Chat Room
With many competitions bursting at the seams with entries, chances are, YOU as a Studio Owner or Dance Teacher are also a Competitive Company Director. Whether you call it a Dance Team, Dance Ensemble or Dance Company ...you probably have a competitive group. It can be small with 12 members; it can be average with 35 members or it can be big with 80 members. Regardless of size, it still takes your precious time and a lot of it.
Do you find yourself with questions on how to run this group? Do you find you are in a quandary not knowing how far you can go with financial requirements and demands on time? Would you like to know how you can budget and regulate your expenses for the group? Would you like to know how you and your students and parents can get more for their competitive costume buck? Would you like to be able to share your questions, thoughts, suggestions and experiences with other teachers? Would you like to ask questions and have answers to all of the above? Then you have turned to the right page.
Can we talk? I sure hope so. I want you to ask questions and I will respond to them with my thoughts and answers along with many of your peer's suggestions to help solve your dilemmas. Topics from A..uditions to Z..ealous students with overbearing parents will be discussed and everything in between. We will chat about what to do...how to do and when to do it. We will chat about the pros and cons of such topics as student company contracts, collecting fees, meeting deadlines, attendance requirements for classes and rehearsals and the inevitable parent involvement. We will chat about the best way to handle resentment between your dancers as well as injury and behavior problems when they arise. Sounds good to me. How about you?
For many years as a Studio owner and director of a competitive group I often wondered how others in the same position handled certain aspects of their company. Unfortunately many teachers preferred to remain tight lipped about how they personally did things. I, on the other hand, have always been more than willing to share what I know and how I successfully got things to gel. Computer chat rooms were unheard of then. There was no where to go and not too many to speak to so I just winged it. It was pure luck in the beginning, but most of the time my plan worked and everything turned out great. Of course there was failure too and as we all do, I learned thru my mistakes.
Now I would like to help you avoid some of the mistakes I made and gain from some of the procedures I did right. I want all of us to chat about what works and what doesn't work with a competitive group. Whether you are a private studio owner or the director of a public school dance team...we all have the same problems to address...so let's chat.
Please contact me at....with your questions, thoughts, suggestions and answers. To assure anonymity no names are necessary. The first topic will be "How Do You Select Members for Your Company?". Do you invite them? Do you hold an Audition? Is it opened to all or invitation only? Do you have outside judges? Do you have Summer requirements? What is your criteria for selecting dancers?
I want to know these answers...do you? I will anxiously be looking for your e-mails at danieirv@aol.com. Thanx for chatting!