Sing the Arms: Recital Readiness Series with Tiffany Henderson

Do you struggle to get your littlest dancers to learn and perfect their annual recital dances? Here are some tips on how to make your youngest dancers shine:

Have the dancers sit down in a circle or line and go over just the arms before you stand up to teach the recital dance. 

Sometimes when they are standing and facing the mirror they become distracted and miss the choreography. They can only learn if they are focused. When standing they are also thinking about what their feet are doing. 

Learning the words with arms first is best!

Make sure to match words or sing the recital dance song as you are going over the arm movements, and have the dancers sing with you. This will help alleviate any distractions. 

After you ‘Sing the Arms” stand up and add the arms and feet together. Remember if they can say it they can do it!

Talk through the dance until you see their attention start to fade. At that point do the dance with the music and continue past the section that you taught them. They should be able to follow along with you and do that dance. 

Want more insights and practical advice? Join me for a dance studio owner weekend getaway to Pinnacle Dance Conference and Retreat this July 20-21, 2024 at the Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain.

Meet Tiffany Henderson 

Tiffany Henderson is an industry leader and dance business expert. Tiffany owns and operates multiple Tiffany's Dance Academy locations in Northern California. Her video-based teacher training system and curriculum, Twinkle Star Dance, is currently implemented in 300+ dance studios worldwide.

Just For Fun: Recital Readiness Series with Tiffany Henderson

Do you have trouble keeping your youngest dancers' attention in class while preparing them for the recital? Try these tips for keeping your classes fun and engaging all year round.

1. Just For Fun 

Add in Seasonal “follow me” dances that can easily be added to your class without taking up too much “recital prep” time. 

This month,  we add our “The Bunny Jive” dance activity each week to add in Springtime fun. A “follow me” dance is one that can be easily executed just by watching the dance teacher with repetitive phrases and a standard chorus.  

2. Skill Building 

Take challenging steps or phrases from the recital dance and add it into other parts of the class. 

For example if the challenging phrase is an Irish tap step, make sure to add that into your tap warm up and at the tap barre for extra practice. This will make more time for adding in the fun seasonal dances that keep your classes magical!

Want more insights and practical advice? Join me for a dance studio owner weekend getaway to Pinnacle Dance Conference and Retreat this July 20-21, 2024 at the Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain.

Meet Tiffany Henderson 

Tiffany Henderson is an industry leader and dance business expert. Tiffany owns and operates multiple Tiffany's Dance Academy locations in Northern California. Her video-based teacher training system and curriculum, Twinkle Star Dance, is currently implemented in 300+ dance studios worldwide.

5 Struggles of Owning a Dance Studio: Financial Instability

Welcome to March Madness in your dance studio. Where we are simultaneously creating for this season and planning for next season. 

Connecting with studio owners through the Twinkle Star Dance community, my Diamond Circle coaching clients, and Dance the Dream parade events, I find many of us struggle with the same five pain points as dance studio owners: 

1. Work/Life Balance 

2. Financial Instability 

3. Hiring and Management 

4. Gaining Competitive Edge in Saturated Markets

5. Keeping up with Trends 

Last week we chatted about struggling with work/life balance. This week I want to touch on something that often causes us to feel unbalanced which is Financial Instability. 

When your business is not yet profitable; you’re not categorizing your revenue correctly so you don’t know how much you can pay yourself; or you find yourself rebuilding your business after losing a performing company group and/or teacher it leads to feeling like your business is owning you. Trust me, I’ve been there. 

In my early days of studio ownership I decided to expand my one room studio location to three rooms, taking on an additional lease thinking I could sublet my first location. How hard can it be? Then the real estate market crashed and I had to drive home from teaching every night for three years and wave to my $3,000 per month salary. 

It’s safe to say, after decades of owning and operating multiple, successful locations, I have enough failures under my belt to offer some solutions. 

Financial Instability 

It is easy to get caught up in adding extra community events or outside performance opportunities to our calendars. This season I want you to focus on maximizing your two main revenue streams in your business: 

• Class Tuition Revenue 

• Recital Revenue 

Class Tuition Revenue - Focus on making your dance classes the absolute best they can be. Create or implement a proven curriculum that balances structure and fun. 

For example, the Twinkle Star Dance program introduces young dancers to ballet, tap, jazz, and creative movement. They learn the basic steps while following directions and imitating movement in a positive environment. Engaging music is used to get these little guys inspired. The use of props such as Twinkle bears enables the young dancers to use their imagination, creativity and, most of all, have fun!

Recital Revenue - I’m a big proponent of two shows per season - Holiday and Spring. Dancers pay a recital participation fee for each event that includes the performance, costume, tights, action photos, wide angle video, and dancer ribbon or medal. 

Notice I did not say tickets. When it comes to recital tickets, be sure to have tiered pricing, reserved seating, and do not sell out! Depending on the size of your theater consider having smaller, shorter shows so you can sell more of the higher price tickets. We plan for every dancer to sell 5 tickets on average based on previous show data.  

Want more insights and practical advice? Join me for a dance studio owner weekend getaway to Pinnacle Dance Conference and Retreat this July 20-21, 2024 at the Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain.

Check back next week for my tips and tricks to combat Hiring and Management. 

Meet Tiffany Henderson 

Tiffany Henderson is an industry leader and dance business expert. Tiffany owns and operates multiple Tiffany's Dance Academy locations in Northern California. Her video-based teacher training system and curriculum, Twinkle Star Dance, is currently implemented in 300+ dance studios worldwide.

Help your dancers shine onstage

Even though your preschool dancers will most likely stand in one line onstage, they need to practice getting to that position, and holding their spacing.

Here are some tips for helping them understand how to enter the stage: 

1.  In the studio, have them hold hands and walk to one side of the room.

2. If not too dark, turn off the lights as the stage will be dim when entering.

3. Lead the dancers “onstage” holding the first dancer’s hand and walking them to their position.

4. Have the dancers stop, let go of hands, and find their “starting position.”

5. Turn on the studio lights and say “dancers go!”

6. Most likely they will bunch up into each other the first time they practice this. Make sure to have them do it again so they can practice it the correct way.

Meet Tiffany Henderson 

Tiffany Henderson is an industry leader and dance business expert. Tiffany owns and operates multiple Tiffany's Dance Academy locations in Northern California. Her video-based teacher training system and curriculum, Twinkle Star Dance, is currently implemented in 300+ dance studios worldwide.

Keeping your preschool dancers engaged as you enter Recital Season

Do you have trouble keeping your youngest dancers' attention in class while preparing them for recital? Try these tips for keeping your classes fun and engaging all year round.

1. Add in Seasonal “follow me” dances that can easily be added to your class without taking up too much “recital prep” time. 

In April we add our “Bunny Hop” dances each week to add in Springtime fun. A “follow me” dance is one that can be easily executed just by watching the dance teacher with repetitive phrases and a standard chorus.  

2. Take challenging steps or phrases from the recital dance and add it into other parts of the class. 

For example if the challenging phrase is an Irish tap step, make sure to add that into your tap warm up and at the tap barre for extra practice. This will make more time for adding in the fun seasonal dances that keep your classes magical!

Meet Tiffany Henderson 

Tiffany Henderson is an industry leader and dance business expert. Tiffany owns and operates multiple Tiffany's Dance Academy locations in Northern California. Her video-based teacher training system and curriculum, Twinkle Star Dance, is currently implemented in 300+ dance studios worldwide.