Professional Documents
Culture Documents
It is essential to
have leadership
skills in dancing.
Whether you dance or not, there’s some leadership lessons to take away from
the dance floor and apply it to the rest of your life.
It’s not the end of the world. You can improvise instead, and a move that
didn’t work turns into a new one that does. In real life, maybe you have a
business plan that doesn’t work exactly the way you want it to, or maybe
you’re just trying to get your friends out to a bar and it falls through.
Some people make their partner feel uncomfortable because they’re being
creepy and sexually aggressive, or because the moves they’re doing
hurt. Others though make their dance partners uncomfortable because they
throw moves at them that are way above their level. That creates a huge
gap.
The person sees how far it is to the other side, and mentally (or
physically) walks away. Too big of a gap and we don’t want to cross it. But if
the gap is smaller it becomes a challenge, and they’ll rise up and do their
best to leap across. After jumping across lots of small gaps, the huge one
won’t seem so big after all.
3. It’s about clear communication
You can tell people any message you want, but if it’s unclear it won’t get
through to them the way you want it to. In Salsa if the Lead tries a move that
isn’t communicated clearly, the Follow may move in an unexpected way, or
not at all.
Our bodies communicate more than our words ever can. People may not
consciously pay attention to your body, but they still hear what it
says. Good Leads make sure their body is saying what they want it to.
If they stand and move with confidence, their partner will feel it and
follow smoothly. The Follow will also feel any insecurity, and her steps will
be less sure as a result.
4. Take the opportunity… If it’s right
Sometimes we take too long thinking about an opportunity and we miss
it. If you’re out dancing, you may see someone across the room you want to
dance with. Maybe you go for it right away, but maybe you don’t. Maybe you
have to think about it.
Maybe you have to work yourself up first, and you have to position
yourself to get ahead of everyone else who wants to as well. It’s ok. You can
wait until the next song. If it looks like a good opportunity, don’t wait too
long, or it might be gone forever. If you do miss the opportunity, don’t sweat
it.
There’s never just one. There’s a whole room of opportunities if you take
the time to look for them.
Learning both roles, the best, know the challenges their partners’ face.
Instead of issuing blind commands, they can empathize with them and
make win/win decisions rather than win/lose. There’s no shame in learning
about a different role other than your own.
If you only have half the picture, you’re missing valuable information. It
may be uncomfortable to step outside of what you know, but when you
know the whole picture you can lead that much better.
Being a dance teacher allows you to remain active physically while sharing
your knowledge with others. You can also remain creative through
choreographing routines for class and performances regularly. It helps to
know which age group you want to teach, as some will require extra training or
college degrees.
2. Choreograph.
Search out grant programs in your city to fund your work. Contact local
theater groups who may be interested in hiring a choreographer for their plays
or musicals. Seek out large scale entertainment companies who may need a
choreographer for corporate or commercial work. Start your own dance
company and forge a new, creative path!
This is a great position for those who can organize budgetary finances,
schedule meetings, rehearsals, or shows, organize fundraisers, and be a
support to the artistic director and overall vision of the company.
The language of dance crosses over well into these fields. The breadth of
kinesthetic knowledge from dance training translates effectively when teaching
these mind-body techniques.
There are several types of trainings you can take to teach either field,
ranging from 200-500 hour yoga teacher training, Pilates mat training, to full
Pilates apparatus training. Most gyms and studios will require this in-depth
training in order to teach.
Work in this field could entail designing and maintaining web pages,
designing flyers and other promotional materials, promoting events through
social media, and more. Graphic design work may require additional training,
which you could receive through online courses, community classes, or
attending college to obtain a degree.
Learning to sew and create your own costumes could lead into working in
the costume department of a dance company.
If you are passionate about designing your own gear, you could even start
your own line. The internet has paved the way for a booming self-employment
market, with marketplaces such as Etsy and independent online storefronts
powered by PayPal or Shopify.
Even if you just have the curiosity, this can be an excellent and lucrative
field for a dancer to enter. The ability to relate to a dancer and understand the
dancer’s body as a physical therapist or medical doctor will give you an
advantage that is hard to beat.
Know that your drive to succeed does not have to stop with dance, but you
can take these many wonderful qualities to open new doors, build new bridges,
and have a successful and happy life, no matter what you do.
Fitness events can be the boost your business needs to engage members. Gym
events are fun and emphasize health, fitness, and wellness. Even with the most
state-of-the-art facilities, you can still experience dwindling membership rates.
It makes sense that a successful event takes time and planning. When
organizing a fitness event, multiple factors need to be considered from
invitations and budget to logistics and location. Event planning is a task in
itself. Here’s a breakdown of the steps you need to take to plan and organize a
fitness event.
Start by speaking to your members. You want to plan an event that will
land well with the community and be a success. What better place to start
than getting feedback before you even begin? Ask questions to find out the
type of events they would most like to see from you. If they struggle to eat
healthily out of the gym, then a cooking event that teaches a few healthy
recipes would be very beneficial for your members. At the same time, these
sorts of experiences and events can do wonders for engagement and
retention.
If it’s a paid event, do the ticket sales result in a profit? You don’t want to
be losing money. Think about sponsorship from local businesses that
complement the event. You may want to team up with a local smoothie bar.
The event provides the partnering business with advertising and foot traffic
while your attendees get to enjoy smoothies. If you’re holding a fitness event
in-house like a fitness challenge, the costs are meager in comparison to say
a fitness retreat.
4. Make a Checklist
Once you’ve chosen the type of event, determined your budget and
location, you now need to pull the whole thing together. Gather your events
team and make a thorough checklist. This should include everything you
need to carry out before, during, and after the event. The list will also
include items that you need to get from gifts for attendees to marketing
collateral.
Although this may sound like an obvious part of event planning, it’s easy
to get excited and get ahead of yourself. Your checklist should navigate your
planning process and keep you on track. Lists help to keep you accountable
and know precisely where you are with event planning.
If you can, give yourself at least three months to prepare for an event. If
you’re collaborating with other businesses, everyone involved needs enough
time to bring everything together. When you’re strapped for time, you often
rush into things and make snap decisions. This can really affect how
successful an event will be.
You need to inform your community and people outside of your gym that
your event is taking place. Tell them why they should go to your event.
Think about using Facebook ads, word-of-mouth marketing, email, and
push notifications to share the news.
8. Manage Logistics
There’s a lot going on before, during, and after an event that needs to be
taken care of. Manage the logistics so that there are no issues on the day.
Consider parking arrangements, check-in, or registration on the day, and
make sure your studio is large enough to handle the number of people. If
you have a large number of people attending, think about the plan for entry
and exit to avoid any chaos on-site during the day.
Remember to arrange social media coverage during the event. Facebook
Live and Instagram Stories are a great place to start to showcase your live
event coverage. Your event social media strategy will be a part of your
marketing strategy.
Give your guests plenty of notice so that they can make arrangements
ahead of time. If you’re holding an open-day style event and trying to
encourage new member sign-ups, you’re more reliant on your marketing
reaching the right people. Set up open Facebook events so you can get an
idea of the number of guests attending.
It’s a good idea to ask for feedback after every event. No matter how
successful they are, you can always learn and evolve. Try sending out quick
feedback forms to all guests the day after. You want to find out if guests
enjoyed their time if they would come again, and what would make them
love it more.
In Summary
Fitness events can be marketing magnets. These days, experience is
everything. People are looking for more engagement, community, and
interaction. With the right planning and organization, you can host an event
P E R F O R M A N C E T A S K
Create a dance event plan for a target health issue or concern.
Refer to the discussion in the module regarding the “11 Steps to Plan and
Organize a Fitness Event”.
The content of your plan satisfies the 11 steps (except for #11).
Create your own format in doing the Dance Event Plan (e.g. PPT, Word,
Publisher, PDF, Excel, etc.)
Submit not later than the week of the Final Assessment on December.