January 06, 2022

The Impact of Dance Studio Dynamics

19 minutes

Today is our first episode of Cultivating Happier Dancers. Michelle Loucadoux-Fraser and Kristin Deiss join Susanne Puerschel.

Michelle is one of the weird multi-hyphenates in the world of dance. She’s been a ballet dancer, a musical theater dancer, an educator, a writer, and now she’s doing a lot of things with Danscend. She started out as a ballet dancer and then moved through to the musical theater world for almost a decade and has been teaching dancers for almost 30 years.

Kristin is a dancer, choreographer, and educator who grew up in Philadelphia, PA where she first received her dance training at the Rock School of the Pennsylvania Ballet before attending both the School of American Ballet as well as the Miami City Ballet School. After a year-long struggle with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, Kristin left the ballet barre behind to pursue another path, but ultimately returned to the world she loved. Kristin holds a BA in History from Drew University, an MA in History from UNC Chapel Hill, and an MFA in Dance Performance and Choreography from Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. She has performed with companies such as Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance, the LA Philharmonic, and Jessica Kondrath | The Movement, as well as presented choreographic work in festivals throughout the country. Kristin is also a certified yoga teacher through the Mind Body Dancer program, a Reiki Master, and an Integrated Energy Practitioner. She is currently the Chair of the Commercial Dance Department at Hussian College Los Angeles.

In today’s episode, Kristin and Michelle join Susanne to discuss the goal of Cultivating Happier Dancers. They discuss mental wellness of dancers and why it’s important to collaborate. They discuss the dynamics in the dance studio and its impact on both the educators and their students. Michelle shares her experiences with toxic environment in the dance studio during their upbringing and the fear, disrespect, and demoralization she faced. Kristin details three aspects that we can utilize to make sure that our dance studio dynamics are in the best interest of educators and dancers.

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