UDMA Costume Preview Show

My mother and I attended this years UDMA Costume Preview Show in Seacaucus NJ. I felt the need to write a post about the very enjoyable time we had. Believe it or not, we had never attended a UDMA show together. I attended when I was younger as a model, and my mother use to attend with the owner of the school she worked at prior to owning her own.

The show is held in the Meadowlands Exposition Center. It is very organized with the booths lined up in aisles. You simply walk up and down and stop where you like. At check in you are given a badge to wear and tote to put your catalogs and merchandise in. For those who do not know, this is a free event for studio owners and teachers. There is even seminars and a fashion show you may attend at additional cost.


We enjoyed most the booths which had items for sale. I bought a "dance teacher" tank from Tia's Dancewear, silver dance sneakers from Stars Dancewear, and car magnet from All About Dance that says "Give Peace a Dance."


My mom won a free month from Dance Teacher Web through their scratch off game. We will be very interested in checking out their site. We were pleasantly surprised to see several games available for us to play. For example, we got to spin a wheel at Starpower Competition's booth and both won pocket mirrors.


We didn't spend much time at the costume booths because after 16 Recitals we have done business with almost all of the companies. We have narrowed down our ordering to 2 companies which we are very happy about. The only catalogs/companies that were new to us were UFO (hip hop dance pants) and Bodywrappers. We made sure we put ourselves on their mailing list and left confidently that we now get all of the great costume and dancewear catalogs to our studio.


I highly recommend The Costume Preview show to new studio owners. Its the perfect opportunity to get catalogs and put your studio on mailing lists. You also get to feel the quality and see the costumes on a model. Costumes, Dancewear, Competitions, Workshops, Conventions and more, all in one place.


For established studios its a great opportunity to check out new vendors and make sure you receive every catalog so you have a choice when selecting costumes. Its also a nice opportunity to bond with the teachers in your studio, you can make a day of it with lunch after or breakfast prior. That's exactly what we did after.



We very much look forward to next years show. For more information you can visit http://www.udma.org/. You can also join their mailing list if you are a teacher, school owner, or coach.

Dance Diary Entries

At the end of the month I ask students to submit an entry from their Dance Diary. As a reward for sharing I post the entry on the Blog and give them an honorable mention. For more information please see the post titled "Dance Diary."

Two very lovely and talented students from my 10-12 year old workshop class decided to share the following...

Dear Dance Diary,
First, to start off, I love dance!! I love to learn new things every week. I love my teachers. They are both so nice! In ballet, my favorite thing to do is a tor jete. In tap, my favorite thing to do is a back to broadway. In jazz, my favorite thing to do is a single spin. Another thing I love are the barr stretches. I guess that's all I have to say.
By: Natalia

Hello and welcome to my dance diary. I love to dance. I've been dancing since I was three. My favorite song that we danced to was Calabria. It was for jazz. But I like hip-hop the most. It is fun to just hang loose and do whatever you think is right. My favorite song is Janet Jackson's Feedback. I like the way she dances and how she doesn't stay stiff. Every Monday we do something different. The best step to me is back to broadway. There are other ones like buffalo, maxie fords, and I like when you run and jump into mood position. I love the way Miss Alyssa and Mrs. Leslea dance. They are not afraid to do anything. The girls in my class are great too! I will dance until I'm like 30! Well I hope you like my diary. Have a great day!
By: Adrianna

I very much enjoyed reading my students perspective on dance class. I am very thankful that their experiences are positive. My hope is that they continue to use the Dance Diary along their journey with dance.
Keep Dancing Readers!
Love,
Miss Leslea

Keeping Attendance, Motivation and Interests Up

Rewards for Young Dancers

At the end of class for a job well done, thanks to DanceStudioOwner.com, we are offering Ballet coloring pages. This will give the little ones something to look forward to receiving each week. When finished coloring they will have pages they can proudly display and learn from at home or in our Studio.

Perfect Attendance

For Ages 10 and up I offer recognition for them not missing class with a group photo in this post and on the NJ Dancer Network. (http://uptowndancenj.ning.com/) At this age they understand the importance of class attendance and they also tend not to feel "left out" if they are not included in the photo for a missed class. It is understood as a reward and a reason to keep their attendance up. The younger ones would be more likely not to understand my intentions and would most likely look at me very sad as if to say, "why am i not in the photo?" Also, not all parents want their younger children displayed on the Internet. For these reasons I keep the "Reward" for ages 10 and up.

Here they are...

Monday Workshop

Monday Hip Hop

Tuesday Hip Hop

Wednesday WorkshopPointe Thursday Hip Hop

Thursday Workshop

Thank You to all my dedicated Students!! Keep up the good work!