Cricket's Dance, LLC

Technique – It is the formula for success.  Growing up I  danced side-by-side with many good dancers; I could list names all day long – but you all know who you are.   You were the girls who cared about technique and what the team looked like in the end.

I also danced with a few who couldn’t  turn or leap – to save their bacon.  There were a number of girls who tried out each year for the team and never made it.   Some are still in denial.   Others can laugh about it, and enjoy the moments we all shared.  I worked with training a  number of lefty’s.  They had double the load by having to move in a direction unfamiliar to them.   But they did it!   Why don’t others who are not directionally challenged  manage to learn proper technique?

As an instructor what can you do  when you can’t get them to learn anymore?  Or even try?  Do you hide them in the mix?  Rearrange choreography?   Maybe you do hide them, but after a while, you learn that you can’t keep dummying down the dance to fit in one individual, or a pair.  At some point an instructor or director has to take the necessary actions and cut a member from the team.  Parents don’t like that.   Neither do the dancers.  Neither do coaches.

I know of dancers who still hold grudges because of a cut.   Others take it quite gracefully.  A small handful take it to extremes and actually violate the very trust that is needed to learn in a dance environment.   They use deception and manipulation to get their way.  SNAP…..

There is your dilemma.  How to have a successful  well trained team, and  keep everyone happy.   The bottom line is, you can’t keep everyone happy.  You aren’t there to make them happy.  You are there to train them how to be successful dancers.  If you are going to be successful you are going to have to make cuts, and you WILL have to deal with that small handful of the disgruntled.

A lot of problems can be avoided at try-outs.  If a dancer isn’t  on their game, just don’t pick them.  Better to have a small number of good dancers, than a large number of gangly dancers that can’t turn or leap, or can’t recognize 5,6,7,8.

I understand that it is extremely hard to work with a school team that doesn’t studio train on the side.    Training, is not an hour or two a week, with a little practice before or after school.    That isn’t training for competition.  That is what is called recreational dancing.  I think I’ve said this before somewhere, “that is why soloists are born”.

If you are a competition instructor or director you should demand quality.  Parents too, after all you are putting your money on the line thinking your child will be ready to perform, and do well.    When a parent goes to a performance and sees their child for the first time for the season, what will be the overall effect?   What lasting memory are they going to come away with?   Are they thinking “Oh my gosh” or are they thinking “they held their own”?

I have a ton of images showing the many different types of dancers that I performed with.  A camera catches a lot of things.  We are ALL on film doing our worst and our best.   I would be tarred and feather and kicked off the planet if I ever let some of them out.  No worries, feathers aren’t too tasty – I understand.

Technique snap-shots.  Money back – guarantee, a photo says a lot.  SNAP….  It is a grading scale for instructors and directors.  It tells the story better than anything ever can.   If not money, then honor later in life.  Never should a performers honors be over shadowed by a want-a-bee dancer or instructor.  SNAP….\

You can pack your pages with images on facebook, and youtube, and twitter sites.  You can try to keep them as positive as you can, but at some point, those images will come under review.  Even your good ones.  Every flaw, every point, every little directional turn that someone messed up on year-in, year-out, will  be reviewed.

Critics are everywhere.  Generally it is the least amongst us who take aim at those  they perceive to be above them.   Jealously?  You bet.  They can’t control the past, or the future.  All they can do is stir the moment.    As members of my own household would say, “if you see a pot of crazy, it is best not to stir it”.

There is always a lot of people  trying out for the  TV show, So You Think You Can Dance.     I watched a couple of my friends in SLC try out a couple years ago.  I have to say I’m guilty of wanting to watch them fall on their better ends.    I told them I needed a good laugh. They had no real dance back ground other than recreational and a little drill.  They had been pushed by their parents and “money motivated directors”  all their lives.  They never even performed a solo once in their dance history.    Now they were going to try out for SYTYCD.    I could of saved them a heart ache, but it was just too much fun not too.  I’m guilty!

Together we laughed about it afterwards, and we are still friends – but I will never let them live it down.    I think if you are going to try out for something at this level you really need to have a good sense of humor.

They tried to con me into it.  It may have been fun to try out for SYTYCD.  But that meant quitting school if I even got lucky to make a cut.  I’m too ambitious in other directions.  Those who know me, know I’m a competitor by heart, but I also know my limits, and expectations.    Besides I get to watch my friends make fools of themselves.    It was one of those college moments.

A  Jazz kick line would be a much better choice if I was going to try out again for anything.   That or follow in the foot steps of one of my mentors Amanda VanAsdole (former Denver Bronco Cheerleader).   I would probably put in a few months of hard core training to get myself into shape first too ( Solo mode).   I wouldn’t expect it to be easy.  I wouldn’t expect SYTYCD to be easy either.

Teaching and judging is more a reality that I can live with.  But then again, who knows.   As an instructor I’m pretty keen on students learning proper technique.   There needs to be a number of us die hards around  who are going stick with it and  train future students on how to get out of poe dunk, and actually try out for college teams or professional organizations.  You aren’t going to learn technique by watching SYTYCD, you are going to have to get out there and learn the steps, take the classes, and try out.

It’s okay to dance at a recreational level.  Thousands do it all the time, and they have just as much fun as the movie stars.   So don’t be discouraged by it all.  Some people really will land a career in the dance field.  For others recreation gets them on a bus and to a game.  Each person has their own goals.  Follow your own.