If you’re a competition dancer, you may know the feeling of standing onstage waiting for your turn to dance, with one big question in mind: “What am I going to do?” In improv challenges (also called improv “competitions” or “battles”), dancers perform on the spot for a song or set of counts and receive a […]
When teaching convention classes, many choreographers start combinations mid-song, allowing dancers the freedom to improvise a few eight counts before the piece begins. How do you use those moments to learn and grow as a dancer, even if you’re new to the style of dance? DS spoke with convention teachers about the best way to […]
We’ve all been there—smack in the middle of the improv portion of an audition, when suddenly our brain freezes over. All the creative movement born out of story telling and honest expression becomes the same right-battement over…and over…and over again. Yikes!🙅 Here are four prompts to help you break that dreaded right-battement cycle. Use them […]
Ah, the musical theater dance call. A godsend to those of us who consider ourselves Dancers-with-a-capital-D, the dance portion of any musical-theater audition also has its fair share of ridiculous, frustrating and just plain what-the-heck moments. If you’re a Broadway baby who knows all too well what I mean, you NEED to watch the newest […]
It’s no secret that we at Dance Spirit love us some Jason Samuels Smith. Exhibit A? His holy-throwback May/June 2004 cover: While DS‘s look—and Samuels Smith’s hairstyle!—have transformed over the years, the hoofer’s killer improv has always been all kinds of #goals. To get tap-happy this hump day, check out the vid he recently filmed for Houston Public Media. Four words: […]
In a mirror-less dance studio, your teacher asks you to move as if you’re in the shower and the hot water has suddenly disappeared. What do you do? You twitch, you vibrate. You can almost feel that freezing-cold water pelting your shoulders. As you shiver, you imagine how that movement affects each molecule in your […]
The first week back after a long holiday break can be pretty stressful. In need of a good mellowing out? Picture this: A music studio set up to look like a cozy living room, complete with a few pianos, string insturments, a drumset, microphone stands—oh, and Ben Harper, the folksy, bluesy singer-songwriter who’s famous for […]
Author Jen Jones Donatelli at the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders tryouts (courtesy Jen Jones Donatelli) It was the audition of a lifetime. I’d always dreamed of being a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader. Though I knew the odds were probably against me—I’m a little older and curvier than the average NFL cheerleader—this year I decided to go for […]