Make Dance Fun (Becca Moore and Dani Rosenberg)
Explore every episode of Make Dance Fun
| Pub. Date | Title | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 Feb 2022 | We're Back with Season TWO & Summer On Our Minds! | 00:38:18 | |
In Episode 39 – our first episode of Season 2! – we're talking all things summer! We just successfully launched our studio's full summer schedule & registration this week! Our theme is Carnival-A-Rhythm to tie into our year-end show theme Rhythm Story (based on Toy Story). Check out @rhythmdancecenter for pics! Camp Confetti: We launched 4 new Camp Confetti themes! These downloads are filled with everything you need to plan and teach your summer dance camp: a super fun + detailed theme with combo choreography videos, dance activities and games centered around the theme, crafts, decor, music suggestions, marketing tools and so many more fun extras, like decor ideas, playlists and more! During the pre-sale phase, you will get immediate access to the logos, social images and marketing wording to begin promoting the camps! Check out ALL 30 of our Camp Confetti Summer Dance FunPacks! Top 3 Questions About Camp Confetti 1. What does Camp Confetti Include?
2. How many days and what hours will Camp Confetti work for? We designed the camps to maximize the fun over a five-day camp, but each theme can easily be adapted to fit a 3-day camp format (or any other format you choose to follow). These camps offer a lot of flexibility– go full out or use it as a supplement to an existing camp! 3. Is the download easy enough to follow so it can be passed on to any of my faculty to run the camp? Yes! Everything is broken down in a way that is very easy to understand and follow. As long as your teachers read the full download prior to starting camp, they should be good to go! Camp Confetti has been a life saver at Rhythm for the last 6 years! The organization and cohesiveness has brought the success level of our summer to a whole new level! Subscribe & Share Let's Get Social!
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| 03 Mar 2022 | 5 Ways To Boost Your Summer Success | 00:19:06 | |
In Episode 40, we're sharing 5 things you can do to boost your summer success. 3. Offer drop-in classes, free trial classes, dance & play parties
Let's Get Social!
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| 10 Mar 2022 | 5 Things to Gear Up for Recitals! | 00:21:14 | |
In Episode 41, we're sharing 5 things we are doing right now to gear up for our year-end show! 2. Creating our Opening Number: This huge production number includes all 4 levels of our highest level performing company, is in the theme of our show, and our favorite thing to create! It sets the tone of our show by telling the whole story in the opening, and everyone can see our talented dancers and costumes! We use music inspired by the movies and there are so many little fun details in the number, that people will likely be noticing as they watch it more! While we do compete it, it is the number that sets the tone for our show and is one of our favorite things we do all year! 5. Characters & class leaders: We add a voiceover to the beginning (sometimes during) specific routines during the show and have some of our main characters make an appearance. This helps add an element of whimsy and excitement to their already exciting recital routine. Don't forget we created a course where we share EVERYTHING about how we plan and execute our show! Your Fun Big Show: A Complete Recital Planning Course will give you tons of inspiration on planning a creative and fun show! Subscribe & Share Let's Get Social!
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| 17 Mar 2022 | Performing Company Audition Process | 00:19:23 | |
In Episode 42, we're covering our process for our performing company auditions. Every studio has their own process for selecting their performing or competing companies. What works for one may not work for another. At Rhythm, we’ve always held auditions for our companies and we have a formula that really works for us. That being said, we tweak a few things each year to try and make the process as efficient as possible. Company Director Meeting: This initial meeting is to discuss what went well, what changes we want to make and then we work on a comprehensive audition packet that is very specific to what we do! We make updates to each company, set dates for all the auditions, create audition forms, update pricing, etc. We use a google form for dancer audition forms and that is filtered right into a spreadsheet which makes organizing all the things pretty easy! We usually have over 300 dancers audition so organization is key! Tip: We give all existing company dancers who submit their forms prior to spring break (which is early!) a free summer open class. In addition, the first 3 dancers from each company to fill out the form earn a quick photo shoot and dancer feature that we used to promote auditions with on social media! Informational Packet & Parent Meetings: Before auditions begin, we are very upfront, clear and honest with as much information pertaining to our performing companies as we can. Of course, the packet has the dates and times of the auditions, but we also talk about what it means to be a part of our company, the weekly schedules & rehearsals, performance and competition schedule, approximate cost, our expectations from a commitment, conduct and ethics standpoint. We hold mandatory parent meetings to go through all the details of each of our different companies so parents to hear the details directly from us and can ask any questions. Company Format: We cast for four different levels for a total of 11 Performing Companies. Mini Stars - ages 5-8; Connection - ages 8-18: Mini, Junior, Teen, Senior; Fusion - ages 12-18: Teen and Senior; Edge - our most advanced level ages 8 - 18: Mini, Junior, Teen, Senior Preliminary Audition: Ballet and Jazz, then callbacks (via posting their # on website) for Hip Hop, Tap and Contemporary. After the call backs we post the final results on the website (again using #s only) and also send out detailed emails with an invitation to join our company or to let them know that we did not feel they were ready for company. All dancers get an email no matter what! We always try to provide feedback in those emails and even set up meetings if needed to help the dancers understand what they may need to work on in order to reach their goals. We hope you’ve found our process to be informative and helpful in some way when you start planning your company auditions or selections for the new season. Camp Confetti of the Week: Marquee Mixup! Elementary camp that focuses on musical theater and jazz movement. Subscribe & Share Let's Get Social!
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| 24 Mar 2022 | It's Party Time! | 00:26:03 | |
In episode 43, we're sharing all details of our annual Performing Company Party: planning, location, food, decor, awards, senior speeches and more! This event celebrates all our Performing Companies and graduating seniors and is one of our favorite things we do and our dancers love it too! PLANNING: The very first thing we do is secure a venue. Because our party involves all of our companies combined, we need a place that can handle about 400 guests. Once the venue is confirmed, we meet with a caterer and get all the food squared away. For us, this is a full dinner and desserts, so it’s pretty full out. We’ve been working with the same caterer for several years now, so we have a system and they know what we like and don’t like. You may be thinking, how in the world do they afford this? I will admit, it is a pretty big investment for us and Rhythm does pay for a large majority of the party, but we do charge a fee per person who attends and that usually covers most, if not all of the food and catering, which is a big help. Keep in mind, a party can be done at any budget and scale. This is just something we started several years ago and it’s become a tradition for us, our dancers and their families. We also select table cloths and napkins through our caterer and that’s when we really start envisioning what we want the space to look like for the night of the event. Decor: We go VERY full out but we re-use everything for our show. We have colorful table linens and create our own centerpieces (~6 versions) inspired by the characters and main aspects of our show. We also use tons of balloons, create a step and repeat, multiple photo op areas and lots of over the top fun decor! Event: It takes many people to load/unload the truck and set up! We meet at the venue and centerpieces make their way to all the tables, balloons are blown up and distributed throughout, dessert tables are created, and we don’t stop until it’s done! We have about 5 hours to make it and it is a marathon. But, when it’s done, it feels so special and we just know the kids are going to love it when they walk in. Presentations & Awards: Once everyone arrives, mingles and takes a ton of photos, they take their seats and we begin presentations and dinner. We create personalized company awards for each and every dancer by creating personalized bag tags. We keep with the theme of our show and come up with fun awards names to coordinate with the characters of the show. It’s super fun and really personalized to each dancer. In addition, we give each of them a company t-shirt. It’s always so fun seeing so many kids sporting their new shirts! We also award scholarships to select dancers for their hard work and accomplishments. Senior Speeches: We have our graduating seniors record speeches where they share what their experience at Rhythm has meant to them, thank their teachers and parents. It's their big finish to their Rhythm career! They send 50-60 photos that we show on a big screen while playing their speech. We have a lot of Seniors so we always have to get started on these early! We hope this behind the scenes look at our company inspires you to start a tradition of your own, or if you already have one, maybe we sparked an idea that you can incorporate into what you’re already doing. It really is such a fun event that our kids look forward to all year long! Let's Get Social!
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| 30 Mar 2022 | Summer Camp Questions Answered! | 00:35:05 | |
In episode 44, we're welcoming back our Rhythm Summer Camp Director, Emily Salerno! She first joined us on Episode 18 to talk about her role as Rhythm Summer Camp Director and all the things she does to help plan our summers to be amazing! Today, we 're chatting more specifically about Camp Confetti and how she preps and makes those camps happen successfully at Rhythm! What's your favorite things about Camp Confetti and how it makes rhythm summers more efficient and fun? It can be dull doing the same princess or beach camp each year. Camp Confetti has creative, over-the-top themes that are fully planned out and does the work for you! What is your general timeline for preparing for Camp Confetti?
How do you prep each week for a Camp Confetti? Review camp print out again; Create craft and music list; edit music if needed; Final craft run for specific camp; Friday before camp begins on Monday: break down previous week's camp, decorate for next week's and prep the first day's craft. Camp Confetti Week: How does it run for teachers vs. camp director? Elementary camps are larger for us, we divide into 3 groups and each one takes a jazz, hip hop and across the floor class with different teachers. Focus on choreo early in the week and weave dance games and activities in between. Top 3 Camp Confettis we've done at Rhythm? Dance PAWty with My Pet, Donut Spytacular and Brightfeather Academy of Magic Camp Confetti hacks or must-do-tips? 1: Cricut for crafts! 2: Use your assistants 3: Invitation crafts - print the invitations on Avery labels so kids can stick it on instead of gluing. 4 : Use 567cre8 Cards: elementary version and teen version. Final thought to help studio owners navigate Camp Confetti and make summers better? Have fun! Remember many dancers are trying out your studio for the first time - keep them engaged and make them want to come back! Subscribe & Share Let's Get Social!
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| 08 Apr 2022 | Confetti Cannons - 15 Rapid Fire Questions with Becca, Dani & Shelley | 00:33:51 | |
In this episode, Shelley Marshall, Queen of all things Confetti joins Becca and Dani and they all talk about what has been happening this week (hello, Texas!) and we do a fun "Confetti Cannon"! Let's Get Social!
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| 26 Apr 2022 | Fast + Fun Photo Shoots | 00:22:54 | |
In episode 46, we're sharing 5 fun and easy ideas for photo shoots that you can use for social media, promotions, programs, emails and more!
We hope this inspires you to snap some fun photos! Try to do a quick photo shoot soon and tag us or let us know how it goes! We will be watching for those on instagram! Let's Get Social!
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| 29 Aug 2022 | We're Back! Summer Update and More! | 00:22:30 | |
Hello friends! We are back! In this episode, we are doing a quick recap of all that has happened over the past 4 months! We are excited to be back! Here are the basics of what went on over the summer and where we are now... Expanded - Two Locations Dress Rehearsals Company Concert Company Party Year-End Shows We took a long break... The Dance Awards Lots of Camp Confettis & Company Intensives Member Rally with MTJGD Staff Kick-Off Prepping Studios (2 locations) Open House - both locations Back to Dance - Week One - Check! Gearing up for our year-end shows! Things are moving quickly!! Let's Get Social!
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| 01 Sep 2022 | Fun + Fancy Five Star Staff Kick-Off | 00:26:40 | |
In episode 48, we're telling you all about our Staff Kick-Off event! This is something we do every year and sometimes it's a few hours with a fun dinner and sometimes it lasts 2 days! We are celebrating our 30th season this year, so we wanted to do something extra special. Plus, our staff expanded quite a bit, so we needed to do more! We started with our theme: Rhythm BLOOM Symposyium and went full out from there! We rented a venue, had it catered, held a fun + fancy photo shoot and decorated it super cute! The set up was a little hectic even though we did so much pre-planning and pre-crafting, but it ended up looking super cute! We had assigned seating with cute tent cards and fun, colorful tablecloths. Everyone received folders, notebooks, snacks and a few other fun items at their place setting. On day 2, we held roundtables where teachers who teach the same style discuss curriculum, goals, and share ideas. There is a designated leader of each group who maintains a Google doc to capture the discussions. We also held an Admin roundtable to discuss new systems we want to implement this season. Then, we continued our seminar and finished our staff expectations. After a catered lunch, we finished with a wrap-up with everyone contributing their thoughts on how to make the year best it can be! We hope you found some inspiration in this episode! Also, if you would like us to speak to your studio at a staff event, we are open to that! We really enjoyed having that opportunity for our team at our kick off! It made it interesting and was helpful to get other professional perspectives! Subscribe & Share
Let's Get Social!
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| 08 Sep 2022 | Create a FUN Wall at your studio! | 00:36:52 | |
In Episode 49, we are sharing how we created our #rhythmfunwall for our Open House and Welcome Back Party! We share all our crafty ways and walk through all the steps! We also suggest checking out Episode 9 Five Ways to Up Your Crafting Game as we share many of the ways that we create and craft our fun!
Let's Get Social!
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| 15 Sep 2022 | Five Ways to WOW your customers! | 00:25:01 | |
In Episode 50, we're sharing FIVE ways to WOW your customers. The wow factor time frame really never goes away, but during the beginning of the season, you want to make sure you are setting a tone for the season and paying attention to serving your customers well!
Keep them by the sound system in each studio and encourage our teachers to use them as often as it makes sense, whether that's once per week or a few times per year! Occasionally you may want to give the entire class a WOW card for working as a team, or everyone executing a certain step, or remembering choreography or just having a great attitude in class! Check out #wowcarded on Instagram to see how so many studios are WOWing their students! Subscribe & Share Let's Get Social!
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| 22 Sep 2022 | Planning YOUR Fun Big Show (+ Our Fave Recital Moments)! | 00:28:27 | |
In Episode 51, we are sharing the basic outline of Your Fun Big Show - our complete recital planning course! This comprehensive course is broken into sections so it’s easier to digest, and today is sort of like the table of contents to give you a sneak peek of what all is included! If you don't have the course, it's a great outline to use for planning your own show! We also recap our favorite parts Rhythm Story, our show from last season in a Q&A style and tell you all about our favorite concepts/themes in the show and what parts we loved most in our production number and what processes we think are most important to the success of our show (master spreadsheet and recital retreat!). SECTION 1: First Steps - this includes theater bookings, determining and announcing dates and theme. choosing characters and beginning the brainstorming process. SECTION 2: Creating your show brand, logo, hashtag and all the graphic design. Then how to use that to brand your whole year. SECTION 3: Fall planning and the recital retreat, determining how many shows and which classes are in each show, themes/concepts for each class, prepping for the retreat, finalizing concepts, creating the master spreadsheet, selecting/editing music, determining props and sets, choosing costumes/backdrops, building schedules, and assigning theme directors. SECTION 4: Ordering costumes, creating a lookbook, status updates, starting choreography and building stage sets & props SECTION 5: Part 1 of Spring Planning Logistics like ensuring all classes are entered into your software, running order of show, naming the routines to match your theme, populating the recital packet, lobby decor, plan crafting, finalizing logos, goody bags, ticket sales logistics, check-in process, dressing rooms, and recital program prep. SECTION 6: Spring Planning Part 2: Logistics, flowers, ribbon, tissue, ordering T-shirts, planning truck load and unload, organizing volunteers, staff meals, tech, prop and set sheets, character rehearsals and call sheets, organizing music by show. SECTION 7: Tech Week and Dress Rehearsal and all the logistics! SECTION 8: Communications: website, social media, newsletters, emails, show detail packet, parent meetings, flower sales and staff meetings SECTION 9: Adding Wow Factors: Recital decor in your studio, characters: costume details, photo shoots, voice overs and meet and greets, craft & props for show., theater lobby set up, posters, banners & step & repeat, photo ops, goody bags, programs, stage lighting and backdrops SECTION 10: Closing Click here to read about even more detail of what is included with your purchase. We hope this episode helps you understand all that we put into our planning of our show and all the things that we share in YOUR FUN BIG SHOW. If you have not gotten this course yet, purchase it now! Subscribe & Share Let's Get Social!
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| 29 Sep 2022 | 5 Customer-Friendly Tips for Your New Dance Season | 00:15:52 | |
In Episode 52, we're sharing 5 fun things we've done this season that have been well received by our customers this season! Class Hosts - You may have heard us talk about this position we started during covid, but we have learned just how valuable these ladies are, and have hired them again this season. We have 1-2 at each location and they hang out at the front door, and one other area in the studio to help kids and parents navigate the studio, get to their cars, help us craft when we are in crunch time and so much more. New staff photos and headshots, plus new fun headshots for the company dancers. We held a photo shoot that was more fun and on brand for us and the pics look great! And, if you go to our faculty page, it is a fun + fresh update to our old headshots! We hope you find some of these few things we’ve been doing to also be helpful at your studio!
Let's Get Social!
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| 13 Oct 2022 | Halloweek Fun at Your Studio! | 00:19:10 | |
In episode 53, we're talking all about HALLOWEEK ON THE DANCE FLOOR - a Confetti tradition since our very first year!! More Halloweek ideas from #rhythmhalloweek
We hope you find these fun ideas to be helpful with your Halloween and fall planning. Share with us what you’re doing at your studios! Let's Get Social!
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| 21 Oct 2022 | Fall Recital-A-Rama | 00:24:12 | |
In episode 54, we're talking about all the things we are doing this fall to get ready for our year-end show! Our show is our ultimate marketing tool and this time of year is packed full of prep to get started on the right foot and get our dancers and families on board with the theme! We love to make the show super exciting for our dancers and we love making our theme a really big deal and tying it into all aspects of the studio all season!
NEW! Your Fun Big Show Update: We are in the process of adding a written course notes section into Your Fun Big Show course. Anyone who has already purchased it will automatically receive these notes, and of course, all new purchases as well! We will announce soon when they are complete and available! Check out this complete recital planning course! We hope you are able to take away something from these details that will help you in your show planning this Fall! Let's Get Social!
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| 04 Nov 2022 | Our Top 10 Fun + Fave Promo Items! | 00:20:22 | |
In Episode 55, we're sharing ideas & links to our fave promo items!
We hope one of these promo items is something you can add into the mix of your giveaways! What are your faves? Let's Get Social!
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| 18 Nov 2022 | A Typical Day in Our (Studio) Life - Part 1 (Monday and Tuesday) | 00:29:52 | |
In episode 56, we talk about the structure of our weekly schedule, who is responsible for what and and how we get things done! This episode we break down Mondays and Tuesdays! Monday is our most consistent day of the week as far as a schedule goes.
Dani's list:
Becca's list:
Tuesday: Our "first day of the week" to get things done. After these meetings are done and classes begin, there are several scenarios that could happen on Tuesdays:
So, as you can see Tuesdays are all over the place but it is the first day of the week that we can really “MAKE THINGS HAPPEN” and they are ever changing but usually very productive days! No matter how much we plan, it is usually derailed. Our number one job is problem solving and believe we are really good at this. As a leader, it is the thing you have to be AMAZING at! Like all studio owners, we deal with lots of crazy and dilemmas and do creative problem solving EVERY SINGLE DAY. We hope you enjoyed getting a little insight into our work days. Stay tuned for Part 2 on a future episode! Let's Get Social!
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| 23 Nov 2022 | Gratitude for YOU! Happy Thanksgiving! | 00:07:22 | |
Episode 57 is all about GRATITUDE! We are so thankful for all of you who listen on a regular basis! We love sharing and love the feedback that you share with us! Please continue to share as that is what motivates us to keep recording…even on those crazy busy weeks! A few things we are grateful for! Shelley Marshall who without, Confetti wouldn’t exist! She makes all the things happen! Ellie Bryant is our assistant and a project manager. She wears lots of hats and she has been so helpful over the past year in many ways! She contributes to writing and social media, lots of crafting and errand running and photo shoots and she helps with prepping for literally everything we do! And, you will see her coming up next month with some fun HOLIDAY content we are producing! ELLIE - THANK YOU for all you do! New to our Confetti Staff is Jenni! Jenni is our Preschool Director at Rhythm and she has been a contributor to our podcast multiple times! As a matter of fact, her episodes are among our most popular ever! Jenni has just taken a new position in fulfillment for all your orders! We have just moved all our products in house and Jenni is in charge of all shipping! We are so excited for this new role and are so grateful that Jenni with her organization and thorough-ness is taking over this position! We are grateful for you Jenni! Rhythm Staff! Without all our talented staff at Rhythm who inspire us every day, we wouldn’t be doing what we do! We are so lucky to have such talented and driven employees - from our ELT to all our creative teachers, choreographers to our class hosts and assistants! It takes so many people to make all the things happen and we are blessed with the best! So, THANK YOU Rhythm Staff! Y’all are awesome!
Again, we are GRATEFUL for each and every listener! We are so lucky to be in this creative and inspiring space and share with each of you! We are wishing you a very happy Thanksgiving and Holiday Season! And, don’t forget to check out our Confetti Shop during our Confetti FunFriday Sale! Save 15% off ALL THE THINGS (except Twirl and Confetti Consultations!) by using the code FUNFANCY15. This is our best sale of the year, so grab some gifts for your teachers, for your studio or for you! Let's Get Social!
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| 23 Dec 2022 | Best of 2022 - Make Dance Fun! | 00:33:35 | |
In Episode 58 is a BEST OF 2022 Episode to recap the year! Top 5 Episodes: Top 5 Locations: Favorite Episodes in 2022 Favorite Craft or Project: Least Favorite Craft or Project (because of the amount of work, time and effort it took, not because of the outcome!) What Confetti event/project are you most proud of? What Rhythm event/project are you most proud of? That’s a wrap on SEASON TWO and 2022! Thank you for listening! Happy Holidays and we'll be back in 2023 for Season THREE of Make Dance Fun! Let's Get Social!
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| 02 Jan 2023 | Commit to the Fun! 23 in 23 | 00:41:13 | |
Happy new year and welcome to Season Three of our Make Dance Fun Podcast! In episode 59, we are providing you with 23 ideas to commit to the fun at your studio in 2023! Check out our blog post to download the list and see all the fun ideas. We hope you find some fun ways to commit to the fun in 2023! Cheers to fun in the new year! Let's Get Social!
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| 11 Jan 2023 | An Exercise to Spark Your Creativity! | 00:32:59 | |
In Episode 60 of our Make Dance Fun podcast, we're doing a fun creativity exercise! We're using this fun box that looks like little match sticks called "SPARK YOUR CREATIVITY - 50 Ways to Ignite Bright Ideas!" We all get stuck sometimes, so we love finding “outside the box” ways to get our brains going!
Now go be creative! Let's Get Social!
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| 18 Jan 2023 | A Typical Day in our (Studio) Life - Part 2 (Wednesday-Friday) | 00:17:18 | |
Episode 61 of ourMake Dance Fun Podcast is Part 2 of our A Typical Day in our (Studio) Life. In Episode 56, we covered Mondays and Tuesdays, so this episode will detail what Wednesday, Thursday and Friday look like! These last three days of our “normal” work week usually vary more than our Monday and Tuesday schedule, but we do have a general structure, so we are going to do our best to share this with you guys! Wednesday:
Thursday:
Fridays
Obviously, we adjust each day as needed, but that’s what our weekdays typically look like. We hope you’ve found this to be helpful in some way when mapping out your week! Let's Get Social!
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| 21 Aug 2023 | We're Back! Summer Update and More! | 00:28:14 | |
After a very long hiatus, we are back!! We are so excited to be here! In this episode, there are three parts! In part one, we share where we were and a little bit of the crazy. In part two, we share where we are now and what has been happening during the summer! And, in part three, we share some goals and where are going! We would love to hear from you, let us know what you are interested in hearing about in future episodes! WOOOO! Happy new dance season everyone! Let's Get Social!
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| 25 Sep 2023 | Hi Barbie! Our Fun Big Show - Recital Reveal Time! | 00:35:39 | |
In this episode, we share a behind the scenes look at Rhythm Dance Center's Year-End Show reveal week! And, we share an overview of our Recital Planning Course - "Your Fun Big Show"...so, you can get an outline of when we do what during the season as far as our show planning goes! And, of course all the fun of announcing OUR Fun Big Show...which is always one of our favorite weeks of the season! Let's Get Social!
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| 02 Oct 2023 | Creating Dance Costumes - Part 1 | 00:25:21 | |
In this episode (Part 1 of 2), we are sharing our process for creating custom costuming for our Performing Company at Rhythm Dance Center! It is one of our favorite things...from finding inspiration and creating Pinterest boards to sketching the design and searching for the perfect fabric, we cover how we make it happen! We also share some of our favorite places to shop for fabric in Atlanta and in NYC (our fave!) Check it out! Let's Get Social!
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| 16 Oct 2023 | Creating Dance Costumes - Part 2 | 00:29:19 | |
In episode 65, we continue our discussion of creating costumes, but this episode focuses more on costumes for rec classes and lower cost options for customizing your costumes!
Year-End Show (Rec Class) Costumes:
Recital Hip Hop Costumes:
Final Thoughts: Dive deeper into costume design and think creatively to make your costumes perfectly complement your choreography and themes. While finding the ideal costume may not always be as easy as flipping through a catalog, the extra effort can make all the difference in the final performance. Thanks for tuning in and enjoy the creative costume journey! Let's Get Social! Let's Get Social!
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| 03 Nov 2023 | Make Recital Planning Fun | 00:29:24 | |
In Episode 66, we're sharing details about our Recital Planning Retreat you can use when you host your own! We dive into the highlights of our recent retreat and share 5 fun and 5 practical tips that made our retreat a huge success. 5 Fun Things:
5 Practical Things:
If you want a deeper dive into our show planning process, check out our recital planning course Your Fun Big Show available for immediate download. Don't forget to visit the Rhythm Instagram for behind-the-scenes glimpses of our Rhythm Nation Barbie Dream Vacation planning. Let's Get Social!
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| 10 Nov 2023 | Photo Shoot Craziness (And How We Make It Happen) | 00:19:58 | |
In episode 67, we're pulling back the curtain to reveal the magic that went into our recent photoshoot extravaganza! We cover what we did, how we did it, how it all went, and what's coming up next. What We Did:
How We Did It:
How It Went:
What's Coming Up:
Discussion Questions:
Join us as we delve into the highs and hurdles of our photoshoot journey, offering a glimpse of what's on this season's creative horizon for us at Confetti on the Dance Floor! Let's Get Social!
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| 20 Nov 2023 | Summer, Social Media, Fun Walls & More! | 00:31:18 | |
Episode 68 of the Make Dance Fun podcast is a special Q&A episode inspired by your DMs and emails!
Let's Get Social!
Let's Get Social!
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| 19 Dec 2023 | Summer in December | 00:21:15 | |
Things to Focus on for Summer Preparations:
Check out all 35 of our Camp Confetti Themes to get your summer planning organized and ready to go f Let's Get Social!
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| 15 Jan 2024 | The Team Behind The Scenes! | 00:36:40 | |
In this episode, we are sharing details on our amazing "team behind the scenes" and their roles! We share a short description of our ELT (Executive Leadership Team) and how each person's role contributes to Rhythm. These employees are key in our success and keeping the studio running smoothly! Let's Get Social!
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| 08 Feb 2024 | Your Summer is Planned...Now What? | 00:25:54 | |
Welcome to Episode 71 of Make Dance Fun! Today, we're diving into summer planning.
Let's Get Social!
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| 29 Aug 2024 | From Year-End to Start Over Again: A Big Recap! | 00:36:30 | |
Episode 72: From Year-End to Start Over Again: A Big Recap! Let's Get Social!
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| 27 Sep 2024 | A TWIST of FUN to Your K-2 Dance Classes! | 00:22:58 | |
In this podcast episode, we introduce our new TWIST program, sharing why we created it and how it fits into our dance studio, along with the many class options we offer for our K-2 dancers. We start by giving an update on our "State of Confetti" meeting, an annual planning session for our 9th Confetti season. During this meeting, we planned two Camp Confetti events, chose our marketing theme for the year (which you'll have to wait to see!), organized a photo shoot and trade shows, and reviewed what worked well last year and where we can improve. We also discussed customer engagement ideas like Halloweek on the Dance Floor and top customer gifts. Becca and Dani each shared their favorite part of the planning retreat and set goals for Confetti. Now, on to the TWIST program. We created this program to offer more class variety for our Kindergarten dancers. Some of the classes we offer include:
We know this age group has a wide range of skill levels, so we wanted to provide plenty of options to meet their needs. TWIST was created to replace our previous Twirl Agua program for Kindergarten. After noticing that Agua had lower enrollment compared to our other Twirl levels, we realized these dancers were ready for something more challenging and different. That’s when we developed TWIST, specifically designed for Kindergarten but also perfect for K-2 dancers. TWIST works similarly to our Twirl program. We provide a teacher guide with detailed lesson plans, but you can customize it to fit your classes and studio. The program focuses on Jazz and Tap, incorporating a themed obstacle course into each lesson. We use fun tools like confetti cones, hula hoops, a balance beam, and “tracks” for spot markers to keep the kids engaged. There are also Twist Tumblers (dice games) and hopscotch patterns to add even more excitement. When you purchase TWIST, you get:
If you're already using our Twirl Preschool Program, you'll be happy to know that the themes for TWIST align perfectly with Twirl, making it easier to decorate your studio for both programs. TWIST is easy to implement, but we recommend purchasing it at least five days before starting so you have time to review the materials and gather any supplies. Add a colorful twist to your K-2 tap and jazz classes by ordering your download today! Let's Get Social!
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| 02 Oct 2024 | Confetti Conversation with Melissa McGhee, Head Coach of The Ohio State Dance Team - Part 1 | 00:29:53 | |
In episode 74 of Make Dance Fun, we are SO excited to have a Confetti Conversation with Melissa McGhee, studio owner and Head Coach of The Ohio State Dance Team! Let's Get Social!
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| 09 Oct 2024 | Confetti Conversation with Melissa McGhee, Head Coach of The Ohio State Dance Team - Part 2 | 00:33:35 | |
In Episode 75 of Make Dance Fun, we continue our Confetti Conversation with the amazing Melissa McGhee, Head Coach of The Ohio State Dance Team who also owns her own studio, Lineage Dance in Columbus, Ohio! Let's Get Social!
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| 22 Oct 2024 | Make Halloweek Dance Fun! | 00:25:48 | |
In Episode 76, we're talking all things HALLOWEEK and sharing fun things we do at our studio to make dance extra fun!
How to use the combo:
Don't overthink Halloweek! Just add something simple and new...use a halloween playlist in every class, share halloween coloring sheets with all your preschool classes, or create a pumpkin patch obstacle course with your elementary age dancers. Make it festive in any way you can and your dancers and families will love it. Let's Get Social!
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| 05 Nov 2024 | Behind the Scenes: Year-End Show Retreat Highlights | 00:38:32 | |
In episode 77, we're talking about our annual year-end show retreat, sharing our top takeaways, organization hacks, and some creative touches we add to make our year-end show is a fun and unique experience! Annual Year-End Show Retreat Highlights
Pro Tip: This Course allows you to listen and learn at your own pace to nearly 3 hours of recorded presentations from us, as well as all the notes, guides, resources and more! Purchase it today and your download will be emailed to you immediately! Related Episodes on Recital and Show Planning
Let's Get Social!
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| 28 Dec 2020 | Welcome to Make Dance Fun! | 00:14:07 | |
Welcome to Make Dance Fun! In our first episode, we give you a basic history of our two businesses, Rhythm Dance Center and Confetti on the Dance Floor! Learn how we got started and continue our mission to #makedancefun! Let's Get Social!
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| 06 Jan 2021 | Focused on Fun | 00:26:51 | |
In Episode 2, we are talking all about our Fun Confetti Mood for January: FOCUSED ON FUN! At the beginning of a new year, it is natural to want to recharge, start fresh, get organized and focused for the new year. So, we want to do those things, but add some fun to them! A Spotify Playlist that's only Focused on FUN! Link to our Focused on Fun Spotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5ckKF00Q1u8hRSaMaqhHXe Focused on Fun-spiration Challenge: We encourage you to create a mood board that is only focused on fun! You can use our Pinterest board and blog post to inspire or motivate you (the super colorful and fun mood shelf we created in our studio using all things we already had)! Link to Pinterest Board: Focusing on Fun Goals How can you add fun to your studio THIS week? What steps can you take to find a more fun and positive outlook on the obstacles you might be facing as a small business owner? Here are a few examples of how we are taking some of the some things that need to get done at our studio, but focusing on them from a fun perspective. 1. Building our boys program/marketing 2. Creating a costume look book to share on zoom and our website since parents cannot come into the studio for an in-person reveal. 3. Creating a fun outdoor hangout space and hosting a fun and safe outdoor event that ties into our year-end show theme. Thank you all so much for your support and for listening! We hope you are inspired and FOCUSED ON FUN. We wish you all the best in the new year! Subscribe & Share We would also love for you to share on social media that you listened to our podcast! Tag us and we will repost! We love socializing, and we have so many ways to interact!
Let's Get Social!
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| 13 Jan 2021 | Our Creative Process | 00:35:34 | |
In Episode 3, we are sharing a behind-the-scenes look at our creative process! We find inspiration from travel, shopping, fashion, magazines, fabric, colors, nature, Pinterest, books, movies, and more! Our ideas for everything are born from this inspiration! Performing Company Costumes: We are very inspired by fashion and trends. We use Pinterest to organize our inspo, and take ideas from different parts of dresses or outfits we've pinned to sketch out a costume design. Our seamstress creates a sample that we tweak it until it works, and then embellish it with rhinestones, appliques, pom poms, patches, and more. To learn all our costume designing secrets, check out Fabric Shopping in NYC: A Complete Guide for Designing Custom Costumes where we share ALL we know about creating and designing costumes! Events: Here's a look at 3 different events and how we got our inspiration!
Competition/Recital Routines: Combine a few things that don’t necessarily go together, but try to mash them up in some way, like mermaids and NYC...the beach and candy...disco and flowers...snow and tigers. Be different by going off the beaten path and challenging yourself to more than the go-to mix of standard songs or that latest popular song. Recital Themes: We look at the overall vibe of the show or movie that we are considering. Is it colorful and cheerful or darker? Does it have a good mix of both to keep the younger and older dancers excited and engaged? What is the soundtrack like and are there enough concepts within that theme to create multiple routines for all ages and levels? Who are the characters, how many are there and what are their personalities? Once the theme is determined, it inspires our studio decor, marketing, summer camps and more for the whole year. We hope this has given you a little insight into our creative process and some inspiration to help YOU be creative! Subscribe & Share We would also love for you to share on social media that you listened to our podcast! Tag us and we will repost! We love socializing, and we have so many ways to interact!
Let's Get Social!
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| 20 Jan 2021 | Summer Fun - Part 1 | 00:29:48 | |
In Episode 4, we're sharing a tips for having a successful summer at your dance studio and answering your top questions about Camp Confetti!
Camp Confetti Camp Confetti Summer Dance FunPacks are digital downloads that your theme, storyline, camp description, social images, combo videos, dance activities, a dance game, music suggestions, crafts, certificates, decor ideas and more! They can be easily converted into a virtual camp if needed. We design the camps to fill a 5-day period for 2-3 hours each day, but they can easily be adapted to fit a 3-day camp format or any other format. It's up to you with what you decide to cut out! We provide you with tools you need to market your camps: logo, social image and description. Our FOUR new fun themes:
The new camps are $200 each through March 26th (normally $225)! And our Bundle special (best deal) includes all 4 new themes at $175 each through Feb. 1! Subscribe & Share We would also love for you to share on social media that you listened to our podcast! Tag us and we will repost! We love socializing, and we have so many ways to interact!
Let's Get Social!
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| 27 Jan 2021 | Summer Fun - Part 2 | 00:43:04 | |
In Episode 5, we're sharing 3 ways to boost summers at your dance studio! These have helped us have successful summer months at Rhythm, and we hope they help you, too!
2. Offer multiple summer dance options!
3. Hire a Summer Camp Director to plan, organize, staff and promote it. Trust us! More information on the Summer Launch we referenced in Ep 4:
Reminder that our NEW Camp Confetti themes are available for presale! Take advantage of our launch specials: $200 each (ends March 26) or the Bundle special of all 4 new themes at $175 each (ends Feb 1). Subscribe & Share We would also love for you to share on social media that you listened to our podcast! Tag us and we will repost! We love socializing!
Let's Get Social!
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| 03 Feb 2021 | Throw Kindness Around Like Confetti | 00:20:38 | |
In Episode 6, we're throwing kindness around like confetti! With the craziness of the past year, being motivated and staying positive is more important than ever! We've had some tough days but, ultimately, we are optimists who look for the bright spots! We have been so inspired by our peers, friends and leaders in our industry and are sharing a few things we hope encourage you to focus on the positive things in your dance life! Celebrate the small successes and little things that make you happy! Ruthie: Dani's tiny 7-pound dog is a source of joy through all the crazy. New Space: Becca recently moved and it's made a huge difference! Ability to work from home: We learned we can be productive from home while enjoying our actual homes! Treat People With Kindness: This Harry Styles video and lyrics is so inspiring! Challenge: Write down some things that are making you happy lately and celebrate them! We are attending Studio Owner University Virtual Feb 8-11 as studio owners and, Confetti on the Dance Floor will be a vendor at the event! If you are attending, schedule an appointment to meet with Shelley about our products and show specials! 3. The Mind Juice Podcast: This is our friend and fellow studio owner Jen Jarnot's podcast! It's great motivation for dancers, studio owners, teachers and parents! Challenge: Reach out to someone who has inspired you and let them know! We'd also love for you to share our podcast on social media! Tag us and we'll repost! Let's Get Social!
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| 10 Feb 2021 | Making It haAPPen: Our Go-To Apps for Social Media and Productivity | 00:31:32 | |
In Episode 7, we're sharing our go-to apps for social media and productivity! Over: Great fonts, templates and graphics to use for video, Facebook cover photos, business cards, etc. Rhonna Designs: Use it to add graphics and texts to posts and pics, create quotes, flyers, calendars, create insta-story graphics and more. Snapseed and Color Story: Photo editing apps for enhancing your photos to correct lighting, shadows, saturation, etc. iwatermark: For batching your logos on photos. Start by experimenting with a few of these! And, share your favorite apps with us, too! We'd also love for you to share our podcast on social media! Tag us Let's Get Social!
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| 17 Feb 2021 | 10 Fun Things to Do Right Now in Your Studio! | 00:24:41 | |
In Episode 8, we're giving you 10 things you can do right now in studio to make dance fun! 3. Host a parent appreciation station! If your lobby is closed right now, think outside the box! 4. Hold a fun photo shoot using your own dancers! We do do this often with dancers from our studio, and they love it! 5. Hold a contest or plan a special fun event related to your year-end show theme – as big or small as you want. 9. Teach choreography from your favorite throwback music video! 10. Use one of our FUN Products in Dance Class! We're all about making dance fun and we have a few fun products that make it easy!
Subscribe & Share We'd also love for you to share our podcast on social media! Tag us and we'll repost! Let's Get Social!
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| 24 Feb 2021 | 5 Simple Ways to Up Your Crafting Game | 00:24:27 | |
In Episode 9, we're sharing our go-to simple crafts that add fun and color to decor, props and events. And, we hope to inspire you to up your crafting game at your studio! We create so many of our own backdrops, props, small, Twirl preschool crafts, and costumes! Check out #rhythmcraftcenter for fun photos. We also created this graphic with images of each item we discuss! Let's Get Social!
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| 04 Mar 2021 | Connecting The Dots of Your Dance Studio's Brand | 00:34:06 | |
In episode 10, we're helping you connect the dots of all aspects of your business to help you build a stronger dance studio brand. Your brand is the meaning that people attach to your product or service. You do not get to define this, your customers do! Just like a simple connect-the-dots activity, the only way you can fully recognize the image (your brand) is to make sure all the dots are connected: website, social media, physical location, performances, competitions/conventions, costuming, studio decor, logo wear, advertising, your team, etc. Logo: Your logo is a big part of your brand identity, so make sure it represents your studio well! Know when it is time to update it! Keep it simple enough so you can adapt it to fit a theme. We recommend working with a professional graphic designer. Physical Studio: As soon as you walk into Rhythm, you know that our vibe is fun and colorful, from fun wallpaper, colorful decor, bright lighting and our ever-changing Rhythm Fun Wall. Make sure people feel your brand inside your studio too! Website: From the wording (be authentic, match your brand tone and use your own voice, not someone elses) to the colors to the photographs, these are all part of connecting the dots to complete your studio image! You will need to invest money and time consistently. They are HARD to keep updated, but it's important to remember that you can’t just create it and forget about it. Keep the look and feel up to date with your studio brand! Events: Make sure your customers/prospects can easily recognize you/your brand at offsite events. Branded signage is very important! Have your staff wearing latest logo wear, offer goody bags to attendees with studio info and branded items. Small details go a long way! Social Media: Social media is an easy way to establish your brand identity. If you are doing your own, it creates immediate authenticity. If you have help, make sure you communicate clearly your brand voice, colors, vibe and mirrors all the other aspects of your business. Post more photos and less graphics, and create exclusive hashtags that match your brand and engage your audience. Communications: Keep all your communications branded, from emails, newsletters, signage, etc. Include your logo and an eye-catching image, pay attention to color scheme, use exciting language and a compelling subject line. Recital: We brand our recital at the beginning of our season, create a logo and a hashtag, and it becomes an extension of our Rhythm brand. When we announce our theme on social media it is our most commented and liked post of the year! We continue our branded theme to promote and decorate for every holiday, launch our summer programs, etc. We hope this gives you inspiration and motivation to connect your branding dots! Think about all the “dots” in your studio, and do a check up on each to see how you can make them more cohesive to your brand! Subscribe & Share Let's Get Social!
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| 11 Mar 2021 | Photo Shoot Fun! | 00:27:55 | |
In Episode 11, we are sharing our go-to fun photo shoot tips and resources! Models: Use your own dancers, be diverse in age, ethnicity and dance strengths. Communicate clearly what to bring/wear, obtain a signed photo release. Play music, guide their poses, be patient and explain exactly what you want in the shot. Throw confetti! Photographer: Go professional, do it with your iPhone or barter with a parent! Styling: Accumulate a collection of clothes and accessories in all sizes and styles, including repurposed costumes. Ask models to bring an old costume or attire that fits theme. Use handheld props and lots of accessories! Seamless Backdrop Photo Paper Photo Shoot Decor
Backdrop Ideas: Splatter paint, honeycombs, pinwheels, layered metallic fringe streamer curtains, balloon garlands and wrapping paper Apps for Photo Editing: SnapSeed, ColorStory , Canva, iPhone editing/filters. Listen to Episode 7 - Making it hAPPen for more of our favorite editing apps! General Inspo: Pinterest, Instagram; Take photos of things you love for 30 days in a row. What is a common denominator? That is your inspiration for what you are doing next! Studio DIY, Oh Joy, Sugar & Cloth - great blogs and photo shoot ideas! Make sure to find YOU in all this inspiration. Don’t just copy other accounts. Now, go create a fun photoshoot with your dancers at your studio! Let's Get Social!
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| 18 Mar 2021 | Q&A with Becca & Dani | 00:24:07 | |
In Episode 12, we are answering recent questions you've sent that we hope are fun and beneficial for everyone! Let's Get Social!
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| 25 Mar 2021 | Recital Fun - Part 1 | 00:36:09 | |
In Episode 13, we are talking all things recital! In Part 1 of 3, we cover choosing a location and a theme, announcing your show and our recital retreat! Once the theme is confirmed, the brainstorming and research begins BEFORE we announce the show: watch the movie, take notes, discuss what parts/characters/concepts would be best for specific classes, purchase books, scour Pinterest and more BEFORE we announce the show. We take this process very seriously and continues throughout season until we make it to the stage! Announcing the Show: We make this a really big deal! Our entire studio family gets VERY invested in the theme and announcement day. We reveal on Instagram and drop hints for a few days leading up to it in our stories and posts. These are some of our most engaging posts of the year! We have a show logo and fun announcement ready to go as soon as we announce! Recital Retreat: This planning retreat with key staff is one of our favorite and most productive things we do all year! We rent a cabin, work around the clock for 3-4 days and plan our entire show. We also work hard to make the weekend fun! As the studio owners, we arrive a day early to set up, buy food (and drinks!), decorate in our theme and assemble goodie bags for everyone! We all watch the movie together and shout out ideas (both good and bad)! You can recreate this concept on a smaller budget, too! Our task list is crazy, but the most important part: We outline every major task on a poster hanging prominently in our cabin, and we don't leave until it’s all completed! Our most critical tasks include assigning classes to shows, themes and music for all routines, choosing costumes, editing music, dress rehearsal schedule and identifying props and backdrops. We create a master spreadsheet to store all our decisions in Google Sheets, as multiple people can edit at the same time. We will reference this spreadsheet throughout entire season and it becomes our tech sheet, check list, and so much more! On next week's episode we will continue this conversation and talk about ordering costumes, announcing our characters, creating our opening number and our props and sets and preschool productions! Subscribe & Share Let's Get Social!
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| 01 Apr 2021 | Recital Fun - Part 2 | 00:38:32 | |
In episode 14, we are back with Part 2 of our Recital Fun podcast and discuss ordering costumes, announcing our characters, props, production value, and our opening number! Ordering Costumes: We review catalogs and decide on all costumes at recital retreat with our key staff. Once a costume is confirmed, we add the details such as catalog, wholesale cost, color and accessories into our master spreadsheet so it’s easily accessible when it’s time to actually place the order. If we can't find the perfect costume, we improvise by creating some of our own things and mixing with pieces from a catalog. Announcing Characters: We use our Edge Performing Company dancers for characters as they already perform in every show! We usually choose graduating seniors as main characters and then they are also included in many of the preschool productions. We announce the characters on Instagram just like our show, and the kids start asking us about who the characters are right after we post the show! It creates lots of fun anticipation about the show! Once announced, we use them to promote the show. We also have a fun tradition of creating big posters of the characters that we use as decor at the show. Then, these posters hang in the studio as fun memory for everyone! Props & Production Value: We call all our preschool class dances preschool productions. We create an experience for the kids and audience that feels like a 3-4 minute show within itself. This creates a memorable WOW factor and prompts many to register for next season right after the show.
Creating the Opening Number: This is a "combo" routine of all 4 of our Edge companies and is one of our favorite things! We are the producers and create the idea, music, costuming and direct it all, but we have the Rhythm faculty and sometimes a guest contribute to the process! It's an amazing way to open our show as it is big, fun and VERY entertaining! We also compete it. The main characters have different costumes and then an separate costume for each company. This is the first year that we have divided up our companies due to covid. We did a Teen/Senior one that will open our show anda mini/junior one the teen senior one that will close act 1. Episode 15 will include a special fun guest, and then for Episode 16 we will be back with part 3 of Recital Fun where we will dive deeper into our spring break planning week and all the final to-dos on our list. Subscribe & Share You are officially invited to subscribe to our podcast, and we would love you to leave us a 5 star rating and review! We'll share one review each week and send that person a special Confetti prize! We'd also love for you to share our podcast on social media! Tag us and we'll repost! Let's Get Social!
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| 08 Apr 2021 | Dance Friends Are The Best Friends | 00:38:47 | |
In Episode 15, our Studio Owner BFF Christy Curtis, owner of CC&Co Dance Complex in Raleigh, NC, is with us, and we're sharing a little about her, our friendship and how she inspires and motivates us! Christy has trained some of the most incredible dancers and choreographers: Martha Nichols, Ariana Dubose, Kirsten Russell, Sarah Pippin and Jake Tribus to name a few! She is so well respected in our industry for her energetic and outgoing personality as well as her passion, grit and true love of dance! We met on a Break The Floor teacher retreat in Hawaii and quickly our studios were similar size and mindsets with many of the same issues and goals for studio growth! Over the years, our friendships and our businesses have grown, changed and leveled up! We leaned on each other greatly during covid. We are always learning, educating ourselves and wanting to make all aspects of our businesses stronger! We continually motivate and inspire each other! We discuss the Darren Hardy podcast and how Christy starts her day with the Darren Daily. Christy discussed how she motivates her team, especially the past year during covid.
We love how quickly and efficiently Christy makes decisions and takes action. She shares that it goes along with trust and that she will move quickly if she believes in the person, product or idea. She also gets bored easily so loves to try new things, is OK if something doesn't work out, and always thinking ahead. She discusses using assistants to keep her organized so she can stay on task, even though it is hard! To stay motivated, she loves talking with her dance friends, learning new ways to operate, joining like-minded, high level achiever groups: MTJGD, DH Hero Journey, The Locality (locally in Raleigh), podcasts on every morning, finding time to get away, travel, music, clothes, art scene. She has had an executive coach for 7 years, always working on weaknesses. We talk about our get togethers/trips/zoom calls and phone check ins. To learn more about Christy, check out the Confetti Conversation we had with her a couple years ago on our blog. Remember….Dance Friends are the Best Friends! Subscribe & Share Let's Get Social!
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| 15 Apr 2021 | Recital Fun Part 3 | 00:27:06 | |
In Episode 16, we're back with Part 3 of our Recital Fun series talking about how we finalize our year-end show plans and communicate to our customers. Spring Break Planning Week: We've use Spring Break to finish up major show planning because we don’t have our usual day to day to deal with. We go somewhere fun and are very productive! Our typical solid "formula" doesn't quite work under covid, so this year takes a lot of extra planning. We bring one or two staff members along and focus on our packet, graphics, decor and more. Year-End Show Packet: This 15-20 page packet holds ALL the details of our year-end show for our families in an easy to digest Q& A format, filled with colorful images and graphics to draw the reader in. We create a chart that includes each class, day & time, routine title, date and time of show, day and time of dress rehearsal, hairstyle, and shoes/tights/ leggings/accessories or any other accessories. We also include the running order of each show. We also hold several meetings to review all the details with parents in person or virtually and create short videos they can watch on our IGTV. Designing Final Graphics for the Show: We create logos and artwork that we use in all our materials. We start by sketching out our ideas and sending to our graphic designer to execute along with a project list and due dates. Check out #rhythmfrozen to see how we've started branding the show, building excitement and keeping our clients updated! Orders/Renaming Routines: This big task creates a flow that tells the story. We create fun names for each of the dances (including company dances) in line with the theme, like Elsa’s Fancy Ice Capades, Olaf’s Snowy Shuffle, Ice Ice Rhythm, and Let it Glow! Character Involvement: Our characters are members of our Senior performing company and they play a large role in several of our pieces! They will be coming into the classes over the next few weeks to learn their parts. This is always something that adds a ton of fun to the routines, and the little ones are beyond excited to have Elsa, Anna, Olaf and Sven in their dances! Finalizing Sets/Props: Our next big task is figuring out props and set building. We use makeshift props in most classes until the real props are ready. Our creative and talented staff get super crafty and help us create all our sets. Tech Week: We usually hold a “tech week” at the studio and rent pipe and drape, cover the mirrors and have each class come into our big studio and run their dance for us. We take notes, determine lighting, review character involvement and props and just confirm we understand what is going on in each dance. This year, our tech week will actually be our dress rehearsal so we will go full out and have a backdrop and photo ops and more for dancers. We hope you’ll be able to use some of these ideas to help you in the final stages of your show planning and they will hopefully make things easier for you and your customers. Subscribe & Share Let's Get Social!
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| 22 Apr 2021 | Finish Your Season with FUN! | 00:26:23 | |
In Episode 17, we're sharing 5 ways to add FUN to the last several weeks of your dance season. Let's Get Social!
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| 29 Apr 2021 | Summer Camp Director | 00:26:33 | |
In Episode 18, we're diving back into summer with our Summer Camp Director (and Rhythm alum and Connection Performing Company Director), Emily Salerno. Pre-Emily, we would launch summer enrollment in Jan/Feb and then we would not plan anything else until right before camps started - staffing, planning, shopping, etc. Now with Emily and Camp Confetti we are in a much better position! General timeline for the year: Nov: set preliminary dates (factor in key staff summer availability); Jan: assign main themes to each camp, create collateral (summer camp brochure, website) and launch registration, plan launch week theme with special discount, April: finalize teachers; May: confirm assistants, send out Camp Confetti packets for staff to review/plan; June: order/purchase supplies. Organizational Tools: Google Docs. Forms, Calendar & Sheets; Dropbox to hold all Camp Confetti in one place for all the teachers, Twirl to Go! Canva - advertising/marketing/graphics - summer packet (5-6 page packet with dates, cost, times, etc.) and smaller 1-page flyer. Tip: Added a QR code linked to our packet so parents could scan it from our door and access out packet. Camp Prep Process: May: reminders, plan and shop for the camps that start early summer; send themes to the camp leads so they can shop for their own items; 2 weeks before camp: create day to day camp breakdown - schedule for each day, activities, crafts; One week prior: craft shopping for next week's camp, staff reminders, hours required- assistants required to stay to help set up crafts for next day craft prep. Friday before camp starts, breakdown decor and set up for next week camp. Parent Communications: Wed-Fri week before camp begins - schedule, what to wear, location, showcase time; additional reminders daily for what to wear/bring. If you are not in a position to hire a director, take a few of these tips and delegate some of the tasks to open up time for you to focus on other things or maybe even take a little time off. Start somewhere, start small and build on that position as you can! Subscribe & Share
Let's Get Social!
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| 06 May 2021 | Motivation to Make It Through May! | 00:12:40 | |
May is the craziest time of year for dance studios! So we are sharing a few things that are motivating us to push through and make it to the finish line. We always find inspiration when traveling - whether for work or personally! For example, we spent our working Spring Break in Nashville and loved it! You may even see a fun Nashville-inspired Camp Confetti next year! It also inspired us to come up with a name for our little covered picnic area we created this season: Rhythm Ranch! Palm Springs is a favorite destination for us and it inspired our Boho Desert Bash Camp Confetti, a few mini jazz themes and tons of decor! 2. The possibility of getting together with other teachers and studio owners again, whether it’s at a conference or doing it on our own.
3. Podcasts! Summer is a great time to catch up on podcast episodes we didn't have time to listen to throughout the season. We are currently the loving:
We know you guys are in the same boat we are right now and feel like you’re never going to get everything done. But, you will (and we will), and hopefully this has helped inspire you to think about the fun stuff you have coming up once the crazy is over. Obviously, we are looking forward to seeing all our hard work come together for our shows, but you have to have something beyond that to look forward to when the crazy calms down. Put something on your calendar now and look at it every day for motivation! Let's Get Social!
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| 13 May 2021 | Performing Company Structure | 00:31:39 | |
In Episode 20, we are sharing how we structure our performing companies at Rhythm! It's Important to us that we can offer many opportunities to the dancers at Rhythm. We've grown into 11 Performing Companies and 5 Spotlight Programs. Mini Stars: Youngest group, approx age 6-7, required to be at the studio 2 days/wk for jazz, tap, ballet & hip hop. Most also take an optional contemporary class. They have a few weekend rehearsals, attend conventions and compete jazz, HH and tap at 3 competitions. Connection: Intermediate, entry level company. It’s extremely desirable because the commitment isn’t overwhelming from a time or financial standpoint and they can still do other activities while remaining a big part of our studio culture. 4 different age groups: Minis, Juniors, Teens and Seniors all required to take weekly classes in jazz, hip hop and ballet; plus we have a tap company they can audition for. They compete at 3 non workshop, intermediate level competitions, with no solos or nationals, and attend one convention per year. Fusion: Intermediate/advanced company with two levels: Teen and Senior. This is a higher commitment company for dancers who have the ability and talent to compete/perform at an advanced level, but are not ready for or not interested in the full Edge commitment. They take one class each in jazz, tap, hip hop, contemporary & body awareness + 2 weekly ballet classes. They compete in jazz, tap, hip hop and contemporary and have an opportunity to audition for an extra group that varies in style from year to year. They attend 3 conventions and compete at 2, and also attend 3 competitions without workshops. Edge: Our highest level performing company and requires the highest commitment time-wise and financially for the 4 levels: minis, juniors, teens and seniors. This group attends 5 conventions throughout the season, competes at all 5 of those, and then also attends nationals over the summer. Beyond nationals and national rehearsals, they have a required summer intensive at the end of the summer. Each group competes in all styles as a company, but also audition for extra pieces: small groups, productions and/or guest artists and solos. Spotlight: Not part of our actual company, it’s an invitation only group that is a stepping stone should the dancers eventually want to audition for company. We have 5 different age levels. It's for the dancers who aren’t quite ready for company or love doing a little more, but don’t want the commitment of company. They are required to take 1 jazz class and 1 ballet class, scheduled back-to-back for convenience. Many of them take optional additional classes. At the end of the season, they compete jazz at one competition and they love it! It just gives them a little taste of what the companies do and sometimes it sparks more interest. Subscribe & Share Let's Get Social!
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| 20 May 2021 | The REAL Confetti Boss! | 00:30:35 | |
In Episode 21, we have Shelley Marshall, our go-to for Confetti on the Dance Floor and much more! She covers all the things she does for Rhythm and Confetti and also shares some upcoming summer events. Shelley is Becca's sister and was hired in 2016 to be the COO of Rhythm and to help launch Confetti. Confetti took off a lot faster than we thought so her role is way more Confetti than Rhythm. She runs all the day to day - customer service, website and shipping, emails, writes the blog, podcast notes, all the camp confettis and more. For Rhythm, she handles HR, communications, payroll, a lot of year-end show duties including the Master Spreadsheet (FYI, there are 56 columns...Shelley overshot that a little in the episode haha!), and much more. Top 3 questions Shelley gets from customers! We have 26 different Camp Confetti Summer Dance FunPack themes! 2. How can I use this image/logo? We provide logos and social images with some of our products, and while we provide guidelines, there is definitely some gray area, so we get a lot of questions making sure that a logo or image is being used correctly or asking permission to use them in a certain way. We really appreciate these questions because part of maintaining a trademark and copyright is that we have to police them. So if you are ever unsure, just ask! We provide the logo for you to use in conjunction with our products. Our Twirl studios can use the logo in the same year they purchase the Twirl Packs, but if they decide to not purchase Twirl Packs for the next season, then the name Twirl and the Twirl logo cannot be used in their class names, marketing materials, etc. Camp Confetti you can use forever once you have bought a camp, but only in conjunction with our themes, not tagged in any other camps you might hold at your studio that are not Camp Confetti. 3. Honestly the other most popular question is “How did you do that/make that/create that”? We design everything ourselves and work with our long standing graphic designer and local printer to produce them. We craft on the fly and make it happen! Subscribe & Share Let's Get Social!
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| 29 May 2021 | Recital Fun Part 4 | 00:20:49 | |
In Episode 22, we are back with our final installment of the Recital Fun Series! If you haven't listened to Parts 1, 2 and 3 yet, make sure to listen! 1. Bundling Costs and Pre-Orders: Instead of selling things individually like t-shirts, videos, etc., we bundled them together and this allowed us to make a larger profit each item to help us afford the venue we are in, but ultimately we were able to cut some of those costs for our clients. Our fun bundle - “FUNdle” - includes 2 tickets, 1 download, recital fee, t-shirt, face mask, lanyard, year-end show goodie bag and luggage tag. We created a google form for t-shirt selection (size, color) and 98% of our 900 plus families filled it out on time! We gave a unique code to each family to claim their 2 pre-paid tickets in the FUNdle. This guaranteed all families would get their 2 tickets. 2. Dress Rehearsal & Tech Week: We held Dress Rehearsal in our studio this instead of the theater. We always have our tech week in the studio about 3 weeks prior to show week, so we are thinking we will combine the two and make tech week a little bit bigger and more elaborate. Some of the benefits for us were:
3. Character organization and rehearsals: We include characters in our routines to tie the story together (we create a big production number for our preschool classes that include the characters to make it more magical), and we usually just make it happen at dress rehearsal. This year, we had Emily (our Summer Camp Director) organize and manage it instead of us figuring it out last minute. It's a lot of improv vs. choreo. We held rehearsals and have organized spreadsheet ready to go! We are way more prepped for the show now than we normally have! PODCAST UPDATE: We will on hiatus for the month of June to have some much needed rest and relaxation! We will be back in July! Subscribe & Share Let's Get Social!
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| 08 Jul 2021 | The Whirl of Summer and A Twirl of an Update | 00:21:55 | |
In episode 23, we are back from our short summer break and recovered from our crazy recital week. Now we are ready to transition into our next season for our studio AND kick off a new season for Confetti on the Dance Floor! Transitioning to a New Season
NEW PRODUCTS AND CONFETTI UPDATES: You're hearing it here first! We to announce:
Summer Events:
We hope to see you at one of these events!! Subscribe & Share Let's Get Social!
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| 22 Jul 2021 | TWIRL - Fun + Freshly Updated! | 00:21:18 | |
In Episode 24, we're talking all things Twirl and sharing what’s new, what’s changed and also what it means for the original Twirl program. We’ve listened to your feedback over the past 4-5 years and this update reflects many of those requests. Twirl is our preschool program that we like to describe as a dance party in your classes once per month. It fits into your existing curriculum and serves as a supplement with creative, outside the box activities for your tiniest dancers. It includes adorable characters that your dancers can relate to, catchy rhymes and a really fun activity book for each dancer. Updated Features:
We are so excited about these new features! This Fun + Fresh update will launch this weekend on our website and the new packs will be ready to ship in September. So, what does that mean for the original Twirl packs? We have placed all remaining stock on sale while supplies last. A few suggestions for using these books
Twirl Lilac is sold out and Pink and Yellow are not far behind. There’s a pretty good supply of Aqua, so if this is something you’re interested in, this is the best time to get them. Once they are gone, we will not do another reprint. If you’ll be at Dance Teacher Web in Vegas, stop by our booth to say hi! Let's Get Social!
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| 29 Jul 2021 | Your Fun Big Show! | 00:13:10 | |
In Episode 25, we are so excited announce our newest Confetti Course: YOUR FUN BIG SHOW - a complete recital planning course! We love our year-end show, and we get so excited about all the aspects of it. We start planning it early and use our theme to market our studio for the entire season. We have shared quite a lot about our show on the podcast (Ep 13, 14, 16, 22) but in YOUR FUN BIG SHOW, we are sharing our exact formula and all the things we use to plan our show in detail! There’s no better way to get started planning than using YOUR FUN BIG SHOW as a guideline to create a fun experience for your dancers and parents! Your Fun Big Show officially launches on Oct. 1, when you’ll be able to listen and learn at your own pace to presentations and guidelines from Becca & Dani. Hashtags of our past shows: #rhythmfrozen, #intothefunknown, #wonkarhythmfactory, #rhythmuponadream, #wholerhythmworld. During the course, you’ll hear us discuss topics like:
You’ll also have unlimited access to Your Fun Big Show Dropbox with a complete Recital Retreat Planning Guide that includes
Upgrade to our VIP Experience where you receive all of the above PLUS…
Check out our fun promo video! Our show is, literally, the most fun and full-out thing we do all year and we want to help you feel the same about yours.
Let's Get Social!
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| 05 Aug 2021 | Fun Themes for Back to Dance! | 00:28:31 | |
In Episode 26, we're sharing some fun ideas and themes for Back To Dance! Create custom photo backdrops: We repurposed a photo backdrop from our show by replacing a few items to convert it from candy to animal print. More ideas in this episode. We also have a fun wall that we change up throughout the year to match our themes/events. Other fun ideas:
Pre-Covid, our open house was carnival atmosphere with everyone going from studio to studio with a bounce house, face painting, fashion shows, performances, dance parties, photos and more! The studio was packed and crazy and amazing! Socially distanced, our theme was Rhythm Berry Bananza! A small cluster of guests were escorted from room to room, each with a different experience: A welcome and fun performance, teacher photos, learning about our year-end show with photos and posters, company performances, photo ops and class demonstrations. Staff was available to answer questions about classes or registration, and they received prepackaged snacks as they left! Since one staff member escorted them through the whole thing, it flowed smoothly, controlled the crowds and ensured all attendees got full experience!
We hope this has inspired you to come up with a fun theme to kick off your new season! Subscribe & Share Let's Get Social!
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| 12 Aug 2021 | 5 Ways We're Prepping for our New Season! | 00:28:22 | |
In Episode 27, we're sharing 5 things we're doing right now to get ready for the new season! 3. Welcome Back Party and Open House: Listen to Episode 26 for details! Our theme this year: PLANET RHYTHM..Blasting off into a new season! We're carrying it over into the first week of classes also so everyone can enjoy the fun if they couldn't come. See #planetrhythmblastoff for fun pics! 4. Staff Kick Off: Set the tone for the season, reviewed staff guidelines and procedures. We created our Vision statement and re-did our core values! We also hold individual meetings with each member to start the year. We will have them fill out a google form prior to the meeting with some questions and goals and such and we always talk about strengths and weaknesses and anything new with their role or that needs to be addressed with their role. This is an important part of making sure we kick off the season all on the same page! 5. Updating the Studio: Normally a big deal but was put on backburner last year. This is something we put a lot of focus on each year, but, just being honest, it was put on the back burner all of last season. Doesn't require major updates, but fresh paint, maybe a new step and repeat or photo area where everyone will take photos and post on their social channels. Give your front desk or office a little makeover since that’s the one place most parents are going to see if you’re opening your lobby this season. Maybe you can update simple signage to direct everyone where to go since it’s been a while. It will make you feel better when you walk in the space and your customers will absolutely notice and appreciate it. Subscribe & Share Let's Get Social!
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| 19 Aug 2021 | Preschool Dance Party Part 1: 8 Fun Props to Use in Dance Class | 00:30:55 | |
Episode 28 is Part 1 of a new series called Preschool Dance Party and we're sharing 8 fun props you can use in your preschool dance classes! We put a big focus on our preschoolers as they are the future of our studio. Be confident that your preschool team truly loves working with the little ones. They feed off the energy of the teacher, and that energy needs to be amazing and positive and nurturing. We use our Twirl program - check out Episode 24! We also offer Fairytale Ballet, Hip Hop & Pop as an intro to Hip Hop and Petite Pizzazz (invitation-only). Variety is important because when you limit the options, you run the risk of losing them to gymnastics, cheerleading or possibly another studio. Our ultimate goal with props is to bring fun and excitement to keep them engaged and wanting to come back! Finger Lights & Firefly Jars: Each dancer gets a few lights for each hand; we turn out the lights and let them float around the room being fairies or fireflies. #totesadorbs Beastly BFFs: These adorable friends are animals that we painted and gave them cute accessories and made them fabulous!! Check out this blog post for ideas! Disco Vibes: Make your class more magical with a Disco Ball, Karaoke machine with a built-in light show option that moves to the beat of the music, Light-up magic wands and glow sticks! Do you Want to Build a Snowman?: This winter activity is well worth the work for creating it! Piñatas: Inexpensive and great to decor! Dancers can carry them as they demonstrate specific steps across the floor, pass them in a circle, or use in an obstacle course. Twirl Flashie Cards: This is a super fun product that comes with 2 complete sets of 20 cards (total of 40 cards) + suggested uses!
Styrofoam Rings Covered in Duct Tape: These handheld props are great for working on coordination skills. Use a foam ring or heart shape to work arm coordination while the feet are tapping.
Flamingo Themed Crafts/Props: Flappy the Flamingo Cane: This blog post tells you how to create one; Use pink feather dusters as a handheld prop to work on coordination skills; and feather feet, which are super cute little additions to the dancers’ tap shoes. They are so easy to make by using an elastic band and three pink feathers glued to it. They easily slip on and off their tap shoes and add a fun little fluff to their tapping. Subscribe & Share Let's Get Social!
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| 27 Aug 2021 | Preschool Dance Party Part 2: Preschool Progressions | 00:25:41 | |
Episode 29 is Part 2 of our Preschool Dance Party series. We're sharing ideas for Preschool Progressions - fun ways to up our across-the-floor game! Dancing across the floor is fun and if your preschoolers continue dancing, progressions are not going anywhere! Start helping them understand standing in line, waiting their turn, going across the floor to get individual feedback from the teacher, doing a series of steps, working on coordination and just adding in some creativity and FUN! Hopscotch: Great for working on coordination skills, jumping and shifting weight from one foot to two. Create a hopscotch path with tape, chalk, rubber mats, etc. Use animal options like bunnies, kangaroos, frogs, grasshoppers and even cats. Purchase inexpensive animal headbands, bunny ears or poodle skirts for them to wear to add fun. As they advance, add a rhythm and musicality challenge to it. Rainbow Runner: Use a table runner for a vibrant visual path that the dancers can skip down, chassé, do heel drops, etc. Purchase a 100 ft. rainbow plastic tablecloth roll for an instant colorful path! Obstacle Courses: Preschoolers love something specific to focus on like traveling to different locations and making each stop along the path something exciting. Theming them out to the fullest keeps them engaged and interested in what’s going on. Our Twirl Flashie Cards are great for obstacle courses. You can place the cards at the different stops and they have to flip them over and demonstrate whatever the step or image is. Dino Feet: Cut out giant dinosaur prints from poster board ~14x8, add tape to secure, place multiple sets side by side facing different directions. The dancers jump on two feet right on top of the dino prints but have to change their direction to match the direction the prints are facing. You can do this activity with any feet - puppy, cat paws, snowman, etc. Hula Hoops: Set them up for each of the stops along the path and they can jump into them and demonstrate certain steps, they can jump out of them, pick it up and use it as a handheld prop, and they can crawl or step through them. Imagine they are giant donuts or wheels, etc. Or line them up across the floor touching and the kids can pretend they are astronauts and do moon jumps from one hoop to the next. Then they can try to moonwalk back to the end of the line. Bonus fun: create a human maypole. Tie really long pieces of ribbon around the hula hoop, enough for each dancer to hold onto one. Make a circle and hold the hula hoop up high over your head while the dancers will dance with the ribbons. Ideas for Keeping Dancers Standing in Line: Stanchions, Rugs ("magic carpet"!), Yoga mats , Dance Dots (turn them into flower petals, musical notes, bunny ears, etc.) , Colorful Tape Think outside the box, add a piece of imagination to it and have fun! Subscribe & Share Let's Get Social!
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| 02 Sep 2021 | Preschool Dance Party Part 3: Pro Tips from our Preschool Pro! | 00:47:20 | |
Episode 30 is Part 3 of our Preschool Dance Party Series! We have a very special guest with us – our preschool director Ms. Jenni! She is responsible for so much preschool fun, we consistently get her feedback for Twirl and she is a regular contributor to our Camp Confettis and much more! She's celebrating her 16th season with us at Rhythm! Her top 4 tips for running a successful preschool class: Planning our Twirl Season: Track in Google Doc, usually one per month, hold round tables, the week before sends reminders and details to teachers and assistants with details about props, sets up early on the first lesson of the week. Week before send email reminder to families of theme, what to wear. Week after send recap email with fun photos. How she formats a Twirl class: Start in tap shoes, warm-up center, then across the floor. If activity is tap, bring books out earlier; if ballet, later. How we handle the books depends on the class - either inspiration or read whole thing. Let them find the page, review, put books away. Keep the same elements of the theme throughout the class even after done with the Twirl activity. Favorite props: Technical - hula hoops, color dance dots (teach jazz square), ballet barres, parachutes, footprints; Fun Props - Flashie Cards, light-up wands, finger lights, ribbon sticks, light machine, scarves. Organizing Props: Books are kept in magazine racks, uses closet rods to hang some items, baskets/bins to store like props. If you are moving from one studio to another, keep a set in a bin to take with you. Sort items that "work" from those that "don't work" She uses some of the Twirl activities/themes every week mermaids, flower stretches, rainbows, unicorns, not just on Twirl weeks. Subscribe & Share
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| 16 Sep 2021 | Fabric Shopping in NYC! | 00:22:51 | |
Episode 31 was recorded from our hotel room in New York City! We are here again after missing it for 2 years searching for fabulous fabric for our custom costumes! At Rhythm, we have always designed our own costumes and had them made for our performing company dancers. For years, we would have people ask us where we bought our costumes or how we went about designing them and the actual sewing process. So, a few years ago, we created Fabric Shopping in NYC: A Complete Guide for Designing Custom Costumes available for purchase in our Confetti Shop. It’s a step-by-step guide to finding the perfect fabrics and trims to create custom costumes for your studio. We use it ourselves and this trip, we used it to confirm which fabric stores were still in business, and most are still going strong! What is the same?
What's different?
Top 3 places we shopped this week (all between 7th & 8th) Vardhman, Inc. - 269 W. 39th - This TINY store has trim, elastic and ribbons. Small but incredible selection of fun appliqués and patches. Think smiley faces, flowers, eyeballs, planets and quirky, fun sparkly little things! MOOD - 225 W. 37th on 3rd Floor - The building is called “Bricken Arcade” and you can enter on 37th or 38th. This store is the best store EVER - the options are limitless! They have every type of fabric in every color, texture, print, weight...it is a literal fabric candy store! We highly recommend checking out the Garment District -mainly 37th - 39th between 7th and 8th. Learn more here! Subscribe & Share Let's Get Social!
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| 23 Sep 2021 | Festive Fall Faculty Fun | 00:17:03 | |
In Episode 32, it's a Festive Fall Faculty Fun party we call Pumpkin Pizzazz - a fun kick-off to fall for our staff to get together and decorate pumpkins. Invitations: Create a fun graphic to get everyone in a fun, fall mood and send via Paperless Post or Evite so you can easily track who's attending. What to wear: Make it as simple and convenient as possible for staff. We just suggest everyone wear black and then we may provide some fun really inexpensive masks for everyone to wear for photos we might take. If your staff wants to dress up, a fun idea is to use this halloween costume generator from Different Drummer Dance. Food: Breakfast - Fall/pumpkin flavored donuts, pastries and coffee. Set-Up: You can go full out or keep it simple; inside or outside. You can do a Fall theme, Halloween theme or even in the theme of your show. We recommend doing outside if weather permits! Craft supplies: Glue guns, E-6000, Elmer’s Craft Glue, craft/scrapbook/glitter paper, pom pom balls, googly eyes, spiders, halloween stickers, rhinestones, pipe cleaners. Fall or Halloween paper plates and small bowls to use for everyone to gather their craft supplies in is key. We also set up a cute table for the food, and had a shelf outside to display the completed the pumpkins. The decorated pumpkins are so fun for the kids to look at and guess which one is from their teacher. You can create contest for dancers to select their favorite or just use them as decor! If you have time during your staff get together, this would be a great opportunity to teach them our Halloweek on the Dance Floor combo. New combo coming soon, but check out all our past combos here. Take photos and video of your event - each person with their pumpkin and a group shot. Use video footage to create a Reel/story, etc! This is such a fun event to share on social media and also great pics to use for a staff bday and on your staff page in your year-end show program! We hope this inspires you to get in the mood for fall and/or halloween and put something simple and fun on the calendar for your staff. Subscribe & Share Let's Get Social!
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| 08 Oct 2021 | Recital Planning - Part 1 | 00:18:12 | |
In episode 33, we are kicking off the first episode in a new series on recital planning! We are in full recital planning mode now, and we just launched the content of our recital planning course: Your Fun Big Show! Purchase by 10/8 and SAVE! If you purchase before that date, not only will you save money, but you will also be invited to a live Q&A Zoom with us on this topic! Figure out who is in what show and concepts: This is the very first thing we do to get everything in place before the fun creative parts start happening. Our studio manager starts this process by working on the breakdown of each show and then presents it to us. We give our input and thoughts, make a few minor changes then we are ready. We take into consideration dancers with siblings or those who take multiple classes and try to accommodate where we can. It also depends on maximum audience size. Plan your planning: The most productive thing we do all season is our recital retreat! We rent a house, go away for a long weekend and figure out all concepts, choose all music, edit the music, choose the costumes, start our master spreadsheet with so many details, figure out dress rehearsal, tech rehearsal, figure out all our props and sets and backdrops! Our retreat is a little over a month away, but we are planning our planning now! We will start planning our decor for the weekend (because we go full out) and start ordering that! It is great because we can use lots of this decor for the studio and even for the show! We also order items for goodie bags for our staff. Subscribe & Share Let's Get Social!
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| 15 Oct 2021 | 5 Fun Halloweek Ideas for Your Studio! | 00:23:37 | |
For those of you that are new to all the Confetti fun, you may not know about our Halloweek on the Dance Floor hip hop combos and videos. This is our 6th annual season of creating fun, age appropriate hip hop combos that we share with you and encourage you to teach them in your classes, video it, post it on your social platforms and tag us so we would be sure to see it. We love seeing studios taking our short combo and getting super creative with it and making them their own, and we of course reshare them all! You can also teach it to your staff -- your dancers will love it and it's a great way to build engagement and teamwork within your staff. This blog post has our current version, as well as links to the other 5 versions AND several Halloweek related blog posts. 5 Fun Things for Halloweek 1. Organize a SPOOKTACULAR Spotify Playlist. Start from existing playlists, and add more songs you can use in class. This is an easy and fun thing share with your dancers and teachers! Check out our Wickedly Enchanted Playlist 2. Decorate a wall in your studio for dancers to take their photos. Bonus: tie it into your show theme! This is a great way to get your dancers to snap a fun photo during your Halloweek! Carry the theme into a small area in each dance room, too! 3. Halloween Dance Games. Check out the bottom of this blog post for links to posts with fun games like a haunted obstacle course, a Halloween version of Project Runway and more! 4. Dress up for Halloweek!
5. Halloweek on the Dance Floor. Teach our super fun Halloweek on the Dance Floor combos! This unites your studio, and you can create a fun compilation video of all your classes! Tag us and use the hashtag #halloweekonthedancefloor and we are going to pick one studio to give a confetti credit to! We hope this helps get you into the Halloween spirit and find some spooky-fun things to do at your studio! Subscribe & Share Let's Get Social!
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| 17 Nov 2021 | 5 Fun Things Happening Now! | 00:23:53 | |
In episode 35, we're back after a short break sharing five fun things that are happening now that we are really excited about! Rhythm Toy Barn: In our last episode, we talked briefly about the week of Halloween and how we were considering an outdoor space. We made it happen and are calling it the Rhythm Toy Barn. We painted it in bright colors to match our show logo. For Halloween, we hung a few Toy Story themed ghosts and other spooky-ish decor and created a fun photo op for everyone. Next, we will transform it into a winter wonderland. If you do not already have a fun and creative space for your dancers to take photos, consider setting one up! Disney: We snuck in a 36-hour inspiration trip to Disney World (Toy Story Land) a few weeks ago!! Neither of us had been to Disney World in 15 years, so it was inspo overload! We have some great ideas for decor, colors and details. You can’t find a better way to get inspired if you are planning to do a Disney theme! If you want to up your inspiration and creativity, look into doing something super extra to elevate your planning: see a movie with your staff, go see a show and or go to Disney! Twirl: As most of you know, we have recently finished up our Twirl Preschool Program revamp! Here are a few of our favorite things about the update:
If you aren’t a Twirl Studio and want more info, check out all the details on our website and listen to episode 24! Photo Shoot: We recently held a 2-day photo shoot to batch in future content for our blog! We started planning in early September and knocked out about 6 months of photo content! Our new assistant Ellie helped played a huge role in the organizing and prepping for it as her first project with us. This was also our first photo shoot in our new space, and we have a lot more space, so we were able to set up multiple vignettes ahead of time. If you want to elevate your own photo shoot, we recommend doing some extra prep and planning ahead of time to make it the most productive it can be! Recital Retreat: We just finished this and we were so, so productive! We will do a full episode on it in the near future, but a big takeaway is that all costumes have been selected and ordering is taking place in the next 2 weeks (much earlier for us than usual). Subscribe & Share You are officially invited to subscribe to our podcast, and we would love you to leave us a 5 star rating and review! We'd also love for you to share our podcast on social media! Tag us and we'll repost! Let's Get Social!
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| 23 Nov 2021 | Confetti ThanksGifting Gift Guides! | 00:23:09 | |
In Episode 36, we're sharing tons of gifting inspo for dance teachers and studio owners, plus all of our fun specials during ThanksGifting week! Subscribe & Share
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| 07 Dec 2021 | 10 Fun + Festive Holiday Ideas for Your Dance Studio! | 00:30:43 | |
In episode 37, we're sharing 10 fun ideas for being festive at your studio this time of year. 2. Fun Dance Class Activities: Check out these blog posts for TONS of fun dance activities (even more than we covered in the episode): 3. Performing Company Party: These simple parties are held during class. They dress festively, divide into teams and do fun holiday relay races and other games. It's a super fun event and great team bonding! 4. Holiday Show: This 2-hour show is the first time our company dancers showcase their new pieces for the year. It motivates us to finish dances costumes before they have to compete, and it's also festive with a few holiday dances, too. 6. Staff Party: Our staff holiday party varies from year to year in timing and type of event. We're doing the 12 Days of Rhythmas for the second time! We rent a Furbus for a few hours take our staff on a journey with planned stops for little activities and photo ops tied into the popular holiday song. The tour ends at a restaurant for lunch and a white elephant gift exchange. 7. Confetti Holiday Cocktail/Mocktail: Fill a pretty crystal or colored glass with ice and add 2 parts prosecco or sparkling wine, ½ part St-Germain and top with 2 parts club soda and a splash of cranberry juice (to make it pink!). Stir gently, mixing completely. To garnish, alternate Smash Mallow Candy Cane marshmallows, raspberries and cranberries on a skewer, and add a sprig of mint and a candy cane to the glass! For the Mocktail, replace alcohol with raspberry ginger ale. 8. Confetti Gift Guides: Check out our fun gift guides filled with ideas for all your gifting needs here! 9. Giving Back: We always give back this time of year by sponsoring a family or donating the profits of our holiday show. This year, to tie into our theme of Toy Story and also in honor of one of our students who is fighting leukemia, we're donating toys to Children’s Hospital of Atlanta. Subscribe & Share Let's Get Social!
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| 28 Dec 2021 | Best of 2021! | 00:38:31 | |
Episode 38 is our final episode of Season 1, and we're sharing some of our faves (and least faves) of the year! Thank you for listening and supporting us ~ Cheers to 2022! Favorite Photo Shoot: Favorite Craft: Least Favorite Craft/Project: What inspired you most during this year? What Confetti event/project are you most proud of? What Rhythm event/project are you most proud of? Top Three Downloaded Podcasts: Subscribe & Share Let's Get Social!
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