My daughter loved participating in Colorado Ballet Society’s Summer Ballet Intensives year after year. Ballet Society brings in phenomenal teachers with a variety of backgrounds and specialties that give their students an opportunity to grow as artists. She enjoyed having new teaching styles, combinations, and choreography, as well as receiving their feedback, corrections, and helpful hints. Every summer, my daughter would get nervous as week one approached. She’d worry about

Dance education gives a dancer many gifts that they carry throughout their lives—self-motivation, self-discipline, poise, grace, an appreciation for the arts, life-long friends and mentors, wonderful experiences, and precious memories. But just as in life, dance has its ups and downs. Moments where a dancer feels exceptionally successful and where they feel completely deflated. I treasure the moments I felt outstanding and wonderful because there is nothing quite like the fee

After all of the rehearsals and spring shows are over, we parents often feel a huge sense of relief, as do our busy artists who live and breathe dance. “You mean we can actually plan a family outing on a Saturday?! Our kids can actually attend a birthday party?!” It would be easy for us to tell our dancers they should take a break to “be kids” over the summer, but is that really what’s best for your child? Every kid is different, but there are a lot of benefits to summer danc

Since its origins on the streets of New York in the early 1970s, hip-hop dance has rapidly evolved. It has become a cultural movement, with international influence, that embraces a wide variety of dance styles like breaking, popping, locking, krumping, etc. Hip-Hop dance has been distinguished as a “freestyle” and “street style” dance that has evolved as a part of hip-hop culture. Popular shows like Soul Train, America’s Best Dance Crew, and So You Think You Can Dance showca

May (n.): (1) the last full month of school for a lot of dancers; (2) the month of marathon rehearsals and performances; (3) when summer fever starts to set in (if it hasn’t already) and finals are still on the horizon. This time of year was the most stressful for my daughter. She had projects, homework on top of homework, tests, classes, school club events, rehearsals, and performances. Spring break in March wasn’t nearly enough to rejuvenate her tired brain and I was exhaus