My days in the world of high school drill team have come to a close. It is definitely a bittersweet moment, to say the least. I will miss the camaraderie of a team and the joy that comes with watching a student grow through the years. I will begin my first year as a middle school dance teacher this school year and am very excited to be part of this side of dance in the public education system. There will undoubtedly be new challenges along with new rewards. I am so looking forward to being able to focus on the educational aspect more than is allowed in the fast paced drill team setting with multiple performances a month.
Here's to a great 2015-2016 school year!
Thursday, August 06, 2015
Friday, August 19, 2011
just for clicks: just for kix
I'm always looking for great resources to help me in the classroom and in the studio for my students and for myself. One that I find myself using frequently is Just for Kix. This is a great website where you can order practice wear, performance wear and accessories, gifts, videos, music, and more. However, my favorite are their resources. They have great articles on a range of topics from technique to nutrition and hundreds of videos. I have to admit that the videos are my first favorite. These can all be found on their YouTube Channel. The videos are anywhere from 45 seconds to 3 minutes and have a number of features. Some videos feature short combinations in different dance genres (hip-hop, lyrical, kick). Others teach the technique and mechanics of specific tricks or turns. These are great for when you find your choreography is becoming boring or you want to push your team to try something new. Still, other videos focus on increasing flexibility or strengthening your center.
Sometimes, I give my officers the homework of learning a new trick and teaching the girls the following week at practice. One of my lieutenants (who was awarded Kick Master at last year's competition), watched the following video and showed me the kick. When school starts next week and we continue our practices, we will be teaching the "screwdriver kick" and working on perfecting as it will be in our field kick routine in a few weeks.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
so fresh and so clean,clean: part deux
In continuing with the last post, here are some more ways to clean your next routine.
I like to break my team up into groups and have each officer focus on a small group of girls. DISCLAIMER: Make sure each officer knows what you want it to look like, otherwise you'll have as many versions of the same dance as you do officers. When I do this with my team, it is after I have cleaned the section and see that there are still many dancers who are having difficulty with placements or timing. I give each officer a group and let them work for about 15-20 minutes. This allows each dancer more focused attention and also allows each officer the chance to take on responsibility and grow as a leader. (This also frees up some time for the Director to get a few things done in the office.)
If it's timing that your team is having trouble with, sit the girls down and play the music a few times while they close their eyes and listen to you count. Point out the trouble spots and emphasize the counts for these areas. The next few times you run the routine, have each girl on the team count aloud. While they are counting, you or your captain can call out the steps to remind the dancers of what's next.
During the cleaning process, I usually slow the pace of the routine down in order to allow the dancers time to think during the dance until the movements are all consistent without any questions as to placement. Once I know uniformity has been reached, I like to speed up the tempo gradually until the dancers are performing faster than what the true tempo is. You don't need to do this with the entire routine, just those parts with difficult footwork or quick arm changes. I like to challenge my girls to see how fast they can dance and they get a kick out of listening to me trying to count faster each time. When we have successfully mastered the section at super-sonic speed, as I like to call it, performing the routine with music is a piece of cake!
Give these strategies a try the next time you see your team having difficulty with a routine and let me know how they work for you!
During the cleaning process, I usually slow the pace of the routine down in order to allow the dancers time to think during the dance until the movements are all consistent without any questions as to placement. Once I know uniformity has been reached, I like to speed up the tempo gradually until the dancers are performing faster than what the true tempo is. You don't need to do this with the entire routine, just those parts with difficult footwork or quick arm changes. I like to challenge my girls to see how fast they can dance and they get a kick out of listening to me trying to count faster each time. When we have successfully mastered the section at super-sonic speed, as I like to call it, performing the routine with music is a piece of cake!
Give these strategies a try the next time you see your team having difficulty with a routine and let me know how they work for you!
Sunday, August 07, 2011
so fresh and so clean, clean: hit & freeze
Congratulations! You've choreographed a great routine your audience will love...now what? It's time to clean, of course! Having been a studio dancer for most of my life, and then a drill teamer during high school, one major difference I noticed is the lack of a cleaning phase at the studio level. This is a very important step in the performing process that I think many studios could benefit from. There are a number of ways to polish and perfect your team's performance to ensure excellence on the field/floor/stage and I find that I often use a variety myself.
One way to save yourself a lot of time in this phase is to start teaching correct placements, style, and technique right off the bat. My girls already know that when I teach choreography, I am showing them exactly what it should look like when it is performed. They know the precise placement of each part of their body as they learn the steps. If I teach that our right arm is in a high-V with hands turned out and we are looking to the left, then that is the way I want to see it done every single time.
Because not all dancers catch every detail while an instructor is teaching, routines must still be cleaned. Always start at the beginning of the routine. I am a big fan of the "Hit & Freeze" method (very technically named, I know). This is when the dancers, as the name suggests, hit whatever they are supposed to be doing on each count and freeze. I inspect each part of every dancer to ensure that they are all consistent and uniform. I check my officers first so that I can then enlist them to check the rest of the team. The girls don't always enjoy this type of cleaning because they often end up in awkward body positions that are uncomfortable to hold for longer than the 1-2 counts intended. However, they know that the sooner everyone gets in the correct position, the sooner everyone can recover. (About halfway through the routine is when I like to remind them that had they paid closer attention during the teaching, they would already know the correct placements and we wouldn't have to be doing this.)
You certainly don't have to go through the entire routine like this. Watch it with music a few times and note the sections in the dance that don't look uniform and synchronized. Maybe there are just a few trouble spots that need the "Hit & Freeze" and you can focus just on them.
I'll continue sharing cleaning methods and tips in this series. What are somethings that work for you in polishing your routines and getting them performance ready?
One way to save yourself a lot of time in this phase is to start teaching correct placements, style, and technique right off the bat. My girls already know that when I teach choreography, I am showing them exactly what it should look like when it is performed. They know the precise placement of each part of their body as they learn the steps. If I teach that our right arm is in a high-V with hands turned out and we are looking to the left, then that is the way I want to see it done every single time.
Because not all dancers catch every detail while an instructor is teaching, routines must still be cleaned. Always start at the beginning of the routine. I am a big fan of the "Hit & Freeze" method (very technically named, I know). This is when the dancers, as the name suggests, hit whatever they are supposed to be doing on each count and freeze. I inspect each part of every dancer to ensure that they are all consistent and uniform. I check my officers first so that I can then enlist them to check the rest of the team. The girls don't always enjoy this type of cleaning because they often end up in awkward body positions that are uncomfortable to hold for longer than the 1-2 counts intended. However, they know that the sooner everyone gets in the correct position, the sooner everyone can recover. (About halfway through the routine is when I like to remind them that had they paid closer attention during the teaching, they would already know the correct placements and we wouldn't have to be doing this.)
You certainly don't have to go through the entire routine like this. Watch it with music a few times and note the sections in the dance that don't look uniform and synchronized. Maybe there are just a few trouble spots that need the "Hit & Freeze" and you can focus just on them.
I'll continue sharing cleaning methods and tips in this series. What are somethings that work for you in polishing your routines and getting them performance ready?
Friday, July 29, 2011
Drill Team Choreography 101
This year, I have given my officers the task of choreographing our field high-kick routine. Before I send them on their way, I am going to walk them through the process that I use every time I choreograph regardless of the type of routine.
The obvious first step is to select the music and type of routine you want. Once you have your final cut of music, listen to it from beginning to end a few times. The first time, you will need to count the music and note how many 8-counts it has and if there are any 4 or 6-count breaks. Then listen to it again, marking any places in the song that you want to emphasize in the choreography. Some sections would go perfectly with a contagion while others make you think of jumping, turning, freezing, etc. You'll also want to decide when in the music you want your dancers to change formation. I've found that two 8-counts is usually the best amount of time for my girls to move and make it to their next form. I also like to have them move at the end of section of music so they can begin the dancing in their new form when the music changes. Speaking of formations, go ahead and decide ahead of time which ones you'd like to see in the routine. If you don't know what form your dancers are in, it's more difficult to decide on the movements you want them to do. If they are standing in one line, having every other girl chasse in a different direction won't work. Try to stick with 3-5 formations depending on the length of the song. This is where your geometry skills come in handy (I really hope Ms. Casper doesn't find out I just told you that! My 9th grade geometry teacher wasn't exactly my favorite.) Get creative and throw in some circles, diamonds, and various combinations.
After figuring out the 8-counts, finding the interesting parts of the song to emphasize with your choreo, deciding on formations and when the transitions need to be, all you have left to do is fill in the blanks with your choreography. Be sure to write all of your wonderful ideas down as you go so you don't find yourself re-choreographing because you can't remember what you already did. If you get stumped and have that one 8-count left in a particular formation before a transition, try splitting the dancers up into parts (one group starts on the 1 and the next group starts on the 5). I love parts. Why? Because it takes up time in the music, giving me and my dancers a break from creating and learning more choreography, and it is visually appealing to the audience.
Hopefully this process will make your next choreography project a little less stressful. Let me know what your choreography process is and be sure to pass on any great ideas that you've discovered/developed along the way!
The obvious first step is to select the music and type of routine you want. Once you have your final cut of music, listen to it from beginning to end a few times. The first time, you will need to count the music and note how many 8-counts it has and if there are any 4 or 6-count breaks. Then listen to it again, marking any places in the song that you want to emphasize in the choreography. Some sections would go perfectly with a contagion while others make you think of jumping, turning, freezing, etc. You'll also want to decide when in the music you want your dancers to change formation. I've found that two 8-counts is usually the best amount of time for my girls to move and make it to their next form. I also like to have them move at the end of section of music so they can begin the dancing in their new form when the music changes. Speaking of formations, go ahead and decide ahead of time which ones you'd like to see in the routine. If you don't know what form your dancers are in, it's more difficult to decide on the movements you want them to do. If they are standing in one line, having every other girl chasse in a different direction won't work. Try to stick with 3-5 formations depending on the length of the song. This is where your geometry skills come in handy (I really hope Ms. Casper doesn't find out I just told you that! My 9th grade geometry teacher wasn't exactly my favorite.) Get creative and throw in some circles, diamonds, and various combinations.
After figuring out the 8-counts, finding the interesting parts of the song to emphasize with your choreo, deciding on formations and when the transitions need to be, all you have left to do is fill in the blanks with your choreography. Be sure to write all of your wonderful ideas down as you go so you don't find yourself re-choreographing because you can't remember what you already did. If you get stumped and have that one 8-count left in a particular formation before a transition, try splitting the dancers up into parts (one group starts on the 1 and the next group starts on the 5). I love parts. Why? Because it takes up time in the music, giving me and my dancers a break from creating and learning more choreography, and it is visually appealing to the audience.
Hopefully this process will make your next choreography project a little less stressful. Let me know what your choreography process is and be sure to pass on any great ideas that you've discovered/developed along the way!
Opening Number
Inspired by my dear friend and assistant over at Explore & Discover and my Twitter friend and design genius over at Your Modern Couple, I have decided to try my hand at blogging...again. My first blog lacked focus which added to the lack of dedication on the part of its writer. Hopefully, I will be more motivated this go-around. I look forward to sharing my thoughts, questions, web-findings, technique tips, and all things dance related on this blog. I'm excited to get started!
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