this beautiful dance world who are choosing to homeschool instead of going to public or private school during the day.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: And with that, they're able to take dance classes and schedule around their dance schedule their schooling, which is really interesting and unique.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's definitely a new trend of this dance world that I'm excited to learn more about on this week's episode.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we have some awesome guests giving some uh a variety of perspectives.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll be learning right alongside you, listeners.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, we will.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: But before we jump into our episode, we have another Making the Impact Award to share with you.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: So early on in this season, if you haven't heard, we give away a Making the Impact Judges Choice Award at every IDA affiliated competition event this season that has at least one IDA judge on the panel.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're attending an IDA affiliated competition this year, then you might be the lucky winner of our Making the Impact Award.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: And what that means is it's that one dance that the judges cannot stop thinking about.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe they had amazing choreography, an awesome theme, beautiful execution, awesome performance, gorgeous technique.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever it is, the judges want to recognize you.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: This can go to any dance throughout the entire weekend.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's given away at the final award ceremony at every event.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: And it is selected by your IDA judges.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the perks of winning the Making the Impact Award is getting a shout-out live on our podcast.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: Plus the opportunity to join our fan favorite voting contest at the end of regional season.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: And if you win our fan favorite contest, then your studio gets an entire studio spotlight episode all about you.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, that's a new feature we started last week.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be so exciting.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: So we have our next winner of the Making the Impact Award.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: Leslie, would you like to do the honors?
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: I would.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: From Axis Dance Competitions event in St.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: George, Utah.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Congratulations to 2 1 Productions with a Z from St.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: George, Utah for their duo trio, Live It Up.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure it was amazing.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Congratulations.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, congrats, and be on the lookout for more Making the Impact announcements and awards throughout the competition season.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: Before we jump into our episode, we have to hear from our sponsors.
• 5:11
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• 5:36
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• 5:41
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• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: Our season five premiere sponsor, Francisco Gola Danceworks, is thrilled to introduce New Century Dance Project, a performance festival for the aspiring choreographers.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: Throughout the seven-day intensive, you will learn the craft of choreography from the perspective of not only the choreographer, but also for the dancers.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: New Century Dance Project hosts many components during their event, such as a choreography intensive, a prestigious choreography competition, concert performances, and community outreach events.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: The intensive starts each day with a technique class, followed by classes and seminars that will help you hone your choreographic skills, like compositional techniques, improv, music selection, lighting design, and so much more.
• 6:26
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• 6:36
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• 6:41
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• 6:54
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• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: Learn more on their website and register now at New Century Dance Project.org.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you to Francisco Gella Danceworks for being our season five premiere sponsor.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: All right, listeners, it's time to jump into this week's episode, and we are talking about homeschooling and dance.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: I definitely think this is a new trend that is happening in our dance world where a lot of students and dancers might be choosing homeschooling instead of heading to public school or private school throughout their time as a young dancer.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: And we have two brand new guests who are joining us on the podcast.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to hear from the dance mom perspective and also the studio owner perspective on this chat.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: Can't wait to hear from them.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'm excited to welcome our first guest who is brand new to the podcast.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: She is bringing that studio owner perspective over here.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: And she also offers a homeschooling option for her students in Texas.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'm excited to welcome Rachel Elderbrock to the podcast.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome, Rachel.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_03: Hi, I'm so excited to be here.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I'm really happy that you reached out.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: I know I was kind of doing some casting online and reaching out to different studios and saying, hey, does anybody offer homeschooling options?
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: Because as we'll dive into this conversation, I think obviously a lot of parents can choose to do the homeschooling route themselves, but then there might be studios who are also offering a program that helps support the homeschool option for dancers.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: So it sounds like that's what you're offering at your studio.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I can't wait to learn why and how and all the things.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: Definitely.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: Sweet.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Rachel, if you wouldn't mind telling the world more about you, where you're based, where you grew up, your dance training, and how you got into studio ownership.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_03: So my story started with birth into a dance studio, not necessarily actually being birthed into the studio itself, but my mother has owned our dance studio for 30, almost 33 years.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_03: And so we are located in Temple, Texas, which is the central Texas area.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_03: And the studio is called Lisa's Dance Connection.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_03: And so I have a unique perspective from growing up in the dance studio that I actually now am starting to run with my mother, which is such a great thing because you get to spend time with your family while you're also doing what you love.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_03: So it's the best of both worlds for everything for me.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_03: But I started dancing at the studio as soon as I could walk in the door.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_03: And so it has been a blessing to dance my whole life.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_03: I definitely would say that I flock to the tap and hip-hop and commercial jazz type of realm.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I definitely lean more the competitive dance direction and pre-professional training for my dancers.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_03: We have all different types of programs at our studio, but that is kind of my baby as part of the studio.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_03: And so within that program, we have the homeschool.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm happy to answer any other questions about me, but yeah.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_03: Cool.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm sure we'll hear a little bit more about it as we go on.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: Cool.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: Love having you here.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for joining us on the pod.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: All right, our next special guest is another brand new guest to our podcast.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: And you may know her from TikTok and Instagram.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: She has over 300,000 followers on TikTok, and she is known as Dance Mom Dana.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'm excited to welcome Dana Thompson to the podcast.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome, Dana.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having me.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: So excited to be here.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, and how cool is it that you have really created a platform for dance moms and dancers to follow on your TikTok from the dance mom perspective.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: How cool.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it was, it's I can't believe that it's grown the way it has, but it's been really fun.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, awesome.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: So obviously we've reached out to you.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you were actually recommended by someone in our Facebook community and said, Oh, you should have dance mom Dano on the podcast.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Oh, this is great because they they knew that you your dancer is homeschooled.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: Is that correct?
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, she is.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: Great.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: And your dancer's name is Kennedy Ray.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, she is.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_02: Kennedy Ray Thompson.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: Aw.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: Great.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm sure we're gonna hear all about Kennedy Ray, and you can absolutely share a little bit more about her, when she started dancing, and also how why you put her into dance and tell us a little bit more about you as not only a dance mom, but also Dana Thompson.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_02: Well, Kennedy's been dancing since she was two years old.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_02: She's 13 now, so it's been quite a while.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_02: It's been quite a journey with her, which has been amazing.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_02: She's sort of opened up doors for me that I never thought I would walk through because of her dance and her training and her love and passion for all of this.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: Like being here on this podcast.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think would happen if Kennedy wasn't a dancer.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_02: We've been homeschooling now for about five years, and it's been an amazing experience for us because we've kind of grown closer together.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's given her opportunities that she probably wouldn't have otherwise.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_02: I'm, you know, I'm a mom.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a dance mom.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_02: It's comes with a lot of different work and exposure to different things, which has been really exciting.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm just really excited to be here and kind of talk about our journey and and what Kennedy's been up to and how we sort of make it work with with homeschool.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you for having me.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: And fun fact for all of our listeners, and you can mention this as well, but your home studio is Studio Blue.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_02: Studio Blue.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: For all of our listeners out there, we were on, we had Studio Blue on our podcast in a studio spotlight two seasons ago, maybe last season or two seasons ago.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, that was such a great yeah, it was recently, and it was such a great episode.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: And we did learn about a lot of the different programming that they have at Studio Blue.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I do feel like they mentioned that there was a homeschooling option.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of kids would homeschool because of the opportunities that they could have going to New York for auditions and already working as professionals in in different parts of the industry.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: So it's cool to have that connection tie in here on making the impact.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: Small, small dance community, like we always say.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: All right, let's jump in.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: All right, homeschooling.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I am curious, first off, for Rachel, what made you realize there was a need in your community for a program?
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: And you can tell us a little bit about your program for dancers who are homeschooled or want to be homeschooled and don't have the, you know, like what was the impetus for that?
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's a pretty big undertaking, I feel like.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_03: So within probably the last six or seven years, we've seen a big boom of homeschooling families in central Texas.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_03: And I think really like in the southern states, it started to become a thing.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_03: And so we have a bunch of churches in the area that have co-ops and like groups of families that come and do homeschooling together.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_03: And we also have a few hybrid style, like classical schools in the area where the kids go to school like three days a week and then they homeschool two.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_03: And so we have different opportunities for kids in the community that do that.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_03: And so it actually started with we have a classical valley conservatory at our studio, and we had a handful of families that all walked in together one day, and there were about seven or eight families, and they all walked in and went, go to the classical school down the road.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_03: And we were wondering if y'all were interested in setting up a class to like work with our students.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_03: And we were like, Well, you know, like we have the facility, like the facility is here.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_03: And so instead of us going to the co-ops and offering classes that way, we were like, we should open up our studio during the day and use the time and the space that we have to cater to these homeschooling families because there's definitely a market for it.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_03: And so we were already doing that with some preschool aged classes since the kids aren't going to school yet.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_03: And so we were like, oh, this is perfect.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_03: We're already open on Mondays in the morning.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_03: We can expand it to another room.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_03: And so it was just finding the teacher for it.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_03: And I popped up and went, That sounds like something I would love to do.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_03: And so I've been working with our homeschool dancers ever since.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_03: Cool.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_03: How many homeschool dancers are at your studio?
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, okay.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_03: So in total, I believe somewhere around 50 to 60 that are in our studio on a weekly basis that are only in the morning classes.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_03: So we have more homeschool dancers that are not in the morning class programs.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, but we have those are the kids that are coming consistently.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_03: But we also have like the pre-professional kids that are coming in the morning, there's about seven or eight of them.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_03: Interesting.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so intrigued.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I think this is really smart to, you know, you you think about a dance studio and it is primarily used at night.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_01: It has to happen after school hours because the kids are in school during the day.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: But what about the kids that aren't in school during the day?
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's like you're like you said, it's a great and smart smart business opportunity for dance studios to take advantage of opening their space and making more income for a vacant space that's just sitting around all day every weekday.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_03: And we also had classes that were filling up every single year within the first month that we were offering them.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_03: And so we since we were able to now take some of the kids that would have come in the evening, but they're available during the day, we had more space at night for children that wouldn't have had a space.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_03: So it's been great from all angles.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and it's an opportunity for not only you, but probably a few other teachers to make a little bit more income in the way that they want to.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas at a lot of studios, like you said, it's three to nine.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's what you've got.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've got, you know, you only have two rooms or your three rooms or whatever, like that's really awesome for everyone.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: And just to clarify, so I understand.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: So when it comes to the homeschooling program itself, are you school, like, are you giving the schooling to the dancers?
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_03: No.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_03: So I I am hands off in that department.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_03: I will teach dancing and give you a high five and tell you you're doing great.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_03: And support your family and all of your educational endeavors and your academia.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but we do have like a study bar area in our studio where a lot of the dancers will come set up their homeschooling things.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_03: So, for example, on Wednesdays, we have a really heavy morning of homeschooled classes for our pre-professional dancers.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_03: And so they'll come and do that.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_03: And then when they're done with classes, but the studio is still open for a little bit, a lot of them will hang out at the study bar and work on their homework together.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_03: And so it's like they've got their own little tutoring group, and then they go and have lunch and they're back from like three o'clock to 9 30.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_01: So the homeschooling is still happening at home.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: The studio is not providing the schooling education, they're just offering more supplemental dance classes to take during the day.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: Got it.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: At more convenient times for them, probably.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: Great.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, let's pivot over to the mom side of things.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: Dana, when when did you decide homeschooling was right for you for Kenneth Kennedy Ray and and why?
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like, was it a dance-related thing or was it a school-related thing or both?
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_02: It was a little bit of both, um, but I would say it was mostly dance-related.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_02: And it started like, you know, when Kennedy first started dancing, uh, she was at a more recreational studio.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, she really kept wanting more and more.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and we found Studio Blue, which is over an hour away from our house.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_02: And so in order to get there every day, we would have to pull her at the end of the school day.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_02: And like, you know, there were competitions and we were having to travel a lot.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: And so, of course, schools can sometimes be really stringent with sort of their attendance and being there, and all of that's really important.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_02: And so we were just trying to figure out another solution, and so we decided to give it a try.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_02: I think one of the things that sort of can sometimes scare other parents about trying it is if you uh you know you're not a stay-at-home parent or you're not there all the time.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_02: And I actually have a career, I have a full-time job.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_02: I am very lucky to be able to work from home a lot.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_02: My husband has, you know, he works from home periodically.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_02: My mom has been able to step in and help us with schooling.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_02: And over time, we've sort of uh changed curriculums that we've used to be the best for our family, but it is possible.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_02: And so we've been doing it for the last five years, and dance sort of started it all.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's great.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and so I feel like so.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: How old was Kennedy Ray when you started homeschooling?
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, she was in third grade.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so about eight-ish.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: Eight-ish, seven, eight.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I feel like, and this is just me coming from I went to public school perspective, but I feel like in order to start homeschooling your child in the situation that you were in, Kennedy Ray must have a good work ethic.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, because she is able to sort of be self-motivated and driven without you sitting over her constantly because you have a job to do too.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yep, exactly.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that that's part of the reason, though, that we've looked into different curriculums because there's so many options out there from the parents actually teaching to online schools.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_02: So she actually does an online school now, but at home.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_02: And so it really just is a sort of a curriculum for her to follow on her own.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_02: She has resources and teachers that she can reach out to when she has questions or issues.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and obviously I'm like a learning coach to her.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_02: So if she runs into any problems or she has to be proctored while taking a test or something like that, I'm available for that.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_02: But it's not something that I felt like I've needed to do all on my own.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_02: And we started there.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_02: We started with sort of a paper curriculum.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_02: I was doing the teaching, or my mom was helping with the teaching, but it was a little overwhelming when you when you have to work.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_02: And every kid is a little bit different.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_02: So now it's been really nice for her to sort of have a self-guided course that she follows.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: That is really eye-opening to me because I I truly know nothing about homeschooling.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: I also went to public school my entire life growing up and I didn't really have a lot of friends that did homeschooling.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: So this is all new and learning for me.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: But I always just assumed that your parent was teaching you, like running the clo running the homeschool for you.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: I had no idea there was even like online options that you're talking about.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I can only imagine that, yeah, it would be.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: How how could a parent homeschool their kid if they weren't a stay-at-home parent?
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like it in my head, I just feel like it felt very like you had to have a lot of money and you had to be, you know, wealthy to be able to be homeschooled because of the burden it would take on the parent to have to actually teach the child at home and be able to be home and watch the kid.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that's it obviously seems like that has shifted so much from my perspective of being young when it comes to homeschooling.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: But also on the parent side, like you said, like the overwhelming aspect of having to be the quote unquote teacher to homeschool your child.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: Like there is no way in the world if I was a if I was a parent that I would want to relive that again and go through school again.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like be the teacher.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it was a lot easier when she was young.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it was a lot easier.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_02: But as she got older, the work gets more complicated.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, lesson planning on Sunday nights and like trying to get everything set up and doing all the science experiments.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_02: And it was a lot.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_02: But there's so many resources now.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_02: And I think COVID really changed the game for school.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_02: Because there's even more available now than pre-COVID.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_02: So like if a parent is interested, it it's definitely something to look into.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_01: Now, what about Rachel?
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: Do you do you have an idea as to what type of of homeschooling options your your students are participating in?
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_03: So a few of them do primarily like their parent will teach them through like workbooks and curriculum, but they attend a co-op.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_03: And there's also something I think it's called like a maybe like a one-day school or a one-day academy where some of our dancers will go and take specific classes at a like I think they're mostly held at churches, but they have like a group of all homeschooled kids that will get together to take one class.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_03: For example, like if I needed to teach my daughter one day physics, that would never happen.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_03: If you're going to the one-day school person.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, I was like, uh, that's the one class that I'm gonna opt out of teaching, and I'm gonna send you over here to take it.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_03: And so it kind of it lifts a little bit of the burden off of the parents, although they're still having to drive them to that location, but they're not having to do the lesson planning, they're not having to do any program of exams, those types of things.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_03: And so that's a great option for them.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_03: But we also have dancers that do like online school programming, and so they're able to log in.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_03: I know that there are different options.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_03: So I know one of our dancers has to sit down at a certain time and meet with a teacher on a live lesson.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_03: And there are also students that are taking classes almost like some college like online courses are, where you're just working through a certain like lesson plan and you just have to get through it when you get through it.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_03: And so I think there are a bunch of different options out there, and I think that families are being able to cater it to the family their family needs nowadays.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_03: And so I think that's really great that everyone they can kind of pick and choose what they need to do that's best for them.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: Rachel, do you feel like for so for your pre-professional students, like that level of homeschooling kids, what do you see the benefits to them that their peers might not get in terms of availability for dance and availability to just focus when they're there as opposed to think about, oh gosh, well, I have I have school for eight hours tomorrow at this set time, you know, that kind of thing.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like, do you do you feel like there's a a benefit that you can see as a teacher?
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_03: I can see just a general level of like calmness that a lot of my other students that go to school all day long don't have.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_03: For example, I taught for like five hours yesterday straight.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_03: And the whole time there were some, there were some dancers that in between classes and their breaks, they're like riding in the hallway and trying to figure out math homework.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_03: And it's just, I feel like it's like this stressor that doesn't necessarily have to be there.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_03: And I understand like certain families, that's like what you want to do.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_03: And people choose to go to public school, people choose to go to private school, but if that option is available, I just see like just this level of like peace and being able to enjoy the moment because you had more time during the day to do everything, and so you're not trying to do a lot of multitasking at night.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but in terms of ability to dance during the day, it has been such a blessing because we've actually had a lot of performance opportunities that we've had to turn down in the past because it's like a group of people want a a group of dancers to come and perform at a luncheon.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_03: And so normally we'd have kids that are in school and we can't take them to perform.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_03: And so we've gotten to do a lot of really fun things like that.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_03: And we also have dancers that do private lessons in the mornings with our instructors, um, in addition to the classes that they're doing.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_03: So we have a few hours of technique classes in the mornings, we have jazz and lyrical and uh tap in the mornings, and so a lot of them will stay and then do a ballet technique private, or they'll work on their point work with their instructor, and so they're able to get that one-on-one that isn't always available during the week at night because we have three dance rooms going until 9 p.m.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_03: And so that would be really difficult for them to stay a little bit later.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_03: But since they're available during the day, it has been wonderful because I'm available during the day.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_03: And so when they're working on their solos that I've choreographed, I can work with them and they're not, you know, putting their themselves on the schedule alongside everyone else that's having to get in either late at night or on the weekend.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm sure, Dana, that like you've briefly mentioned, and I know your dancer has already started working professionally as a young child dancer, that the scheduling aspect of homeschool allowed for those opportunities to even happen.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, it's amazing.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, she's done school on planes, she's done schools on set, she's just done school everywhere, and it's just it it makes makes life a lot easier.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_02: I think one of the benefits too in the curriculum that we follow is she doesn't have homework.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_02: She gets it all done in the day so she can kind of control her timing of when she's doing her schoolwork.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_02: So it's just made life a lot easier.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_01: Coming to you from our season five premiere sponsor, Francisco Gella Danceworks, I'm excited to introduce New Century Dance Project, a festival of performance and choreography.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: New Century Dance Project focuses on teaching the craft of choreography and why it's important for both choreographers and the dancer.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: The festival components include a choreography intensive for dancers ages 15 to 24, a choreography competition, concert performances, and community outreach events.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_01: The seven-day intensive starts every day with a technique class.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_01: After that, participants will head into classes and seminars that aid in the choreographic process, such as competitional techniques, improv, use of prompts, music selection, partnering, lighting and design, and so much more.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: The choreographic competition offers three age groups high school, undergraduate, and emerging professional.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_01: If you are an aspiring choreographer aged 15 or older, looking to advance your competition knowledge and display your work in an artistic choreography competition, then look no further through the New Century Dance Project, taking place this summer in Santa Fe, New Mexico, from July 29th through August 4th, 2024.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: The deadline to submit your choreography for consideration is by March 1st, 2024.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_01: Use our exclusive podcast promo code Making the Impact in all casts when registering for the festival to receive$75 off.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: Learn more on our website at New Century Dance Project.org.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: How often?
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: So how many days a week does she dance currently?
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_02: Uh seven.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_02: So I mean, I I would say six to seven.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_02: She typically has private lessons on uh the one day off she has.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_02: She will do them virtually um at home.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_02: But she's typically dancing seven days a week.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_02: We have to kind of make her stop.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_02: She also takes acting and voice lessons and all sorts of things.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_02: So like having the flexibility of homeschool is just it's critical, I think, in order for her to succeed in the things that she's trying to do.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's important for listeners to also know that like this path is available for any dancer, whether you are that your dancer wants to pursue this as a profession or not.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_01: Because I think that we also we usually think of homeschool dancers who homeschool are the like top-level, top-tier, pre-professional, they're gonna have successful careers.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe that's a lot of people.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_01: But there's also dancers that want to homeschool and want to train during the day and don't want to go to public school or don't want to go to private school.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_01: And there are options as we are talking about.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: There are ways to do that for any dancer at any level.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_01: And it also sounds like that a lot of studios around the country are catching on to this trend of even even parents and families choosing to homeschool their dance, choosing to homeschool their kids, not just because of dance, too.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: You know, making that choice of I don't want them in a public school setting.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want them, I'd rather have make my own schedule and they can do the activities that they want to.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: So if that is something that interests listeners out there to explore and get into, whether it's for dance or not for dance, whatever it may be, I'm learning so much of just sitting here hearing about all the options.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_01: I I mean it's pretty impressive to know that you can school online as a child.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like that did not exist when we were young, Leslie.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think it did.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it really probably didn't, honestly, because there was no online to be had.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, when I was on tour with Music Man, we had three kids on tour and they were in like nine, I think.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: And even then, back in like that was in 2010, I think, you know, they were still, I don't know that they were doing anything online.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: They were absolutely doing work on the bus, physical paperwork, and they they got mailed stuff, you know, wherever we were to get their work done.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I think just it's such a different world now.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: And even with work, you know what I mean?
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's like I'm working from home today.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: This right now is my lunch break and I'm able to do this, which is an extracurricular while I'm during my day because I have that availability, because I have the you know, blessing to be able to work from home.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: So I think it's just more and more our society is realizing that like not everything has to be the way it always was.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: There's benefit to doing things different, differently.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: And especially for people in the arts who already have a creative brain that works differently.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it there your dancer, Dana Kennedy, probably doesn't she probably could because like you said, she has a good work ethic.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: She could sit in a classroom for eight hours and do her work and be quote unquote normal.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: But like she has this other aspect of her life that needs to be nurtured as well.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's the case for a lot of kids who choose homeschooling, not only for dance reasons, but for other reasons.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's very true.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, she has friends though that are like, I could never be at home.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_02: I want to be in the classroom.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_02: And so everybody is different.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_02: So I think families have to make decisions based on what works best for their kid.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_02: But like recently, this year is the first year we actually started this, but our jurisdiction actually offers uh dancer, not just dancers, but homeschool kids the opportunity to take two in-person classes in a brick and mortar school.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_01: Oh.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_02: So every other day, Kennedy goes to our local middle school and she takes a uh music class and an art class just so that she can have sort of that interaction with other students.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's still very flexible because it's only two classes, it's every other day.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_02: It's not something that she has to be at every single day.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_02: And she really enjoys that because she gets to make friends sort of outside of the dance world.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_02: So that's kind of one of the drawbacks that I will say about homeschool is that sometimes it allows, especially dancers, to put so much focus and so much stock into the dance world and dance friends and dance everything that there is the potential there to lose a little bit of your identity.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_02: And it just becomes I'm only dance and I don't know anything else.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_02: So this year we really wanted to give her an opportunity to explore different things with different people.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_02: And she's created a lot of friendships that way.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_02: So that's also an option if other jurisdictions offer that.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I love that.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's really cool.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, she's 13, so you know, that's we we are talking about this in one of the other episodes we recently recorded.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: That like 13, that's that age where you're like, I'm either doing this or I'm not.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so for her to like, yes, it sounds like she's gonna be doing it, which is great, but like if she decided she didn't want to, like, oh gosh, well, I've been doing, I've been alone homeschooling for for seven years and I've only been dancing.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like, where are my friends now?
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: Who am I now?
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm sure there's kids out there in that same situation with the added layer of the homeschooling.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: Do you find, Rachel, that the kids that you're like, how are how are their social lives, I guess, that you're homeschool kids who primarily use dance as the outlet to be social?
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like, do you find that you have children in that scenario?
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_03: I find that they are honestly more social than a lot of the public school dancers at my studio.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_03: It's very interesting.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_03: I think specifically after COVID, like going back to regular life, whatever that can pretend to be now.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_03: The kids that are in public school, they've noticed a shift of that life is not what it once was.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_03: And so there are some things that are different and that are probably gonna stay different because things changed after COVID.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_03: And so I think that the dancers that were homeschooled were able to have a little bit of a okay, like this is truly back to my normal because my normal was at home.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_03: And so being able to have friends that are at the studio that are not homeschooled, they're able to make friends that don't, you know, go to their same school because they don't live in their home.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_03: And so it's helpful for them to have outside friends.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_03: And I know that since they all, I think almost every one of them goes to a co-op type of group, they have friends that are not involved in school but are homeschooled, and so they're able to do different things.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_03: Um, like we have a music school that's in town as well, and so a lot of them go during the day and have private voice lessons, or they take acting lessons, and so they're able to make friends in other realms of fine arts as well as like friends that are not involved in the arts at all, but they're able to do that, and so I've also noticed that my homeschool dancers are very outgoing with people in the studio that aren't their friends.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_03: So they they almost have this like I wouldn't don't want to say like business like mindset whenever they go into boot.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_03: They they're able to carry on a conversation well with people out in the community, regardless of age or demographic.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_03: And so it's been really interesting, and I think a lot of that is because a lot of our pre-professional dancers are student helpers in our classroom, and so they're going through training to become assistant teachers, and so some of them desire to educate in the future, and so we want to hone that as much as we can and like the safe setting that we have here, and so when they're not in class, they may be helping with the preschool class, and so they're getting experience talking to dancers that are younger than them and encouraging them, and they also interact with the families in the waiting room, and so if someone needs to buy a new pair of shoes, they'll jump up and see, oh, somebody's about to ask Miss Rachel a question.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_03: Let me see if I can go answer it before Miss Rachel has to.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_03: And so they'll jump up and do those things, and so they're learning how to be helpful people, they're learning how to, you know, work in customer service one day.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_03: That's what they want to do.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_03: And so they're getting some life experiences, even within the dance studio, that don't pertain to their technique classes.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_02: I can agree with that.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_02: I think a lot of the dancers who homeschool, they have to have a level of maturity in order to just even make it through their own curriculum.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_02: And so I've noticed that with Kennedy and other like peers that she's just much more comfortable speaking to adults or speaking to younger kids, or because she's not always a hundred percent wrapped in just kids her age with one teacher all day.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_02: And I think it makes a difference.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_01: That's a good point.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I had some friends who homeschooled in middle school specifically.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_00: We all pretty much all of us went to like our city middle school or city elementary school.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: The middle school, just for whatever reason, a lot of people were like, nope, not these three years.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then in high school, we had an uh the international baccalaureate program.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: So everybody came back, you know, to high school for that.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: But my friends that were homeschooled in middle school, it was it felt very much the same.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: They were incredibly articulate, really easy to talk to literally anybody, adults, children, everything.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I just wonder if that's like part of the idea of homeschooling is that like, you know, part of your schooling is go out into the community, go out and do something different, go out and do community service more often than somebody who is stuck in a at a desk eight hours a day, you know?
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I that's one thing I do remember from the homeschool peers of my my day.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_00: They definitely just had a maturity.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's like you said, Dana, you know, you have to have that in order to get through the the to have the ability to get through the day at your homeschool, wherever that may be.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's why I think dance and homeschool make so much sense because dancers have discipline.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_01: Most of the time, dancers are going, like, I mean, and for example, in your situation, Dana, like you said that Kennedy started homeschooling in third grade.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_01: So she's been dancing prior to third, like, you know, earlier than that, she's been two years old, she was dancing.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_01: She's gaining that discipline and understanding that in the classroom setting and a dance studio.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_01: So then when she does need to branch off on her own, she already has discipline to know how to stay focused.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_01: She's learned that through from growing up in the dance world.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_01: And then with discipline, I feel comes a level of maturity that we continue to talk about when it comes to being on top of your curriculum and your homework or whatever it may be.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_01: You're kind of responsible versus sitting in a classroom in a class you don't want to be at, but you have to because it's part of school and you're just kind of zoning out, not paying attention.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we've all been there as students growing up in a school setting, like so many classes I didn't.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, obviously there's certain class you have to take to get your education.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_01: Let's and some we're gonna love more than others.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_01: But what if the teacher's boring?
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_01: What if the friends next door are annoying me?
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, there's so much distraction in school and you can't even stay focused sometimes.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_01: And then also on top of it, I know for me, like no one at my school danced, like in my public school.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I will say maybe that was a good thing.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_01: I was exposed to other um things like sports that everyone cared about so much.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh lacrosse was a big thing in in my I grew up in Maryland and everyone.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's why you like the Ravens.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: You, you know, you have a little sportiness in you too.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_01: I do.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_01: And and yeah, and like maybe I wouldn't have had that sportiness or even would have cared about it in my adult life if I wasn't introduced to the football games and high school and middle school and and all of that, and being surrounded by all the jocks and the, you know, the different types of people in school settings.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_01: So like I do think that there is obviously benefit of the social interaction to grow up with, I mean, you know how it is in r in public school.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_01: You grow up with those kids.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_01: Like you have known them since elementary school, just like in dance, but like you actually move through life with them until you graduate if you go to the same public school in your in your hometown.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_01: But I actually feel like that uh that could be something that hinders parents from wanting to put their kids into homeschooling atmospheres because of the they would think that they wouldn't gain any social interaction or have friends outside of dance.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_01: And like you said, Dana, it could, it could kind of just almost consume your identity if it's just dance, dance, dance 24-7.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, yes, we have goals and things, but it is refreshing to hear, like on Rachel's end, that like a lot of the homeschool kids have friends outside of dance because they meet them at acting class or they meet them at voice class or they meet them at the co-op and they're not even dancers at all.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_01: Like I it sounds like there's ways to still make it work for both sides.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: Dana, I was gonna ask about like your experience specifically at Studio Blue, because I know there's a lot of homeschool kids there because of where kind of where y'all are in the country, it's it's available for you to get to New York, you know, quickly for things for castings and and DC, I guess, too, has a fair amount of theater and things.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: But so have y'all found a homeschool community at the studio as well?
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_00: Like there's other dancers there that homeschool too?
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there are multiple dancers at Blue that homeschool.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_02: And for a while, they ran sort of like a homeschool program.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_02: They actually had like a teacher that would come in or like a teacher's assistant that would help kids work through the curriculum they were working on.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_02: We never took advantage of that because we are so far away from the studio.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_02: So it would be a challenge to get there every day.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_02: It's just a lot easier to homeschool at home.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_02: But they did offer that for for quite some time.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_02: And I know that there were a lot of kids that took advantage of that.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_02: So it's sort of like to homeschool, I think, is a little bit like wildfire, like one kid does it and then other people see the benefits, and the kids start talking about it, and it becomes something that multiple people want to do, multiple families are interested in.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_02: So I think Blue has that going for them as well.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_02: And then they're just such a large studio that there's just not enough time or hours in the day to really cater to every kid's needs.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_02: So we've been able to benefit from those in-person, in the middle of the day, private lessons and, you know, just having the flexibility to sort of come and go when other kids really can't.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_02: And not necessarily that it makes any of the dancers any better than others because there's amazing dancers all around, kids that are sitting in school all day and they're able to get things in in the afternoon and still meet all of their own individual goals.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_02: But I think it just helps Blue to be able to offer that so that more kids can do more.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_02: I hear a lot about studios who are like, we would love to give every kid a solo, but we can't because we don't have the teacher time or the space or whatever.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_02: But like at Blue, like Kennedy has three solos and two ballet variations, and she's able to do all that through the studio simply because they can spread that time across all day as opposed to just nighttime.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'm curious, and that is really interesting to hear.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_01: So, Rachel, do you have advice for studios out there who might want to start introducing this, or maybe it's on their radar, or maybe they have students currently who are homeschooling, but maybe there's not enough dancers that make it worth it for them to open their doors during the studio.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I feel like this situation is a case by case for every studio out there.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_01: But do you have any advice for studios who might want to introduce this?
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_03: I definitely think that communicating with the families that are in your studio already that you know homeschool is a very valuable asset to you because you're able to reach out in the communities that you wouldn't have had a connection to.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_03: And so it's been really helpful for us to specifically.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_03: We have a family that's really involved in like the leadership of one of the like I guess classical schools in the area where they do like the hybrid model.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_03: And so when we talk to that family, they're able to go, oh, well, actually, I know that we go to school on this day and then we don't go to school on that day.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_03: So when you're planning for scheduling purposes, if you're gonna offer something where you want a bunch of kids to come try something before you start something, like that's not a good day to do it.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_03: And so they can also help you with getting connected to like advertising things.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_03: So if you know that there's an event going on and they want some vendors to come and put up a booth, like it's really great.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_03: I know that we have um throughout like the the co-ops, and I think there's like a Central Texas homeschool like community group, they have like vendor fairs where all of like the homeschool families in the area will come and see what's offered in the area for their children.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_03: Nice.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_03: And so throughout the years, we've been able to shift from we offer like after homeschool options.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_03: So like once you're done with your homeschool, you can come and take classes.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_03: We've been able to shift and go actually, we have classes during the day, and you can see their faces light up because they're like, Oh, really?
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_03: Like we can get out and do something that's not, you know, go to the park or you know, meet up with a friend and work on more homework because they are used to the typical model of kids' events being after school hours because it's so easy to offer it when the majority of kids are available.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but we're very blessed to be able to offer that because since we've started offering those classes, there have been some families that have taken our programs into consideration for one of the reasons that they decide to homeschool.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_03: So families that see a benefit and oh well, you know, at least the dance connection offered four mornings a week, right?
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_03: We could make that as part of their curriculum.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_03: And so we actually have some students that are getting like PE credits for their homeschool.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_03: Nice.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_03: This is what I was gonna ask.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_03: And so some people can actually get credit for like an arts class.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_03: And so if they needed an arts credit, they're taking a dance class, and so I think a lot of them, I think the requirement is like five to six hours per week.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_03: And so we give them a grade, we can write it off on a piece of paper and say this was your off-campus PE.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of our public school students do that as well for their off-campus PE, but we're able to offer that as an option, and so some dancers will come to the studio and take a class because they know that their friend from their co-op is coming to class, and so they're able to, you know, work together with their homeschooling after class, and so they're all creating community within the studio school.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's great.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_00: Well, uh, Dana, do you know if your curriculum allows?
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure you know, but like does your curriculum allow a dance class to be counted as something?
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_02: So this current one is more, it's more of a homeschool curriculum.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_02: So it's sort of a teacher kind of I serve sort of as a as a teacher with the development of the actual curriculum, but she did one last year that was sort of an online public school.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_02: And yes, she would use dance as her PE requirement.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, because they would have, like, you know, you need to get outside or you need to go and do something active.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_02: And so she would sign off.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_02: We would take it to the studio, they would sign off that she was in class a certain number of hours a week.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, definitely.
• 47:22
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• 47:24
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• 48:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's there's another added benefit.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I'm just like, hmm, why didn't I homeschool?
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_00: All this sounds great.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it it really But you know, 1990 is probably not that great.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_01: It takes me back to our challenging our performing arts high school episode that we did earlier this season.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I know we're talking about a lot of school this season on making an impact, but you know, there's obviously a lot of different options out there.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_01: And like right now we're talking about public school, private school versus homeschooling.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_01: But like on that episode, we talked about the benefits of attending a performing arts high school.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_01: And like one of the benefits is that you're dancing during the day, you're getting dance built into your curriculum with the education and in a public setting, in a class format, in like a studio space.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I think this almost feels like the best of both worlds in that scenario where the added flexibility of scheduling with homeschooling, we're still achieving the dancing during the day.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_01: We're still getting the arts curriculum, we're still getting the supplemental training that we might not be able to get in a public school, non-art school setting.
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_01: But then you can also cater around your schedule, your availability, your family's availability, which is the best of everything to me, it's it seems like.
• 49:31
  SPEAKER_01: Because everybody talks about how competitions shouldn't be starting on Thursdays and we can't do this schedule and we have to travel for this convention if we want to do it.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like, I am so with you.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_01: I do not think that we should be having events starting during quote unquote school days, because even the homeschool kids, they still probably would have been in school that day.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_01: But they just kind of they just adjust their schedule around because they do have the flexibility.
• 49:57
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas the majority of people in public and private school can't do that.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I I don't agree with, you know, events starting in the middle of the week.
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_01: But at least with homeschool dancers, it's not like a penalty that they're missing anything.
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_01: They can pre-plan and schedule, all right.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_01: Well, there might be the chance that competition starts Thursday, and you can save the day and be like, actually, I can do that, y'all.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_01: Public school friends can stay in school, put the homeschool kids on the Thursday.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_01: We can make it happen.
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_02: That has been such a huge benefit to us.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_02: Like a stress or a weight off our shoulders is like never having to worry about when something is going to be scheduled because we can always.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, there have been nights where maybe she will go and she will perform her solo or something earlier in the day or in the middle of the day on a Thursday.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_02: And then at night we're doing school.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like we've had the flexibility to just move things around and not have to stress about it.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, Kennedy has friends and they're like, oh my gosh, I have 20 absences this year, or I've gotten this amazing opportunity, but I can't go because I have too many absences.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_02: There's no way I'm gonna be able to go and do that.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_02: We never worry about it.
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_02: So no, it's definitely a benefit.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_01: And what is Kennedy's view on all of this?
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_01: Is she happy in homeschool and is she missing, does she miss the life of middle school?
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_01: What about is she has she talked about high school?
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm curious to hear like her side of the things, if you if you know.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so like, you know, she it's been so long that she's been homeschooling.
• 51:29
  SPEAKER_02: So for a while it was sort of all she knew because when she would compare it back to like being in first or second grade, it's like you don't even like remember what it was really like.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_02: And so even this year with this program that she's in now where she's taken a couple classes in the brick and mortar school, I had to encourage her to do it.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_02: Because sometimes with kids, they just don't know what they don't know.
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_02: So they're just like, I'm just gonna go with what I know and it works for me.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_02: And she was so against it.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_02: Now she absolutely loves it.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_02: And so she doesn't want to go back to just not being able to go to in-person school.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_02: I think she knows that if she wants to go to full-time high school or even like go full-time now, she knows that it would mean a change in her life.
• 52:07
  SPEAKER_02: And she's sort of weighing those things.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_02: Like she's like, I don't, I don't know if I would want to have a whole lot of homework or like be stressed out or like not be able to travel as much or be worried about those types of things.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_02: So even though I think she would enjoy it, I think she's old enough now to know that it would mean a life change for her, and she's not willing to compromise that at this moment.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_02: So she's like, I want to just keep doing what I'm doing because I feel like I have the best of both worlds.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_01: Aw, that's great.
• 52:33
  SPEAKER_01: Nice, good for her.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_01: And she can always make that change if she needs to.
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 52:38
  SPEAKER_02: Down the road, you know.
• 52:39
  SPEAKER_02: That's the other benefit.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, she could just go.
• 52:41
  SPEAKER_02: I always tell her every year we sort of assess at the beginning of the year, what do you want to do?
• 52:45
  SPEAKER_02: You want to go try in person?
• 52:46
  SPEAKER_02: She's like, no, this works for me.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_02: Great.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_00: This works.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_00: Well, and you I'm assuming, and I I don't know how often this happens or how often it exists anymore.
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_00: But I have, you know, you hear sort of in society, well, does you know, is the homeschool high school diploma like, does that translate into actual high school diploma?
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_00: Can you get into college with that?
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure it's based on curriculum, but like in your both of your experience, you know, have you heard a little bit of that or do you know?
• 53:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I think that it depends on the curriculum, curriculum you follow, uh, making sure that you find an accredited program, you know, something like that.
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_02: Accredited, that's the word it was written for.
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that it's really important for those things.
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_02: And so when Kennedy transitions to high school, we'll definitely be placing a lot more emphasis on that and just making sure that it's something that's gonna easily transfer uh to a college program.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_02: Of course, right now she says, Well, I don't know if I want to go to college.
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_02: I want to, you know, I want to dance, I want to dance.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_02: She's an amazing student though, and you always have to have sort of like that plan B, even though she says, I don't have a plan B because my plan A is gonna work.
• 53:50
  SPEAKER_02: I like the confidence.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_02: That's great.
• 53:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like I this is what's gonna happen for me.
• 53:54
  SPEAKER_02: But, you know, definitely as her teacher and parent, we'll definitely be looking more, more closely at that, making sure we get a program for her that's gonna be transferable.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_03: I know in our area there is a big pool to doing dual credit classes through the community college in the area.
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_03: And so a lot of our homeschool kids are taking college level classes that are meeting their requirements for their high school diploma as well as getting them heads like a head start on their prerequisites for college.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_03: And so a lot of them actually graduate from high school with their homeschool, high school diploma, but also with their associate's degree.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_03: And so they're able to go in with, you know, going straight into their bachelor's program.
• 54:38
  SPEAKER_03: And so when they're able to do that, then the colleges see them more as a transfer student rather than someone who's applying out of high school.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_03: And so there are actually a lot of scholarship opportunities in our area for transfer students.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_03: So we have we have like a main community college that has a good relationship with the surrounding universities in the area, and so there are scholarship opportunities available to them just because they're transferring from one institution to the other that happen to be friends.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_03: Smart.
• 55:05
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, that's a great benefit as well.
• 55:07
  SPEAKER_00: Who knew?
• 55:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 55:08
  SPEAKER_00: So much information on this podcast, y'all.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think this is gonna be just so helpful for anybody who's on the fence because I think as we continue in the path of dancers are just getting better and better.
• 55:19
  SPEAKER_00: Training is just getting better and better, and more and more people have the opportunity to do more things and dance.
• 55:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think homeschooling will continue to grow in popularity in this community because of all of those reasons that y'all are just, you know, giving us.
• 55:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's amazing.
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 55:36
  SPEAKER_01: I I think we definitely covered so much.
• 55:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like my final question before we lead out of this episode is, and I kind of hinted at it earlier, but I'd like to hear y'all's perspective.
• 55:49
  SPEAKER_01: Do you feel like that dancers need to be homeschooled to be successful in their dance career?
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's a stigma and a lot of pushback from a lot of other studios and dance parents, especially when we talk about the levels at competition.
• 56:06
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I can't compete against I can't compete in the advanced level because those dancers are homeschooled and they train for 20 hours a week.
• 56:13
  SPEAKER_01: I I only train for seven hours a week.
• 56:15
  SPEAKER_01: We're we don't have time.
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_01: We're not homeschooled.
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_01: Like I feel like homeschooled is always the word that comes up when it comes to being an ad quote unquote advanced level dancer or a successful first place overall advanced level dancer.
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_01: So, um, what are our thoughts on that?
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_03: I think that if you are willing to put the time and energy into preparing for your dance career, that it doesn't matter what time of day you're doing it and it doesn't matter what activities you're working around, because it is very much a crutch to say I can't do something because someone else something else.
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_03: Because if someone else's actions are affecting you and your ability to succeed, there's a you problem there.
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_03: And so you need to assess are you really wanting this like you say you want it, or are you too afraid to fail that you want to have this backup reason for why you might not make it the way that you want to.
• 57:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I I totally agree with that.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_02: I think, you know, like I said earlier, Kennedy dances with some amazing kids.
• 57:19
  SPEAKER_02: So blue is stacked with amazing dancers, and most of them don't homeschool.
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't think it has anything to do with like, you know, just because you're a homeschool student, you're gonna be more successful.
• 57:30
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think that's the case.
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_02: Because I think every kid is an individual and different.
• 57:35
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we try to teach Kennedy, and my my husband is big on this.
• 57:38
  SPEAKER_02: He's always like, if you want to be the best, you have to do the most.
• 57:42
  SPEAKER_02: You have to put in the work.
• 57:44
  SPEAKER_02: And that doesn't matter whether you're like, you know, it's all about what you're choosing to do with your free time.
• 57:50
  SPEAKER_02: And so, like, even in our own house, he built her like a little studio space to practice in the house because he's like, if you want to get better, it's not what happens at the studio, it's what happens on your own time that's gonna help you get better.
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_02: So I think, you know, every dancer has to approach that sort of differently and what works for them.
• 58:07
  SPEAKER_02: But I don't think it has, it's not a requirement that you be homeschooled in order to be successful.
• 58:12
  SPEAKER_02: Definitely not.
• 58:13
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 58:13
  SPEAKER_00: And we talk all the time about, you know, if you only have three hours, you could either donate, give that three hours quality, focused, excellent training, or you could squander it, you know, just doing plas over and over again and hoping you're gonna get better.
• 58:28
  SPEAKER_00: So even though the homeschool kids have more hours, you know, they may also be dedicating those hours to excellent, excellent quality training.
• 58:35
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're homeschooled and you're not willing to dedicate that time to excellent quality training, well, then you're you're also not gonna, you know, succeed.
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_00: The kid who has the three hours available, who's willing to spend the time and the money, you know, in those three hours to make themselves excellent, that might be the more successful dancer.
• 58:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's the work ethic from the student and it's the quality of training that the studio is providing.
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_01: So that I I think that is at the end of the day, it.
• 59:01
  SPEAKER_01: And then an extra bonus on top is if you found that quality training and have a dancer that wants it and you're homeschooled, then that's an extra bonus, but it's not a requirement.
• 59:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's just they found the right, you know, ingredients to make this work.
• 59:18
  SPEAKER_01: So if there are, if there are parents or dancers who feel like, well, you know, I have I have the ingredients, but I'm not seeing the progress or whatever the case may be, I then I always go back to, well, it's you got to look at the studio.
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_01: You got to look at the training that's being provided.
• 59:34
  SPEAKER_01: Because, like we all just said, like it could be, you could be doing this anywhere on any schedule.
• 59:40
  SPEAKER_01: But are you putting in the work?
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_01: Are you devoted and focused in class?
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_01: And is is the instruction what and what's being provided at the studio that you're choosing to give your money to giving you what you need when it comes to high quality level training?
• 59:54
  SPEAKER_01: Because we know there's a lot of studios out there who are just more doing this for fun and recreational.
• 59:59
  SPEAKER_01: If that's not your goal, if you want it more than that, then you have to you have to find it because every studio is going to have different different that might mean you're driving an hour.
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_01: And making the sacrifice like Daniel had to do.
• 1:00:11
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 1:00:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and and and like that's a that's a tough, you know, sacrifice for a family financially and time commitment to make, but it has to be like a sit-down conversation with you and your dancer to decide if that's the next step for them because they could just stay at the studio they're at and not really find that growth that they're looking for, or we might have to make an extra sacrifice that is a little further than you want to drive, but will give the quality that you're looking for and when it comes to training.
• 1:00:40
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I love it.
• 1:00:41
  SPEAKER_01: This is great.
• 1:00:42
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 1:00:42
  SPEAKER_01: It is so good.
• 1:00:43
  SPEAKER_01: So good on this one.
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_01: So eye-opening.
• 1:00:45
  SPEAKER_01: I hope that all of our listeners out there, if you've ever wondered about homeschooling your dancer or even just homeschooling in general, I've learned so much.
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_01: I hope you've learned so much.
• 1:00:54
  SPEAKER_01: Our fantastic guests, Rachel and Dana, thank you so much for sharing your experiences, what has worked for you and your dancers.
• 1:01:01
  SPEAKER_01: It is really eye-opening.
• 1:01:03
  SPEAKER_01: And we loved having you on the podcast.
• 1:01:05
  SPEAKER_01: So thanks for being fans and thanks for being here as guests.
• 1:01:08
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having us for having us.
• 1:01:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 1:01:10
  SPEAKER_01: And if you, as you know, because you listen, we always have our guests lead us out with one final thought on the topic.
• 1:01:16
  SPEAKER_01: You can talk to whoever you'd like out there in podcast world.
• 1:01:20
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's the dancers, maybe it's other studios, maybe it's other dance parents, other teachers, whoever you'd like when it comes to homeschooling and dance.
• 1:01:29
  SPEAKER_02: So I'll start.
• 1:01:30
  SPEAKER_02: I think if I had to say one thing, it's that, you know, it is possible.
• 1:01:34
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I don't want people to think that I work, I don't have time to do this, my kid is not focused enough.
• 1:01:40
  SPEAKER_02: If this is something they really want and they really dream of doing this, it's it's definitely possible.
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_02: There's so many resources out there, so many opportunities, just so many things that kids can use today to get their education.
• 1:01:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I would even say, depending on the kid, obviously, that uh, you know, some kids it it just works better for them.
• 1:01:59
  SPEAKER_02: So I would definitely encourage any parent who's interested in this or any family to definitely look into it.
• 1:02:05
  SPEAKER_03: I would say to any studio owner out there that is interested in offering classes for homeschooled families to go and seek out the communities in your area that support homeschooling, that could be different art studios, different kids' activities that already maybe have programs in place and see what they have done that works well and form relationships with those communities because the families that homeschool often want to be involved in several different activities.
• 1:02:37
  SPEAKER_03: And so if you can coordinate well and have a good working relationship with anyone in your area, that will be very beneficial to you and always know that there are families out there that will be interested in what you offer, even if they're not already in your studio.
• 1:02:51
  SPEAKER_03: So you need to go seek them out so that they know that you are offering those things.
• 1:02:58
  SPEAKER_01: We hope you enjoyed this week's episode all about homeschooling and dance.
• 1:03:02
  SPEAKER_01: Don't forget to follow our special guests on social media.
• 1:03:06
  SPEAKER_01: You can find Rachel at Rachel Michelle Dance and Dana at Dance Mom Dance.
• 1:03:12
  SPEAKER_01: Also, don't forget to follow Dana's daughter, Kennedy Ray, at Kennedy Ray Official.
• 1:03:18
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• 1:03:25
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• 1:03:31
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• 1:03:40
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• 1:03:46
  SPEAKER_01: Be sure to check out IDA affiliated competition, Dive Dance Competition.
• 1:03:51
  SPEAKER_01: Dive produces top quality events for all levels of performers with brand new skill-based platforms.
• 1:03:57
  SPEAKER_01: Dive's regional dance competitions are held in North and South Carolina and offer an inspirational and positive atmosphere for dancers to grow and express themselves.
• 1:04:06
  SPEAKER_01: The Dive Vision challenges all dancers to be the best competitor, performer, student, and artist they can be.
• 1:04:12
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• 1:04:16
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• 1:04:21
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• 1:04:25
  SPEAKER_01: And they also hold an ambassador search event each summer that offers exciting dance networking opportunities.
• 1:04:31
  SPEAKER_01: To learn more about their upcoming events, check them out online at Divedance.com and follow them on Instagram at DiveDanceCom.
• 1:04:41
  SPEAKER_00: Season 5 continues next week with episodes coming up, including Perfecting the Piroette, Minis Who Peak Too Early, and Hip Hop versus Jazz Funk.
• 1:04:51
  SPEAKER_01: Happy competition season.
• 1:04:53
  SPEAKER_01: We'll see you next week on Making the Impact.
• 1:04:55
  SPEAKER_01: Until then, keep dancing.