Passion for Dance

Do you have a young dancer in your life with big dreams of a professional ballet career? Knowing where to go for advice and how to choose the next step can be daunting for the young pre-professionals in our lives and I hope today's interview helps you guide them.

I had the pleasure of working on a project with a woman who serves as a wonderful ballet mentor recently and I'm so excited to share her advice with you today. Caitlin Sloan is a former professional dancer and founder of the Brainy Ballerina. Here's my interview with Caitlin about mindset and finding intention in your dance career.

Mentioned in Today's Episode

Caitlin Sloan instagram @TheBrainyBallerina

The Brainy Ballerina Mailing List ​​

Brought to You By:

Dancer-Fitness.com: https://dancer-fitness.com/membership

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Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you're listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/29

What lessons did you learn from 2020? It's time to reflect on some of the mindset lessons I've learned last year and I want to share those lessons with you. The last 18 months have disrupted our normal routines and in different ways, our work-life balance. One of the important lessons psychologists have taught us is the value of reflection. It's a chance to pause and notice what's different and how you truly feel about it. We know reflection is a powerful way to learn and grow. So before we dive headfirst into whatever this next school year brings, I'm going to share 3 mindset lessons I'm glad to take with me into the 2021 dance season.

Mentioned in Today's Episode

Starter Journal Prompts for Dancers

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Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you're listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/28

In this episode, I talk with a registered dietitian and former competitive dancer Jenny Accettura. As usual, I bring the mindset perspective into the conversation and Jenny shared a major mindset shift about nutrition that might serve you if you're a former dancer...aka an adult who doesn't train as many hours as you used to! We also discussed the challenging food rules you learned as a dancer and how they may not be serving you now, and how you can talk to your dancers about nutrition if you're nervous to bring it up because you aren't an expert. Because I know it was a conversation that intimidated me as a young teacher. And finally, we end with some practical advice about helping our body recover after a long dance day.

Mentioned in Today's Episode

Centerstage Nutrition for the Recovery Guide: https://centrestagenutrition.com/

Jenny Accettura on Instagram: @centrestagenutrition

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Did you enjoy today's episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you're listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/27

The Confident Dancer Summit kicks of Friday, Aug 6th 2021

Grab your free ticket: https://confidentdancersummit.com

• The summit will run from Aug 6th through Aug 8th 2021
• Each day will be packed with amazing speakers who are ready to help you improve your own confidence and learn the tools to help your dancers
• We've got a pop-up Facebook group where you'll find all of our experts, connect with other dance coaches and teachers, ask the speakers questions, and whatever else we come up with!
• You can attend the summit absolutely free, but you can choose to grab the All-Access Pass at any time that will give you an all-access pass to the summit (meaning you get all the videos for a year, a private podcast version of the summit, membership trials, discounted video critiques, other downloadable resources and more!

This is part 1 of a two-part series about improving confidence and for part 1, I focus on where confidence comes from because if we understand where it comes from, we are in a better position to change it. And to help explain this in the episode I share a story of one simple competition day that changed my coaching career. Then I cover the 3 sources of confidence and a takeaway for how you can use your everyday practice time to improve your dancers' confidence.

Mentioned in Today's Episode

The Confident Dancer Summit: https://confidentdancersummit.com

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Did you enjoy today's episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you're listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/26

Do you ever wish your dancers would focus more on individual growth rather than being the best? I know many dancers who only found success in the win or in being the best, when I know they would go so much further and enjoy their success more if they defined success differently. For this episode, I brought in Erin Manske because she has a unique background and take on dance team. She developed a way to bring a little objectivity to our sport without losing the artistry. She used her background in research and data analysis combined with her dance training to build a skills tracking app called The Tiers System. The Tiers System helps coaches build the best possible team by bringing data and statistics to the dance team world. Through The Tiers System, Erin has helped coaches across the country improve consistency, transparency, and equity in their coaching while empowering their dancers to be more motivated, independent, and intentionally focused on team culture.

Throughout our conversation, we talk about her new app, and we cover some of the challenges many of us face like motivating our dancers and building confidence. Erin even shares an exercise she does with her team to help them build trust and confidence in each other that I know you're going to enjoy.

Mentioned in Today's Episode

The Tiers System: https://thetierssystem.com

The Confident Dancer Summit: https://confidentdancersummit.com

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Did you enjoy today's episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you're listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/25

Have you ever heard of the self-fulfilling prophecy? It's the phenomenon where an individual's or a group's expectation for the behavior of another individual or group serves actually to bring the expected behavior. As a dance educator, it means that your expectation of your dancer's behavior and ability can actually bring about that expected behavior… good or bad.

Here's one example where it plays out as a dance educator… There are so many decisions I wrestle with when I'm preparing a competition routine. I seem to spend a lot of time deciding which skills to include, and once I've decided, I then struggle to choose who should perform those skills. What should be a team trick? What should we do as a highlight trick? Who can I COUNT ON to perform that trick when the pressure is on? It's one of the bigger coaching decisions we all have to make.

What I didn't always realize is that my expectation of who could do the skill (and who couldn't) would actually influence the end result. That's the self-fulfilling prophecy and as coaches and teachers, it's a scary but important reality. Our expectations can become an athlete's reality.

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Did you enjoy today's episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you're listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/24

Whenever I discuss the negative side of punishment, and why you should always avoid physical punishment I get questions about what to do instead. The focus is usually on the side of consequences. Coaches want to know, how do I get them to stop doing that bad behavior? How do I get them to listen, how do I get them to work hard, how do I get them to remember everything. Punishment is only part of the equation. I believe the flip side, focusing on positive reinforcement will have a bigger long-term benefit and it creates a very different team climate. So in this episode I'm explain how to shape the behavior you want in your dancers using positive reinforcement

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Did you enjoy today's episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you're listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/23

There is no denying that the current generation of athletes is different. Not necessarily good or bad, but they are different. There are some things to consider this season when coaching and teaching Generation Z: the advantages, the challenges, and specifically in this episode I want to talk about how technology influences this generation and our ability to teach them. There's no question growing up as digital natives has changed our dancers. But it's not all bad and I've got some suggestions for how to help.

Click the links for journal prompts designed for dancers

Starter Journal Prompts

Confidence / Competition Day Journal Prompts

Did you enjoy today's episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you're listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/22

One of the biggest mental skills training sessions I do in the summer is goal setting. Why? because it is the foundation for a lot of other things. If your dancers know how to set and track goals properly, they can rely on that skill to boost confidence later on, or increase work ethic and accountability. It's a great way to start off your new season with a school dance team, or set the tone with a new studio company. So if you would like to incorporate a goal-setting meeting into your season this year, this episode breaks down the 7 steps to a successful meeting so you start off on the right foot and reach your highest potential this year!

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This episode is brought to you by the Tiers System.

The Tiers System is an app FOR dance coaches made BY dance coaches that gives you the tools to empower your dancers to take control of their technique and development. The app provides you with over 150 skills broken down by category (turns, leaps, jumps, acro/tumbling) and by level (beginner through elite), and the skills lists are customizable so you can make sure it fits your unique team.

The app tracks dancers' progress through the skill progressions so you (and your dancers) can transparently see where they are in their skill development and what they need to do to move to the next level (or Tier). You can access a dancer's full skills list, see which dancers are strongest in which categories, and select any skill to see the list of dancers on your team with that skill with the click of a button.

Learn more at https://chelseapierotti.com/tiers

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Did you enjoy today's episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you're listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/21