Make Dance Fun – Détails, épisodes et analyse

In this podcast episode, we introduce our new TWIST program, sharing why we created it and how it fits into our dance studio, along with the many class options we offer for our K-2 dancers.

We start by giving an update on our "State of Confetti" meeting, an annual planning session for our 9th Confetti season. During this meeting, we planned two Camp Confetti events, chose our marketing theme for the year (which you'll have to wait to see!), organized a photo shoot and trade shows, and reviewed what worked well last year and where we can improve. We also discussed customer engagement ideas like Halloweek on the Dance Floor and top customer gifts. Becca and Dani each shared their favorite part of the planning retreat and set goals for Confetti.

Now, on to the TWIST program. We created this program to offer more class variety for our Kindergarten dancers. Some of the classes we offer include:

1. TWIST – a tap class featured in our show
2. Fairytale Ballet
3. Hip Hop and Pop
4. TWIST Petite Pizzazz – an invite-only class with tap and jazz
5. K-2 Ballet/Tap
6. K-2 Jazz/Hip Hop
7. Acro
8. Musical Theater Dance
9. Marquee Magic
10. Pre Petite Spotlight (K-1)
11. Petite SL (1st-2nd grade)

We know this age group has a wide range of skill levels, so we wanted to provide plenty of options to meet their needs.

TWIST was created to replace our previous Twirl Agua program for Kindergarten. After noticing that Agua had lower enrollment compared to our other Twirl levels, we realized these dancers were ready for something more challenging and different. That’s when we developed TWIST, specifically designed for Kindergarten but also perfect for K-2 dancers.

TWIST works similarly to our Twirl program. We provide a teacher guide with detailed lesson plans, but you can customize it to fit your classes and studio. The program focuses on Jazz and Tap, incorporating a themed obstacle course into each lesson. We use fun tools like confetti cones, hula hoops, a balance beam, and “tracks” for spot markers to keep the kids engaged. There are also Twist Tumblers (dice games) and hopscotch patterns to add even more excitement.

When you purchase TWIST, you get:

• A Teacher Guide with 10 themed lesson plans (5 for jazz, 5 for tap)
• Colorful graphics and templates for activities like Twist Tumbler dice, Twist Tracks spot markers, a Twist Certificate, and more
• A Twist Bag Tag for dancers’ bags
• 10 Activity/Coloring Sheets reinforcing jazz and tap terminology
• Two Twist Trackers (one for jazz, one for tap) to help dancers track their progress
• A source list for optional products to enhance the program
• A Spotify Playlist with music suggestions for each theme
• Decor Suggestions for each theme

If you're already using our Twirl Preschool Program, you'll be happy to know that the themes for TWIST align perfectly with Twirl, making it easier to decorate your studio for both programs. TWIST is easy to implement, but we recommend purchasing it at least five days before starting so you have time to review the materials and gather any supplies.

Add a colorful twist to your K-2 tap and jazz classes by ordering your download today!

Let's Get Social!

• Join our FREE Confetti Circle
• Request to join our private Facebook Group
• Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

Episode 72: From Year-End to Start Over Again: A Big Recap!

- **Welcome Back!** 
  - After a long break, we’re excited to return with Episode 72! Our last podcast was about planning your summer, and now we're sharing what came next—a lot has happened in the past six months!

- **CAMP CONFETTI Success**
  - Launched our most successful camp ever, “In My Sparkle Era.”
  - Other popular camps included "Pink Pajama Party" and "Dancing in My Dreams."
  - “Perfectly Pink Destination Dream Vacation” was also a big hit.
  - We loved seeing how great everything looked, and we're so proud of how everyone nailed it!

- **Rhythm Nation Barbie Dream Vacation**
  - Produced the opening number for our show with 75 dancers.
  - This production set the tone for our year-end shows and was a collaboration of our company faculty and guest choreographers.
  - Came together in about 10 days before hitting the stage.

- **Company Auditions**
  - Over 300 dancers auditioned, and we successfully cast 11 companies.
  - We used our tried-and-true formula, which we shared in Episode 42.
  - Auditions were held in April, allowing us to organize schedules for the season.

- **Company Party**
  - Hosted two giant Barbie-themed parties, highlighting our graduating seniors and recognizing every dancer with awards.
  - The event was filled with all things PINK.

- **Year-End Shows**
  - Faced a few more technical difficulties than usual, particularly with media on the LED wall, but everything worked out in the end.
  - We elevated the lobby experience with custom setups, including a “Hotel Rhythm” registration desk, balloons, and banners.
  - We went full out with props and sets but plan to scale back this year to cut costs.

- **Summer Camps at Rhythm**
  - This summer was our biggest ever, with 2-3 camps running each week.
  - Camp Rhythm, our full-day musical theater camp, was so successful that we’re considering adding a third session next season.

- **The Dance Awards**
  - Enjoyed seeing our students perform their best routines of the season.
  - Recorded a special two-part podcast episode with an amazing guest—stay tuned!

- **Welcome Back Party & Staff Kickoff**
  - Themed around the Olympics with "TEAM RHYTHM - Let The Games Begin!"
  - Activities included a pennant craft, obstacle course, and a step and repeat.
  - We kicked off the season with new staff members, custom shirts, and notebooks during a catered dinner at the studio.

- **Energize and Other Conventions**
  - Attended Rhee Gold’s Dance Life and Dance Teacher Web with Shelley and Beth.
  - Introduced new WOW Cards and a subscription service—more info coming soon!
  - Gained inspiration at Revolution’s “ENERGIZE” conference in Chicago, where we previewed new costumes and attended seminars.

- **Season 32 Begins!**
  - Last Monday marked the start of Rhythm’s 32nd season.
  - We have several exciting podcasts planned for the fall—stay tuned for more consistent episodes!

- **Closing**
  - Thank you for listening! We hope you’re having a great start to your season. Have a fantastic week—bye!

Let's Get Social!

• Join our FREE Confetti Circle
• Request to join our private Facebook Group
• Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

In this episode, we share a behind the scenes look at Rhythm Dance Center's Year-End Show reveal week! And, we share an overview of our Recital Planning Course - "Your Fun Big Show"...so, you can get an outline of when we do what during the season as far as our show planning goes! And, of course all the fun of announcing OUR Fun Big Show...which is always one of our favorite weeks of the season! 

Let's Get Social!

• Join our FREE Confetti Circle
• Request to join our private Facebook Group
• Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

After a very long hiatus, we are back!! We are so excited to be here! In this episode, there are three parts! In part one, we share where we were and a little bit of the crazy. In part two, we share where we are now and what has been happening during the summer! And, in part three, we share some goals and where are going! We would love to hear from you, let us know what you are interested in hearing about in future episodes! WOOOO! Happy new dance season everyone! 

Let's Get Social!

• Join our FREE Confetti Circle
• Request to join our private Facebook Group
• Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

Episode 61 of ourMake Dance Fun Podcast is Part 2 of our A Typical Day in our (Studio) Life. In Episode 56, we covered Mondays and Tuesdays, so this episode will detail what Wednesday, Thursday and Friday look like! 

These last three days of our “normal” work week usually vary more than our Monday and Tuesday schedule, but we do have a general structure, so we are going to do our best to share this with you guys! 

Wednesday: 

• Confetti Meeting led by Shelley around 9:30a.m.  Ellie joins sometimes, too
• Reserve at least a portion of this day for various Confetti projects, marketing campaigns, creative work, brainstorming, creating presentations, working on Camp Confetti depending on time of year
• Work from our office at Annex on any various projects we have going on for Rhythm or Confetti until around 3 or 3:30. 
• Go home at a normal hour on this day and sometimes very early and work from home. This is also a podcast day when time allows! And, we do our podcast recordings from home since we don’t have a quiet area at the studio! 

Thursday:

• Admin Meeting with Shelley and Krista. We are currently working on putting new systems in place and this is requiring extra time, so we typically meet to work on this and/or anything else that Krista or Shelley needs from us.
• Occasional marketing meetings as well!
• Work on our individual to-do lists in Basecamp
• Thursday afternoon/evening - sometimes at Annex and most the time we will end the day at Rhythm for costume meetings or rehearsals. 
• During Competition and Convention Season,  we hold our Spirit Sesh and final rehearsals at Rhythm on Thursdays (usually a late night during competition season). We spend Thursday nights packing up and loading for the weekend as they almost always start early Friday morning. In theory, this is only once per month, but it feels like it’s an every week thing when you are in it!
•  From September - March, we are very busy with our custom costumes from design meetings to searching for fabric, meeting with Beth for our sample meetings and fittings. This takes place on all days, but because Wednesday and Thursday are more flexible, it's most often on those two days! 

Fridays

• Catch all/Catch up day. 
• Hold any necessary meetings with Emily as she’s at the desk most of the day. It’s a day that not too many people are reaching out to us or asking many questions, so we are usually able to get things done.
• Meet with Ellie, our assistant and project manager 
• Confetti Photo and Video Shoots  - If we are having a photo or video shoot, it usually starts mid-late afternoon (when school is out) and goes until we get it done. We almost always start setting up anything we can on Thursday evening, but this has been a challenge that we are still trying to figure out. 
• Crafting and creating walls

Obviously, we adjust each day as needed, but that’s what our weekdays typically look like. We hope you’ve found this to be helpful in some way when mapping out your week!

Let's Get Social!

• Join our FREE Confetti Circle
• Request to join our private Facebook Group
• Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

In Episode 60 of our Make Dance Fun podcast, we're doing a fun creativity exercise! We're using this fun box that looks like little match sticks called "SPARK YOUR CREATIVITY - 50 Ways to Ignite Bright Ideas!" We all get stuck sometimes, so we love finding “outside the box” ways to get our brains going! 

We each draw 10 different “sparks” included in this kit and discuss what we might do in that situation, or how it could help us in a creative way! We hope that it will ignite your creativity as well! 

1. Dani: Take a walk, tuning in carefully to everything you smell.
2. Becca: List things that inspire you, refer to them when feeling stuck
3. Dani: Destroy something and make a new thing from the remains.
4. Becca: Tune everything else out. Listen to just yourself.
5. Dani: Improvise.
6. Becca: Give yourself a time limit
7. Dani: Take a break from a project; it may help you gain perspective.
8. Becca: Read about or learn something outside your area of expertise.
9. Dani: Make a log of “mistakes”. Try seeing them as strategies.
10. Becca: Look at the situation from a different angle.
11. Dani: Hone your powers of observation.
12. Becca: Take 5 minutes and write down as many new ideas as you can.
13. Dani: Try working in 90 minute creative sprints - take a 30 minute break
14. Becca: Spend 10 minutes a day on a new creative pursuit. Repeat for a week.
15. Dani: Take a risk, failures may teach you more than successes.
16. Becca: Shadow someone creative for a day and see what you pick up.
17. Dani: Find new uses for materials or elements you’d typically toss out.
18. Becca: Turn off your inner critic.
19. Dani: Take a walk, tuning in carefully to everything you hear.
20. Becca: Give yourself a complete change of scenery.

Now go be creative! 

Let's Get Social!

• Join our FREE Confetti Circle
• Request to join our private Facebook Group
• Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

Happy new year and welcome to Season Three of our Make Dance Fun Podcast! In episode 59, we are providing you with 23 ideas to commit to the fun at your studio in 2023! Check out our blog post to download the list and see all the fun ideas. We hope you find some fun ways to commit to the fun in 2023! Cheers to fun in the new year! 

Let's Get Social!

• Join our FREE Confetti Circle
• Request to join our private Facebook Group
• Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

In Episode 58 is a BEST OF 2022 Episode to recap the year!

Top 5 Episodes:
#46 - Fast & Fun Photo Shoots
#38 - Best of 2021
#39 - We’re Back with Season 2 and Summer on our Minds
#45 - Confetti Cannons - Rapid Fire with Becca, Dani & Shelley
#41 - 5 Things to Gear Up for Recitals

Top 5 Locations:
1 - US, 2 - Canada, 3- Australia, 4 - United Kingdom, 5 - Germany 

Favorite Episodes in 2022
D: #48: Fun & Fancy Five Star Staff Kick-Off
B: #51: Planning YOUR Fun Big Show (+ Our Fave Recital Moments)!

Favorite Craft or Project:
B: Rhythm: Holiday Walls; Confetti: Rhinestone Roundup Camp Confetti Crafts
D: Rhythm Story (based on Toy Story) flat characters 

Least Favorite Craft or Project (because of the amount of work, time and effort it took, not because of the outcome!)
D: Holiday wall
B: Halloween wall

What Confetti event/project are you most proud of?
B: Your FUN Big Show, Adding Diego to Twirl & Flashie Cards, and Pinterest
D: New Twirl to Go themes + 3 of our newest Camp Confetti themes: Fancy Mouse Dress Up House, Prancing Pony Party & Rhinestone Roundup

What Rhythm event/project are you most proud of?
D: Recital retreat
B: Staff Kick Off and Photo Shoot and Recital Retreat

Top 3 Most Fun Things for Rhythm and/or Confetti?
B: #4-Rhythm Fun Walls, New Camp Confetti themes,Rhythm Story, Staff Kick Off
D: Your Fun Big Show, Excitement around announcing our 2023 Year-End Show theme; Staff Kick Off 

That’s a wrap on SEASON TWO and 2022! Thank you for listening!  Happy Holidays and we'll be back in 2023 for Season THREE of Make Dance Fun! 

Let's Get Social!

• Join our FREE Confetti Circle
• Request to join our private Facebook Group
• Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

Episode 57 is all about GRATITUDE! We are so thankful for all of you who listen on a regular basis! We love sharing and love the feedback that you share with us! Please continue to share as that is what motivates us to keep recording…even on those crazy busy weeks! 

A few things we are grateful for!

Shelley Marshall who without, Confetti wouldn’t exist! She makes all the things happen! 

Ellie Bryant is our assistant and a project manager.  She wears lots of hats and she has been so helpful over the past year in many ways! She contributes to writing and social media, lots of crafting and errand running and photo shoots and she helps with prepping for literally everything we do! And, you will see her coming up next month with some fun HOLIDAY content we are producing! ELLIE - THANK YOU for all you do! 

New to our Confetti Staff is Jenni! Jenni is our Preschool Director at Rhythm and she has been a contributor to our podcast multiple times! As a matter of fact, her episodes are among our most popular ever! Jenni has just taken a new position in fulfillment for all your orders! We have just moved all our products in house and Jenni is in charge of all shipping! We are so excited for this new role and are so grateful that Jenni with her organization and thorough-ness is taking over this position! We are grateful for you Jenni! 

Rhythm Staff! Without all our talented staff at Rhythm who inspire us every day, we wouldn’t be doing what we do! We are so lucky to have such talented and driven employees - from our ELT to all our creative teachers, choreographers to our class hosts and assistants! It takes so many people to make all the things happen and we are blessed with the best! So, THANK YOU Rhythm Staff! Y’all are awesome! 

And, finally - our podcast editor…Rob Gal - you make it happen and deal with our lofty spaces, speaking mistakes, coughs, drinking noises and Ruthie barks…and make it all sound fabulous! We are grateful for you, your expertise and the uber fast turnaround time when we are recording at the last minute! 

Again, we are GRATEFUL for each and every listener! We are so lucky to be in this creative and inspiring space and share with each of you! We are wishing you a very happy Thanksgiving and Holiday Season!

And, a reminder that we just started sharing our Fun Flair Fridays in our private Facebook group where we share a fun wallpaper for your phone and laptop as a monthly gift to show our gratitude for you! The only place to get them is in our Facebook group, so request to join today and make sure you answer the 3 prompted questions so we can let you in quickly!

And, don’t forget to check out our Confetti Shop during our Confetti FunFriday Sale! Save 15% off ALL THE THINGS (except Twirl and Confetti Consultations!) by using the code FUNFANCY15. This is our best sale of the year, so grab some gifts for your teachers, for your studio or for you! 

Let's Get Social!

• Join our FREE Confetti Circle
• Request to join our private Facebook Group
• Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

In episode 56, we talk about the structure of our weekly schedule, who is responsible for what and and how we get things done! This episode we break down Mondays and Tuesdays! 

 Our schedules are constantly changing, but we do try to start with a plan and adjust as needed. We have to divide and conquer in order to really check things off the long list of to-do’s.

Monday is our most consistent day of the week as far as a schedule goes. 

• 10 a.m. - Meet with just the two of us to prepare for our executive leadership team meeting and plan  the rest of the week
• 12:30 p.m. -  ELT meeting in person at studio 
• 2:30 p.m.  - check things off our lists, eat lunch
• 3:30-9:30 teach classes 
• We do have a couple breaks between classes, so we are always using that time to get back to the to-do list. Get emails sent, work on costuming, whatever can get done in a short amount of time while we are there and in full-out work mode.

Dani's list: 

• Event logistics  
• Communications (usually via email) with all our performing company families. 
• Proofing email drafts  
• Crafting
• Guest artist coordination

Becca's list: 

• Unpredictable creative tasks 
• Social media
• Marketing graphics, images, concepting, design 
• Creative visionary for all things 

Tuesday: Our "first day of the week" to get things done.  

9:30 a.m. - meet with each other via Zoom to map out our day. 
10:00 a.m. -  2:30p.m.- Other meetings like our meetings with our Google Ad company, production company meetings, financial advisor,  Studio Manager Krista,  marketing team meetings, Performing Company Directors, costume planning (meetings, fabric shopping, design), check ins with Ellie and Shelley. 

After these meetings are done and classes begin, there are several scenarios that could happen on Tuesdays:

1. After meetings, Dani and I usually switch gears and head into our office or home and work on individual to-dos. 
2. We may have a crafting project or meeting for Rhythm or Confetti that we would stay and work on in the staff room at annex
3. We sometimes schedule rehearsals that we run at Annex as there are open studios there - so those would usually start around 6:00 and we will just work in our office until then.
4. Head back to Rhythm - if we have a Guest Artist in town or if there is a Company rehearsal that we may need to be present for at Rhythm! 

So, as you can see Tuesdays are all over the place but it is the first day of the week that we can really “MAKE THINGS HAPPEN” and they are ever changing but usually very productive days! 

No matter how much we plan, it is usually derailed. Our number one job is problem solving and believe we are really good at this. As a leader, it is the thing you have to be AMAZING at! Like all studio owners, we deal with lots of crazy and dilemmas and  do creative problem solving EVERY SINGLE DAY. 

We hope you enjoyed getting a little insight into our work days. Stay tuned for Part 2 on a future episode! 

Let's Get Social!

• Join our FREE Confetti Circle
• Request to join our private Facebook Group
• Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest