Passion for Dance

Good leaders think about the legacy they want to leave behind, even if they are years away from leaving the helm of the ship. I had the extreme pleasure of watching the national tour of Hamilton when it first came to town, and I left the show inspired and thinking about legacy. How do you build a legacy that you're proud of? What does that even mean?

One of the parts that stuck with me was Alexander's speech about his legacy: "Legacy. What is a legacy? It's planting seeds in a garden you never get to see. I wrote some notes at the beginning of a song someone will sing for me. America, you great unfinished symphony, you sent for me. You let me make a difference."

Today's episode is a stream-of-consciousness episode where I was inspired to share my thoughts around tradition and legacy as dance teachers and coaches. We'll discuss creating a legacy in the professional dance team world, the mantra of "tradition never graduates," and I'll share how I've developed my own legacy as a teacher and coach. Here are my thoughts on building our own legacies because a teacher's impact lasts long after we've left the classroom.

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/128

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Helping your dancers find the drive to work hard in class is a constant struggle for a lot of us. I think we all want to help our dancers show up with confidence and work hard every day and teach them to keep fighting when it gets hard. There are a lot of ways you can motivate your dancers, but today I'm gonna talk about one specific idea you can use to help motivate your athletes. It boils down to making them feel capable.

In today's episode, we'll take a deeper dive into motivation. We'll discuss the basic psychological human need of feeling capable and go into five ways to help your dancers to believe they are capable. Listen in for many new easy to make your dancers feel capable in your next class!

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/127

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My guest today is inspiring the dance world by documenting his return to dance. Miller Daurey is a former professional team dancer who quit dance at 19, just when his career was really taking off. He has a new docuseries called Back to Great where he explores returning to dance training three decades later and all that entails.

In today's episode, we talk a lot about his message that it's never too late to go back to something you once loved. He turned the tables on me a few times in this episode by asking questions that really made me think, which I of course love. We talked about the mental toll of the new culture in LA of filming for social media at the end of dance class. Personally, I love watching those videos, but it's certainly interesting to explore the mental cost of participating in those videos in a space that's meant for learning. We also talked about our identity as a dancer, comparison and perfectionism, creating a safe class environment in the dance studio, and most importantly, how you show up for yourself.

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/126

Miller Dauray: https://instagram.com/backtogreat

Welcome to part three of my goal-setting series! If this is the first time you're tuning in, please feel free to back up a few episodes and start with part one of this goal-setting series. However, if you're a loyal listener, you're set up and ready to listen to this episode!

There are a lot of common problems that come up for dancers, and they derail you from reaching your full potential and climbing your personal mountain. But if you know what could get in the way and you plan for it, you are much closer to realizing your dreams, whether at competition or in the studio. In this episode, we'll be talking about why people fail at their goals. We'll dive into eight common problems I see with goals, so tune in to learn all about what could get in the way of your dancers' goals.

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/125

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In last week's episode, we talked about the different types of goals and why dance competition goals can actually hurt your motivation. In today's episode, I'm going to add some more info about why goal setting works and how it works, so not only do you understand it better, but you can explain it to your dancers. We'll do a recap on outcome, process, and performance goals as well as discuss the four ways goal setting influences performance.

When you all understand the how and the why, commitment goes up, buy-in goes up, and the process is so much easier. This episode will fill you in on all you need to know about goal setting if you want to see your dancers improve onstage!

Goal Setting Workshops: https://chelseapierotti.com/workshop

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Other Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/124

Summary: Good goal setting improves confidence, motivation, and your actual performance. To be completely real with you, most people get this wrong. I spend a lot of time helping dancers set goals over the summer, and I hear a lot of goals like, "I want to get stronger this year," or "I want better turns," or "I want to place top ten in my solo at competition." I understand why those are common goals, but none of them are going to actually help motivate a dancer and help them be in a positive mindset.

In today's episode, we'll be talking about the different types of goals you can set to help you achieve your best. This episode is part one of a two-part series about goal setting. If you take goal setting seriously and actually implement these tools, you are bound to be ahead of the game this dance competition season!

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/123

Grit is in the dancer who works so much harder than the naturally-talented dancer who slides by. Grit is in the dancer who doesn't quit on a new skill and in the dancer who gets back up every time she falls. Even if you're not familiar with this term, you've probably seen it as a coach and a teacher.

In today's episode, we'll be talking all about this mental skill of grit. We'll discuss the two key areas of grit: passion and persistence. We'll also touch on an equation for achievement, talent, effort, and skill. I believe we can teach our dancers to have more grit because no matter how much talent they start with, we have to help them take it as far as they can go!

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/122

In today's episode, I'll be tackling one of the biggest issues I hear about all summer: accountability. I hear from teachers and coaches who feel like it's gotten so much harder to get their dancers to follow through on expectations lately. I hear from dancers whenever we talk about team values, talk about how much they need more accountability, responsibility, and self-discipline on their teams. Having accountability on a team is like collected self-discipline. It's when everyone is doing their part and holding every other dancer to the same expectation.

If both dancers and teachers want more but it's not happening, how do you teach accountability? Well, I've got you covered! In this episode, we'll define accountability and discuss six ways you can teach accountability to your dancers to help develop the self-discipline that will in turn lead to teamwork.

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/121

In today's episode, I am back with Dr. Megan Babkes-Stellino to answer some of your questions about dance parents! If you missed part one, pause and go back and listen to Episode 115 (link below!). We had some great feedback and incredible questions come in regarding dealing with dance moms and sport parents that Dr. Megan graciously agreed to come back and share some more insight on.

In this episode, we'll talk about getting our dancers to give full effort and helping dancers and parents understand that effort and ability are not the same thing. You'll also be hearing from two dance teachers who have different assessments of a dancer's ability than the parent does, and how do you deal with that conflict. Dr. Megan will also be sharing the three M's of sport parenting, which you can then share with your dance parents to help create a better working relationship.

Because I like to help make things simpler for you, I took a lot of the great advice that Dr. Megan shared and put it into a download called How to be a Mindful and Supportive Dance Parent. The link is below for you if you want something concrete that you can give to dance parents to start this conversation about how they can be a supportive dance parent!

Download: https://chelseapierotti.com/parents

Other Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/120

Summary: Each year I set a word of intention rather than a New Year's resolution, and I usually stop and do a deep reflection on my intention at the end of the year. Like most of us, I'm always learning and growing, and I've learned if I don't do a deeper reflection in the summer, I usually get off track. That was one of my big reflections from last year.

Today's episode is going to be a mid-year reflection on my word of the year, which is purpose. I'll speak about my word of the year and how I set my vision for the year. I'll also summarize the five ways I wanted to live with more purpose this year. I encourage you to take time to either set your own word for the remainder of the year, or if you already have a word for this year, do a deeper reflection on how this year's word is going for you. I promise that you won't regret time spent in reflection!

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/119