Coming Out of Ballet Hibernation

 After a long hiatus from sharing my dance thoughts in writing, I am energized and enthused to be making the commitment to more intentional content creation both in the studio and here, with all of you. My little dance world has undergone a few changes since I last was active on the blog and I'm excited for the potential for growth within the walls of Dixon Dance Studio, within myself, and to the greater world, should the ripple-effect do its thing (perhaps you can relate). 

A year or two of restricted access to the dancers and the studio certainly made me think a lot about what I ultimately wanted to see for my dancers. We have some very talented young dancers at our studio who are at the perfect stage to solidify their foundational training and I've had the proverbial "bee in my bonnet" to make some changes for the betterment of the program. I'm thrilled that my students want tangible feedback and to take an active part in their improvement; I might be one of the luckiest teachers in the world to have this "problem." My mind is now buzzing with creative ways to meet the needs of my individual students. They are so excited to show me how they've arranged paired their snacks to give them more energy or to delve into the mechanics of deconstructing a pirouette so we can get them turning gorgeously, consistently.  This type of learning hunger deserves to be met with the best tools I can offer them; I'm both ecstatic and terrified of the challenge.

I'm so glad that I recently decided to dive down the rabbit hole of ballet resources that have come out of Australia. Lisa Howell (The Ballet Blog), Georgia Canning (The Balanced Ballerinas Podcast), and the folks over at Queensland Ballet are relentless at taking the mystique and "gate-keeping" out of ballet for the very simple reason that in this realm, what people don't know CAN hurt them. Bravo to these stewards of the art form; and to the community of like-minded instructors and dancers connected through their work. If you haven't, I highly recommend you go check them all out!

As I sit here over my evening cup of chamomile tea, getting excited over lesson plans, exercise worksheets and goal-setting, I welcome you back to my little world of ballet, where I've committed to sharing my thoughts as a part of my commitment to doing my best to make the ballet studio a better place.

Cheers,

Jeanne

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