While Amanda was planning for classes tonight she thought, wow I need to get this on the podcast ASAP, in case someone else out there could use this idea for tonight!

Check out this short bonus clip for an idea that you can implement in your classes tonight and keep in the spirit of this special season!

Thanks for listening everyone! <3 Amanda

This can be SUCH a magical season and it can be so special when we share that magic and excitement in our classroom. In today's episode, Amanda discusses what makes December so special to her and how she brings this into her teaching and classroom experience.

There are so many important holidays in the month of December, and of all of those holidays, there tends to be a common theme of light. Amanda discusses how lighting can change the environment in an instance and create a more unique dance setting for the work that we are doing. This is not only something we can do in the month of December, but other times of the year as well.

Music can also be incredibly powerful in altering the environment of our classrooms this time of year and Amanda finds that holiday and winter music has such beautiful imagery that helps to enhance choreography and also dancer performance.

There is so much opportunity in this month to create special moments for our dancers. Please make sure to follow us on Instagram @danceteacherpeptalk for exciting content, useable playlists, and more for this beautiful time of year.

Have a beautiful day everyone and thank you for your support and listens! <3

Today’s episode is a deeper one, and one that may seem a little heavier during this happy and magical season. The reality is, no matter how much we love what we do, we are going to face difficult situations and emotions in our professional lives as dance teachers, and of course also in our personal lives. The holiday season, as beautiful as it is, can bring out emotions that are tougher at times to navigate and that can spill over into all we are doing. Stress can seem a little higher at this time of year and so this episode discusses the many ways that we can process and work through some of these difficult feelings.

*CORRECTION FROM EPISODE: Oxytocin is not an endorphin. When discussing this, it should have said oxytocin and endorphins are hormones.

At 8:57, Amanda dives into strategies that have worked for her with different emotions we face. At 16:50, Amanda discusses strategies that we can apply for our students when they are going through difficult times. 

One of the biggest lessons Amanda has learned in her career to date, is that when difficult situations arise, the majority of the time, conflict begins due to a miscommunication or misinterpretation of intention—mainly, misunderstanding!

As teachers, we are using our voices to guide, lead, and inspire, and for that reason we should be so aware of how we communicate and the intention with our communication. 

At 29:00, Amanda shares a handful of closing strategies to the many topics discussed in today’s episode.

We hope you enjoy today’s episode and that you find it helpful for when you are faced with difficult situations and emotions. 

IG: @danceteacherpeptalk

Today's episode started coming together as a means to warm us as the weather begins to get colder. But, as I began preparing, I realized a huge other aspect to this meditation episode that I reflect on in this episode.

Emotionally, we sometimes feel a complete change of temperature when faced with difficult situations. The phrases "turns your blood cold" or "makes my blood boil" are two phrases we hear and may even say in moments of extreme emotion.

During highly emotional states, for me, it is difficult to process and make sense of what is going on and for me it is always helpful to attempt to regulate, to center, to ground, so that I can begin to process what happened/what I'm feeling.

Meditation and mindfulness have been hugely helpful for me in this.

What started off as a meditation concept to physically warm us, has also turned into a meditation to help us regulate if faced with extreme emotions. So whether you are needing to warm up or you are needing to set the temperature back in your body, I hope this meditation leaves you feeling better, freer, and calmer than when you started it.

If looking to just jump right into the meditation, head to 6:14.

Thank you all for your listens and support and I hope you have a beautiful Thanksgiving. With love, Amanda

Today’s episode is such an important one and I feel should be shared among all dance educators! This episode is a great one too even if you aren’t a dance educator, but are looking to hear more on overall wellness. 

Today I sit down with my good friend and Registered Dietician, Kelsey Rigopoulos, RDN, LDN. Kelsey has been a practicing Dietician since 2015 and her passion and love for all things nutrition, wellness, health, and peace comes through so beautifully in all she speaks on.

Some of the topics we discuss in today’s episode . . . 

*How to speak on/how not to speak on food in the dance setting

*How diet culture influences society

*Food as fuel

*Themes that come up for dancers in the realms of nutrition, eating disorders, and body image

*How to help dancers feel safer in the dance space

*Our influence as teachers with young minds

*Body image and the battle with studio mirrors and dress codes

*and so much more!

We hope you enjoy today’s episode! There are so many takeaways and important realizations that we both shared together.

If you’d like to follow Kelsey for more inspiring content on nutrition, wellness, and body image positivity, please check her out at . . . 

Website http://kelseyrigopoulosrdn.com/

Instagram @kelseyrigopoulosrdn

Please make sure to follow us on Instagram @danceteacherpeptalk for classroom tips and bonus content!

Have a beautiful day and thank you for your support!

In past episodes, Amanda has shared that outside of dance, she LOVES reading! She thought it would be such a special episode to share some books that she has grown from in life and as a dance teacher specifically for the podcast! 

Today we dive into 5 Books to change your dance teaching life and we feel this will be an episode style that will for sure be repeated in the future because it was SO difficult trying to narrow down 5 Books from the many that have inspired and motivated Amanda through the years.

Today’s 5 Books are broken down into 5 categories—

Teaching Aids, Dance, Daily Reader, Inspirational/Self-Help, and Children’s

Whether you love to read, or do not like to read, today’s picks may inspire you to pick up one or many of these books.

The books mentioned in today’s episode include . . . 

Dance Imagery for Technique and Performance by Eric Franklin

A Unicorn in a World of Donkeys by Mia Michaels

The Book of Awakening by Mark Nepo

You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

What are your favorite books that have inspired you in life? Share with us over on IG @danceteacherpeptalk 

Thanks for listening and for your support!

Today’s episode is one of our monthly goal/theme/check-in style episodes, and this month’s theme is all about Gratitude. 

Amanda shares about how to really make gratitude a practice and not just something we think of every now and then, but how can we use it and feel it daily. 

This is a great time of year to reflect on what we are most grateful for and to look back on our journey from then to now. We can find so much gratefulness in how far we’ve come! And this season isn’t just about gratitude for yourself, but sharing this practice with your dancers too.

We are so active as dancers: physically, mentally, emotionally, and therefore it is important to thank our bodies, minds, and souls for the work that we are doing.

Amanda shares some Gratitude practices she does daily and one of the simplest ones is trying to find beauty within each day, even if it is something small or simple. 

We are so grateful for you as a listener of the Dance Teacher Pep Talk podcast, and we hope this month’s theme episode helps you to start on a warm and inspired note. 

Thank you for listening and don’t forget to follow us on Instagram @danceteacherpeptalk where Amanda will be sharing her favorite gratitude and kindness exercises for classwork and team building this month ahead. 

Happy Halloween! Today’s episode may seem unrelated to Dance, but it is something that Amanda is so passionate about. Amanda has used the knowledge she has gained from today’s topics in so many avenues of her life and career. For Halloween, we thought it would be fun to share about it all with you!

Today’s episode is all about Astrology & Human Design.

During Amanda’s burnout, she went on a big soul search journey, and though she has grown up with Astrology and has always loved it, during this time, she found Human Design as well and just was blown away by what she learned. With her love for Astrology and her new found interest in Human Design, Amanda shares how she incorporates what she has learned into who she is now as a Dance Teacher & person.

Amanda’s burnout occurred during the time of what is known in Astrology as her first Saturn Return. Amanda discusses this and all about the soul searching she did to find her way through. (A Saturn Return also happens before age 60!)

As humans, Amanda feels it is common to be curious about what our purpose is, or what our soul path looks like, and she shares her top signs to look at on your astrological birth chart when it comes to knowing more of how we are made up, with the disclaimer that we can take what we resonate with in terms of the sign’s characteristics, and we don’t have to agree with all statements.

She talks about:

*The Big 3: Sun, Moon, Rising Sign

*North Node/South Node

*Midheaven

Astrology has helped Amanda to understand the people around her a little bit deeper.

In regards to Human Design, Amanda gives a brief overview of the following . . .

*Energy Types

*Strategy

*Authority

*Profile

*Centers/Channels/Gates

*Environments

Human Design is all about how we can better work with the energies we were born into and with and how to live in alignment of our design. 

As a Projector, Amanda gives her insights on how she has changed the way she works as a Dance Teacher to better suit her energy type’s needs and the needs of the elements of her chart. 

If looking for more resources on Human Design and to find your Chart, check out:

https://www.myhumandesign.com/

We hope you enjoyed this deep dive into one of Amanda’s other passions aside from Dance!

Please follow on our Instagram for more content and bonus features @danceteacherpeptalk

Today’s episode is a deep dive into all things self-doubt. It came as a suggested topic in our @danceteacherpeptalk DMs and we are so grateful for this suggestion as we know self-doubt is something that can effect all of us and can really pull us down to places we never foresee in our dance teaching.

Amanda has broken up today’s content into 3 sections . . .

*Self-doubt in choreography

*Self-doubt in class work

*Tips and tools to breakthrough self-doubt

Amanda shares her personal strategies of ways to get through moments of self-doubt and also reminds us that self-doubt is such a human quality and it is not something that is necessarily always a bad thing.

Self-doubt can be one of the greatest motivators and it can help to take us to the next step in our journey. 

You’ll definitely want to listen through to the end of this episode where Amanda gives a mini pep talk/reminder that there is only one you and there will only ever be one you. It is a reminder that has us questioning, are we allowing ourselves to live in joy, in pride for the work we do, and in love with all that we include in our days . . . or are we allowing ourselves to be consumed by the feelings and thoughts of what are others thinking about us, is what we are doing good enough, and are we even happy with what we are doing. 

This is an episode not to miss!

Thank you all for your support & listens <3

Today’s episode is so special because it is not only our first interview episode, but Amanda sits down and has an amazing conversation with her lifelong mentor and one of her greatest friends, the incredibly talented, Jennie Membrino-Nano!

Jennie received her BFA in Dance from the University of The Arts with a specialization in Modern. Jennie has been teaching & choreographing in the New England area for about 30 years now, and aside from her teaching, she is one of the most caring, nurturing, and encouraging role models for her students. Jennie is also the founder and creative director of her modern/contemporary dance company, Jennie & Co. 

In this episode we discuss . . .

*Jennie’s start as a teacher and what that looked like in the late 90s, especially for Modern dance

*The benefit of having Modern dance as a program in the studio setting

*How Jennie has formatted her specific class format and how she continues to refine it through the years

*Her biggest struggles and her biggest win

*How her dance company works differently than a studio/competitive team and how it has evolved through the years

*Her upcoming show! See notes below for more details

*A fun rapid fire including advice from Jennie for dancers and dance teachers starting out

Thank you so much Jennie for sharing your wisdom, your time, and your love for dance with us on Dance Teacher Pep Talk!

Here is how you can find Jennie & her company’s upcoming show . . .

Haiku performed by Jennie & Company

Location: Lunenburg High School Lunenburg, MA

Dates: Saturday November 4th at 7pm and Sunday November 5th at 2pm

Ticket Price: $25.00

Tickets can be purchased by contacting the following . . . 

DM @jenniecompany on Instagram

Email [email protected]

Check out Jennie & Company on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/23853212295-

If you want to get in touch with Jennie about her guest teaching availability and to see what she is up to . . . 

Instagram @jenmem39

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jennie.membrinonano

Make sure to also follow us on Instagram, @danceteacherpeptalk for all the latest news, updates, and bonus class content!