In this video, writer and mental health advocate Kathleen McGuire Gaines and Dr. Elizabeth Hutter, school principal of New Ballet in San Jose, California, and president of the American Psychological Association, discuss how to help your students cope with performance anxiety, unpack your personal self-criticism, and manage the day-to-day stresses that come with teaching. The post Watch DT+ Teacher Talk: “Managing Perfectionism and Performance Anxiety” appeared first on Dance Teacher.

The post Managing Perfectionism and Performance Anxiety appeared first on Dance Teacher.

Listening to Dr. E. Macias describe her approaches to teaching and performing, a certain word keeps appearing: “collaboration.” Whether it’s a lecture course at the University of California, Irvine, or a solo performance she’s creating, Macias is “activating connections.” This includes connections between humans and more-than-humans, meaning animals, atmospheric elements, and land.  Macias’ investment in collaboration informs every aspect of her teaching: from the knowledge she shares to how she shares this information. Traditionally, in lecture courses, faculty members are expected to be experts on a topic, like “dance history,” and to speak about a range of styles and time […]

Conceived and choreographed by S. Premnath, the performance abides by the aesthetic values set up by Rukmini Devi at Kalakshetra.

Premiered 12 years, the production sustains interest with its visualisation and music.

Picture this: You’re a studio owner busy teaching a class when a grandparent trips on some unsecured carpeting during drop-off. Or maybe some dancers lean on and accidentally crack the mirror, so now you need to replace it. Or perhaps a student is injured while trying a trick in class and is blaming the teacher.  In any of these scenarios, an important question is: Do you have liability insurance to cover the costs of defending yourself and settling any claims? “Even when the school or the instructor is not at fault, you still have the stress of finding an attorney, […]

Jazz dance is in Nan Giordano’s blood—and so is leadership. In her four decades at the helm of Giordano Dance Chicago, the company founded by her father, jazz luminary Gus Giordano, she’s worked hard to balance legacy with innovation. “We stand on the foundation my father built, but we don’t live in the past,” she says. “We honor the history, embrace the present, and push it forward.”  This mission was evident at GDC’s spring season in Chicago this year, April 4–5. SOARING: Life, Light, and Legacy featured new works by Giordano, associate artistic director Cesar G. Salinas, and resident choreographer […]

Kieron Dwayne Sargeant was just 13 when he first felt the spark for teaching. He was standing in a modest studio in the Embacadere neighborhood of San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago, when his teachers, Torrance Mohammed and Louise McClashie, asked him to lead the class through a warm-up. “That moment changed my life,” he says. “[It] gave me my calling.”  Sargeant’s passion for teaching has since flourished into an assistant professor of dance position at Skidmore College, where he teaches both majors and nonmajors in courses in African and Caribbean dance forms. His impact, though, goes well beyond the walls […]