Blog Takeover with Cassie When people hear the word competition, they often imagine rivalry, comparison, and pressure. In many activities, that can be true. Highland dance does include judges, placings, and medals, but I feel like the heart of competition looks very different than most people expect. The most important competition in Highland dance is …
Dance has a notorious stigma of being … unaccepting of body variance. Thankfully, things have come a long way since the days that Alex & Elayna danced, and there is momentum in the dance world towards change! However, there’s still a lot of weird (and damaging) ideas floating around about what a dancer ‘looks like’, …
Read more “Why Our Dance Studio Doesn’t Talk About Bodies (Except About What They Can Do)”
Flip the switch on your practice journey! When most people hear the word practice, their first instinct isn’t excitement. It’s the weight of obligation. Something they “have to” do, and feel guilty about skipping or forgetting, while simultaneously not being compelled to complete. Even well disciplined people can find themselves procrastinating or accidentally making it …
Highland dancers are definitely high achievers, and we obviously love and encourage it! But… we’ve noticed that high achieving often translates to constant dancing, with no downtime, making rest or recuperation seem like taboo words. We see people dancing through repetitive-use injuries, strains and sprains, and debilitating pain because they’re afraid of falling ‘behind.’ We’re …
Most people picture Highland dance as a totally individual sport: you practice your own corrections, perform on your own, and compete on your own. And in many ways, that’s true; aside from the reel and most choreography, Highland dancers are focused on their individual journey, progress and future. Over the years, we found that this …
What are you REALLY building when you look for dance training shortcuts? Dance teachers see it all the time: dancers who have big leaps but who have sloppy positions, or someone with sharp shedding but 45* turnout, or feet that flop everywhere! It looks like they’ve only focused on one or two things in their …
Taking the plunge and enrolling your child in dance lessons sometimes feels like a monumental decision. What if they hate it? What about the competitive culture? Why does it feel like a whole world I have jump into? However to us, it feels like the easiest choice in the world! Ease in slowly, take some …
Read more “The True Value of Dance Lessons: What You’re Really Paying For”
The last post in our mini-series is here! We’ve looked at the teacher and parent roles (if you missed them, you should read them first! Click here for Teacher and here for Parent), and now it’s time to turn our attention to the final and most important part of the triangle, the dancer! While teachers …
When a dancer starts their journey, they require a LOT of support. At CSHD, we love both talking about and embodying the Triangle of support. Each point of the triangle plays an important role in helping the dancer thrive. When all three points are working together, that’s When the magic happens! In this three-part series, …
In our last post, we talked about what makes a great dance teacher and why the relationship between teacher and dancer is so important. If that relationship matters, the dancer-parent one is just as, if not more, crucial. Parents often wonder how they can help their dancers achieve their goals, whether it’s reaching championship level …