Latest / Making The Impact - A Dance Competition Podcast / Spotlight Feature - Rhee Gold

Transcript

Spotlight Feature - Rhee Gold · Making The Impact - A Dance Competition Podcast

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_04: Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the table at a dance competition?
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly what are the judges looking for anyway?
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_04: This is Making the Impact, a dance competition podcast.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_04: Each week we'll cover a different topic related to the world of competitive dance, from the perspective of the judges behind the table.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_04: With a career in the industry that spans decades, Regold is a household name in the dance world.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_04: From humble beginnings in his mother's basement dance studio, Reed went on to create the Dance Teacher Life Conference, American Dance Awards, and Dance Studio Life magazine, among countless other resources that benefit the dance community.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_04: Kicking off season four of Making the Impact, Regold is here to share his story and his passion for dance.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: Hello everyone, and welcome to Making the Impact a Dance Competition Podcast.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'm your host, Courtney Ortiz, and I'm here with my co-host, Leslie Mayland.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_04: Hey Courtney, it's season four.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my god, it's season four.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: I can't believe we're here.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: It feels like forever since we podcast, and you know, whole summer has happened, come and went, and we're here and it's fall, and we're back.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_04: We're back, and we have missed everybody over the summer.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_04: We had, I know I had a great summer judging and directing and teaching and all the things.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_04: And Courtney, I know you've been out and about up until like literally like yesterday.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: Literally, yesterday is the truth for sure.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: I just uh will have been traveling home from Maine as of yesterday, and I was all over the place setting choreo, teaching at intensives, nationals judging as well.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: Something fun that we did this summer was Leslie and I both had uh the opportunity to do two live podcast episodes at two different national competitions with our IDA-validated competitions, which was so fun and so cool.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: We got to meet so many great fans everywhere.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: And we even released those episodes as special summer bonus episodes for all of you listeners to enjoy while you're waiting for season four to launch.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: So if you haven't listened to those, then be sure to check it out.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: And speaking of our launch on season four, which is happening right now, we have our welcome to season four episode that we always launch alongside two episodes today that you can click and listen.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: So make sure you tune into that because we have a lot of fun updates and features that are coming your way this season.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and thank you to our summer dance competitions that hosted us for the lives.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you to Diva Dance Competition and Spirit of Dance Awards.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_04: It was such a pleasure to be there with you guys and hear more about all of the questions that uh your your participants had, and they had a lot.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_04: So make sure you go you go and check out those episodes after you listen to these two, because there's just so many episodes now, Court.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: I know, there's so many, and we have so many great episodes coming your way for season four.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so pumped about it.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: And for our very first episode of season four, we're actually bringing back our spotlight feature episodes that we had in season two, where we sit down with either company members or businesses or influential leaders in the biz that we feel are making an impact and learn about their dance journey.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: So we're really excited to kick things off with a very special guest.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: But before we jump into our episode, we want to tell you about our sponsors, and we have a brand new sponsor who is joining us for season four, and that is Industry Mentors.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: Let's make the dance industry 1% better together.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: It all starts with each of us working to become 1% better every day.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: Industry Mentors is here to help you with advice for your career in the dance industry.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: IndustryMentors.com has hours of training, classes, stories, and career advice from legendary mentors like Blake McGrath, Shannon Mather, Kevin Maher, and so many more.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: There's a mentor for everyone to pull inspiration from, whether you're an aspiring pre-professional or even a current active professional in the dance world.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: And coming soon, I will even be a mentor on industrymentors.com too.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: So you can join me and let's make the industry 1% better together.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: You can sign up for your free trial today and use our exclusive discount to receive 20% off your subscription.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: Use the code ImpactINAWCAPS at industrymentors.com now.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_04: Over the summer, we had some Making the Impact Award winners from previous events that we didn't get to share before the season was over because we had so many of them.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_04: So we're excited to continue our Making the Impact Judges Choice Awards as we head into the 2023 season.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_04: And I would love to share some of our recent winners from the past few months.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_04: First up, we've got Tatiana Linscott from Michelle Shaw's Elite Dance Center for her solo Jukebox.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_04: She attended Diva Dance Competitions Regional Event in Turner Falls, Massachusetts.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_04: So congratulations, Tatiana.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_04: Next up is Rachel Servidio from Betty Jean's Dance Studio for her solo, Say Something.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_04: Rachel competed at Spirit of Dance Awards regional event in Poughkeepsie, New York in May of 2022.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_04: Congratulations to Rachel.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_04: Actually, I remember that dance.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_04: I was there.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_04: And finally up, we have Liv Midget from Momentum Dance Center for her solo, Blazing.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_04: And she competed at Star Talent Productions Regional Event in Richmond, Virginia.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_04: So congratulations to all of our Making the Impact Award winners.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yay! Um everybody loved it.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_04: So congratulations.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_04: And I hope you guys are sporting those really cool plaques with pride.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, we loved implementing that and adding that to all of our IDA affiliated competitions this past season.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: And we are happy to share that they will be continuing on for as long as possible into the next few competition seasons.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: So glad y'all enjoyed them.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: All right, dance world.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: It is time to jump into this very first episode of season four.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: And we are kicking things off with a spotlight feature.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: And this one is for everyone, but I know all of our dance teachers, our studio owners, our dance professionals are going to love this very special guest.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: He is a household name in the dance world, I feel.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I can't wait to get to know him even more.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so excited to welcome Mr.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: Regold to our podcast.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome, Ree.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's an honor to be here.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Courtney and Leslie, for inviting me.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: And what a really nice intro you just gave me.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm flattered, my friends.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Good, good way to start.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I for all of our listeners out there, maybe there's some dance parents or dancers, because we have a lot of different types of listeners.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: I would say primarily dance parents are our number one listener.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: And then it would be studio owners, dance teachers, and then dancers professionals.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm sure there's a lot of dance parents that might be like, well, I've never heard of Regold.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: Who's Regold?
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: So if you wouldn't mind re telling everyone a little bit more about you and what you're, you know, a little bit more about your early journey in your dance life.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: First off, I'll say I love dance parents.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yay.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: One of my favorite groups to speak to when I have the chance are the parents, because I feel like uh when you say things the right way to them and they're enlightened, it changes them.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: It changes their attitude.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: They they they learn to uh how do I want to say it?
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: To appreciate their children having a passion for something rather than always wondering if they're gonna win, you know?
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: So uh who am I?
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: I grew up in dance.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: My mother was my dance teacher.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: She was a professional dancer and opened a studio in the basement of our home when uh my twin brother and I, we were three.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: And along with a neighbor, her name was Marilyn.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: My mother opened the Gold School of Dance in the basement of her home in 1964, and that's where it all began.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I've always had a passion for dance, always have felt like dance is a soul thing, that it makes a difference in the lives of those who experience it.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I work with dance teachers and studio owners on growing their businesses, creating a culture of inclusion within their schools, marketing, branding.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: I published a magazine called Dance Studio Life Magazine, which I did for about 14, 15 years.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: And uh now I produce events for dance teachers, continuing education, uh, conferences.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: I now do a conference that's for dancers, their parents, and teachers, with the focus on uh like it's non-competitive.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: There are no numbers, there are no tallying up how many classes someone takes, the focus is totally off of, let's say, being judged and totally put on, exploring all kinds of different things that dance has to offer in like colleges and in commercial dance and in Broadway dance, just taking kids and parents on a journey through dance and all of the options that there are if we have a passion for dance.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's something I'm really proud of right now because it was uh a leap of faith to produce it.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: We just did it and it worked.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: And parents loved it, teachers loved it, kids loved it, and uh frankly I had a blast.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: I loved it too.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_02: What what was the what was it called?
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's the Soul Dancer Conference, and it what what I did was uh I run the Dance Life Teacher Conference, and I've had this dancer conference in my mind for a while, but teachers don't want kids to be at their conference.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I get it.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, and they want to dance and they don't want any kids around or parents around, it's their time.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: So what I did was attached it as an additional two day, three days onto the Dance Life Teacher Conference, and it worked.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I I'm doing it again, and I feel like it's uh time to say, let's explore some new things for our kids to do.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_04: Well, and I noticed this was the first year you did the Soul Dancer Conference, right?
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_04: Your what were they called?
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_04: Exclusive sponsor, executive sponsor was my alma mater, OCU.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, really?
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I was looking at your website earlier and I was like, oh, they were there.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_04: So that's really exciting that that you guys had so many uh representatives from different schools.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_04: I saw that Pace was there.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, and I want to say OCU, Joe Rowan, everything they do and have implemented to kind of change college dance.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: I applaud them.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and you're lucky to have had that experience.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, sir.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_04: It was it was a great, you know, American dance education experience.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_04: And I, you know, that's where we are.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_04: That's what we do here, you know, in the states.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_04: We do we do that kind of dancing.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_04: So it's I it's amazing that that program has flourished as as much as it has and influenced other programs as well.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yes, I think it's had a big impact on all of them.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I'm so glad that conference went well.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I'm not surprised at all because, you know, if if all the people that have, you know, from from your magazine, which my my mom owns a dance studio, and we received that magazine the whole time I grew up, you know, so pe people from that generation who own businesses, you know, they they know the kind of quality products and events you put on.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_04: So it doesn't surprise me one bit that that the kids version went just as well.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks I um can say, you know, as much as I built a a solid reputation that I'm proud of, it's not always easy to present something new in our industry.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sure, yeah.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I I I went at it cautiously, um, but optimistic.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: And now I'm ready to roll.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: Just gotta get that one, that one out there, get it over with, done with, and you're like, all right, what can I fix?
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: What can I make better?
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: This is gonna be awesome.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's awesome.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: That's so great.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_04: I want to hear more about the golds and your training when you were a kid.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_04: Did your mom so once once it's once the studio kind of grew out of the basement and remind us, Massachusetts?
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_04: Is that right?
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: Massachusetts, uh first 12 years in a town called Randolph, Massachusetts.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then uh, which which was in the basement, it grew into a studio with about 200 kids.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: The neighbors had uh issues with the size of the studio and my mother's people parking in front of the driveways, etc.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: So she moved out in the early 70s or yeah, early 70s to Brockton, Massachusetts, and the studio is still in the same location.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: My brother runs it, and it is, I believe, going into the 59th season this year.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_02: Nice.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: It was a great school to grow up in.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: My mother was uh passionate about teaching and exposing us to all things dance.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: I remember her taking us to Gus Giordano's, Luigi's classes in New York.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: It was this constant showing us what was out there, and she brought that home to all the kids that she taught and uh made an impact that that to this day is still lasting because so many of her students are now teaching.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes when I see them in a dance competition or somewhere else, I see my mother in some of the choreography.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: Leslie, you might you might know that because your mom was a teacher.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, for sure.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_04: For sure.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and it's it's it's really interesting.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_04: And even myself, you know, I did go to school for dance performance, but we learned, you know, ways I speak and ways I use imagery, you know, that come with pedagogy.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_04: And but most most of my teaching instincts come from having watched my mom.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_04: So like there's you're not from any any schooling, but just you know, the school of having watched your mother from day one just teach a baby ballet class, you know.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, there is an education in that.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: And and I often tell uh studio owners, sometimes they feel guilty isn't the right word, but they feel bad because their kids have have to live their lives around us being dance people.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: But I always look and I say, I learned so many things from my mother being a teacher that I wouldn't have learned had you given me the, I guess, what everybody else perceived as the normal life.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like I'm grateful for having grown up in the studio and been exposed to all the things that my mother and her running her business exposed me to and inspired me to be.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, from a very young age, I always thought that women were smarter business people than men were.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I because I only knew women who owned businesses because they were dance teachers, you know?
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I never got any of that.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I I still look and say, wow, I turn my business over to any woman leader on any day, and she would probably take it further than I would.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I always grew up with this uh woman's lib instinct in my head, like women are capable of doing anything.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: If they believe in that they can.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: No, I'm serious.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's all about the confidence, it's all about knowing that you can.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure that our our society instilled that in the previous generation.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, we got off there a little bit, didn't we?
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: We love a tangent.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we love a tangent.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: You found your guy.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: So when you were growing up training under your mother with your brother, did you have any other siblings?
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: I have an older brother.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: He's eight years older, and no dance for him.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: I was just curious.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: No, if my twin brother and I, yes, all the way through.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: My older brother loved baseball, just followed a different journey altogether.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: Smart person.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: Do you feel like that when you were training when you were younger, did you know where dance would take you at that time?
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: Or were you just doing it because you enjoyed it and mom's the teacher, and you and your brother were having a good time?
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: All good questions.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: This is this is it.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: I thought I would be a movie star or star on stage dancing and maybe like Fred Astaire or whatever.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: When I was a kid, that was the dream that I had.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: That was the goal that I think I put in my mind.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I had a performing career.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: I danced in Las Vegas, I've danced in New York, but I always landed back in the education field somehow.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: And as an entrepreneur.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: Years ago, I ran dance competitions.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: I forgot to mention that when you asked me to describe my history or where I come from.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason we ran the dance competition was to raise money to buy costumes because we got booked in Las Vegas and we couldn't afford the costumes.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, wow.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: So it was we we needed, I think, to raise$5,000 or something.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: We raised like$4,800 of the$5,000 running that first dance competition in Connecticut.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: We had no money.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: We slept on a dance studio owner's floor, her studio floor.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: And that was, you know, we ran it for the first four or five years as a fundraiser to buy costumes and furnish what we needed for our dance company.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_04: And was this before like competitions sort of came about?
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_04: Did you just sort of do this like, or were other competitions happening at the same time?
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_04: Or tell us about that.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: My mother had started a competition in Massachusetts in 1972, and it was called Terp Sicory Awards.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: And as far as I know, it was one of the first, if not the first.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it was that competition running that inspired us to go.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like my mother knew we needed the costumes.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it was my mother who said, you know, we could run one of these in Connecticut and we probably would raise the money for the costumes.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, that's how it started.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: What's funny is American Dance Award still goes today.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's I don't know how many years, whatever 1979 to now is 40 something years.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: I did it for 24 of those years.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I look at it and I go, wow, that's something I started.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's something that started because we needed costumes for our gig in Las Vegas.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: And look at it.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: And Wow.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, fun look at it.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_04: I yeah, Leslie, I got to judge this summer.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, did you judge at a ADA?
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_04: I did.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: It was sad.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_04: Very cool.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_04: And being so I'm from Georgia originally, so ADA I don't think ever came that far south.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_04: But having lived in here in New York and being colleagues with so many people who can come from New England, I've heard about ADA for years.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_04: And I was always just kind of like, man, I wish I wish I lived up here when I was a kid because I would have loved to have gone to that event.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_04: And so to be able to go down there and experience sort of the legacy that is ADA was was really, really cool.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: It was hard when uh ADA was first building like 15 years into it to all the cities because people didn't want to come because the talent was so strong.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, fun fact on my end, I grew up going to ADA and I grew up in Maryland.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: So my studio was based in the Baltimore area.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: So whenever ADA would come to Baltimore, we went.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I think you might have still been attached at this time, but we did I remember the events ADA Nationals 2000 in Las Vegas.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: My studio went to that.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: What was your studio?
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: We used to be called Hotshots back in the day.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: I remember.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_04: How do you forget that that studio?
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, how do you forget that name?
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: And was she not related somehow to the guy who runs Star Quest?
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: Do I have that right?
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_00: You do.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's crazy that you know that.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, my dance teacher, Donna Jean Winnicke, who's no longer with us anymore, but uh her sister was married to Steve Wappel, who's the owner of Starquest.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: So we would go to Star Quest often, and we would normally go to their nationals.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: And then I don't even know how we discovered ADA, but I think that something that intrigued us was the high caliber of talent that we were surrounded by.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: And going to like Las Vegas was one of our first like really faraway nationals.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: And it was cool for us to like really see different types of studios from the West Coast.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: And being a smaller studio on the East Coast, it was like eye-opening.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: Like we were like, whoa.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: And the the whole dancer of the year competition was just so iconic.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: It still is to this day.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's so competitive, but I think it was just so unique for a dance competition, especially back then, to have those kind of cool features.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things that I'm I'm still proud of because they still do it is ADA is one of the only competitions that only runs one national.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's everybody in one event.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: That's wonderful.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: We need more of that.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_04: It's a real nationals, you know, like and it was really it was really cool to watch too, because you know, I I judge uh for plenty of people, but they run four or five nationals a lot of the time.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_04: And, you know, the ADA, I I saw people from South Africa, I saw people from Miami, I saw people from Canada, you know, at this one big event.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_04: And and that really is very rare these days.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm I am very glad they've kind of kept that part of, you know, yes, grow it grow grow and change with the times because we must, but like that, I'm happy that it has stayed the same.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so your professional dance career, Rhee, you said you performed in Vegas, but and you started the competition to pay for the costumes for Vegas.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: But when at this at this time, while you're pursuing your professional career and helping run a competition, were you also running the studio?
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: When when did you shift into the studio world?
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: I sh honestly, I was teaching at the studio until my early 30s.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: But I was not running the studio.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: My mother pretty much was running the studio.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: My brother Rennie was working at Disney.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: You might remember something they had called Pleasure Island, which was do you remember Pleasure Island?
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: Not everybody was there.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_04: We never could go there, but I remember that it existed.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: It was sort of an adult Disney playground.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so they had shows that went on all day, and at midnight was New Year's Eve every night.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: And he was the choreographer there.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I was doing dance competitions and other things, and we both were involved in the studio, but it was my mother's baby.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: Then in 1993-ish, my mother uh got sick with cancer, and both of us ended up coming back and working to keep the studio running during the time she was sick.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: And Rennie went back to Florida, and I ended up with the studio in the competition, and we were running in like 30 cities.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: I got rid of uh one of the classrooms on the first floor to make it an Office for American Dance Awards, split a studio upstairs to make it into two rooms so we'd still have the same amount of studios, and ran it for two years, was N taught and burned myself out.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: And one day my brother called me and said, I think I'm ready, which meant he was ready to take it.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: And within months, it was his.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_04: You were like, goodbye, farewell.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_04: Here you go.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: Not that I didn't want it or love it or appreciate it, but I can look back on it now and say, I didn't want it to end, so that's why I jumped in.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: Was it the smartest move?
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'd say no, but the way it worked out was perfect.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm proud to see it going on.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm proud to see young dancers growing up, the gold school way.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's something about it.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's the it's something that's been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_01: That legacy is staying strong for sure.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_01: And so many, so many successful dancers graduate from the gold school.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's just, it's known in the dance world as exceptional training.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_01: I know a handful of people I've worked with in New York who I've then learned, oh, you're from the gold school.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, you're from the gold school.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, yeah.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_01: No, of course you are.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_01: Your training's amazing.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_00: I want to say something to that.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: I give the credit to my brother Rennie, because he is the one at the helm at this point in time.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: He's he's done that, carried on what I would call my mother's legacy for the last 25 years.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: And he's done it awesomely.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because people come to me, they go, Oh, your dancers are great.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I I sometimes I have to start them.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: I say, I gotta give credit what credit is too.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_04: Aww.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's great.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_04: That's great.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_04: And they they are great.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_04: I got to judge them.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_04: They were great.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's instilling kids.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is what I say.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's it's making kids believe they can be good.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's not about like you being the person who can make that leg be beautifully turned out or that foot be perfect.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's making the dancer believe they can do it.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: Once you get uh a base philosophy that's that, that's what's made the studio continue to be successful all these years.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's like in the walls that kids come in and they are inspired to be the best that they can be.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: They're not all the greatest dancers, but they're reaching their full potential.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, when they go looking for work later on, they have the I don't know how to explain it.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: They have the the gumption, the the want, the passion that everybody's looking for.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that was a long rant.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: Hit me up with something else.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, I love the rant.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_04: That was such a good rant, and and you're so right because we we've been having this conversation sort of all summer as as Courtney and I just as peers and as friends, but just in the general dance world, you you just don't have to have all of the ridiculous legs and turns and tricks and all the things to be a successful dancer or a good person.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_04: And I also think the gold school, those kids are nice kids.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_04: Those kids are nice kids.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_04: They're just they're just nice, they're nice to you, they're kind, they're kind to each other, you can just see it.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_04: And like you said, it's in the walls.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_04: Like it's it's clearly in the walls at that studio for for kids just to try hard.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_04: And when you try hard, you you do end up being your personal best.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: And you end up being able to use dance, the skills that you learn, as tools in your toolbox, no matter what you decide to do when you get to the point where you make your decision or your 20 decisions over your lifetime, dance will be there with you all the time.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, we love dance.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_04: That makes me so happy.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm curious to hear, so another thing we do on our podcast, and I know that all the credits going to Rennie in when it comes to the Gold School, but I know that you know a lot about the school, and I think uh our listeners are curious to learn more about it.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_01: But another type of episode we do on our podcast that we launched last season was our studio spotlight features, where we actually sit down with studio owners who are running successful studios and studios that everyone idolizes and knows by name, and we kind of learn the ins and outs of like what makes the studio successful and what's the training program like.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_01: So is there anything that at the gold school that you feel even from when you're like something that your mother always implemented at the studio, or how she structured the training that has been utilized through the years, even when Rennie took over and things like that, that you feel makes the gold school stand out in its own way?
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_01: Is there like an emphasis on anything particular?
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's evolved through the years.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think my mother was probably more theatrical and commercial, and my brother is more concert focused.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: But the one thing that it lasted through it all is diversity in the training, meaning there's been modern at the studio for 40 years.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: There's been ballet, tap, jazz.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're going to be a part of what I refer to as the intensive program, notice I called it that instead of the competitive program.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's a point that I like to always make, then you have to be diverse in all of those styles.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll add to that, diversity, especially now in teachers, diversity in the way they look, where they come from, the color of their skin, the training, really important in today's world of dance education.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's not something that's persisted through the 40, whatever year, no, 50 whatever years.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's a belief in diverse training, diverse curriculum.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: Also, another thing is that dance is for both boys and girls.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: And notice I put boys first.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_00: For for our listeners, I can't tell you.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: I work with studio owners, have meetings all day.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's like Zoom and Studio Owners is regold at this point.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: But I can't tell you how many say my girls, my girls, my girls.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I grew up with even it would say his her in the brochure.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: So one of the things that I think about where my brother's school is at is there are so many male dancers because we've made the norm that boys dance in our culture, in our language, and what's written in social media.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I kind of wish that more studio owners and teachers would be thinking about that.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_00: So many want the boys, but then they'll say, Oh, my girls had a great class this afternoon.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: Or the studios are pink, or you get my drift, right?
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_01: I couldn't agree more.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_01: I think that it's so important to think about that bigger picture when you're running a business like that.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_04: And like you said, if And it comes down to the nitty-gritty of just the language and the paint color.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_04: I I think some people don't think those small things matter, but like if you're a if you're a boy and you walk into a space and it doesn't feel like a space that wants you there, even with a the language and the brochure, then you maybe you don't want to be there.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_01: So even with the, you know, natural talent that you that the boy may have, if it's not welcoming and feeling inclusive for them to be able to thrive, to be able to be themselves, to be able to see pr progress, or to even just fit in alongside the peers, you know, then they're not they're gonna be turned off and say, bye.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna find another place that feels more accepting.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_01: And it's I mean, I I've seen posts even on the forums with questions like we have our first boy, and I don't know what what they should wear, and what how do I what what kind of dance steps should they do?
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's like what we have our boy.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, I think it says a lot too that having male teachers is very helpful, I think, to have you know male dancers inspired and having someone to look up to that feels you know similar to them and moves the same way and has you know the same goals as them.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_01: And not every studio is fortunate enough to maybe have a male on faculty for their male dancer.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that with that at the Gold School, I think that could be another reason why you attracted many males and then they had other males, the young males had the older males to look up to.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it just it just continu it just keeps going when you have that.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'll drive your point home 100%.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: Rennie and I grew up with hardly any boys.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: Never did a boy last the whole season.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_00: They might start.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: And now I'd say 10% of his my brother's school is probably boys, if not more.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: So there you go.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: The male teacher does make a difference, or the male influence, it doesn't have to be the male owner, it could be the male teacher or even more than one teacher who happens to be a male.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: But it is hard.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I I see teachers trying to find a damn hip hop teacher and so hard.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's hard.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_01: Hey y'all, it's Courtney, and I want to tell you about a brand new platform that just launched for our dance world, and it's called Industry Mentors.
• 36:36
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• 36:41
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• 36:53
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• 37:03
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• 37:09
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• 37:15
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• 37:18
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• 37:23
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• 37:26
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• 37:34
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• 37:38
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• 37:49
  SPEAKER_01: So the the studio world, you've been there.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_01: Now you're on the other side as far as you're practically a consultant.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_01: Do you consider yourself a consultant?
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_00: I consult it, yes.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like you're like the consultant of all dance teachers and studio owners.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_01: You know, everyone needs to have some sit down with you and they need to lay it out and you're gonna guide them in the right direction.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's where this has as a business owner has evolved.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_01: You had this studio for a minute, you had the dance competition for a minute, and now you're doing continuing education for dance teachers.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I I just think it's so I wanna know like what made you start to do that because I feel like it's so necessary for our industry.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_01: Like, when did you start kind of navigating this?
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, we'll take this podcast back to competition for a second.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you how it started.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_01: I love that.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: In the last couple years that I was running the dance competitions, I'm dating myself, but you guys probably you you remember it.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: Teachers would come down with their tapes.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_00: Their tapes, and they'd be in the order of performing.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: In a shoebox.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, in like yeah, in a shoebox or the tape case.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_00: It all depended on the studio.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: You could actually tell who had it together and who didn't by how they brought you the tape.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_01: I can only imagine.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_00: You'd look and you'd see this messy box, and you'd know, okay, we're in trouble with this box.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, these teachers, especially mid-season, would come down and be depressed.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: They'd be like, Re, this number has one dancer missing.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_00: This girl's gonna be late.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: This one left me last week and is now dancing somewhere else.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I have one dancer missing from this number.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like sitting there going, wow, these people are so burned out, and nobody is talking about that.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, it started more like, I want to do, and it was called Project Motivate.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: I want to just sit down with dance teachers and inspire them to better appreciate why we do what we do.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: I actually felt at that time that I'm gonna say we were about 20 years into competition, maybe 25 years into competition.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: And the teachers when I was a kid were more joyful than the teachers I knew as a young adult.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to stop everybody at that point and go, competition is a part of what we do, but it can't be all that we are about.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, we won't have successful businesses.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: So hanging out with a group the first time of like 18 people at a little hotel in Provincetown, Massachusetts, we ran Project Motivate, and it was we taught you how to market.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, this is how long ago it was.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: We helped you design ads for the phone book.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_00: Had a speaker on what worked for the phone book.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, okay.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and and creating your brochure and your business cards.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's kind of how it started.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then I can remember at the first one, there was this guy there, his daughter owned a studio, and he said, Well, we've come and we've learned.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think people will come back?
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because once they learn this, I'm not sure they'll come back.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I never thought about that, and he scared me to death.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like, did I just create something that's a one-shot deal?
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_03: Right, right.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then I went home and I was like, oh no, this is a many shot deal.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_00: There is so much to discuss.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so now it is about the business side and business growth, but it's also about continuing our education as teachers.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm I'm diehard at this point with a belief that if you want a successful school, make sure that you have the best early childhood and preschool teachers possible.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because we tended to invest and spend our money on the more advanced teachers.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_00: But in reality, those kids dance at discounted tuition usually because they're in our programs.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas those preschool or early childhood kids need an investment so that they love dance from day one and stay with us, paying full price for their tuition for the next 15 years.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, you guys can nod with me and go, yeah, that's true.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_00: Not everybody realized that.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_04: I don't think some people still realize that.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_00: No, I I agree.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_00: We we judged our success for a period of time on if we won awards.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_00: That made us the best.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_00: But that didn't make us have a great business.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I can vouch for a studio.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_00: When my mother passed away, she had a reputation that you went to Sherry Gold if you wanted to move on to a professional career.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_03: Right, right.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_00: So hear this.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_00: When she moved to Brockton, she had an enrollment of 700, or she peaked at 700.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_00: It might have been after she was in Brockton.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: When she passed away, she had 175.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_00: And that was because you only went to Sherry Gold's if you wanted to move on to a professional career.
• 43:50
  unknown: Oh, wow.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I witnessed what being the best and telling everybody you are the best.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: Can do.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_00: Hear this.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_00: This might be hard for listeners, but do you know that most parents are fearful that their child will become a professional dancer?
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_01: I am sure.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_01: I am so sure.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I believe that authority.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_04: My mom is still afraid that I'm gonna be a professional dancer.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_02: I already was a promotional dancer.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_00: But this dance journey, even go there, right?
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like that it's unknown to them.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_00: It can scare them off.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_00: If we bring people in for the joy of dance and they happen to love it, and then we pull them through into where they need to go.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_00: That's the best journey in dance.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_00: Not to assume that everybody wants to become the professional dancer or the high score dancer.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_00: Some dancers just want to dance in a once-a-week class and do that for 15 years.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_00: And how cool is that?
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, a lot of us will get an email or a letter five years after one of those kids leaves that say you had a major influence on me.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_00: And we hardly remember them.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because we were so focused on the kid who won Miss, I don't know, Miss Dance of USA, Triple Titanium.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm a big believer, and yes, I believe in competition.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_00: I believe in it inspiring our dancers to be better and exposing them to what potential is out there.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_00: But I also believe that dance education means we educate everybody with the same passion and the same energy because that's our responsibility to the future of our field.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_00: Buda boom.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_01: I I love all of that.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_01: I absolutely I love all of that, and it's so true.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_01: And something that I feel like has kind of gotten a little bit lost, and it goes alongside hand in hand with your discussion of people focusing too much on the win and not about the joy of dance, or or maybe even going not even about the training that's being received.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_01: And that makes me sad because I feel like that as studios, like you said, there could be that one dancer that just wants to come one day a week, but they should still be getting that same quality of training and that one hour a week as the kid who is triple titanium first place overall and takes seven days a week dance.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_01: They're taking more classes, so obviously they will progress quicker.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_01: But the quality of the classes and training that is being received needs to be the same.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like that's getting a little bit lost in the industry, and I think it's about because everyone wants to drill a routine to say they want first place overall, and then with your point, thinking that will p possibly drive business when really it might not.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_00: It might not.
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_00: It may scare people off.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I hope people think about that.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_00: But listen, it's when you say the quality of training, I'll take that one step further and say, uh, you hired me, Courtney, to teach at your studio, and I have your your best kids, but I also have the recreational tap class and they're seven to nine.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_00: It is my responsibility as a teacher to walk into that classroom and give them both all that I have.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_00: Not to say, oh, this is only the the rec kid, so I don't have to worry about it.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_04: I can just phone it in.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_04: Yep.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's the the catch here is getting the teacher.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_00: I think the owners get it, what I'm saying.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_04: Sure.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_00: But getting the teacher to believe that that girl who finally gets her shuffle ball change with four sounds after three years, you just won a super titanium.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_00: Do you realize you worked harder for that shuffle ball change than you did high score choreography that you realized?
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_01: Such a great point.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_01: So great.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_00: So you it's it's the ability to recognize what you believe is a success rather than I don't know.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_00: Or try and I think we're gonna start to see a shift.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think it's gonna be people not going to dance competitions.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_00: I just think it's gonna be maybe we can make it not matter so much.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_01: I think that shift is sort of happening a little bit with the whole evolution of conventions and in the past 15, 20 years, since that wasn't really we talk about it all the time on the pod, but I didn't really there weren't many conventions when I was growing up in like the 90s and the early 2000s.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_01: And now they're like ev there's a ton of them, but they're also bringing that the training aspect, which is so important, and then blending it with the competition.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_01: So there's a little bit of both, but the emphasis seems more on the training than the competition, and I think it's just like an extra bonus if you win at competition.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_01: But I learned something new over this weekend from a new inspiring industry leader type of thing.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope it that that we continue in that direction, honestly, because you know, this summer when I was working with the kids at Seoul, I we did this just the guys, and we hung out with the dancers uh, and I thought the guys were gonna talk to me about what other guys think of them dancing and what it's like to be a male dancer, which is probably what I would have talked about if you gave me that same session.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_00: What was interesting was they were saying, I don't know if I'm good enough to make it in dance.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if, like, I'm afraid to push myself up the front.
• 50:07
  SPEAKER_00: And in my mind, it's really, boy, if we could just stop for a minute and try to figure out how we can make our dancers, male or female, have more confidence in themselves, more belief that they should move up the front, that they are good enough.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_00: But unless you actually sit down and hang out with these kids and figure out what they're thinking, we don't know that.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_00: I walked in that room with a total misconception of what would be on these guys' minds.
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_00: But if that's on the guys' minds, I also know 100% that's also on the girls' minds.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_01: Because there's quadruple the competition with the girls, you know, to add that layer into it.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_01: And it's even more competitive.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_01: Not that it's not for the men, but it's even more competitive for the female.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_01: So absolutely they have that same thought.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it really comes down to social media, is is probably this lack of confidence thing for a lot of dancers where comparing, seeing what's what's getting the likes, what's not, you know, things like that.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_01: I I can only imagine what it's like growing up right now, to be honest.
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_00: I I have to agree.
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna say this on the opposite end of the social media thing, because I I I do think that's got a lot to do with how kids feel about themselves or or what they perceive as great.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_00: But social media has made it so in the old days, which is like 25, 30 years ago, you used to go to some place like St.
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_00: Louis, and the dancing wouldn't be as strong as, let's say, New Jersey, or you go to Birmingham, Alabama, and it wouldn't be as strong as LA.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_00: Social media, the internet, has made it so the caliber of dance coast to coast is far superior because of the exposure.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I didn't have that.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_00: You guys probably didn't have that.
• 52:13
  SPEAKER_04: Nope, not at all.
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_00: So there is a positive.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_00: Totally.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_00: But you're right.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_00: If that girl does her combo and she doesn't get likes like someone else, she believes is something wrong with her combo or her personally.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that's sad.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_04: And there's nobody else immediately right there to say, no, but that was actually great.
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_04: Nobody's saying, nobody's giving her the other side of the coin because she's on a phone.
• 52:41
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 52:41
  SPEAKER_04: And all she's getting is nothing from her like her followers.
• 52:45
  SPEAKER_04: And like, yeah, it's it's uh we we probably need a 2.0.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_04: We did a social media episode a couple years ago, but even at that point, TikTok wasn't even as big.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it evolved so fast, the so quick the dance, dance and social media in general.
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_00: It's interesting though.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_00: I recently did this interview.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_00: A girl who graduated from university in Alabama, she's auditioning for shows in New York, being home in North Carolina by sending her reels and all this stuff to all the auditions.
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_00: She doesn't have to worry about paying the rent in the city.
• 53:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's nice.
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like, wow, what a wow.
• 53:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's crazy.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_01: I I love it, I hate it.
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_01: I think about it because I especially for me, where I'm at in like my career personally, and like when the pandemic hit and everything, I Leslie and I both live in New York and I'm still actively auditioning.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_01: But there have been times where I'm, you know, debating on when am I ever gonna leave the city?
• 53:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't think I'm gonna settle here.
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_01: Where am I gonna go?
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_01: But then I'm like, oh, but I still want to audition.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_01: And be pre-pandemic, pre-self-tapes, you had to be in the city to audition.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_01: Like you could not do this whole, I'm gonna fly in and go to the call and come.
• 54:01
  SPEAKER_01: Like it wasn't an option.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_01: There would be a last-minute audition tomorrow.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_01: You have to be there.
• 54:06
  SPEAKER_01: So now it does create these opportunities for people to, you know, I mean, it's good and bad because yes, you don't have to pay the rent, but there's like quite even more competition because people are sending in tapes from the whole country instead of just New York.
• 54:22
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, I brought it up, Gordon.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_01: You can tell I'm a little bit upset about these self-tape things.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_04: Well, and even like self-taping from New York, it's like, oh man, well, we don't have the space in the apartment to self-tape.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_04: Like you have to go back to the studio and you have to, and it's like everything is everything's hard.
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_04: Nothing.
• 54:40
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, things are easier, but they're also hard.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_01: I guess it I guess that's pretty much just saying maybe I should leave New York.
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_01: I think that I just maybe that was the final I'll have to do this.
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_00: I can still all do that.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_00: Don't make any rash decisions.
• 54:53
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_04: We're just on a podcast.
• 54:55
  SPEAKER_04: It's low stakes.
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_01: It is, it is nice though, I I will say that is that's been like a you know, a good and a bad about how our industry has evolved as far as the professional world.
• 55:05
  SPEAKER_01: But I do think that Leslie, yes, we should do a uh 2.0 social media, but I think that that could definitely be hurt hindering people's confidence.
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I specifically remember well growing up, I mean, I feel like the only way that we saw other dancers were at competition.
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like that was when we saw the other what other studios were doing, what what we were competing against.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't on television and it wasn't social media didn't exist.
• 55:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't know where I got the my confidence from when I was growing up, but I remember graduating and sitting down with my teachers and saying, I'm gonna move to New York, I'm gonna be a professional dancer.
• 55:45
  SPEAKER_01: And my teachers, like I still to this day remember, they were like, There's thousands of court New Yorkes in the industry, like you're never gonna make it.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_01: And and I'm like, What are you doing?
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I will.
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_01: What are you?
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm gonna make it, I'm gonna show you, you know.
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't know where I got that confidence.
• 56:01
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas like they were just giving me a reality check, like, you're good, but there's a lot of great people out there, and it's gonna be hard to like get ready.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_01: But I didn't, I didn't know, I don't know.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_01: I it would go so different for dancers now.
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_04: It didn't occur to you to not have the confidence, exactly.
• 56:16
  SPEAKER_04: You just were like, I want to do this, I know I'm good.
• 56:19
  SPEAKER_04: Fairwell.
• 56:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I want more dancers to know that they're great because they're so much better than I was back then.
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_00: The the thing is though, that you didn't have years of of people like liking you or not liking you.
• 56:37
  SPEAKER_00: You just had your own belief.
• 56:38
  SPEAKER_00: You probably had parents who supported you, teachers who supported you, but were realistic with you.
• 56:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because in reality, you were one of many thousands who were leaving that year for New York.
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_00: But now it's I don't know that the kids have the faith in themselves.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_00: Here we are, we're back.
• 57:01
  SPEAKER_00: We know what the episode should be is in instilling confidence in young male and female dancers.
• 57:11
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 57:11
  SPEAKER_04: Because well, because those likes just get embedded into who you are.
• 57:16
  SPEAKER_04: Like, you know, we just didn't have the phone in our in our face our entire lives.
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_04: These kids that are 18 now have had, I don't know how long Instagram's been around, but like at least Facebook, YouTube.
• 57:27
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, it's just been there constantly, and it just it that's part of their personality now is people like me because I do these dances on TikTok, or and people think I'm good because I posted this on YouTube and whatever.
• 57:39
  SPEAKER_04: You just thought you were good because you won a couple of titles.
• 57:41
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 57:42
  SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
• 57:42
  SPEAKER_04: And like, and you saw yourself compared to your friends and you're like, I'm good, I'm gonna go.
• 57:46
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 57:47
  SPEAKER_04: So that's I mean, that's that is a really interesting like psychological aspect of it too that you bring up.
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_00: I wanna, I wanna I don't know where we're going next, but I wanna say this about this topic.
• 57:59
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know how many dancers get discouraged because nobody says to them your own or they they tell them your option is a professional career as a dancer.
• 58:11
  SPEAKER_00: But you know you can become a dance critic, you can go become a dance podcaster, you can become all of these things.
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the the mind of the teacher out there and the parent has to expand to realize all the different aspects that a somebody who's passionate about dance can land in.
• 58:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that it isn't, if we always think it's that professional career.
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know how many people who could be the best dance podcaster out there would not feel like they succeeded because it was embedded in their head that they had to land a Broadway show?
• 58:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we have to change our mentality here.
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, there are so many options.
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_00: I I met this girl this summer who is this dance video editor, and she's so good at it because she grew up in dance.
• 59:07
  SPEAKER_00: She went to school for video editing and all kinds of editing.
• 59:13
  SPEAKER_00: And she she's still teaching dance, but is making a great living with this skill of dance, and she's using it for something totally different than she wouldn't have landed on a Broadway stage.
• 59:26
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 59:27
  SPEAKER_00: But if she had been told that was all there is.
• 59:30
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 59:30
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_01: And even studios being able to expose their dancers to those types of things where that light bulb can go off and be like, oh, cool, we just made this awesome concept video.
• 59:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I loved being behind the camera and directing, you know, like something like that.
• 59:45
  SPEAKER_01: If a if a dancer is never exposed to that, and we're, you know, just going to competitions and training and not adding that into the mix, then how will they ever know that that interests them?
• 59:56
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's truly how I felt when I grew up.
• 59:59
  SPEAKER_01: I thought I had to go to college for dance because I knew nothing else.
• 1:00:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like I only knew dance and then my academics at school, which didn't interest me.
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_01: And like the only other thing that interests me was like technology and like graphic design, but like that also was kind of like, oh, that's not a real job type of thing.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't know.
• 1:00:18
  SPEAKER_01: It was, it was, I didn't know any different, but maybe if someone would have said, oh, you can you can make graphics one day for uh a dance business, or Leslie, you can be a writer for a dance magazine.
• 1:00:31
  SPEAKER_01: Like no one told us that we could do that when at least when I was growing up.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_01: So I think it is crucial for studios to continue to educate their dancers in other careers, because let's be real, art guidance counselors at at school probably aren't guiding us in that direction either.
• 1:00:48
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, and you you you dance is is still to this day, I'll say it this way.
• 1:00:55
  SPEAKER_00: Dance is a nice hobby.
• 1:00:56
  SPEAKER_00: What's your real job?
• 1:00:58
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 1:00:58
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people feel that.
• 1:01:00
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 1:01:01
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, constantly still, and even you know even after the trauma of COVID-19 and all that everybody has been through maneuvering and keeping kids dancing and being broke and somehow going on and you know, running a recital and nobody could come in the auditorium.
• 1:01:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's a nice hobby and we love it.
• 1:01:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my gosh.
• 1:01:26
  SPEAKER_04: Well, we have uh learned so much, Ree, about you and about your businesses and about your history.
• 1:01:32
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm so excited for listeners to hear this episode because not only was this whole hour a wealth of information, but you have so many other resources for dance teachers and educators out there.
• 1:01:44
  SPEAKER_04: So we're gonna link uh listeners in the show notes to all of Ree's everything websites, podcasts.
• 1:01:50
  SPEAKER_04: And Re also has a podcast.
• 1:01:51
  SPEAKER_04: So conferences, uh materials.
• 1:01:53
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, there's all kinds of stuff, so make sure you check out everything that he does because that is why we had him on, because it's Re Gold, guys.
• 1:02:01
  SPEAKER_04: It should just speak for itself.
• 1:02:03
  SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
• 1:02:04
  SPEAKER_00: I always say, if only they knew me, but we'll leave it at that.
• 1:02:09
  SPEAKER_01: Well, this was just so great.
• 1:02:11
  SPEAKER_01: I love all of the conversations that we had within getting to know you, but even just how where the conversation led, and so much great advice for everyone in the industry.
• 1:02:21
  SPEAKER_01: We talked about the dancers, the dance parents, the teachers, the studio owners.
• 1:02:26
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we covered it all, even the dance professionals.
• 1:02:29
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you, Ree, for joining us on the pod.
• 1:02:31
  SPEAKER_01: We are honored to have you and for kicking off our first episode of season four.
• 1:02:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's been such a pleasure.
• 1:02:37
  SPEAKER_01: And how we usually have our guests lead us out on our episodes are to just share one final thought you'd like to share.
• 1:02:45
  SPEAKER_01: You can talk to the dance teachers, the studio owners, the parents, the dancers, whoever you want, you can lead us out with one final thought from Regold.
• 1:02:55
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 1:02:55
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Courtney and Leslie.
• 1:02:57
  SPEAKER_00: I guess my final thought is this.
• 1:03:00
  SPEAKER_00: I believe that dance is a gift and that it is something that attaches to the soul.
• 1:03:07
  SPEAKER_00: And once it's there, it never leaves.
• 1:03:12
  SPEAKER_00: And if we're going to call ourselves dancers, or we're going to call ourselves dance educators, our goal is to pass that passion on to everybody who we come in contact with.
• 1:03:28
  SPEAKER_00: The passion for dance.
• 1:03:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that that passion doesn't only count with the best dancers.
• 1:03:36
  SPEAKER_00: The girl in the wheelchair can only move her right arm, lifts it up with passion.
• 1:03:43
  SPEAKER_00: That will move an audience.
• 1:03:45
  SPEAKER_00: That is dance.
• 1:03:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's our gift.
• 1:03:48
  SPEAKER_00: Let us always be grateful that we receive this gift and pass it on to everybody we can so that they can have the same feelings that we do.
• 1:04:00
  SPEAKER_00: Enjoy the journey.
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_01: We would love to send a huge thank you to Reed Gold for being a guest on our podcast and helping us kick off season four.
• 1:04:11
  SPEAKER_01: We hope you enjoyed this episode full of fabulous advice and guidance for teachers, parents, and dancers.
• 1:04:16
  SPEAKER_01: Be sure to follow Re on social media at ReGold and check out some of its other projects and conferences, including the Dance Life Teacher Conference at DanceLifeconference.com, the International Dance Entrepreneurs Association at ideadance.org, and the Soul Dancer Conference at Regold.com slash Soul.
• 1:04:38
  SPEAKER_04: Don't forget to follow Making the Impact on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and pretty much everywhere you listen to podcasts.
• 1:04:47
  SPEAKER_04: And if you want more exclusive episodes, support our podcast by joining our Platinum Premium membership for only$5 a month.
• 1:04:54
  SPEAKER_04: Subscribers receive free Making the Impact stickers, shout outs live on the air, ad-free listening, and exclusive access to our QA episodes from members only.
• 1:05:04
  SPEAKER_04: Join now at ImpactDance Adjudicators.com slash support our pod or click the link in our show notes.
• 1:05:12
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you to Re-Gold for kicking off season four of Making the Impact.
• 1:05:15
  SPEAKER_04: Coming up this season, we've got some new hot topics like hair and makeup for the competition stage, shock value and triggering subjects at competition, and when to go pre pro.
• 1:05:25
  SPEAKER_04: So stay tuned.
• 1:05:28
  SPEAKER_01: We are so pumped to be back for season four, and we have so many more great episodes coming your way.
• 1:05:33
  SPEAKER_01: We'll see you next week.
• 1:05:35
  SPEAKER_01: Until then, keep dancing.