Episodes

Have you ever heard of the self-fulfilling prophecy? It’s the phenomenon where an individual’s or a group's expectation for the behavior of another individual or group serves actually to bring the expected behavior. As a dance educator, it means...

Whenever I discuss the negative side of punishment, and why you should always avoid physical punishment I get questions about what to do instead. The focus is usually on the side of consequences. Coaches want to know, how do I get them to stop doing...

There is no denying that the current generation of athletes is different. Not necessarily good or bad, but they are different. There are some things to consider this season when coaching and teaching Generation Z: the advantages, the challenges, and...

One of the biggest mental skills training sessions I do in the summer is goal setting. Why? because it is the foundation for a lot of other things. If your dancers know how to set and track goals properly, they can rely on that skill to boost...

I used to start every season with a mix of emotions. Excitement, nerves, doubts, plans, goals… there are a lot of moving parts! I talk a lot about self-talk with dancers. It’s a really important and challenging mental skill that doesn’t come...

This week I have the pleasure of sharing an interview with Kelsey Nelson. You know how sometimes you meet someone and it just clicks? Kelsey and I clicked quickly and I think we have similar philosophies and approaches to teaching dance. In this...

This week’s episode is all about growth mindset. You may have heard of it, but do you know how to implement it with your dancers? Change how they learn and everything else improves along with their mindset.  I start by sharing a quick...

This episode is all about mentorship and community, and why I believe it’s the secret to success in our dance industry. I share the mistakes I made early on and the lessons I  learned along the way. I’m grateful to be a mentor and have...

Recently I asked this wonderful village of dance coaches and teachers to submit questions that I could answer on the show. So in this episode, I have 3 questions about sport psychology and dance straight from the community. One of my favorite things...

Whenever a dancer is competitively successful, we see lots of social media posts, public praise, and gratitude. And rightfully so. When a dancer comes out on top of the rankings the coach and dance teachers are usually a big reason why. We should...

This week we are going to focus on leadership specifically for high school and college dance teams. But if you don’t have captains on your team or you’re in the studio world don’t leave me just yet. You probably have informal leaders at your...

When I was dancing 20+ hours a week and basically living at the studio, I was always focused on improving my technique. All my energy went into getting stronger at the ballet barre, working flexibility, and trying to nail that hard across the floor...

As a coach or a teacher, we’ve all been through the challenges that come with the end of the season. You’ve been training your competition routine for months, it’s rounding to the end of the season and it’s time to push through those last few...

As dance educators, we often have to make difficult, emotional decisions. It might be tryouts for a school team, or a studio making decisions about company level, who is in which routine… there are many times where we have to make decisions that we...

It’s the first guest interview episode of the Passion for Dance Podcast, with Katie Groven of Dancer-Fitness.com! Katie is an ACSM certified personal trainer, holistic health coach, and two-time world champion dancer. She is the creator of   an...

How do you become a confident dancer? Are some dancers just born as more confident people while others have to struggle with self-consciousness? The short of it is, yes some people are naturally more confident but no matter what, you can learn to be...

Many of us have seen the dancer who freezes when they try to do a hard skill. It could be a new hip hop trick, new jump, aerial, just about anything. But it’s common when dancers are trying to learn a new challenging skill that they freeze up and...

Have you ever choked under pressure? Let the nerves get to you and ruin an audition or performance? What about as a director or coach, have you watched one of your dancers get so nervous that they freeze and you get that deer in headlights look? You...

Dance educators work for the love of dance. But it certainly helps if we have a group of dancers we adore and want to work with every day. This episode is a conversation about creating a positive culture and it will apply if you coach a school team,...

As educators, we are trained in the skills of our sport. We know how to teach our athletes to clean up a routine, improve their turn technique, or achieve a new hip-hop trick. What we don’t always understand is how to coach them to prepare for...

Many of us choose to teach our dancers with the same disciplinary approach we grew up with and that often includes punishment when dancers don't follow the rules.  Why do we use punishment? Because it usually works and provides the desired...

Let’s talk about that terrible emotion ... disappointment. Disappointment is normal, and everyone goes through it, but it can be really hard to get over. There’s probably something in your dance past that haunts you. I know I do have plenty of...

Dancers train our whole lives for only a few minutes on stage. Just a few minutes under the stage lights, just one opportunity to show off what we’ve worked so hard on. And sometimes we leave the stage feeling like it wasn’t enough. I want to make...

In this episode, we are going to talk about motivation. It's one of the biggest questions I get: How do we get our dancers to be more motivated in class?  Don't worry, I've got you covered... I’m going to tell you about the 3 basic needs behind...