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226. The Courage to Choreograph Differently · Anything But Routine

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: We don't wait for the rhythm to leave.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: We make the rhythm.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: We call, we create creators.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: Today we're just going to be answering a few questions that came up on our uh Facebook Dance Coaches and Teachers Unite.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: And the the first one was a comment.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: She said, Helping kids learn that caring is cool.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: This has been a game changer for our team.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I wish she told us how she did that.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: But it is neat when you teach kids to care because that that will help your team all the way around.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it I always think, you know, about kids when they come on to a new team.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: Is anyone sitting alone?
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: Is everybody noticing each other and making sure kids so caring is cool and making sure they feel welcome?
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: Her next comment was confidence in choreography.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like kids, this is so true.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like kids are afraid to look silly or try something outside the box because they think they'll get teased or, you know, and that's where she feels that they will level up and build confidence.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes ideas work, sometimes it does not.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: Collaborating, not taking offense to ideas being shot down, but rather think of them evolving.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: It this is this is a really tough subject, especially when your kids are choreographing.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like in our state, the kids are involved with choreography, and kids oftentimes are afraid to show their idea because everybody immediately goes, ah, that's weird, or we've tried that, or that's never gonna work, you know.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: So how do you be creative without getting your ideas shot down?
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_02: We talk about that right away.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: Like when we get our choreographers, you know, for our high school team, we'll say, Okay, you guys, we're gonna all throw out a lot of ideas.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: Not a lot of them are gonna get used, you know, like you have to be comfortable enough to just do stuff.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I think overall our kids are pretty comfortable to just do stuff and they don't take it personal.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_02: Like you can't, you can't have your choreography be part of you.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_02: It's you gotta like let it go.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't necessarily mean that you think you we have to, as coaches, we have to make a safe environment.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we create that that it's gonna be okay to screw up, you know.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: And and I use myself for an example.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: I I'll say I've had so many ideas where I thought it was gonna be the coolest thing ever.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: And then I get there and go, What was I thinking?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: You know, oh yeah, I'll have uh never mind.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: Never mind, let's rewind.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: So you just have to make a safe environment so they can try things because the if you the the more strange things you try, the better your team's gonna be urged.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I think especially with high school kids, I think it's really easy as coaches to forget the pressure of high school and like the the confidence that you don't have.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I think so many, like especially dancers tend to be confident, you know.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: Like if you're on a higher level team, probably not as much with if you're not if your team's not there yet.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_02: But I think, you know, like even your most confident kids are still high schoolers and they still have all those like internal insecurities that we all dealt with growing up.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I just feel like when my frontal lobe finally closed, when I was like, what, 25?
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: Is that when that happens?
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_02: I think so.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: But I feel like I can feel a difference of like how I think compared to how I used to think.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_02: And I think as we get farther away from that, we forget.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, for sure.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: You do forget.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, yeah, like that we might be like, oh no, we're not doing that.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_02: And then you might be like, Yeah, I'm so bad.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: I'm so stupid.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: That was a really dope idea.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: Why would I have said that out loud?
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I think that like that internal panic that they have sets in.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: I think, uh, on that same subject, one thing coaches struggle with is if they pick the theme and the kids are like, that's weird.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: We're not gonna do that, you know.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_02: And I and sometimes, like you say, sometimes you just don't do it then.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_02: Like if they really aren't buying into it, you gotta let it go because if they're not buying into it, it's not gonna be a very fun year.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna fight it if they hate it.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: The one year we did, I brought up I had been to a Broadway play of Aladdin, and I was so like just the colors and everything.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: I was just hyped about it.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I came home and wanted to do this for our kick team, and they all kind of looked at me like, what?
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: What?
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know, but they did warm up to it and liked it, but had they not, I wouldn't and most of the time they do, like with their ideas.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_02: Like they're, I feel like a lot of times, like even when we told them what we were doing next year, I think they were kind of like at first, like, what?
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_02: And then we started playing the music and then they were good.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: But I think you have to talk to them about having vision.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I think it's really easier right now because they see so much stuff and like so many different cool choreography ideas.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_02: I'll even like use it as examples.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_02: I'll be like, Okay, you guys, you think this is silly, but I'm like, what when you watched this dance?
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_02: I remember you guys all going, Oh my gosh, that was so cool.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_02: I said, Think if I told you to do that, would you have thought it was cool?
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_02: And they're like, Yeah, I probably would have thought it was weird.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_02: So I think pointing it out to them, like, but but when you do weird stuff or out there choreography, I that's something we talk about a lot.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you have to buy into it or it's not gonna go well.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_02: It's not gonna go.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: I just can't do it halfway.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: You just can't.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: You have to go all in.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: Most fancers think building a career means going it alone, figuring out the business, the choreography, the marketing, all of it.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: That's not how we do it at just for kicks.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: Our directors run the program in their hometown with full support from our home office and zero startup cost.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: You focus on what you love teaching.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_01: We handle everything else.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: Over 200 directors across 14 states have already said yes.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: If this sounds like something you would want to do, visit teamjustforkicks.com or reach out to me directly at cindy at justforkicks.com.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: Dance is your passion.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: Let's make it a career.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: You're ready.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_02: I've been saying this to my fourth and fifth graders this year.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_02: So we're doing this very weird spider dance, and it's been hard.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's been a very big challenge for them.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_02: And but we've been talking about it.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_02: I keep saying, you guys, this dance could get out there and be very strange, and people are gonna be like, what?
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_02: Or it can be super cool.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_02: If you are like all in, it's gonna be great, but they have to be all in and they have to all commit.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like this year when we did our jungle dance, I mean, it was weird.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: Very, and they ended up loving it.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: But at first, I think they were kind of uh, you know, in the summer when we were showing them and yeah, and they had to bite and claw and act weird.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know, it you have to take risks if you're gonna get somewhere.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: But I will say, coaches, if you you have to be able to pull it off.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, you have to be at a level to be able to pull it off.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: We took a risk one year and did a dance called Popcorn.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: We actually made it to state with it, but we go back and look at it and go, what were we thinking?
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and our kids said they got to college and people are like, Oh, you were the popcorn.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: Like, yes, we were.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: And we were black tights, and it looked weird.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_02: And honestly, I feel like if we redid it now, it could actually be cooler.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: I just think it was like yeah, it just didn't happen.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: It was ahead of its time.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we'll say that we'll say that to make ourselves feel better, but yeah, you know, if you don't take risks, you're not gonna be remembered.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I I remember we did cool kids a a year ago, and that was a risk because it was different, it was slow, and like at the end, we exited out all the doors, leaving the two kids on the like they weren't fitting in with the cool kids.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't think anybody had ever exited out every which way.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, we were worried we were gonna get DQ with me.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: We had to actually ask the judges about it.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think you do you do have to take risks.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_02: And I, you know, something I always tell my classes is like, I think kids too often, it's really funny to me how much they're like, Well, can we do this?
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, that team just did that.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_02: Why do you want to do that?
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: They want to do what the people did the year before or wear what the people wore the year before.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, and I think it's funny, or like, oh, they exit like this.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, well, that I don't want to exit like that team.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: Let's exit like we want to exit.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I just copy who's winning.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I our team has done it forever, and we have to talk them out of it and go, No, we don't want to walk like you don't want to be a follower.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you want to.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_02: I just think, and I, you know, something we always say is I don't care.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_02: I don't care if we win or, you know, whatever.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I love to be a crowd favorite.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_02: I love when I walk down a hall and people have been like, that dance was so fun to watch.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_02: That was so cool.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_02: Like, that is my goal as a choreographer, always is to make people feel something of it and like make it fun and interesting.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_02: I think dance competitions, especially for people that aren't that into dance, can get really boring.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_02: So I like to make it where like I want somebody that doesn't really like dance to enjoy watching our dance.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's funny because you you are great at that.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: I will give you a little shout out.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I can remember a time you did a dance called Fi was it finest things?
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: You had a coach.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, that was really weird.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: But I had a guy come up to me from the crowd and say, That dance, he goes, I'm from New York.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: I'm here to watch my niece.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, That's ahead of its time.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: And funny.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I also thought the night of the dancing flames, which we did for our high school team, was weird and it was out there, but I had a judge tell me later that people weren't ready for it yet.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: Like it was okay.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: We weren't the the idea was there, but our team wasn't good enough to carry it off at that time.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, probably.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: But the idea was good.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, there's there's risks when you're choreographing.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so let's just go to a couple other questions.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, this came from a coach.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: Anything off-season training, specifically getting athletes to buy into the off-season.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I would just say, you know, we we can't make it a rule in our state that you have to go to off-season training, but you can make it an unknown rule that you're not gonna be dancing on JV or varsity if you're not off-season training.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_02: Well, if you're not at the level.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: And the only way to get at the level, I feel like, you know, depending on where you're at.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: But off-season training comes down to culture.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: If kids aren't showing up, you're doing something wrong with your culture.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: You shouldn't have to have a rule of so many absences, and then you're kicked off.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: It it's or you don't dance.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's your culture.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: They should want to be there when the kids lead the kids, and the kids are upset if kids are missing.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: Like we'll have kids go to us and say, at weightlifting, because we're not at weightlifting at summer weightlifting, and kids will say, so and so and so-and-so miss weightlifting today.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: Again, again, yeah, and they're mad about it.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: So they police themselves.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: So I think creating that culture that they should want to train hard in the offseason or they're not gonna be where they are.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: Our kids do two days, but not killing them off either, but two days a week.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they do ballet for an hour and a half each time, they weightlift twice a week, and they do a practice with their coaches twice a week.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: So that's and then they sometimes do yoga every other Friday.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yoga sculpt, yeah.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yoga sculpt, hot yoga.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, they want to train, they want to be good.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it comes back to, you know, is your team just doing it for fun or are they wanting to be competitive?
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: So that would be how I'd answer that.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: So that's about all the questions I have on that subject today.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: So have a good one.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: We make the rhythm, we call, we create, we ate the team anything but routine.