In The Spotlight: Raising Leaders in the Performing Arts

Why does the teacher a dancer clicks with the least sometimes turn into the one who pushes their training the furthest? And what does it actually take to build a teenager who can speak up for herself in a room full of adults?

This week, Robin sits down with Molly Beichler, a teacher and choreographer at EMC Performing Arts Studio, for a conversation that goes well past technique, the kind you'd expect from two people who've spent years thinking hard about what a good dance teacher actually owes a kid.

Molly trained at Ballet Chesapeake and Harford Dance Theater before earning her BFA in Dance Performance and Choreography from Towson University in 2019. She now teaches at EMC and Forest Hill Dance and co-directs Pirouette Productions alongside Alexa Hewitt, and she brings all of it, the training, the choreography, the directing, straight into how she runs a classroom.

Molly and Robin get into what actually happened inside EMC's Nutcracker Camp this year: a full week of pointe work, a partnering workshop led by guest artist Mr. Tim, and dancers auditioning in real time for elevated roles. Molly makes the case for bringing in guest teachers, not because the regular teacher isn't enough, but because of what a student gains the moment they're pulled out of a routine they've gotten too comfortable in.

They also get into where the line should sit on parent involvement, and why the hardest part of teaching teenagers isn't the choreography, it's teaching them to advocate for themselves. Molly shares a real story from a Pirouette Productions cast member who earned her first soloist role, and talks honestly about the moments no teacher wants: telling a family the right call is also the harder one to hear.

If you've ever wondered what actually separates a dance teacher from someone building the next generation of dancers, this one's for you.

Plus: enrollment for SYB is open, details on Pirouette Productions' 2026 production of Snow White, and what's ahead for EMC's Nutcracker season, including the Hotshots and Showstoppers company dancers.

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Robin and Santina follow up on their earlier conversation about parents and studio owners being on the same team, this time with two stories fresh from the week at EMC.

A group of students wrote and delivered a respectful, well thought out email to their teachers about a combined class situation, exactly the kind of self advocacy the show has encouraged all along.

Robin walks through how the studio is responding, including a planned listening session and the search for a third teacher.

Then a parent who held back from reaching out reconsiders, and Robin clarifies what "don't email me at 11pm in a heated moment" actually means, and what it doesn't.

A real example of what staying on the same team looks like when it counts.

Get Your Resources:

Dance Parents, purchase the Parent Playbook HERE

Studio Owners, purchase Teaching the Playbook HERE

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Robin sits down with Tamara Howe, owner of Tamara Howe School of Dance and founder of Ballet Salina in Salina, Kansas, for a conversation that covers her full path into studio ownership.

Tamara talks about growing up a self-described klutzy dancer who quit twice and came back both times, double-majoring in dance and kinesiology at the University of Wyoming, competing in the Miss America program for scholarship money, and an internship near the White House before landing in Kansas and opening her studio from two empty rooms.

She and Robin get into raising five kids inside a family business, what their sons picked up from being in the studio even when they didn't stick with dance, and how Tamara builds community through low-competition programming: one competition a year, travel experiences to places like Branson and Disney, and local trips built around professional theater.

The conversation closes on the friendships and lifelong bonds that come out of growing up in a dance studio, including Robin's own story of counting eleven EMC graduates at her son's wedding.

Let’s Connect on Socials:

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In The Spotlight: Raising Leaders in the Performing Arts on Instagram

Interested in Classes at EMC? Learn More About Us Here

Work With Robin:

Rising Leaders Training Course

Dance Mentorship & Consulting

Robin and Santina break down the Fall Tour, EMC's two-stop community performance series at the New Freedom Fest and the Shrewsbury Fireman’s Fall Fest.

Robin covers the logistics: rain policy and why a wet dance floor is a real safety risk, what Discovery Gym families and dance families should each expect on drop-off and pickup, and the guideline that came out of last year's chair situation, where dance families set up early and left, leaving Discovery Gym parents with nowhere to sit.

She also talks about why performing in uncontrolled outdoor conditions, heat, gravel, no stage, is worth it to the kids, and Santina adds her own take on what performing in community feels like compared to a stage show.

Robin closes out the episode handing off credit to her team, noting this is the first year she won't be at either festival and naming who's running each piece: admin, the show, the demonstration, and the crew.

Get Your Resources:

Dance Parents, purchase the Parent Playbook HERE

Studio Owners, purchase Teaching the Playbook HERE

Get Your Brick and Support the Podcast:

For $10 off your brick and to give $10 to the podcast, click HERE. 

Let’s Connect on Socials:

EMC Performing Arts Studio on Facebook

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Robin talks with Angela Hartley-Drube, who has run Live 2 Dance in a small Wyoming town for 20 seasons, built a multi-purpose venue during the pandemic, earned the More Than Just Great Dancing Perseverance Award, and recently won Wyoming Woman Entrepreneur of the Year.

Angela is open about living with ADD/ADHD, and she and Robin get honest about what that actually looks like day to day: no early morning routine, no five year plan, a figure it out as you go energy that turns out to be an asset in running a studio.

They talk about what it felt like for Angela to be recognized for perseverance in front of more than 300 studio owners, how she reads a room of teenagers to decide whether to keep them at the barre or pivot the lesson, and how she designed her venue, Arts and Celebrations by the Creek, with rolling bars and removable walls so the same space can host dance classes, weddings, graduation parties, and aerial classes.

Angela also shares the story of her daughter wanting to pursue Cirque du Soleil and what it took to step back and let her find her own path. The conversation wanders into a Cirque du Soleil tour of five Las Vegas venues, why wall mounted ballet barres are a mistake, and Angela's tips for scoring comped hotel rooms in Vegas.

Let’s Connect on Socials:

EMC Performing Arts Studio on Facebook

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In The Spotlight: Raising Leaders in the Performing Arts on Facebook

In The Spotlight: Raising Leaders in the Performing Arts on Instagram

Interested in Classes at EMC? Learn More About Us Here

Work With Robin:

Rising Leaders Training Course

Dance Mentorship & Consulting

Robin and Santina tackle a topic that's been landing in Robin's DSO Collective Instagram DMs all season: dance parents venting about how they or their kids have been treated at their studios.

Instead of picking a side, they make the case that studio owners, teachers, and parents are on the same team, and walk through where communication tends to break down, usually when a hard car ride home turns into an 11pm email.

Robin lays out how a parent's role in advocating for their dancer should shift by age, from speaking for a preschooler entirely on their own, to sitting alongside an elementary schooler, to stepping back and coaching a middle schooler to speak up, to letting a high schooler handle it directly.

The conversation closes with Robin introducing a short guide she and her DSO Collective partners built for studio owners, paired with a companion booklet that gives parents language for the moments that catch them off guard, like a rough performance, a hard car ride home, or a disappointing audition result.

Get Your Resources:

Dance Parents, purchase the Parent Playbook HERE

Studio Owners, purchase Teaching the Playbook HERE

Get Your Brick and Support the Podcast:

For $10 off your brick and to give $10 to the podcast, click HERE. 

Let’s Connect on Socials:

EMC Performing Arts Studio on Facebook

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In The Spotlight: Raising Leaders in the Performing Arts on Facebook

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Robin sits down with fellow studio owner and friend Marty, who gave up an engineering acceptance at the University of Washington for a community college business degree and a life running the basement studio she once trained in as a kid.

Forty plus years later, she's still building on that legacy.

The conversation covers what that early pivot cost her and what it gave back, how Marty stepped back from day to day ownership without losing what made the studio hers, and how she stays visible to families even when she isn't in the building five days a week.

They dig into the teen teaching assistant debate, the pushback from dance parents, and why a seventeen year old trained in your culture can outperform a polished resume. Marty also talks about raising creative kids inside the business, her daughter now directing the competition team, her son building guitars with his dad, and why only one of her children wanted to come back to the studio.

Robin and Marty compare notes on trying to keep up with AI and marketing automation while leaning hard on human connection instead.

Let’s Connect on Socials:

EMC Performing Arts Studio on Facebook

EMC Performing Arts Studio on Instagram

In The Spotlight: Raising Leaders in the Performing Arts on Facebook

In The Spotlight: Raising Leaders in the Performing Arts on Instagram

Interested in Classes at EMC? Learn More About Us Here

Work With Robin:

Rising Leaders Training Course

Dance Mentorship & Consulting

Robin sits down with Santina to break down the Dream Team Training Retreat, EMC's annual four-day team event held at a rented Airbnb outside the studio.

She walks through how each day serves a different purpose: Thursday's Holiday Celebration planning meeting, led start to finish by artistic director Elisabeth Simmons.

Friday's Director's Dinner, where Robin hands out awards and rethinks what a gift-giver she wants to be.

Saturday's full training day, including a live pivot after realizing the group needed more interaction; and Sunday's Rising Leaders Brunch, restructured into breakout groups so student teachers could share their own classroom strategies.

Robin also talks about Alli's path at EMC, hired for personality over skill set and given room to grow without micromanagement, and why she collects debrief feedback every year to change the format for next time.

Get Your Brick and Support the Podcast:

For $10 off your brick and to give $10 to the podcast, click HERE. 

Let’s Connect on Socials:

EMC Performing Arts Studio on Facebook

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What happens when a professional ballet career ends before you're ready and how do you turn that heartbreak into your greatest strength as a teacher and studio owner?

This week, Robin sits down with Jess Keller, owner and artistic director of Palm Beach Academy of Dance Arts in South Florida, for a conversation that feels less like an interview and more like coffee with a friend who just happens to have lived one of the most fascinating journeys in dance.

Jess opens up about training at the School of American Ballet, moving to Miami at 16 to attend Miami City Ballet School (yes, in an apartment, without her parents), and dancing professionally with Miami City Ballet, before being told mid-Giselle weekend that her contract wasn't being renewed. She shares what that moment felt like, how it broke her relationship with ballet for a time, and how walking away from dance and into a classroom actually set her up to become the studio leader she is today.

From elementary school teacher to math coach to ESE specialist, Jess's career in education didn't just fill the gap, it completely shaped how she sees dancers: as whole humans first. You'll hear how motherhood softened her teaching, how her professional experience drives her to build the resilience in students that she wishes someone had built in her, and what she's working toward for the next chapter of her studio.

Robin and Jess also get into the dream of studio ownership, building equity, buying land, designing your ideal space, and the unexpected gift of finding community with other studio owners who get it.

If you've ever felt like your "detour" was actually your path, this one's for you.

Let’s Connect on Socials:

EMC Performing Arts Studio on Facebook

EMC Performing Arts Studio on Instagram

In The Spotlight: Raising Leaders in the Performing Arts on Facebook

In The Spotlight: Raising Leaders in the Performing Arts on Instagram

Interested in Classes at EMC? Learn More About Us Here

This week, Miss Robin walks you through every Specialty Class EMC is offering for the upcoming season, the extras that go beyond your regular package and give your dancer more ways to grow.

From Contemporary and AcroDance to The Musical Experience, Supplemental Ballet and Pointe, Precision Tap, Leaps and Turns, and our beloved Daddy-Daughter and Adagio Partnering classes, she covers what each one is, who it's for, and when it meets.

You'll hear how we've built a clean Thursday-night pathway from 5:00 to 9:00 for technique dancers who want more, with no conflicting choices to wrestle over.

Several of these classes perform at our Holiday Celebration, Open Marley Festival, the Spring Concert, and our Fall Tour, while a few are skills-only, non-performing classes designed purely to build strength and technique.

Talk it over with your dancer, and if you have questions, email Miss Kathy at [email protected] or stop by the front desk. We'll help you find the right fit.

Get Your Brick and Support the Podcast:

For $10 off your brick and to give $10 to the podcast, click HERE. 

Let’s Connect on Socials:

EMC Performing Arts Studio on Facebook

EMC Performing Arts Studio on Instagram

In The Spotlight: Raising Leaders in the Performing Arts on Facebook

In The Spotlight: Raising Leaders in the Performing Arts on Instagram