Typical Outfits

“Dance is the only art of which we ourselves are the stuff of which it is made.”

-Ted Shawn

Specific apparel is needed for certain styles of each genre of dance. They differ widely in some areas such as ballet and hip-hop, and closer in others like lyrical, jazz and tap.

A standard ballet uniform consists of tights, a leotard and a bun, possibly leg warmers, a body wrap, or a skirts. It is essential to wear tights and leotard for practices of ballet, because you need tightly fitted clothes that help you to see and adjust your body positioning. Ballet is meticulous and you need the clothing to match that in order to get the work done.

Working its way up in causality; tap, jazz, and lyrical require a bit less than ballet in most areas. It is acceptable to wear clothing styles such as spandex, legging pants, legging capris, tight fitted tank tops, sports bras, leotards and crop tops in these dance styles. The range of clothing has developed to more articles, however it is suggested to keep tight fitted clothing on for these styles. These types of dances shouldn’t really be worn with loose, ill fitted clothing, as they require constant movements of tight isolations. Baggy clothes aren’t really complimentary to the styles. Though, tap does have exceptions as the style is becoming more pop, with more uses of loose fitting garments, it all depends on the choreography. Likewise, it would be totally fine to keep your ballet leotard on, or add spandex to it.

Finally, hip-hop bends all the rules. It is suggested to wear baggy clothes that are loose on the body, to compliment the flow of movement in the urban style cerography. Ideas for this can include, sweat pants, sweatshirts and t-shirts. Of course you can also wear the more traditional jazz apparel, but it would also be appropriate to throw on some baggy pants, and a tee over top.

As long as you are following our dress code, colors and styles are endless. Dance is a great way of expression, so the dance outfits we wear should not only show are expression for ourselves, but for the style of dance we are portraying. Above all else also keep comfort in mind, as you don’t want to be worrying about your outfit while you are trying to focus on the rehearsal at hand.

~Julia Brewer

Representation

“Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance.”

-Carl Sandburg

It is a dancer's duty to show pride for their dance credits. Whether that is a show they performed in, the company they dance for, or the dance team they are a member of. Representation is important and should be highly respected by the dancer and their team.

Examples of representation include the clothing apparel worn in public and the behavior in them. To show superior behavior in the apparel is vital, as it is a way of recruitment. When others see your studio name printed across your shirt, and with that you are modeling positive instruction, polite signals and a happy attitude they are more than likely going to be more respectable to you, and all others in your company. Likewise if you are dancing in a respectable manner they will understand that the show you were in was a great success and highly advanced. It shows a high amount of well-thought-of representation toward your dance team and gives an optimistic showmanship to be reflected across the whole team.

You should not only be representing yourself well in the community, but also at rehearsal. You should be a role model for those under you. That means respecting all your team mates, choreographers, guests, parents, coaches and teachers. You want others to share the pride you have in your dance life, so you should help them and share yours so that the whole aura is of great representation for the dance platform.

It is also key to note that there is a time and place for representation. A poor representation would be to wear your studio shirt or dance team shirt to an opponent’s performance. For example if you go to Studio 1 and you have a friend that goes to Studio Z, you should not wear a full load of Studio 1 apparel to your friend’s Studio Z recital performance. It’s rude and uncalled for, instead wear a neutral, everyday clothing. You don’t have to show your opposition to that studio, but it would also be rude to try and promote your studio at another’s event. Be respectful to other dance events, don’t tramp on other’s dance prides and loyalties. Show the respect they deserve as you want them to do for you, it’s better to build support for each other than to out due each other’s conceit.

Do your best to show good representation for the dance area you install your pride to, while at the same time giving opposing dance centers a respectable presence in their events.  Representation can make or break a dance foundation, so take it in your best interest to remember what you want represented and how it would be best portrayed.

~Julia Brewer

 

Local Cedar Rapids Studios

Dancing is a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire.”

 - George Bernard Shaw

To my knowledge there are twelve studios in the Cedar Rapids area. Extensions Dance Academy, Cherie's Dance Studio, Prestige Dance Studio, The Dance Academy of Cedar Rapids, Epic Steps Dance Studio, CR Spirits, The Dancer's Edge, Donna's Dance Place, Studio Dance, Dance Nation, Twisters Dance, and Marion Dance Company. I have experience with five of the twelve dance studios, know dancer's from all of the twelve, and have attended competitions with eight of the twelve local studios.

I started dancing at the age of four at Cherie's Dance Studio. When I was six I switched, and went across the street to take tap and ballet class at Studio Dance. After one year with Studio Dance, I returned back to Cherie's. I danced at Cherie's for the next ten years of my life. This year, as a sophomore I made one of the most difficult decisions of my life, choosing again to move studios, following my dance instructor from Cherie's, as she opened her own studio in a separate part of town. That said, I am now dancing for the newest Cedar Rapids Studio, Extensions Dance Academy, but there are many other dance studios in the area that are producing great dancers for the community.

Extensions Dance Academy is on the southeast side of Cedar Rapids, it contains three studios and is under the direction of Jen Schbetka. Cherie's Dance Studio is on the northeast side of town, and contains four studios, under the direction of Cherie Chittenden. Prestige Dance Studio lays in the northeast side as well, with three studios, and owned by Jess Novotny. The Dance Academy of Cedar Rapids, previously known as National Dance Academy is ironically located in Marion, contains five studios and is owned by Sarah Eighmy. Epic Steps is owned by Kyra Gilbert, the building contains four studios and is located in northeast Cedar Rapids. CR Spirits is located in Lindale mall with one studio, under the direction of Tiffany Kuehl. The Dancer’s Edge has six studios, is co-owned by Steph and Charlie Vogl and located in Hiawatha. Donna’s Dance Place is directed by Donna Butters, has three studios and is found on the northeast side of Cedar Rapids. Studio Dance is also located in northeast Cedar Rapids, they have two studios owned by Michelle Burke. Unfortunately I do not know much information on Dance Nation, Twisters Dance or the Marion Dance Company.

There is a great amount competition between all of these local dance studios. You run into them at studio competitions, go to school with members from each and even compete alongside them in high school dance teams. Having so many options for dance in the area gives dance pupils the opportunity to find their best fit for their dance education. The variety of studios offered in the Cedar Rapids area range in competitive, cost, knowledge, commitment levels. It’s all about what you are comfortable with in your dance career, the amount of effort you’re willing to put forth, cost of tuition and the best growth for the dance style you wish to prosper in.

~Julia Brewer

Ballet Positions

“Ballet is ultimately a logical technique; it favors the shortest, most efficient route from one position into another. This factor gives an aesthetic clarity to all motions.”

-Anna Paskevska

There are five basic positions to refer to in ballet class. They are referred to as first, second, third, fourth and fifth position. They have corresponding feet and arms, and require a high neck, relaxed shoulders, straight back, straight legs and turned out feet.

First position makes a “V” position with the feet. To form the position, a dancer must place their heels together and then split their toes to point in opposite directions. This foot placement indicates turn out, just be sure not to over turn out past your hips turn out ability. To match your arms to your feet’s position, create a circle out from your belly button, having a rounded arm, and hidden thumbs, without the hands touching.

To create the second position you need to make a wide stance, again with turned out feet, and not to wide that your hips aren’t allowed their own turn out. Match your arms by extending them out to a “T” formation, rounding them slightly in front of you, with relaxed fingertips.

Third position is accomplished by pulling your feet together, one heel touching the inside of the other’s arch. It can be quickly made by sliding up one foot from the first position slightly until it reaches the arch. The arms are created by using the first position foot and making the first position arm, on just that one side, while the other extends out to the standard second position arm.

Make a fourth position by sliding one foot out from first position with turn out, leaving a twelve inch distance between each foot. In initiate the fourth position arms you have to lift your front foot’s arm to a fifth position and your back foot’s arm to a second position.

Finally, fifth position is created by turning out one foot to its direction, and the other to its, heel touching toe. In simpler terms, slide the third position heel up from the arch to the opposite foot’s toe. This position’s arms are equal to each other, and similar to first position. It is created by lifting the arms from first position, to do so extend the arms so they are nearly above your head, for extra help, touch them from your hairline, and out.

These are all five of the basic ballet positions. It is important to note that the arms should always be in front of view, with soft, separated fingers, never touching each other. There should also always be a slight curvature to them, rounding the elbows as if a marble could roll right down it, like it’s going down a slide. Also, note that over turn out is not better turn out. You want your turn out to be comfortable, yet challenging, it grows with time. Do not over power your turn out by losing the turn out from your hips, because you won’t be able to use your plie if you do that. Lastly, these are just positions, they help you prepare for extended learning in the ballet field, such as a turn, plie, arabesque, glissade and many more.

~Julia Brewer

Making Ballet Fun

”Ballet is important and significant – yes. But first of all, it is a pleasure.”

- George Balanchine

Dancing is a great challenge, it has to be taught, learned and practiced habitually to continue its growth. From a young age you learn the fundamentals of dance from the roots of ballet. Many young dancers acquire training in ballet from an interactive combo class consisting of tap and ballet, which also contains musical, stretch, pretend and tumbling aspects. From this young age the fundamentals do not seem as important, they are just a weekly sequence of the class that don’t pertain anywhere else in their life. For this reason, dance teachers need to make ballet classes highly interactive for young students. It is easy for young ones to become quickly bored with ballet and its slowness, but there is really no reason for that. Ballet is so important in a dancer’s life, and should remain that way until they put an end to their dancing careers.

To make ballet stand out in importance, a dance instructor must first make it fun and enjoyable. You want the young dancer’s to come to class each week excited to put on their ballet shoes. To do this, play fun songs that they feel engaged to dance to, such as popular Disney music. Make up rhymes and stories for them to remember their ballet terminology, and repeat them weekly. An example being echappe, echappe, echappe, balance, balance, balance, balance, fifth. Also, make great attempts to move around and switch up formations and activities, keep the class vibrant and new so they do not find themselves becoming bored. There is a lot more you can do, to add to the class, such as bringing dolls and toys to watch them dance, having a dress up day, stamp rewards for doing a good job, and encouraging them to yell out the ballet words.

Give young dancers the head start to love and passion they will acquire for dancing, through their combo classes, especially ballet, the building blocks and foundation of dance. By making the class enjoyable, lively and fun you will stray away from the ballet stereotype of boredom, and will give them excitement in coming to take ballet class throughout all of their years of dancing. The importance of ballet only becomes more demanding the older you get, so the faster they learn to appreciate it at a young age, the more successful and enjoyable they will find it in the future.

~Julia Brewer

 

Time Management

“Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.”

– Oprah Winfrey

Being a full time student, dancing on a high school dance team, and being a member of an elite competition team while in high school, requires a significant amount of time and dedication. Dancers, and athletes in general need to prioritize their time, to keep up with their grades and to progress in their athletics.

Many athletes not only challenge themselves in sports, but also in school. Personally, I am taking two advance placement courses, a foreign language, and two senior level courses as a junior. I have to make a lot of time to complete all of my school work with proficiency, among the several hours of dance I rehearse each week, and the eight hour school day, not to mention trying to balance a regulated sleeping schedule, and social life.

As a competitive member of my dance studio I dance nearly seven hours a week in the studio, excluding my own private practicing. I also practice up to twelve hours a week for dance team, if it is the week before a competition. With the addition of being a full time high school student for forty five hours a week. That does not leave much room in a five day week to complete such a tough course load, contain a normal sleeping schedule, participate in other activities, eating, driving,  socializing or relaxing. The life of a dancers is very go, go, go.

In order to manage time, an athlete must first prioritize their schedule, to find their best routine. From an academic standpoint, a suggestion could be if you have a study hall, free period, or time during SMART LUNCH, use it! That gives you at least another hour of sleep at night that you don't have to spend staying up trying to finish all of your homework. Another suggestion, for younger athletes is to do homework in the car while your parents drive you to your practices. What I like to do, to relive stress from homework, is doing it during my half hour dinner break. I can usually get a good majority done during that time, and it's very helpful, although I know a lot of sports don't get such breaks.

It's also important to manage your sleep schedule. Sleep is an important function for high schooners, we don't get enough of it, and need more hours in the day to do everything in our routine. Just remember sometimes it's more important to rest up for a big test, than staying up until one in the morning trying to cram it all into your brain. Sleep is so important for your body, and as an athlete you need to treat your body to the relaxation, and get more of it.

Weekends are a great time to do school work and obtain your social life. Go out be active and have fun after a stressful week of school and athletics. Practices, tournaments, competitions to pop up on several weekends, so socialize with the people around you there. Get more sleep. Keep up with your school work, so you can participate in school events, clubs and sports. Also, keep in mind that relaxation is a great way to relive stress, take a bubble bath, color a picture, watch some TV, bake a cake, stretch out your body, read a book or get a massage. You are young, go out and participate in sports, but also manage your time efficiently, so you are not overwhelmed with the stress of a high school life.

~Julia Brewer

Hit The Spot

“It's not magic! It's physics. The speed of the turn is what keeps you upright.”

 -Deborah Bull

Spotting is a concept widely understood by dancers, but can be very confusing to the average observer. Spotting is the way in which a dancer completes their rotations during turns such as in chaines, pirouettes, piques, fouettes or alsicones. It requires you to fixate your eyes on a nonmoving object or image that is at your same level height. Spotting helps your turns rotate with control, and gives you the ability to complete multiple, all while preventing dizziness and loss of control. When spotting it’s important to keep your body position and alignment centered and tight, the spot is not the only piece of the turn that keeps you going. To complete a solid turn you must also have strong arms, a high releve, straight leg, straight hips and back, shoulders down and an engaged core. Just never forget that you need all of these to have a successful turn, with the assistance of a sturdy, controlled spot to keep you locked in at the same location you began at.

 

~Julia Brewer

Split-Second Timing

“Dancing is like bank robbery, it takes split-second timing.”

 -Twyla Tharp

Whenever one is dancing with a partner or group it’s vital that timing matches everyone. There are counts in a dance to keep everyone on the same beat and look in unison. Of course there are times when you are noticeably not supposed to look identical, but in the cases where you are, it is essential that you meet the standards of matching.

If you think about a part of your routine where everyone is supposed to match, imagine a photographer taking a time lapse photograph of all of you. The images should all seem like you are moving as one. Angles, positioning, lengths should all look identical, and match each other. It is difficult to come to this point as some turns shift in rotation and spot, some leaps are higher than other creating some legs coming down to soon.

There is no doubt matching to music, timing and each other can be struggle, but with heavy concentration of all of these, timing and matching will surely become cleaner and crisper.

~Julia Brewer

Ballet Base

“On the plié and rélevé is based the whole structure of the classical ballet. “

 -Christian Johansson

Ballet is the base or foundation in every style of dance there is offered, their fundamentals are worked to incorporate the ballet foundation. The technique, discipline, structure and concepts are portrayed through the styles of other dances. Therefore, in order to master other dance styles in the industry you must first be well rounded in the most important structure, which is of course ballet.

Some may say that you don’t actually need ballet in a dance schedule, or that ballet isn’t really used in all forms of dance. I do not agree with this at all. Ballet is used in jazz, modern, lyrical, contemporary, ballroom, pointe, hip-hop, acrobatics and tap.

Jazz hold ballet in its core with the need of balance. Balance is a great category in the field of ballet and requires you to have a strong core, spot and strength in muscles. These requirements must be possessed to perform a piece of jazz choreography to its fullest potential. This is because jazz contains many elements containing turns, jumps, leaps. The angle of the body would become awkward and incorrect if the body’s balance didn’t help control the jazz elements. Ballet is also a base for jazz in essence of the technique. A dancer would not be able to execute the releve of a pirouette, the straddle for a center leap or the stretch of a battement if the basics of ballet were not learned.

Modern dance uses the plie one must acquire through the construction of ballet. The body’s center is the basis for dancing in modern, it requires a strong center and control, deep within the dancer's body but dancers are free to deviate from this axis as well. Ballet plays a role in the balance and grand plie of modern, however the difference in modern is the body is constantly at a free move within that axis as the modern style is a motion of gravity pulling you down.

Lyrical’s foundation is made from the fusion of jazz and ballet, therefore ballet plays a huge role in the lyrical style. Again, lyrical dances rely on a centered axis of balance from the education of ballet. Lyrical also depends on the correct placement of ballet technical skills. Lyrical uses more pointed feet and strong ankles, clean lines, light footed movements and turn out from the hips.

Contemporary dancing is the most modern style for slow pieces of choreography. Its roots are much more based off of modern styles rather than traditional, but it still hold the ideas of ballet in its framework. The main similarity is in the slow music of the routine, but also including a fast pace area to crescendo. However this is only true in some cases as contemporary can range from delicate to riveting, taking spins off of jazz, lyrical and modern. Which In this case all three of the spinoffs use the elements of ballet in their structure, which translates to the use of ballet in the contemporary style as well.

Ballroom uses many intricate footwork patterns that are used from the base of ballet, as well as body lines. I do not know much about ballroom dance, but from observing, it is noticeable to see the straight lines used in both styles and the elaborate footwork that goes into each. Ballroom also uses skills from head, arms, body, leg and feet technique.

Pointe obviously requires an immense amount of training in ballet. Ballet gives pointe every element it needs to be successful. The only true difference between the two is the difficulty level. It takes a very advanced ballet dancer to properly complete the facilities of a pointe routine. This mastery comes with being a top of the block of a pointe shoe and completing the already mastered ballet ideas.

Hip-hop may seem farther from the roots of ballet, but there is definitely works of ballet in hip-hop. For example a well-rounded dancer will be able to compete a ballet dance just as meticulous and fluid as they would a hip-hop. Hip-hop uses ballet’s grand plie enormously. A large grand position in hip-hop is very important. It helps hip-hop dancers give illusions of bigger movement and change within a piece of choreography. It’s what helps them get down and low.

Acrobatics takes ballet to a whole new level. Acrobatics and ballet both center on the athlete’s body movements requiring strength, balance, flexibility and artistry to be displayed in performance. Although acrobatics requires a different type of technique they both have elements that share common qualities and are essential to the formation of each.

Tap is the final style I will relate to the base of ballet. One of the most basic executions in a tap dance is a shuffle, and in order to complete this shuffle, a dancer must be able to point the ankle and bring it forward and backwards. Tap is its own language, but for some of the most basic moves, ballet is a fundamental that is needed.

My message is to inform that ballet is the most important dance style. It is used in nearly every form of dance imaginable in one way or another, Please take ballet seriously and work hard to improve on all the elements, skills and technique it requires.

 

~Julia