Passion for Dance

One of the most accessible mental skills that makes a real impact on your growth as a dancer is goal setting, but I've seen goal setting fail when it's not done well. While a method like SMART goals can be commonly used, I have a better way. This new method takes a very important step beyond the SMART method, and dancers that I've worked with who used this new method instead saw some pretty amazin...

This short episode is the DANCER BONUS to Episode 160: The Achievement Mindset Speaking directly to the dancers out there, Dr. Chelsea shares the importance of setting goals for yourself, why it matters so much, and the good things than can happen when you do. Follow the show for more: https://chelseapierotti.com/follow    

Goal setting isn't just about saying something you want to achieve, writing it on a sticky note, and then going for it. That's why a lot of goal setting falls apart. We mean well and we set some big goal, and then somehow it never happens. How you think about goals and how you approach them makes all the difference in making goal setting work for you. I've seen hundreds of dancers learn how to use...

At the end of every dance season, there comes a time to say goodbye. Every year, as both a teacher and a coach, I watch young men and women I've grown close to graduate and move on to the next phase of their life. Whether it's at banquets or graduations, watching a senior leave the program is usually heavy with some complex emotions. One mental skill I often focus on is resilience, and big life tr...

Any dancer dreaming of a professional career is most likely working hard in the studio and honing their skills to be the strongest dancer they can be, but in the professional dance world, talent is only 20% of the equation. There are a lot of other skills to master that make up that other 80%. This 80/20 rule where success as a professional dancer is 20% talent, 80% everything else comes from my e...

Do you have much experience with dance outside of your own culture? Since it's International Dance Day, I want to take today's episode to focus on dance as a source of heritage and identity and how it can truly connect us across our different cultures, but I can't do it alone. My guest today is four-time Emmy Award-winning host and executive producer of the show Bare Feet, Mickela Mallozzi, who is...

Dancers, this one is directly for you! You can be a mentally healthy dancer who is ALSO mentally tough. Here's the difference between mental toughness and mental health and how you can build your mental toughness. Learn more at: https://chelseapierotti.com/156  

Do you feel like it's getting harder and harder to challenge your dancers and hold them to a high standard without hurting their feelings or being seen as a mean coach? When I talk to dance educators, many of them express this internal conflict where they want to push their dancers for more and help them see the value of hard work, but they might be scared of nasty parent phone calls, worried abou...

Before you dive too fast into next season, do you stop and ask your dancers to reflect on the past season and share their candid thoughts with you? Though I know sometimes at the end of the season it's easy to go straight into next season, hopefully you take a small break in between.  While it can be hard to hear, and I understand sending out a survey or sitting down to talk might feel nerve wrack...

Do you teach dancers under ten years old? Can you teach dancers that little about mental toughness, or is it better to wait? I'm often asked if mental skills training is appropriate for young dancers taking level one classes or in the mini competitive program. The answer is, yes, it is appropriate. In this episode, I'll share three key ideas to build mental toughness in young dancers. We'll also d...

In the dance world, summer isn't just the time for intensives and summer camps, it's also a time for a whole lot of planning. If you're someone like me who loves a good planner, someone who color codes everything, and someone who enjoys mapping out the next year to come, I'm excited to share my planning process with you! If you don't consider yourself a planner, I encourage you to listen in and co...

This episode is an incredible story of resilience and how one woman went from leaving an abusive home at 14 to creating a life for herself as a performer and business owner. Our guest today, Josephine Lancuba, is an award-winning performing arts business and talent management professional from Sydney, Australia. She's an educator, speaker, talent agent, and has spent two decades in the arts indust...

Dancers, have ever wished you felt more confident? Dance teachers, have you ever felt like you've tried everything to help your dancers believe in themselves, yet it's falling on deaf ears? The truth is, as dancers and humans, we can't just sit around and wait to become more confident; we have to take action in order to gain confidence. In the episode, I'll be sharing the key insight into gaining...

Do you wish you had dancers who pushed themselves in class and held themselves accountable? This seems to be a common challenge for a lot of dance teachers: we wish our dancers would embrace a challenging class with a positive attitude and enjoy the process of training to be an excellent dancer. In today's episode, I'm going to tackle the concept of accountability in class and getting dancers to g...

Do you find yourself getting crazy busy during competition season? You're burning the candle at both ends only to crash hard and probably get sick as soon as it's over? If you're a passionate dance teacher, you've probably pushed yourself too hard. I see you, and I get it. I think many dance teachers can relate. We are passionate, and we care about our dancers, so we push ourselves and have really...

Have you heard of grit? Even if you haven't, I bet you've seen it or you've felt it. Grit is the mental skill that could be the difference between getting that challenging turn section or staying stuck at your current level. This episode is for the dancers out there who have big dreams and goals in our dance industry but might need help to develop a little grit. I'll be sharing what grit is, why y...

When you're trying to motivate your dancers using positive coaching, you might focus on celebrating the small wins, cheering them on, praising every step of growth along the way. That all sounds good, but let's talk about the flipside: could too much praise be a bad thing? In this episode, I'm going to tell you all about what psychologists call the Good Job Coach, and as it turns out, the Good Job...

If you're a part of the dance world, you probably saw the University of Minnesota's jazz dance routine at UDA Nationals with the passion and technique and the now viral turn section. But how do they pull off two incredible routines year after year? Well, I invited the University of Minnesota's coach, Amanda Gaines, to the podcast to tell me all about it on this episode! Today's episode covers all...

Real talk: are you too hard on yourself? When you leave a competition, do you start thinking about the next event as soon as this one is over? Are you a little too self-critical and don't allow yourself any moment to just enjoy the present? If everything isn't perfect during a competition, do you beat yourself up over it? We often discuss perfectionism with our dancers, but are you a perfectionist...

Summary: Do you ever look at another dance team you admire and think, "They must be so locked in. Every single practice they're probably making progress and getting better every day"? I guarantee that a team you admired at that event didn't just get better every day. There were setbacks along the way. There were days when it felt like progress wasn't happening, but that's why they did so well - th...

Summary: Disappointment is something we all have to go through, but we don't actually talk about how. We're just supposed to get over it and keep pushing forward. So how exactly do you deal with disappointment and continue pushing forward? In today's episode, I'll be speaking directly to the dancers, and we'll be talking about how to deal with disappointment. Maybe you didn't get the role you want...

Summary: When it's time for competition season, there are usually two types of dance teams. First, there's the dance team who usually all gets along and enjoys working together. Then, there's the dance team that doesn't actually get along all that well and might be dealing with some lingering animosity. We know that mutual liking for each other helps your cohesion and will help your team be succes...

Do you feel like you have a good work-life balance, or do you feel like the dance side of your life can sometimes tend to take over? If you feel like you have too many passions and it's impossible to do it all, I have a better plan for us: work-life blend. This is actually something I discussed back in 2021, but I've had so many teachers ask me for help with it recently that I decided to go back i...

Dancers, how far is the gap between what you want and what you actually have right now? If you have big dreams, I hope there's a gap between where you are now and where you want to be. But how big is that gap, and do you have a real sense of the hill or mountain in front of you, and are you willing to do what it takes to close the gap? I usually talk to dance coaches and teachers, but today's epis...

Dancers today are seemingly terrified of failure. They might be scared to try something in front of other people, or they might be scared of looking silly or stupid in class, and they hold themselves back. As a passionate dance teacher, you've probably seen this in at least some of your dancers. They're getting in their own way. In today's episode, I want to pull back the curtain on a fear of fail...