Make Dance Fun

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. 

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In Episode 41, we're sharing 5 things we are doing right now to gear up for our year-end show!

1. Ordering, crafting & building props: We discuss any handheld props and stage sets during our recital retreat. We're making final decisions now, placing orders, and building/crafting anything needed. Tip: We use a temporary set each week to practice so the real ones aren't broken or lost.

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!

3. Adding some custom fun to our recital costumes: This is something we have always done, with at least one or two costumes each year, but I predict we will be doing more of it this season.  Because our show and each piece is so specific to the theme and the storyline, we sometimes have trouble finding the perfect costume. When that happens, we get crafty and find fun and inexpensive ways we can add to a more simple costume to make it what we need it to be for the show. With costume delivery dates continuing to be pushed back, we're going to be doing even more customizing to last minute costumes we find that are available.

4. Choreography Videos/Dropbox: We have shared Dropboxes with all our classes and our teachers share class videos to help the dancers practice their routines. We created an email template for these emails along with a description of each class’s theme to share. This is helpful for the dancers and parents and keeps the kids excited about their recital routine. 

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. 
We also add a class leader to our preschool and kinder routines. This is usually one of our younger mini company dancers between 8-10 years old who learns the entire routine and performs it with the dancers. This gives the dancers a peace of mind and helps them project outward toward the audience vs looking into the wings for guidance from us or their teachers.  Our leader invitation emails are going out this week so those dancers can start coming to the preschool classes to meet the dancers and start learning their routines.

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!

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In Episode 40, we're sharing 5 things you can do to boost your summer success.

1.  Schedule summer and promote now!
Parents are looking NOW to plan their activities for their kids. So, if your summer is not planned now, they may be signing up for other types of camps. Make sure you are consistently promoting the camps, too. Look into hiring a summer camp director, as we discussed in Episode 18.

2. Require summer dance camps
Listen to Episode 5 for even more details about this!

3. Offer drop-in classes, free trial classes, dance & play parties
It is equally important to offer drop-in classes for those who don't want the commitment of a week long camp, or maybe they want to try out your studio. We offer drop-in classes every week, and these are usually taught at an intermediate/advanced classes, but can definitely work for placing new students too.
 
4. Camp Confetti
We like to describe Camp Confetti as a full-out dance camp in a box, but your inbox! These are summer camp downloads packed with all the details you need to run a 3-5 day camp at your studio.  We have 30 different unique and original themes to choose from for preschool through elementary age dancers.  We do all the planning for you, so you or your staff can just put it into action. This saves you hours and hours of time that will allow you to take some time for yourself this summer. To learn more about Camp Confetti, listen to Episode 4 and Episode 39. You can also check out our latest blog post where we talk about our 4 newest themes, and see all 30 of our themes on our website!

5. Promote summer in a fun way!
Use social media (reels, etc.) to promote now and also in real time while camps are happening. Keep it in your newsletter to register, send ongoing promotional emails, pass out flyers at the end of class, and/or create a fun wall or bulletin board in studio. Listen to Episode 39 for even more details on this topic!

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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!

New Themes
Prancing Pony Party - A Charming Adventure
Fancy Mouse Dress-Up House 
Rhinestone Round-Up All Things Boots and Bling
Confetti Clue Crew: Mystery at the TOYriffic Museum of Fun

Check out ALL 30 of our Camp Confetti Summer Dance FunPacks!

Top 3 Questions About Camp Confetti

1. What does Camp Confetti Include?

• A detailed description and super cute social post for marketing
• Detailed storyline to inspire + engage dancers in the theme
• Video of TWO center floor combos
• Detailed teacher guide/descriptions to THREE dance activities
• ONE fun dance game related to the theme
• At least FOUR fun craft ideas, including supply lists and before-and-after photos
• THREE coloring or activity pages
• Camp Confetti Certificates
• Lots of extra fun included, like studio decor suggestions, bonus activities and more!

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!

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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 Podcast Episodes:
Dani: Preschool Dance Party Series  - Episodes 28, 29 & 30
Becca: Dance Friends are the Best Friends - Episode 15 and Connecting the Dots of your Studio Brand - Episode 10

Favorite Photo Shoot:
Dani: The video (& photo) shoot for our recital course…Your Fun Big Show
Becca: Our most recent one, especially the Camp Confetti shots

Favorite Craft:
Dani: The larger than life Twirl Ribbons, the big stars that look like marquee lights, and the set of Your Fun Big Show. 
Becca: Ski photo backdrop for Frozen 

Least Favorite Craft/Project:
Dani: The Summer beach ball backdrop and the Woody and Jessie panels used at our recital retreat, and the ski backdrop
Becca: The beginning of any wall project

What inspired you most during this year?
Dani: Our staff at Rhythm and also seeing so many studios push through some of the craziest times and continue to make dance magic happen for so many kids! 
Becca: Travel!

Personal achievement?
Dani: Work in progress but getting closer after hiring our assistant Ellie
Becca: I moved closer to the studio and my quality of life has improved immensely!

What Confetti event/project are you most proud of? 
Dani: The podcast! I am also proud of launching Your Fun Big Show and finishing the Twirl Update which was a massive project!
Becca: Your Fun Big Show, Twirl and the podcast!

What Rhythm event/project are you most proud of?
Dani: Pulling off our year-end show back in June! 
Becca: Rhythm Frozen! 

Top Three Downloaded Podcasts:
Episode 28: Preschool Dance Party Part 1: 8 Fun Props to Use in Dance Class
Episode 30: Preschool Dance Party Part 3: Pro Tips from our Preschool Pro!
Episode 29: Preschool Dance Party Part 2: Preschool Progressions

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In episode 37, we're sharing 10 fun ideas for being festive at your studio this time of year.
 
1. Decorating the Studio

2. Fun Dance Class Activities: Check out these blog posts for TONS of fun dance activities (even more than we covered in the episode):
Confetti Mood: Wondrous & Whimsical
Reindeer Games: Dance Activities for Preschool Classes
Candy Cane Lane
Wondrous Wintry Dance Class Activities
Merry Moves & Jingle Grooves

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.

5. Elf on the Shelf: Our Elf’s name is PomPom  and, she appears for about 8-10 days each season. She always ties into our recital theme - outfits included!

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.

10. Thank You & Happy Holidays!: Use code FUNHOLIDAYTEN by 12/31 in our Confetti Shop for 10% off everything (excluding Twirl)! 

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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!

For all the details and to see our gift guides, check out our latest blog post that is complete with images and links for everything we mention! 

We hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving AND ThanksGifting! 

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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:

1. The Teacher Guide - where you find all the details, activities, music, crafts, etc to bring the Twirl Books to life. We’ve added SO MUCH more detail for you to carry over into your classes.
2. Diego our adorable dancing boy character! We wanted to make sure all boys taking a Twirl class felt they were a part of all the fun.
3. Stickers - When you order your Twirl packs, you also receive sheets of super cute stickers that coordinate with each lesson. It’s another way to recognize the dancers’ hard work in class, and all tiny dancers love stickers!

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).  

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Episode 34 is all about HALLOWEEK, and we're sharing 5 fun things you can do at your studio! #rhythmhalloweek is a long-standing tradition at our studio. We encourage you to create a hashtag that is specific to YOUR studio for Halloweek. Create one that is specific to you so that you can easily find your posts! 

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! 

• Have your staff dress up in your recital theme. 
• Performing company big/lil/families can coordinate their costumes
• Create or use a fun guide for dressing up like this one from Different Drummer Dance.
• Hold costume contests for students. We give out custom stickers to our dancers who dress up in the theme of our show. 

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!  

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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!

Here are the top 3 things we are doing right now to get the ball rolling for all things show planning:

Announce your theme, create a logo: We love making a big deal out of announcing our theme - which if you have listened to us, you already know this! Once we know the theme, we start dropping hints on our instagram and building lots of excitement. We usually start this on a Monday and announce the theme on Instagram on a Thursday, complete with our logo and hashtag. Our theme this year is inspired by Toy Story. We create a (secret) Pinterest board and a Google Doc to store all our ideas, then we will narrow them down throughout the planning process. Check out #rhythmstory2022 to see what we have done so far!! 

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.

Next we decide the concept that each class is going to be in our story-based show. We make sure we have all the main characters covered and also any of the “standout” scenes . This way, the flow of our show will not only make sense for our audience because they can follow the storyline, but it will keep things entertaining for all those non-dancers in the audience as the show progresses. 

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. 

We hope these first few steps we've accomplished will inspire you to get going on that planning!

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