Passion for Dance

190. The Gift of Injury: Lessons from Professional Dancer Hannah Teutscher Dec 19, 2024

Would you want to know that your last time onstage was the last time? Would that knowledge bring closure or would it be too difficult to perform if you knew it was your last time? My guest in today’s episode was a professional dancer who battled serious injuries throughout her long career, and she's here today to share some incredible words of wisdom for dealing with injury, finding a purpose again, and how she handled it when it was suddenly her last chance to perform.

Hannah Teutscher, whose professional career brought her throughout North America, Asia, and Europe. She has taught workshops and masterclasses in dance, Pilates, and yoga worldwide, and currently teaches out of her studio in Nuremberg, Germany. She also runs a successful online teacher training, mentorships, and continuing education along with her wonderful podcast, The Pilates Exchange. She’s very open and vulnerable with us about her experience with injury and the journey of growth and recovery, and mental skills certainly pertain to dealing with injury and the end of a professional career, so tune into this episode to hear Hannah’s advice on the gift of injury!

Connect with Hannah on her Website: www.pilates-studio-nuernberg.com/

Listen to the Pilates Exchange Podcast: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pilates-exchange/id1704769014

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189. Making It as a Professional Dancer: Auditions, Branding, and Career Advice with Justine Menter Dec 12, 2024

Today’s episode is all about making it as a professional dancer. My guest, Justine Menter, has over 15 years of experience in LA's entertainment industry as a choreographer, educator, and entrepreneur. She hosts her own podcast, Dance Careers Unfiltered, and she's the founder of MNTR MGMT, career coaching for dance artists.

Justine has so much insight into what it takes to make it as a professional. In this episode, she shares the pros and cons of being a freelance dancer, how she works through hard decisions, professional career paths you might not have previously considered, the mindset of auditioning, and branding yourself as a professional dancer. If you’re considering a professional dance career, tune into this episode to hear Justine’s advice!

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188. Mentally Prepare for Competition with These 6 Mental Skills Dec 05, 2024

We are entering the thick of dance competition season where dancers start to feel more pressure and there are some big wins and some very hard days. Dancers who train their mental skills are not only able to increase their chances of success onstage but they also can use those mental skills to help reach the demands of their training schedules. If you want to be more resilient in the hard days and enjoy the wins along the way, mental skills can help.

In today’s episode, I'll be sharing the six mental skills that will help you prepare for competition because (spoiler alert) mental skills don't just show up for you on competition day. Just like you train your battements and pirouettes and your hip-hop style, you have to train your mental skills on a regular basis. If you plan to train those mental skills, even just a few weeks before competition, you'll see a positive result. Tune into the episode to learn more about the six mental skills you can use to prepare for competition!

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187. Nutcracker Chronicles: Touching Stories and Helpful Advice from Professional Ballerina Janine Kovac Nov 21, 2024

It's Nutcracker season, and today I want to pull back the curtain on what life is really like as a professional ballet dancer. My guest today is Janine Kovac who was a professional dancer for 12 years in Iceland, Italy, San Francisco, and her hometown in El Paso, Texas.

In today’s episode, Janine and I talk about how you can take whatever role you're given in the ballet, even if it's not your favorite, and truly make it your own. She shares her pre-performance ritual as a professional dancer, which I will say was very well thought out and definitely helped her have that sense of confidence every time she took the stage. Janine also shares a touching story about when her twins were in the NICU and how her life lessons from being a ballet dancer helped her get through it. This episode is packed with tangible advice and behind-the-scenes insights into the world of professional ballet and, of course, some extra fun with discussing The Nutcracker!

Get Janine’s Book, The Nutcracker Chronicles: https://www.janinekovac.com/in-other-words2

Connect with Janine on Her Website: https://janinekovac.com

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186. Turning Pressure into Power: Helping Young Dancers Reframe Stress Nov 14, 2024

I've talked to hundreds and hundreds of dancers all over the world, and I hear from each of them about the heavy load they experience as dancers. There's pressure to perform. We never feel like we have enough time to get everything done. There's performance anxiety and burnout. But it doesn't have to be that way. Reframing stress can lead to a better performance as well as more mental resilience and personal growth.

In today’s episode, I’ll break down the four different ways that you can reframe your stress as a dancer and share some practical tips for coaches, teachers, and parents too. Spoiler alert: reframing stress is rooted in the idea that stress isn't always a bad thing. It can be positive rather than something to fear or loathe. Tune in to learn more about the four ways to reframe your stress and turn pressure into your power!

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185. Helping Our Dancers Mess Up Full Out, with Jennifer Bassage Bonfil Nov 07, 2024

If you are a dance teacher who has ever struggled to get your students to go full out when they're learning, or if you've been saying the same cue, like, “Pull up,” and they don't get it, today's guest is here to share a different approach with a lot of tangible ideas to try in your next class.

My guest today is Jennifer Bonfill, the Artistic Director of The Wooden Floor. She spent 13 years as a professional dancer and is now a truly exceptional teacher who has a genuine passion for dance. Jennifer believes that dance is more than an art form; it's a catalyst for personal growth and community connection. In this episode, we’ll talk about why dance is the answer, the impact of somatic-based approach to choreography, and how life skills learned through dance will most likely show up outside the studio as well. Listen in to hear Jennifer’s passion shine through. I know you'll come away with practical tips and inspiration for your next class!

Jennifer’s Website: www.TheWoodenFloor.org

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184. The 3 Daily Habits of Successful Dancers Oct 31, 2024

The best performers in the world didn't get to where they are through magic, nor did they get there overnight. The best path to your personal best is to focus on those small, daily habits that add up to consistent growth. Psychological research has taught us that there are three of these daily key habits to focus on.

In today’s episode, I'll share the three daily habits of top-performing dancers that you can implement right away. I’ll be breaking them down and sharing how they all can all build upon each other. If you're a dancer with big goals, I encourage you to integrate these three practices in your daily life for better performance in class and onstage, greater confidence when you perform, and the resilience to bounce back quickly when things go wrong. Tune in to hear all about how creating daily habits supports successful dancers!

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183. Exploring Passion, Grit, and the Untold Stories of Corps de Ballet dancers with Dr Ruth Horowitz Oct 24, 2024

What kind of dancer will make it in New York City? Do passionate dancers get taken advantage of in the professional world? Today’s episode is a conversation with Dr. Ruth Horowitz, a sociologist who specifically studied recent dancers. She interviewed over 80 professionals at various levels of their career and found some really interesting results about passion, how dancers create a career by piecing together different contracts, the grit and determination it takes to make it, and how the identity of a dancer never leaves you.

So if you want to know what it's like to move to New York and try to make it as a professional dancer and what kind of dancer is most likely to make it, Dr. Horowitz is here to tell you all about it with some great tools to help you reach your professional dreams. Tune in!

Get Ruth’s Book: Passionate Work: Choreographing a Dance Career on Amazon or at Barnes and Noble or at Stanford University Press

Connect with Ruth on her Website: https://dancerscareers.com

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182. How 1% a Day Can Significantly Improve Your Confidence Oct 17, 2024

It takes a lot of positive mental skills to learn how to focus on small improvements every day and not give up when you don't feel like you're making the progress you want. Many dancers focus on getting the turns, learning choreography quickly, scoring well in their solo, but they don't focus on how to make those things happen. You don't have to make huge strides every day in order to achieve those goals; it's all about the daily habits that make the difference, striving for 1% better than yesterday.

If you focus on the end result or focus on other people, you'll miss your opportunity for growth. Instead, focus on getting 1% better. In this episode, I’ll be talking about the 1% rule, why change doesn’t happen overnight, and how you can build your confidence through repetition. Dancers, if you get discouraged in class or feel like other dancers are learning faster than you and are always better than you, listen in!

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181. How Dancers Can Be More Focused and Successful in Class Oct 10, 2024

When it comes to a focused mindset, I'll admit that I'm one of those psychologists who talks about the benefit of intention. I personally always set a word for the year that serves as my overarching intention, and I often set daily intentions when I sit down to work, but I want to bring this into the dance studio. Being able to clearly focus and be drilled in with an intention will have a big, positive impact on the way dancers practice.

In today’s episode I'll cover why intention helps direct focus and how you can use it to be more present and attentive while you take class. I’ll share with you the difference between goals and intentions, the value in being specific with your intentions, and how to bring these intentions into class. Tune in to learn more about the benefits of setting intentions as a dancer - mental focus takes time, but I promise the payback is incredible!

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180. Dancers: How to Be an Accountable & Positive Leader Oct 03, 2024

Many coaches today struggle with accountability on their teams or in the studio. We want dancers who do the hard work and follow through with their promises. Truly accountable dancers own up to their mistakes and do what they say they're going to do even when no one's watching. It's all about being accountable to each other, and the best leaders know how to do that.

Today’s episode is for dancers! I’ll be sharing with you why the very best leaders make mistakes and focus on personal accountability. I'm going to explain exactly what to do if you want to be a strong leader on your team. I’ll talk about how leaders model accountability, the importance of challenging our own self-talk, and how creating simple, fun gestures can help you stay accountable to your team. Tune in to hear what it takes to be the dancer who is being a positive role model for everyone else!

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179 When Telling Yourself “I’ve Got This” Feels Fake Sep 26, 2024

I often hear from dancers they say some pretty mean things to themselves they’d never say out loud or to a friend. For some reason, it’s so easy for us to get caught in negative spirals where we berate ourselves for a mistake or convince ourselves we’re not good enough, and sometimes that little voice is not always so encouraging, and telling yourself, “I've got this,” and basically talking yourself into a good mood doesn't always work. Sometimes it feels disingenuous or fake, and you don't believe yourself. So what do you do when positive self-talk or saying those positive affirmations feels fake?

In today’s episode we’ll break down the three types of self-talk, focusing on instructional self-talk, and I’ll share about the impact of developing cues that speak to you, practicing regularly, and keeping it simple. Tune in to learn why speaking positively to yourself doesn't always work and what to do instead!

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178. The Dance Scientist Explains Cues for Better Balance and Turns: With Maria Haralambos Sep 19, 2024

Do you use the cues to “pull up” or “point your toes”? Those are common cues teachers use in the dance world. One mental skill I talk about is attention and learning how to take a cue like “pull up” and translate that to a helpful action on your body. I know some dancers hear your cue and then nothing happens, but my guest today has some great insights to help us understand what dance teachers should know about dance science and how to use it in their curriculum.

Today’s guest is Maria Haralambis, an expert in dance kinesiology who currently works as both a ballet teacher and advisor for many dance education platforms. In this episode, we’ll discuss the importance of bringing dance science into curriculums and shifting the way we think about anatomy, along with balance and spotting tips and the language to use when cueing to ensure each dancer understands what you’re asking of them from an anatomy standpoint. Listen in while we talk dance anatomy and how to use that knowledge to train turns and balance and so many important skills!

Connect with Maria on Her Website: https://www.thedancescientist.com/

Listen to Maria’s Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/5XcLTaJqxWtzIcEL0C4YiV?si=377bf7f0d3364451

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177 Some Dancers are Only Committed When It's Convenient Sep 12, 2024

I see so many frustrated dance teachers talking about how it feels harder and harder to get dancers to be fully committed to their teams and their studios. We want our dancers to be 100% committed, and anything less is frustrating. However, there's this growing phenomenon called conditional commitment, which basically means, “I'm committed but only under certain circumstances,” and yes, that is very different from the idea of giving 100% no matter what. There is room for shifting moods and feelings, but there's not room for shifting discipline and commitment.

In today’s episode we’ll break down the difference between conditional commitment and unconditional commitment. I’ll share ways for dancers to improve their own team dedication along with strategies for coaches and teachers to help their dancers as well. Let's talk about conditional commitment!

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176. Shifting the "Tough Love" Narrative in Dance with Demi Agaiby Sep 05, 2024

Have you ever wanted to ask a mental performance coach what to do in a certain situation? Do you have a dancer who's getting overly anxious before competition, or you're not sure how to get your dancers to be fully committed? I want to be a resource for you - the place you can come to ask questions and receive concrete advice. This episode is all about common misconceptions and questions I get about commitment, accountability, punishment, and all things team dynamics. To top it off, I decided to bring on a special guest, who is a fellow mental performance consultant, so we could talk about it together.

My guest today is Demi Agaiby, a Mental Performance Consultant & Director of Beyond Horizons Performance based in Chicago, IL. In this episode, we’ll both share our professional opinions and advice about tough love, understanding your emotions, team commitment, and how having a bad day doesn't mean you have an excuse to have a bad practice. There are not many other consultants who understand dance and all the things that make dancers special and unique, but tune in for a special conversation between two former dancers who are now mental performance consultants!

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Connect with Demi on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beyondhorizonsperformance/

Positive Team Culture Freebie: http://beyondhorizonsperformance.com/digital-resources/a-coachs-guide-on-how-to-develop-a-positive-team-culture/

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175. Confidence Comes from Taking the First Step Aug 28, 2024

One thing that separates good dancers from great dancers is their ability to believe in themselves. It's true for students, teachers, and professionals. When you're pursuing any dream at any stage of life, there is so much power in believing in yourself. But that's a lot easier to say than to actually do. It's hard to translate that into real progress.

In today’s episode, I’ll be sharing about having faith in yourself and believing in your abilities so that you can take that first step towards your goals. We’ll talk about the importance of shifting your perspective and how, spoiler alert, there really is no top of the staircase. If you've ever wished you had a little more confidence to get started at something new, I'm going to tell you how to take that first step! “Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.” - Dr. Martin Luther King

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174. Hypermobility Concerns and Care for Dancers with Dr. Linda Bluestein Aug 22, 2024

Are you a flexible dancer or have easily hyperextended joints? Dancers with hypermobile joints might love the ability to show off tricks and skills as a dancer, but is it dangerous to be that hypermobile? I’ve been wanting to talk to a medical professional about hypermobile joints in dancers, so my guest today, a dancer turned doctor, is here to explain it all!

Dr. Linda Bluestein is renowned for her expertise in hypermobility disorders. As the founder of Hypermobility MD, she offers specialized medical care to individuals grappling with all these kinds of conditions. And Dr. Bluestein is the driving force behind Bendy Bodies, a worldwide coaching practice aimed at empowering and supporting individuals with hypermobility, many of whom are dancers. Dr. Bluestein is also the founder and host of a wonderful podcast, Bendy Bodies with Hypermobility MD, where she shares valuable insights and resources.

In this episode, I asked Linda all the questions I think dancers and dance teachers might ask. Dr. Bluestein clarifies the difference between hypermobility and flexibility, when hypermobility is concerning and when it's not, and when and how to get help. She also shared why gut health and flat feet are often related to hypermobility, which I found really interesting, and she has very practical, helpful advice for dance teachers as well. Listen into this crash course in hypermobility with Dr. Linda Bluestein!

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Connect with Dr. Bluestein on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hypermobilitymd/

Hypermobility MD’s Website: http://www.hypermobilitymd.com

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173. 3 Strategies to Guarantee Genuine Team Commitment Aug 15, 2024

For many teams, be it school teams or studios, we are entering a new season. Wouldn't it be great if we could establish strong, positive cultures from the beginning? When an athlete quits in the middle of the season, it usually causes drama, stress, and a lot of extra work. Generally speaking, as coaches and teachers, we strive to create a culture of team commitment where athletes stay invested all season, year after year.

In today’s episode, I'll be sharing three specific strategies you can use to establish a resilient commitment in your dancers this year. Whether you coach a four-year school program or at a studio where your teams cross all ages, team commitment is vitally important. Tune into today’s episode to learn about these three simple steps to improve athlete-coach relationships and encourage genuine commitment from your dancers!

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172 The Danger of Labeling our Dancers Aug 11, 2024

We often label our dancers without even meaning to do it, even if it's only in our heads and we never say it out loud. You know who your solid turner is, who is lazy, who has style, and who you can depend on to know the counts. As we get to know our dancers, we inadvertently label them. We have a lot of power over our dancers’ journeys, and we carry a lot of influence on them, so let's make sure we aren't allowing our expectations and the labels that we assign to have too much sway in our dancers’ training.

In today’s episode, I’ll be talking about how our expectations as teachers shape our dancers’ abilities. We’ll discuss the impact labeling has on your dancers, and I’ll talk you through both the positive direction and the negative direction of the four-step self-fulfilling prophecy process. Remember: your expectations and your labels matter, so let's talk about what to look out for and how to use this power to your advantage!

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171. Realistic Time Management for the Stressed Out Dance Teacher with Kelly Nolan Aug 01, 2024

Time management can be hard for all of us, dancers and coaches included, and we often beat ourselves up when we can't do it well. My guest today taught me the time-management strategy I use every day, so I had to bring her on to share it with all of you because it's not just another app or a planner; it’s an amazing stress-reduction tool.

Today’s guest is Kelly Nolan. She's a former attorney, now a time management strategist who created a new system, The Bright Method. I am personally a walking five-star review, as you will hear in the show, because The Bright Method is the only way I survive two jobs I love plus life as a wife, a mother, and a woman with my own desires and goals. I’ve also taught pieces of this method to my college students, so if you're a teacher or a dancer, this will be right up your alley.

Do you want to know the best part about The Bright Method? I don't have a to-do list anymore. It's gone! I go to bed every night feeling accomplished and able to relax without feeling like I'm missing something. So what do you say we learn how to get rid of these to-do lists, shall we?

Connect with Kelly on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_kellynolan_/

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170. 4 Reasons Not to Punish with Pushups Jul 25, 2024

If you are of a certain age in this dance industry, like me, you probably had to run laps when you were late to practice or would be kicked out of ballet if you crossed your arms in class. For many of us, we grew up with coaches and directors who used physical punishment for bad behavior and mistakes. It was the norm. It's what many of us were used to.

If you're currently using any type of physical punishment on your team, even in the name of motivation, I want to challenge that practice today based on my time coaching and teaching as well as the science behind it and what psychology tells us about behavior change and motivation. In this episode, I’ll uncover the four reasons not to use physical conditioning as a form of punishment. I hope this episode encourages you to avoid punishing with pushups and instead try another approach!

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169 Helping Your Dancers Handle Their Emotions Through Journaling with Michelle Leagans Jul 18, 2024

Do your dancers struggle with face-to-face conversations or have a hard time handling their emotions? If you're like most dance educators I've talked to, having real, face-to-face conversations, that are productive but still kind and provide real benefit, is exceedingly challenging. Our dancers are used to communicating behind a screen. It's hurting their relationships, and I also think it's hurting their ability to perform well onstage. My guest today, Michelle Leagans, has found a solution to this problem!

Michelle is a former professional dancer from Texas who currently owns and teaches for Power Intensives, and she's a sought-after choreographer and master instructor. Michelle’s solution was to create a journal for dancers called “Hey Dancers… Let's Talk About It!” This journal is different, and the way she explains how it works and why it works will make you want to give it a try.

In today’s conversation, Michelle talks about the power of journaling individually as well as in a team setting via groups. We also talked about addressing burnout and this wonderful idea of glimmers, which provides a much-needed dose of positivity when you need it. Trust me, you're going to want to try it. Tune in to learn how to help your dancers express themselves through journaling!

Connect with Michelle on Instagram: www.instagram.com/michelleleagans

Get “Hey Dancers… Let's Talk About It!”: www.letstalkaboutdance.com

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168. Where to Start with Team Building: 4 Unique Strategies Jul 11, 2024

Whether you're a coach at a school or teach in a studio setting, your dancers likely need to build a tight-knit team if they're going to be successful this season. Traditionally, people think of connecting socially when they want dancers to be close, but there are actually four types of team building, and social connection’s only one way to build that tight-knit group.

In today’s episode, I'll be sharing those four types of team building to work on this summer if you want to enhance team dynamics and have a group that gets along and works well together all season. Make sure to get the free download that goes along with this episode that covers lots of different team-building games at www.chelseapierotti.com/168. Tune into this episode to learn how to enhance your team dynamics this season so you can have happier, more successful dancers!

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167. Creating a High-Performance Environment in Rehearsals Jul 05, 2024

Did you know there's a formula for creating a high-performance environment? Successful dancers know how to perform at their best, but that happens when you practice at your best. Being a successful dancer starts in rehearsal. It's about creating that high performance environment in every class, every cleaning rehearsal your dancers attend. Then, of course, it's up to them to do the work.

In today’s episode, I’ll be breaking down the three key ingredients to a high-performance environment that allows our dancers to achieve their best. The magic is that all three of these principles work together to create the environment that allows your dancers to find their internal drive and put more effort in each and every class. Tune in to learn all about these three ingredients in a high-performance environment!

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166. How to Cultivate a Winning Coach-Choreographer Relationship on Your Dance Team with Nick Clement Jun 27, 2024

If you hire choreographers for your dance team, you’ll definitely want to listen to today's episode for some really helpful insights into that coach-choreographer relationship and how to work together to create championship-winning routines.

Today's guest is Nicholas Kade Clement of NKC Choreography. After his own professional career, Nick started choreographing for dance teams all over the country, and his work has produced multiple national championships, world championships, and numerous teams finishing in top spots at Universal Dance Association, National Dance Alliance, and Dance Team Union National Championships. Behind his many accomplishments, I know him as a hardworking Southern boy who will always make you laugh.

In today’s episode, Nick and I chat about his choreographic process, cultivating resilience as a choreographer, and what it takes to create that successful coach-choreographer relationship. Coaches, listen into this episode for the many gems Nick has to offer!

Connect with Nick Clement on Instagram: @nkcchoreography

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165. 3 Reasons NOT to have Dance Team Captains Jun 20, 2024

This episode is a continued conversation about team leadership. Last week's episode was all about identifying a truly committed team leader and how to help the whole team be more committed. There is an entire spectrum of commitment, and it's very important that any team leader is one of the top two tiers. So if you missed that and are considering a formal team leadership this year, go back to episode 164 and check that out first!

Usually, I’m all for team leadership. There are so many good things that can come of it, but that's only true if it's the right people. There are team dynamics and situations where formal leadership doesn't make sense. In today’s episode, I’ll be sharing about the three reasons not to have dance team captains or formal leadership, especially in high school and college programs. I’ll also discuss the benefits of creating a leadership committee if you have multiple strong leaders on your team. Tune in to hear all about my top three reasons not to have dance team captains and what you could do instead!

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164. Are Your Dance Team Leaders Truly Committed? Jun 14, 2024

I'm hearing coaches and studio owners tell me every day how commitment levels are different and how dancers don't seem as committed as they used to. Then you add the need to have leadership on our teams, either formal or not, and if most of your senior-level dancers aren't committed, now what do you do?

In this episode, I'm going to share the idea of a Commitment Continuum. I’ll break down the six levels of commitment for you because understanding where your dancers fall on that continuum helps you improve their commitment to your program. This continuum will give you a solid foundation to open the conversation with your dancers in which you can set clear expectations about the level of commitment you’re looking for from them. Tune in to learn about the commitment continuum and how you can use it to get more from your dancers!

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163. How to Destroy Team Culture Jun 06, 2024

It's really challenging to teach resilience and confidence and motivation if the team culture is awful. Maybe you've been a part of some incredible cultures as a dancer, or maybe you've been part of some really bad ones. Either way, culture is the foundation that all other mental skills need to thrive. Whether you're at a studio or a school team or an all-star gym, the culture of that group can make or break your ability to work on those positive mental skills.

There are twelve ways that you can quickly destroy a culture, which is a lot to go into in just one episode. So in today’s episode, I'll be sharing about three of those culture killers. I’ll break down how a lazy warmup, complaining, and bad body language can affect your team culture. Listen in to learn how to take control of your team culture!

12 Culture Killers Free Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/culture

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162. The Sullivan Twins on Resilience, Pressure, Success and How to Love the Journey May 30, 2024

While I'm on a mission to create happier, more successful dancers through positive mental skills, I'm also someone who loves to be inspired by dancers who are living their dreams and are also honest about the hard work it takes to get there. My guests in today’s episode are here to do just that and pull back the curtain on their journey from studio to competitive college team to the Radio City Rockettes.

Caitlin and Courtney Sullivan, known to many of you as The Sullivan Twins, are here today to share their journey and how their mental skills helped make their dreams happen. They talk about values, content creation, training plans, and, of course, the mindset behind it all. While they are professional dancers and they achieved their dream of being Rockettes, they actually didn't make the cut after their first year auditioning. But their story of resilience and being present in high-pressure situations will inspire you to never give up on your dreams!

Follow the show for more great episodes: https://followthepodcast.com/passionfordance

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/162

161. The NEW Goal Setting Method that Sets You Up for Success May 23, 2024

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 amazing results. So let's make sure you're setting yourself up for success.

This episode is part two of a two-part series about goal setting. We’ll break down the GWHOP Method, and I’ll give real-life examples of how I used this method with a team I worked with. By the end of this episode, you'll have a clear roadmap to the scientifically-supported new goal setting strategy, a method that improves motivation, focus, happiness, and performance!

Values & Goal Setting Course: https://chelseapierotti.com/catalyst

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/161

DANCER BONUS: Mindset of Effective Goal Setting May 16, 2024

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

160. The Achievement Mindset: How Goal Setting Transforms your Performance on Stage May 16, 2024

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 goal setting properly and then turn around to have their most successful season ever, and it’s time I share the insider info with you!

This episode is part one of a two-part series about goal setting. Today, we’ll set the foundation of the achievement mindset. Then next week, I'll share with you my exact goal-setting process that has changed my own life and so many dancers and coaches I've worked with. In this episode, you'll learn the three key ways that an achievement mindset combined with good goal setting changes your performance!

Dance Team Catalyst Course: https://chelseapierotti.com/catalyst

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/160

159. 3 Things I Wish I Knew About Saying Goodbye to My Dancers May 09, 2024

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 transitions like this usually need some extra resilience.

In today’s episode, I’ll be sharing my thoughts about saying goodbye to our dancers during this time of transition, because it can be hard. I’ve learned a lot over the years about saying goodbye and the mindset that helps you be resilient to this kind of change, so I’ll give you three things to remind yourself of when you find yourself navigating the inevitable emotions of saying goodbye. If you're having a hard time letting go of your dancers this year, I hope this episode is helpful to you!

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/159

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158 Success in Dance is 20% Talent 80% Everything Else with Menina Fortunato May 01, 2024

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 esteemed guest today, Menina Fortunato.

Menina's mission is to help the next generation of dancers create their dream dance careers. She had her own remarkable career for three decades in this dance industry. She has navigated the demands of both on-camera and behind-the-scenes work while also juggling the responsibilities of being a loving wife and devoted mother of three. Menina has worked on prominent television shows and films including America's Got Talent, Star Trek: Enterprise, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, and she's graced stadium stages entertaining massive crowds with superstars like Britney Spears, Beyoncé, Carrie Underwood, Paula Abdul, and so many more.

Menina and I talk about maintaining motivation as a professional dancer, how our current generation could learn more about rejection and handling negative emotions through mental toughness and some mindset advice for aspiring professionals. And, of course, she'll break down her 80/20 rule and share what that other 80% is all about!

Resources -

Follow Menina on Instagram: www.instagram.com/meninafortunato

Connect with The Business of Dance: www.bizofdance.com

Connect with The Hollywood Summer Tour www.dancehst.com

Connect with Menina: www.meninafortunato.com

Sign up to the Passion for Dance Email List: www.chelseapierotti.com/email

Key Highlights -

[3m 51s] - Menina’s Dance Background

[10m 12s] - Menina’s Favorite Memory Onstage

[14m 17s] - What’s Kept Menina Motivated Professionally

[17m 48s] - Menina’s View on Values

[19m 19s] - The 80/20 Rule

[29m 16s] - Challenges Menina Sees in Dancers Seeking a Professional Career

[34m 45s] - Menina’s Take on Balance and Mindset

[39m 03s] - Menina’s Thoughts on Managing Chaos

157. Why Our Dancers Should Celebrate Dance in Every Cutlure with Mickela Mallozzi Apr 25, 2024

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 on a mission to experience the world one dance at a time.

In today’s episode, Mickela and I talk about the need to be vulnerable when you're learning something new and how we have to let go of perfection so that we can genuinely be curious and learn from other cultures and experience dance through their eyes. She shares her views on the various cultural foundations of dance that are not often taught, and she shares some great stories like learning the dance with the people of the Garifuna who survived exile only to maintain, thrive, and grow their cultural heritage, including their native dances. I hope you enjoy the cultural exploration of dance in this episode, and let’s celebrate International Dance Day together!

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/157

Connect with Mickela on the Bare Feet website: www.travelbarefeet.com

Follow Mickela and Bare Feet on Instagram: www.instagram.com/travelbarefeet

Sign up to my Email List: www.chelseapierotti.com/email

DANCER BONUS: Understanding Mental Health vs. Mental Toughness Apr 18, 2024

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

156. Teaching Your Dancers Mental Toughness and How to Take Corrections Apr 18, 2024

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 about being fired, and have a genuine fear of harming the dancers they care so much about. I understand the stress and fear, and I also appreciate the desire to recognize mental health.

In today's episode, I’ll be sharing the difference between mental health and mental toughness so that you can be the teacher that is able to create happier, more successful dancers through mental skills. We’ll talk about how mental health and mental toughness go hand in hand, and I’ll share a few strategies to help you help your dancers build mental toughness. I hope this episode helps you see that it is possible to teach our dancers to be mentally tough while also protecting their wellbeing!

https://chelseapierotti.com/email

Episode 66 about Mental Health in Sports: https://chelseapierotti.com/66

Other Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/156

155. Unveiling the Power of Year-End Leadership Interviews Apr 11, 2024

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 wracking to you, it's incredibly powerful to do this with your dancers. One of the most untapped resources is your leadership (either formal captains, graduating seniors, or even upcoming leaders). Asking them key questions can completely change your next season for the better.

In today’s episode I’ll share with you why it's so valuable to ask your dancers questions at the end of the year. I’ll also be talking about how I learned to ask my dancers to pause and reflect on the last season as well as share with you the five questions you should specifically ask your captains. I promise these reflections with your captains at the end of the year will change how you plan and set yourself up for the next season!

Improvement Season Free Challenge: https://chelseapierotti.com/challenge

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/155

154: 3 Ways to Teach Mental Toughness to Young Dancers between 5 and 10 Apr 04, 2024

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 discuss how mental training is just like physical training and the importance of exposing your young dancers to mental skills training at a young age. Talking about mental skills, mindset, resilience might seem like an advanced conversation or just too much for our youngest dancers, but I'm here to say you can talk to dancers about mental toughness at every age. If you teach young dancers, tune in to hear more about building mental toughness at any age!

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/154

Follow the show: https://followthepodcast.com/passionfordance

153. How I Plan a Dance Team Season Mar 28, 2024

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 consider a new perspective: you can be a planner if you want to.

In this episode, we’ll break down my four-step planning process of reviewing the year ahead, choosing what to focus on, digging into your calendar, and dialing into Q1 of the upcoming year. If you want to see some growth in your dancers this next year, tune into this episode to hear all about my four-step planning process!

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/153

Get The Ultimate Planning Workbook: www.chelseapierotti.com/planner

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152. How to Unleash Your Roaring Resilience with Josephine Lancuba Mar 21, 2024

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 industry, leading and managing studios and production-based businesses (including her own musical theater studio) for the last ten years.

Josephine's story of resilience is absolutely inspiring, but it's more than that because she shares actionable tips for building resilience as a teacher, studio owner, and how we can help our dancers. We also talk about building confidence, defining your own success, and the power of forgiveness. Hopefully this Passion for Dance conversation will lift your spirits and inspire you to keep sharing your passion for dance!

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/152

Listen to Studio Biz and All That Jazz: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/studio-biz-and-all-that-jazz/id1592213015

Josephine’s Website: https://www.josephinelancuba.com/

Connect with Josephine on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/josephinelancuba/

151. Dancers: Growth Happens Outside Your Comfort Zone Mar 14, 2024

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 confidence. We’ll break down learning the skill of confidence, why confident actions must come before confident thoughts, and examples of how you can take small actions every day to become more confident as a dancer and in your life. Stop waiting for some magic thing to happen that will give you confidence, and tune in to learn about this simple yet powerful action you can take to immediately see a positive shift in your confidence!

Competition Day Journal Prompts: www.chelseapierotti.com/confidence

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/151

150. Kelsey Nelson on Getting Dancers to Train with Fierce Intention, Go Full Out, and Hold Themselves Accountable Mar 07, 2024

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 go full out with a friend of mine, the incredible dance teacher, Kelsey Nelson. Kelsey likes to dig into what developing artists need, and dancers who train with her are given tools to aid in both their mental and physical needs while also learning proper foundation and technique. She created her own cross-training and teaching method, and today we get to learn all about it.

Before she started her journey as an educator, Kelsey worked professionally on various major motion pictures and corporate work, and now she travels across the country working for national talent competitions and conventions. She is impacting the dance industry and is so sought after for her innovative and knowledgeable training and coaching, which is why I wanted to bring her here to you. She's a master at teaching challenging classes that help dancers find their own motivation and accountability, and she's going to share her little secrets with you today!

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/150

Follow Kelsey Nelson on Instagram: www.instagram.com/kjndance

Email Kelsey: kjndance@gmail.com

Connect with Kelsey: www.kelseynelson.com

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149. Understanding and Managing Your Brain's Alarm Response to Stress Feb 29, 2024

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 high standards in order to serve. If you feel like you're more productive when you're busy, or if you've ever said, “I just have to push through the next two weeks, then I can slow down a bit,” but that never happens, I want to share another way forward.

In today’s episode, we’ll be talking about how to push for our dreams and goals in the dance industry while paying attention to what psychologists call the alarm response. The alarm response is a cycle our bodies and brains enter into when we’re stressed. We’ll take a closer look at the three stages of this alarm response, and I’ll give you a few tips on how to take care of yourself when you’re experiencing this. I hope this episode helps you to stop this cycle in its tracks before stress causes a five-alarm fire in your body!

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/149

Stress Management Tools for Dance Teachers: https://chelseapierotti.com/stress

148. Dancers: If you wan to reach the next level, develop GRIT Feb 22, 2024

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 you need it, and how you can start practicing this mental skill today to see a real difference in your dance skills tomorrow. We’ll dive into the two parts of what it takes to become a gritty dancer and how to lean into creating a healthy passion for a dance for yourself as a dancer. If you have big goals and dreams in dance, tune in to learn how to develop your grit!

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/148

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147. Is There Such a Thing as Too Much Praise? Feb 15, 2024

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 Coach might not be as motivational as you might think. We’ll discuss the importance of specificity with feedback and the sweet spot of balance between praise, instruction, and redirection. Tune in to hear all about what too much praise can do to your dancers and how to keep their spirits high!

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/147

Follow the show: https://followthepodcast.com/passionfordance

146. "Dream On" with U of Minnesota Coach Amanda Gaines Feb 08, 2024

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 four pillars of the podcast. Coach Gaines shares how she motivates her athletes, her mindset, and personal coaching philosophy, how her dancers learn to be resilient after mistakes, and the value of having a solid community around you.

Coach Amanda Gaines is in her 12th season coaching the University of Minnesota dance team and her 16th total season with the program. She’s been an integral member of the Golden Gophers, winning 17 different national championships between 2006 and now, and she's graciously agreed to come on the show and tell us all about it - including whose crazy idea it was to turn, do an aerial, and keep turning. Tune in to catch all the great coaching advice and behind-the-scenes stories from the University of Minnesota Dance Team Coach, Amanda Gaines!

Follow the Show: https://followthepodcast.com/passionfordance

Website Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/146

145. To the Coach Who Will Settle for Nothing Less than Personal Perfection Feb 01, 2024

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 yourself? Do you know how to handle your own deep-rooted perfectionism so that it doesn't cause you to burn out?

In today’s episode, we’ll be talking about you, the coach, the teacher, the mentor. It’s all about ensuring your own perfectionism isn't getting in the way of your joy of teaching. We’ll discuss the effects of negative self-talk, mindfulness while coaching, and how self-awareness of the things we say to ourselves can impact how we show up for our dancers.

To all of my recovering perfectionist dance coaches out there, this episode is brought to you by the dance coach membership, Relevé, a community for dance coaches on the rise. Head over to www.chelseapierotti.com/membership to learn more about how to join us inside this membership where you will get the support and guidance to find a new level of joy and success in coaching!

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/145

144. Why Setbacks in Your Goals are Good for You Jan 25, 2024

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 - these excellent teams understand that setbacks are good.

In this episode, we’ll focus in on the three things to do when you have setbacks in your goals. We’ll discuss the benefits of shifting our mindset around setbacks, why it’s important to pause and reset as well as track our dancers’ progress, and I'll tell you what to do when you have a setback coming up. Enjoy this episode of Passion for Dance!

Starter Journal Free Dowload: https://chelseapierotti.com/journal

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/144

143. How Dancers Navigate Disappointment and Learn to Overcome Jan 18, 2024

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 wanted, you didn’t book the audition you were hoping for, or you're disappointed in how your solo scored last week. If you're a dancer, the likelihood is that you've had to wrestle with this negative emotion of being disappointed, so tune in to hear more about the six steps to dealing with disappointment. This way, the next time you need a little pick-me-up after a low score or you need help turning around a bad mood after a disappointing performance, you'll know exactly what to do!

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/143

Stay in Touch: https://chelseapierotti.com/email

142. Team Dynamics: Motivating individual dancers to work together for their dreams Jan 11, 2024

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 successful, but we also know you can't force it because sometimes it's just not there. What do you do when your team is falling short of their potential because they are just a group, not a team? How do you help them transform into a true team?

In this episode, I'm going to help teach you how to bring together the team of dancers who aren't clicking or getting along. There is a way to use positive mental skills to help ensure success. We’ll discuss social cohesion, prosocial skills, and how returning to your team’s goals and reminding your dancers they need each other will help bring them all back together as a team!

Episode Resources

https://chelseapierotti.com/142

https://chelseapierotti.com/podcastquiz

141. How Dance Teachers Can Find Harmony by Ignoring Work-Life Balance Dec 21, 2023

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 in the archives to re-release this episode.

In this episode, we’ll discuss how our work and our life shouldn’t be in opposition to each other and how beneficial it can be to evaluate the categories of your life and use a planner to best implement the work-life blend that works best for you. If you feel like work-life balance is impossible, please listen in. If you can shift your perspective around this stuff, I promise you can find balance!

Episode Resources:

https://chelseapierotti.com/141

140. A Message to Dancers Who are Afraid of Failure Dec 14, 2023

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 episode is a short and important message for dancers. We’ll break down the four things getting in the way of dancers’ dreams and discuss how you have the power to turn these around. By the end of this episode, I hope to help you bridge that gap between where you are now and where you want to be!

Finish Strong Workshop: https://chelseapierotti.com/finishstrong

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/140

139. Breaking the Chains of Fear: Empowering Dancers To Get Past a Fear of Failure Dec 07, 2023

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 failure, explain what it is, where it's coming from, and how we can help our dancers get past it so our dancers can reach their full potential. We’ll discuss the signs a dancer might be fearing failure, we’ll break down exactly what a fear of failure in dancers looks like, and we’ll talk about how to supportively push back on your dancers’ fear to ultimately change their relationship with failure. As dance coaches and teachers, let’s collectively help our dancers get out of their own way!

Dec 17th Virtual Workshop Info: https://chelseapierotti.com/finishstrong

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/139

138. Leadership Challenges in Dance Teams: Navigating Lazy, Unmotivated, or Rule-Breaking Leaders Nov 30, 2023

Leaders who are happy and effective will create a team of hardworking dancers who enjoy their time together. A negative leader though, can ruin an entire season. I’ve always loved having strong leaders on my dance team, but sometimes the dancer who is chosen to be that formal leader turns out to be a nightmare. Good leaders can motivate others and help the rest of the team stay positive, but what do you do when you have a leader who is lazy, isn’t showing up, or is blatantly breaking the rules?

In this episode, we’ll discuss what to do when a leader falls short, and we’ll break down the two important action steps to take with a leader when they aren’t stepping up. Tune into this episode to hear more about these two clear approaches to fix the problem while mentoring your athlete to be a stronger, positive presence for your program!

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/138

Email List: https://chelseapierotti.com/email

137. Hardworking Dancers Have Teachers Who Do These 3 Things Nov 23, 2023

Since it’s Thanksgiving week here in The States, I’ll be taking time off to be with family and away from screens and work, but I didn’t want to leave you without another episode to help improve your dancer's mental toughness. This is a re-release of episode 51 from way back in early 2022, where I talk all about the three things that we can do as teachers to encourage our dancers to work harder.

I think this topic has been so popular because we all want hard-working dancers, and there are a few simple things teachers can do to get a little more effort from your dancers. In this episode we’ll cover those three things dance educators can do to encourage hard-working and self-motivated dancers. I hope you enjoy this episode, and if you're celebrating this week, I wish you a very happy Thanksgiving!

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/137

136. The Quick Solution to Prevent Dancers from Choking on Stage Nov 16, 2023

Why do people choke? You've been cleaning your routine for months, you’ve spent hours in technique classes, and the routine looks flawless. Then finally the time comes to take the competition floor, and someone chokes with a random mistake that you've never seen before that unfolds before your eyes in slow motion. Let's talk about the number one reason an athlete chokes. Side note: it's not just a lack of preparation.

In today’s episode we’ll discuss the mental skill of relaxation. We’ll talk about over-arousal, the advantages of using breath training and how it works, and I’ll give you an example of a breath control pattern I use with my dancers to combat over-arousal. With today's mental skill, I'm here to help you make sure all that hard work in the studio shows up on stage, so if you've ever had a dancer mess up on something they've done correctly in practice a zillion times, this episode is for you!

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/136

Podcast Quiz: https://chelseapierotti.com/podcastquiz

135. How Authentic Values Help You Make Hard Decisions Nov 09, 2023

As a passionate dance teacher, do you ever feel overwhelmed or struggle with making decisions? I know after a day of teaching, I often struggle to make a simple decision about what to eat for dinner. If you've ever felt overwhelmed, especially with a big decision, I have some guidance for you. I understand how making so many little decisions is mentally taxing, and then when there's a big decision to be made, we can freeze and lose confidence in what path to choose.

In this episode, I’ll help you discover that you do know which path is right. We’ll talk about the importance of knowing your values and how they can help you make hard decisions and achieve your goals. Whether you're a dance teacher or a dancer, this episode will help you make those hard decisions so you can confidently pursue your goals!

Workshops: https://chelseapierotti.com/workshop

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/135

Key Highlights -

[3m 19s] - Knowing Your Values
[6m 53s] - Values Help You Achieve Your Goals
[9m 31s] - Behaviors
[11m 45s] - Values Help Us Make Hard Decisions

134. The 3 Things In Your Control if You Want to Be Successful Nov 02, 2023

Do you feel like your dancers are focused, dialed in, and confident when it’s time to take the stage, or do they seem nervous, distracted, and scared? As a passionate dance teacher, you might feel like you've done your best to prepare your dancers for success, yet they still get anxious and say things like, “What if I make a mistake?”

In this episode, I’ll share how to help your dancers stay focused and calm during competition. I’ll unpack more about the simple mindset mantra that I personally use nearly every day, and when I teach it to dancers and teachers, I’ve seen it make a big difference for them as well. I’ll also share about the three things that are in your control and break down the ACE acronym. If you want to help your dancers let go and perform, listen in to hear about how you can calm their inner voice and allow the best performance to flow!

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Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/134

133. How Dance Teachers Can Turn Comparison into Inspiration Oct 26, 2023

Have you ever looked at another dance teacher who you admire and just felt jealous or had the thought, “How can I compare myself to these top people in the industry whose career I wish I had,” and then use that comparison for inspiration, or if you get trapped in that sense of, “I’ll never get there.” If you’ve ever had these thoughts, you’re probably a passionate dance teacher or someone who also gets caught in a comparison trap. Here’s the thing though: comparison doesn't have to make you feel so isolated or feel less than or stuck. Comparison can be a source of inspiration.

In this episode, I’ll share a bit about my own experience of getting caught in the comparison trap. We’ll also talk about the red flags that come up as a teacher when comparison is holding you back and how you can help your dancers get out of the comparison trap mindset to find confidence and inspiration. I hope this episode helps you pause and consider how you can shift your perspective from the comparison trap to using others as inspiration!

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/133

Key Highlights -

[1m 56s] - My Experience With Comparison
[3m 26s] - The Comparison Trap is a Normal Experience
[4m 04s] - Signs Comparison is Holding You Back
[6m 55s] - Ask Yourself These Three Questions
[10m 38s] - How to Address Comparison as a Teacher
[13m 29s] - Helping to Shift Your Dancers’ Comparison Mindset

132. How to Use Your Habit Brain to Reduce the Chances of Devastating Mistakes Oct 19, 2023

Have you ever trained your dancers for a competition, drilling a dance routine over and over, only to have the dancers make a big mistake onstage that came out of nowhere? It feels so frustrating when you think you’ve done all you can to help your dancers prepare, and then something happens and the routine is just not up to par onstage. The good news is there’s a mental skill you can strengthen to increase your dancers’ chance for success onstage.

In this episode, we’ll discuss motor programs, habit brains, and why overlearning is an important skill for dancers to develop. Listen in as I explain how you can help your dancers use their habit brain to be more successful this competition season!

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Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/132

131. The FIRST Mental Skill Your Dancers Need to Learn and Probably Never Did Oct 12, 2023

If you want dancers with more focus in class or more personal accountability, there is one mental skill that dancers need first. Maybe you’re frustrated right now because dancers aren't taking corrections or are just going through the motions in class without much drive or purpose. I get it because I’ve seen this type of mindset in studios and school teams all over the country.

In this episode, we’ll discuss how working on one fundamental mental skill may be the solution to your biggest headache right now. We’ll take a deeper look at using this mental skill in warm-up, practice, competition, and to deconstruct routine behaviors. We’ll also talk about how this mental skill just might be the key to joy for your dancers.

To help build this mental skill, you’ll want to give your dancers the opportunity to reflect and journal on a regular basis. So to help you with that, you can grab your copy right now of 46 Different Journal Prompts for Dancers. Enjoy this episode on the one foundational mental skill your dancers need to work on right now!

Journal Prompts: https://chelseapierotti.com/journal

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/131

130. Mental Skills of Auditioning and Performing in NYC with Courtney Ortiz Oct 05, 2023

In this episode, I’m talking with New York City-based professional dancer, Courtney Ortiz. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to audition and perform in New York City, she shares some great advice on the mental aspects of being a professional adult performer and how to pick up choreography quickly.

Courtney’s career spans from stage to screen with credits including the Broadway National Tour of Finding Neverland, Lin Manuel Miranda’s In The Heights, The Radio City Christmas Spectacular featuring The Rockettes, and so much more. Outside of performing, Courtney is an international dance educator and in-demand dance adjudicator as well. She’s been teaching on faculty with numerous dance conventions and is currently on guest faculty at the legendary Steps on Broadway.

Courtney has some great points about being able to pick up choreography quickly in an audition and adapt in a professional setting. Spoiler alert: you have to count! There’s even more to the conversation when we discuss teaching, judging, how you build your confidence as a judge, and if judges can really tell if you're nervous based on your walk on. Enjoy my conversation with New York City-based professional dancer, Courtney Ortiz!

Episode Resorces and Courtney's Info: https://chelseapierotti.com/130

129. How to Break into the Confidence Cycle Sep 28, 2023

Do you need confidence to perform well, or do you need to perform well before you can feel confident about yourself? Confidence is one of the biggest mental skills dancers are usually working on. Whether we are a new studio dancer or a professional on Broadway, we are always trying to find that confidence boost to control our nerves and put our best foot forward. The question is how do you get that confidence?

Today’s episode is all about the confidence cycle. We’ll discuss the benefits of intentional cleaning sessions, giving your dancers a sense of accomplishment, and acknowledging small victories will have on your dancers’ confidence. When your dancers feel more confident, they’ll have better performance success, which only increases their confidence!

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/129

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128. My Top Lesson from Hamilton: Plant the Seeds of Your Legacy Sep 21, 2023

Good leaders think about the legacy they want to leave behind, even if they are years away from leaving the helm of the ship. I had the extreme pleasure of watching the national tour of Hamilton when it first came to town, and I left the show inspired and thinking about legacy. How do you build a legacy that you're proud of? What does that even mean?

One of the parts that stuck with me was Alexander’s speech about his legacy: “Legacy. What is a legacy? It’s planting seeds in a garden you never get to see. I wrote some notes at the beginning of a song someone will sing for me. America, you great unfinished symphony, you sent for me. You let me make a difference.”

Today’s episode is a stream-of-consciousness episode where I was inspired to share my thoughts around tradition and legacy as dance teachers and coaches. We’ll discuss creating a legacy in the professional dance team world, the mantra of “tradition never graduates,” and I’ll share how I’ve developed my own legacy as a teacher and coach. Here are my thoughts on building our own legacies because a teacher’s impact lasts long after we’ve left the classroom.

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/128

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127. Good Dancers Believe in Their Ability to Learn, Not Just Get it Right Sep 14, 2023

Helping your dancers find the drive to work hard in class is a constant struggle for a lot of us. I think we all want to help our dancers show up with confidence and work hard every day and teach them to keep fighting when it gets hard. There are a lot of ways you can motivate your dancers, but today I’m gonna talk about one specific idea you can use to help motivate your athletes. It boils down to making them feel capable.

In today’s episode, we’ll take a deeper dive into motivation. We’ll discuss the basic psychological human need of feeling capable and go into five ways to help your dancers to believe they are capable. Listen in for many new easy to make your dancers feel capable in your next class!

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/127

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126. The Mental Strength to Return to Dance with Miller Daurey Sep 07, 2023

My guest today is inspiring the dance world by documenting his return to dance. Miller Daurey is a former professional team dancer who quit dance at 19, just when his career was really taking off. He has a new docuseries called Back to Great where he explores returning to dance training three decades later and all that entails.

In today’s episode, we talk a lot about his message that it’s never too late to go back to something you once loved. He turned the tables on me a few times in this episode by asking questions that really made me think, which I of course love. We talked about the mental toll of the new culture in LA of filming for social media at the end of dance class. Personally, I love watching those videos, but it’s certainly interesting to explore the mental cost of participating in those videos in a space that’s meant for learning. We also talked about our identity as a dancer, comparison and perfectionism, creating a safe class environment in the dance studio, and most importantly, how you show up for yourself.

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/126

Miller Dauray: https://instagram.com/backtogreat

125. 8 Mistakes that Will Derail Your Dance Goals and Set You Back Aug 31, 2023

Welcome to part three of my goal-setting series! If this is the first time you're tuning in, please feel free to back up a few episodes and start with part one of this goal-setting series. However, if you’re a loyal listener, you’re set up and ready to listen to this episode!

There are a lot of common problems that come up for dancers, and they derail you from reaching your full potential and climbing your personal mountain. But if you know what could get in the way and you plan for it, you are much closer to realizing your dreams, whether at competition or in the studio. In this episode, we’ll be talking about why people fail at their goals. We’ll dive into eight common problems I see with goals, so tune in to learn all about what could get in the way of your dancers’ goals.

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/125

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124. Why Goal Setting Works and Why You Might Be Getting it Wrong Aug 24, 2023

In last week’s episode, we talked about the different types of goals and why dance competition goals can actually hurt your motivation. In today’s episode, I’m going to add some more info about why goal setting works and how it works, so not only do you understand it better, but you can explain it to your dancers. We’ll do a recap on outcome, process, and performance goals as well as discuss the four ways goal setting influences performance.

When you all understand the how and the why, commitment goes up, buy-in goes up, and the process is so much easier. This episode will fill you in on all you need to know about goal setting if you want to see your dancers improve onstage!

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Other Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/124

123. If You Want to Win, Winning Can't Be the Goal Aug 17, 2023

Summary: Good goal setting improves confidence, motivation, and your actual performance. To be completely real with you, most people get this wrong. I spend a lot of time helping dancers set goals over the summer, and I hear a lot of goals like, “I want to get stronger this year,” or “I want better turns,” or “I want to place top ten in my solo at competition.” I understand why those are common goals, but none of them are going to actually help motivate a dancer and help them be in a positive mindset.

In today’s episode, we’ll be talking about the different types of goals you can set to help you achieve your best. This episode is part one of a two-part series about goal setting. If you take goal setting seriously and actually implement these tools, you are bound to be ahead of the game this dance competition season!

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/123

122. Do Your Dancers have GRIT? Aug 10, 2023

Grit is in the dancer who works so much harder than the naturally-talented dancer who slides by. Grit is in the dancer who doesn't quit on a new skill and in the dancer who gets back up every time she falls. Even if you're not familiar with this term, you've probably seen it as a coach and a teacher.

In today’s episode, we’ll be talking all about this mental skill of grit. We’ll discuss the two key areas of grit: passion and persistence. We’ll also touch on an equation for achievement, talent, effort, and skill. I believe we can teach our dancers to have more grit because no matter how much talent they start with, we have to help them take it as far as they can go!

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/122

121. 6 Ways to Teach Accountability Aug 03, 2023

In today’s episode, I’ll be tackling one of the biggest issues I hear about all summer: accountability. I hear from teachers and coaches who feel like it’s gotten so much harder to get their dancers to follow through on expectations lately. I hear from dancers whenever we talk about team values, talk about how much they need more accountability, responsibility, and self-discipline on their teams. Having accountability on a team is like collected self-discipline. It’s when everyone is doing their part and holding every other dancer to the same expectation.

If both dancers and teachers want more but it’s not happening, how do you teach accountability? Well, I’ve got you covered! In this episode, we’ll define accountability and discuss six ways you can teach accountability to your dancers to help develop the self-discipline that will in turn lead to teamwork.

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/121

120. How to Be A Mindful and Supportive Dance Parent Jul 27, 2023

In today’s episode, I am back with Dr. Megan Babkes-Stellino to answer some of your questions about dance parents! If you missed part one, pause and go back and listen to Episode 115 (link below!). We had some great feedback and incredible questions come in regarding dealing with dance moms and sport parents that Dr. Megan graciously agreed to come back and share some more insight on.

In this episode, we’ll talk about getting our dancers to give full effort and helping dancers and parents understand that effort and ability are not the same thing. You’ll also be hearing from two dance teachers who have different assessments of a dancer’s ability than the parent does, and how do you deal with that conflict. Dr. Megan will also be sharing the three M’s of sport parenting, which you can then share with your dance parents to help create a better working relationship.

Because I like to help make things simpler for you, I took a lot of the great advice that Dr. Megan shared and put it into a download called How to be a Mindful and Supportive Dance Parent. The link is below for you if you want something concrete that you can give to dance parents to start this conversation about how they can be a supportive dance parent!

Download: https://chelseapierotti.com/parents

Other Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/120

119. How to Use Summer Reflection to Achieve Your Personal Vision Jul 20, 2023

Summary: Each year I set a word of intention rather than a New Year’s resolution, and I usually stop and do a deep reflection on my intention at the end of the year. Like most of us, I’m always learning and growing, and I’ve learned if I don't do a deeper reflection in the summer, I usually get off track. That was one of my big reflections from last year.

Today’s episode is going to be a mid-year reflection on my word of the year, which is purpose. I’ll speak about my word of the year and how I set my vision for the year. I’ll also summarize the five ways I wanted to live with more purpose this year. I encourage you to take time to either set your own word for the remainder of the year, or if you already have a word for this year, do a deeper reflection on how this year’s word is going for you. I promise that you won't regret time spent in reflection!

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/119

118. 4 Mental Toughness Myths That Could Be Holding You Back Jul 13, 2023

Summary: If you've ever talked to your dancers about taking the floor with a confident mindset or using visualization before a competition, you probably understand the importance of mental skills training. But do you have any beliefs about mental toughness that are holding you back from your personal best? In my experience, there are four major myths that keep coaches from implementing mental toughness training with their team, even when they know it will be the difference in the team’s success.

In today’s episode, I’ll be discussing these four myths about mental toughness that I’ve heard around the internet, on social media, when I talk to dance educators, and in workshops that may keep teachers from training their dancers in mental skills. I don’t want anything holding you back, so let’s make sure these four false beliefs aren't getting in your way.

Episode Resourcees: https://chelseapierotti.com/118

Goal Setting Resource: https://chelseapierotti.com/goals

117. I'm Backstage, How Do I Stop My Negative Thoughts? Jul 06, 2023

I was working with a group of dancers recently, and after our discussion about competition mindset, two dancers came up to me and asked, “What do I do if I’m standing backstage about to go on and the negative thoughts are just going crazy? How do I stop it?” Negative self-talk is probably one of the biggest issues that dancers talk to me about. Most dancers understand what negative self-talk is and how it’s not helpful, but they can't always stop it from happening.

In today’s quick-tip episode, I’m gonna give you one tool to stop the backstage negativity spiral. We’ll discuss how to handle backstage nerves, helpful and unhelpful self-talk, taking control of your mind and body, and how to reverse unhelpful thoughts. I’ll share a few examples of unhelpful thoughts and walk you through how to reverse them. I hope this gives you a new idea to test out!

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com117

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116. How to Take Control and Reach Your Personal Best on Stage Jun 29, 2023

I think we would all love a hack for peak performance, wouldn't we? Peak performance is when you are able to perform at your personal best to reach your full potential. Think of it like reaching your full potential. All of that work you've done in class, all the long practices and drilling routines is worth it, and you perform your personal best when it counts. When you're under pressure, you hit it. While there is no hack for reaching peak performance, if you understand what helps you achieve peak performance, like where it comes from, you can improve your chances of making it happen.

In today’s episode, I’ll be talking about the concept of peak performance. I’ll explain a type of peak performance called clutch state and what to do to help make that clutch performance more likely, that way you can take control and reach your personal best onstage. We’ll discuss the six things that lead up to a clutch state, and if you spend time working on these six things, you will be a clutch performer.

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/116

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115. Dance Parents are Terrible! But here's how you can cultivate a positive relationship with your dance parents Jun 22, 2023

Summary: Do you have dance moms and dance dads at your studio or school that drive you completely crazy? I know crazy sport parents can be super challenging, and I’ve heard coaches say things like, “I love everything about teaching dance except the parents.”

In today’s episode, we’ll be talking all about dance parents with my guest, Dr. Megan Babkes-Stellino. Megan is actually my academic mentor. She was my advisor when I was getting my PhD, and she was the one who encouraged me to research with dancers, which was still relatively new at the time. So much of my love and knowledge for sport psychology came from Megan, and I’m really excited to share her with you. Megan is an expert on sport parents. She has this incredible way of helping us understand where parents are coming from, but also give the coaches and the teachers some practical advice on how to develop positive relationships where those dance parents respect you as the coach but can stay firmly in their lane as the parent.

In the episode, Dr. Megan and I talk about how you can change your parent handbooks for the better, how parents often believe that winning and fun are the same thing, and they also believe that effort can only be seen through trophies and public recognition. Of course, we know better. As you’ll hear, we had so much to share that this will actually be part one, and we’ll come back with part two soon.

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/115

114. You Have To Learn How to Be Comfortable Being Uncomfortable - with Katie Groven Jun 15, 2023

Summary: Do your dancers have the growth mindset it takes to really push themselves to improve? In today’s episode, I’ll be talking with the one and only Katie Groven of Dancer-Fitness.com about all things mental and physical flexibility for dancers. Katie was one of the first guests on the show way back in episode ten, and we both believe in challenging our dancers to be the best they can be while giving them the tools they need to achieve it.

In this conversation, Katie and I talk about the idea of getting comfortable being uncomfortable, because if you want to see growth, both in your physical skills and in your mental toughness, you have to learn to push your own boundaries. We also share theories for why dancers might cheat and roll out of dance warm-up stretches and what you can do about it, and stick around for the end where we share advice for how to challenge your dancers, both mentally and physically, so they learn to dig deep and really put in the work for themselves.

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/114

113. Don’t Just Insist on More Effort From Your Dancers, There Is a Better Way Jun 08, 2023

Summary: When we think our dancers are being lazy or don’t care, we tend to yell for full out and push for more energy because we assume the dancers aren’t giving us their full effort. But what actually is effort? How do you know what someone else’s 100% effort actually looks like?

Today’s episode was inspired by Coach Alaina who sent me a voice note that really got me thinking. In the episode, we’ll talk about effort, what full out really means, and how to help your dancers give more effort in practice. We’ll also dive into answering what’s really going on when your dancers appear to be lacking effort. If you have a topic you want to hear discussed on the show, please leave me a voice note at https://chelseapierotti.com/message!

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/113

112. 7 Tips for Effective Communication Between Coaches and Athletes Jun 01, 2023

Summary: Healthy communication with our dancers starts with us dance coaches and teachers. We’re the role models for how we want to communicate in our programs and our studios and our teams. We establish the rules and expectations for how to talk to each other and what healthy communication looks like. Good communication can improve motivation, can help dancers be more resilient, and can put them in the right mindset to persevere and have fun.

In today’s episode, we’re diving into the importance of effective communication, which is a huge topic both in its complexity and importance. I’ll be talking about effective communication strategies and will give you seven distinct ways to communicate effectively from coach to athlete or teacher to dancer. As I always say, your language matters, so how you communicate to your dancers can make a huge impact in their lives.

Check out resources for this episode and more at https://chelseapierotti.com/112

111. 6 Dance Science Experts Share How They Would Change Dance Education May 25, 2023

Today’s episode is an epic collaboration of six dance specialists and dance business owners. It’s a re-release of an episode of my friend Jeanne’s podcast, The Feis Fit Podcast. We all got together to record for her show, and she graciously gave me permission to release the episode here as well!

In this episode, you’ll hear from Jeanne and I plus two other personal trainers you may know, Kendall and Katie, plus nutritionist Jenny, and Nina, an athletic trainer. We’ll be talking about the best parts of our time as dancers, the biggest challenges, the life lessons we learned from dance. For those of you who are dance educators, I think you’ll really like the part where we talk about what we would have changed about our own dance education, knowing what we know now about training, nutrition, dance science, dance medicine, and mental health.

Hearing how each of us approach this question differently was really interesting and definitely makes me rethink education in our industry right now. Even though we don’t explicitly talk about it, listening back to this, I think it is really interesting how each of the six of us have created a career based in the dance industry and now have thriving businesses that allow us to use our expertise and continue to work with dancers through our dance science jobs.

Find out more on the episode resource page: https://chelseapierotti.com/111

110. 5 Practical Tips for Team Building like Creating a 5-Star Practice May 18, 2023

Summary: Today’s episode is part three of a three-part series on team building. In the first two episodes of the series, we talked about the two different types of cohesion that your dancers are striving for, and we covered the four different factors that influence your ability to bond and be aware of those important factors you may not be able to change but are still impacting your dancers’ ability to form a strong connection.

In this episode, I’ll be covering five specific strategies you can use to increase cohesion. I hope hearing more about the different types of cohesion and different aspects of a team that influence cohesion is all helpful to set the stage, but I also know sometimes we just need the practical advice, so if you're looking for a more practical approach, this episode is all for you!

If you’d like more specifics on exactly the kinds of team building activities you can play to create a united team, I have a free download that’ll help with that. I know many of us are always looking for new and different ideas, so this download has 15 different team bonding games you can use with your dancers. If you’d like to see team bonding benefits play out with your dancers, go to www.chelseapierotti.com/110 to get your download.

109. 4 Simple Factors that Influence Your Dance Team's Unity May 11, 2023

Summary: Establishing cohesion and unity among a group of dancers is an ongoing process, and anyone who’s been a teacher or a coach for more than one year will probably tell you every group is different. One big reason why each group is different is because there are four factors that influence your ability to create a cohesive group, and those factors will change with every group of dancers.

Today’s episode is part two of a three-part series on team building. In this episode, I’ll explain those four factors and help you understand what it takes to create a cohesive team. I’ll also answer the question of why some groups have an easier time working together and getting along compared to others. We know a more cohesive group of dancers is bound to be happier and more successful when they're on stage, plus it’s a lot more fun to teach and coach a group of dancers who are one solid unit.

If you’d like more specifics on exactly the kinds of team building activities you can play to create a united team, I have a free download that’ll help with that. I know many of us are always looking for new and different ideas, so this download has 15 different team bonding games you can use with your dancers. If you’d like to see team bonding benefits play out with your dancers, go to www.chelseapierotti.com/109 to get your download!

108. The 2 Types of Effective Team Bonding You Need This Summer May 04, 2023

Team Bonding Series Part 1

Summary: Did you know there are two types of team bonding? I know many coaches believe that if dancers spend time together, both in and out of practice, they will bond. However, if you're not strategic about this, your team bonding activities will stay very surface level. Unless you encourage your dancers to learn to truly trust each other, they won't be able to get in the trenches and work together when it matters most later in the season. So, this episode kicks off part one of a three-part series on team bonding!

In this first episode, I’ll be talking about what team bonding really is, team bonding benefits, and I’ll discuss how to build that strong social culture for your dancers. I’ll also clarify the two different types of team bonding (social cohesion and task cohesion) so that you can ensure you’re focusing on both as we head into the start of our new seasons.

If you’d like more specifics on exactly the kinds of games you can play, especially around task cohesion, I have a free download that’ll help with that. I know many of us are always looking for new and different ideas, so this download has 15 different team bonding games you can use with your dancers. Go to www.chelseapierotti.com/108 to get it!

107. From Fear to Intuition: How to find your own path to success Apr 20, 2023

Summary: As a dancer, are you following someone else’s dream or your own? Do you have dreams of becoming a famous professional ballet dancer? Who do you think you need to be in order to be successful in the dance industry?

My guest today is Susanne Puerschel, a former professional ballet dancer and founder of Pointe to Rise, an empowerment society and online business platform for ballerinas and other dancers. Susanne is passionate about moving beyond old beliefs and systems that no longer serve dancers and dance teachers and finding new and better ways of doing things. In this episode, we’ll take a look at these questions and talk about breaking down some negative beliefs that are probably not serving you, and instead finding your path to your own dreams. We’ll also be talking about the concepts of being a well-rounded dancer and a starving artist, as well as three mindset tools that are helping Susanne that might help you too.

Susanne shares so much wisdom for dancers and artists alike who have big dreams. If you're considering a professional ballet or dance career, or if you're the one helping others along the journey to their professional dance careers, I invite you to listen to this episode! “Anything is possible as long as you believe in it.”

Episode Resources:

https://chelseapierotti.com/107

106. My Top 10 Worst Coaching Mistakes and What to Do Instead Apr 13, 2023

Summary: Whenever an event or a season is coming to a close, I like to think back and notice what went well, what didn't go so well, and what lessons have I learned. As I usually do around this time of year, I was recently reflecting on past seasons. I coached for about 15 years, and so, this time I actually decided to take my reflection all the way back and think about lessons I’ve learned throughout my time.

In this episode, I’ll be sharing with you my top ten mistakes I made as a new coach. We’ll dive into these coaching mistakes and talk about what coaches should do, what coaches should not do, and I’ll share a few leadership mistake examples. I was a very seasoned coach before I learned to take my own advice, so I hope hearing about my worst coaching mistakes helps spark some ideas for you. If you’d like to share your own lessons learned as a dance educator, I’d love to hear from you and put them together into an episode where I can share teaching and coaching lessons learned! Leave a voice note of your biggest lesson as a dance educator here: www.chelseapierotti.com/message.

Resources:

Episode website: https://chelseapierotti.com/106

105. Why the Best Leaders Always Share the Credit Apr 06, 2023

Summary: As teachers, studio owners, and coaches, we often don't get credit when things are going well. If our dancers are doing well at competition, they are praised, and rightfully so. If we have a recital that goes off without a hitch, teachers might be praised but the studio owner is rarely recognized outside of the studio.

I was recently working with a group of studio owners, and I heard from one of them how disheartening it can be when you’re giving everything of yourself to your studio and no one seems to notice. That conversation inspired me to share a short message in today’s episode about the importance of giving credit to others and how to deal with those negative emotions when you feel like no one notices how hard you’re working, along with some leadership tips.

While I believe that passing on the compliment to others is a sign of a strong leader, a lot of times, many leaders also can afford to recognize they’re allowed to take a compliment themselves, too. If you think this message might help another dance educator in your life, please share the episode with them. We could all use a little uplifting note now and then, so let’s spread that message to other hardworking dance educators who need to hear it!

Resources:

This Episode’s Website: http://www.chelseapierotti.com/105

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104. How to Build Positive Team Culture in Your Studio Mar 30, 2023

Building team culture takes hard work. The question is, what must we do in order to actually build a positive team or studio culture with our dancers or how do we turn a negative team culture around?

In today’s episode, I’ll be interviewing Jennifer Koonce who has been coaching for over 25 years, is a sought-after judge and choreographer, and currently owns a very successful all-star studio in Virginia. In our conversation, Jen shares her perspective on setting boundaries and creating a positive culture in the studio, plus some great ideas about empowering her coaches and how they end practices with The Finisher to boost team morale. Jen also has some great advice on how her coaches and dancers discuss wins and losses in a way that the athletes stay humble but motivated, and stick around for the end for a great idea to incorporate into your end-of-year banquet. If you’re looking to learn more about how to build positive team culture, how to turn a negative team into a positive team, and hear a few positive team culture examples, tune into this episode with Jen!

Resources

Episode website: https://chelseapierotti.com/104

Adrenaline Studio’s Website: https://www.adrenalinestudionova.com/teachers

103. 3 Tools to Increase a Dancer's Motivation [Framework Part 3] Mar 23, 2023

Do your dancers get lazy sometimes? Do you not know how to motivate athletes as a coach? If your dancers are lacking motivation, there is something you can do about it!

Welcome to Part Three of my Framework Series. In today’s episode, we’ll be focusing on the motivation pillar. We’ll talk about the three ways you can inspire fierce motivation in your female athletes: team culture, rewards and punishments, and goal setting. These are all tactics for motivating athletes to improve their performance. We’ll break down why giving 100 percent 365 days a year is not sustainable, and how to cultivate steady motivation. These three skills we discuss in this episode will help you in motivating lazy athletes when they are having a harder time, because as the coach, there are things in your control that can make a difference in how your dancers show up to classes and practices.

I know these skills are easier said than done, and I want to help you help your dancers learn these skills. If you’d like to learn more about my Mental Skills Workshops, please visit www.chelseapierotti.com/workshop, and you’ll see more information on both in-person and virtual options!

Resources

Framework Visual on This Episode’s Website: http://www.chelseapierotti.com/103

102. 3 Tools to Increase a Dancer's Resilience [Framework Part 2] Mar 16, 2023

This episode is part two of the Positive Coaching Framework Series where we’ll discuss how to be a dance coach who truly makes a lasting positive impact on your dancers.

If you’ve been teaching for a while, you might agree with me that today’s dancers are different. While there are some positives, being challenged and pushed outside of their comfort zone is more often met with shutting down and closing up rather than rising to the challenge. Being able to rise up to that challenge, though, is a skill of resilience.

In today’s episode, we take a look at the resilience pillar where we’ll focus on the power of resilience, why resilience is important, and how to build resilience in students and dancers. There are three skills to creating this foundation of emotional resilience that I’ll walk you through: learning about emotional strength, learning to respond (not react), and being comfortable with the uncomfortable. As dance educators, I believe we can focus on building resilience in our students by teaching our dancers how to lean into the discomfort of being scared.

I know these skills are easier said than done, and I want to help you help your dancers learn these skills. If you’d like to learn more about my Mental Skills Workshops, please visit www.chelseapierotti.com/workshop, and you’ll see more information on both in-person and virtual options.

Resources:

Episode Website: http://www.chelseapierotti.com/102

101. 3 Tools to Increase a Dancer's Mental Toughness [Framework Part 1] Mar 09, 2023

Summary: You may have heard there are four pillars to the Passion for Dance podcast: mindset, resilience, motivation, and community. All of the episodes revolve around those themes, and I chose that structure because it comes directly from my Positive Coaching Framework. To be a coach with impact, you have to teach your dancers how to have a tough mindset, fierce motivation, and steady resilience, and I believe the best way to accomplish that is with a community next to you. My goal as an educator is always to have a positive impact on the dancers and other teachers that I work with, and it’s time I share that with all of you.

This episode is part one of a three-part series where I will show you how to be a dance coach who truly makes a lasting positive impact on your athletes by focusing on those three areas of mindset, motivation, and resilience. In today’s episode, we’ll start off with the mindset pillar. We break down the three tools of mindset: building confidence, establishing positive self-talk, and Controlling the Controllables. I’ll also share a message from a member of the Relevé Membership and dive deeper into the tools available to you inside of the membership.

Resources -

Episode Website: http://www.chelseapierotti.com/101

The Relevé Dance Coach Membership is there to replenish your personal, mental, and emotional energy and help you create dancers who are mentally tough, resilient, and motivated. Join the Relevé Membership here: www.chelseapierotti.com/membership

Submit a question to be answered on the show: www.speakpipe.com/passionfordance

Join my email list here: www.chelseapierotti.com/email

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers

Word of mouth is still the best way the show can grow! If you have a dance friend out there who you think would benefit, please share this episode with them!

100. Small Moments and the Important People You Share Them With Mar 02, 2023

Welcome to the 100th episode of the Passion for Dance podcast! In honor of the 100th episode, I wanted to do something special. My passion has become a passion for so many of you who are listening, so thank you for continuing to tune in, listen, and send me all the messages about the podcast and how much it’s helped you. It's all about building relationships and I love this community so thank you for being a part of it!

Today’s episode is all about those small moments that shape who you are and the special people who are with you when you experience them. I asked a few different people who have been a part of my dance life at different stages to share a little story about a small moment they shared with me and what it meant to them. In the episode, I’ll play four messages from these four people and give my honest immediate reaction to them.

I hope you find this interesting, getting a little glimpse into me and the different phases of my life, and I hope this episode encourages you to pause and think about those small moments in your life that have really meant something to you and who was with you during those moments.

Resources:

Episode Website: http://www.chelseapierotti.com/100

Join the Relevé Membership here: www.chelseapierotti.com/membership

Submit a question to be answered on the show: www.speakpipe.com/passionfordance

Join my email list here: www.chelseapierotti.com/email

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers

Word of mouth is still the best way the show can grow! If you have a dance friend out there who you think would benefit, please share this episode with them!

99. Confidence Myths You Should Avoid and What to do Instead Feb 23, 2023

How do we improve our confidence? As teachers and as dancers, building our confidence is a big topic, and there’s a lot to it. I chose to tackle this big topic with a fellow mental performance expert by my side. My guest today is a fellow mental performance expert who is also a dance expert, Lauren Ritchie.

In this episode, we discuss how fake it ‘til you make it is a life hack that neither one of us are a big fan of, we bust multiple confidence myths for dancers and dance educators, and we share those concrete tips that you can use for your own confidence or to support your dancers. Enjoy the episode!

Resources:

Episode Website: https://chelseapierotti.com/99

Lauren’s website: https://withlauren.ca/

Join the Relevé Membership here: www.chelseapierotti.com/membership

Submit a question to be answered on the show: www.speakpipe.com/passionfordance

Join my email list here: www.chelseapierotti.com/email

98. How to Strive for Excellence Without Being a Perfectionist Feb 16, 2023

Are you a perfectionist? Do you work with perfectionist dancers? I was a perfectionist dancer and a coach, but now I’m a recovering perfectionist. Perfectionism is still a regular battle for me, and it’s really common in our dance industry. Dancers are trained to focus on the most minute details. A pinky finger out of place could change the results of a competition - sometimes literally, and sometimes it just feels that way. In this episode, I’ll share the root cause of perfectionism, help you recognize your perfectionist dancers and learn how to support them so they can be the best possible dancer. I hope this episode gives you a way to talk about this with your dancers and help them overcome perfectionism.

Resources:

Episode Website: https://chelseapierotti.com/98

Submit a question to be answered on the show: www.speakpipe.com/passionfordance

Join my email list here: www.chelseapierotti.com/email

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers

Word of mouth is still the best way the show can grow! If you have a dance friend out there who you think would benefit, please share this episode with them!

97. 10 Miracle Benefits of Effective Imagery Feb 09, 2023

Do your dancers like to close their eyes and visualize their routine before taking the stage? Does visualization help improve sport performance or is it just a popular thing dancers like to do? Did you know that visualization or imagery is not just about picturing yourself doing the dance? There is research that helps explain why it works and why it’s worth your time, but it’s also not as simple as just picturing yourself. There’s much more to it. Today, we’ll be discussing visualization. I’ll explain what visualization is and share some visualization techniques including nine benefits of using imagery to improve your skills.

Resources:

Episode website: https://chelseapierotti.com/97

Submit a question to be answered on the show: www.speakpipe.com/passionfordance

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers

Word of mouth is still the best way the show can grow! If you have a dance friend out there who you think would benefit, please share this episode with them!

96. Tips to Help You Prepare for Your Next Audition with Caitlin Sloan Feb 02, 2023

Dancers, do you feel prepared for your next audition? Do you know what company or school you even want to audition for? Today’s episode is for all the dancers out there who are getting ready to audition. Caitlin Sloan of The Brainy Ballerina comes back for this conversation because she is an expert in helping dancers decide which path is right for you and helping you feel prepared for auditions. In this episode, we’ll dive into where a dancer should start when you're thinking about auditioning, how you know which company is right for you, and what to do when you have a hard decision to make.

I also wanted to say that this conversation became because of a listener question. So, I want to remind you that you can always submit your own questions, topic ideas, and guest requests. Let me know what you want to hear on the show.

Resources -

Episode Website: https://chelseapierotti.com/96

Work with Caitlin: www.thebrainyballerina.com / thebrainyballerina@gmail.com

Find Caitlin on Social Media: @thebrainyballerina

Listen to Caitlin’s First Episode: https://www.chelseapierotti.com/29

Join my Relevé Membership Here: www.chelseapierotti.com/membership

Submit a question to be answered on the show: www.speakpipe.com/passionfordance

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers

Word of mouth is still the best way the show can grow! If you have a dance friend out there who you think would benefit, please share this episode with them!

95. Why You Need a Daily Practice Intention for Growth and Focus Jan 26, 2023

Summary: The word “intention” is becoming a bit of a buzzword. There are so many influencers and psychologists alike who talk about all of the benefits setting your intention can have on your life, but what about setting an intention for a dance team practice or a ballet class? You can set an intention for the year like I do, or you can set intentions on a micro level for each day, each class, or each practice. These micro-level intentions help both dancers and teachers achieve more focus and structure within their classes. In this episode, I’ll cover why intention directs your focus, how it’s different from a goal, and how you can use it to have more present and attentive dancers.

I’d also love for you to join me inside the dance coach’s membership, Relevé. The community is designed to help you create a team of committed, hard-working dancers that are a pleasure to coach every day. There is a whole vault of all the mental skills resources I’ve ever made. I make new ones if anything ever comes up that people need, and, plus, the community of all the other coaches who are going through the same thing. I truly believe the community is something special that allows dance coaches like you to find joy and success in coaching. The community is open. We’d love to have you!

Resources -

Join my Relevé Membership Here: www.chelseapierotti.com/membership

Submit a question to be answered on the show: www.speakpipe.com/passionfordance

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers

Word of mouth is still the best way the show can grow! If you have a dance friend out there who you think would benefit, please share this episode with them!

94. My Dancers are Being Lazy and Wont Work Hard, What Do I Do? Jan 19, 2023

Summary: It can be difficult to help someone who is not motivated to work hard. Sometimes we feel pressure, as a teacher, to be the complete source of motivation. Motivation is a mental process that initiates or sometimes it sustains an athlete’s behavior, but the important part I want to bring your attention to of that definition is that it’s a mental process.

In today’s episode, I’ll be answering a question from a listener, Emily, who is struggling with a lack of motivation in her dancers. I’ll also walk you through the three main reasons that motivation drops: fixed mindset, low autonomy, and fear or failure. I’ll also talk about how to recalibrate dancers’ goals and the difference between protecting dancers’ mental health and dancers’ mental toughness.

Resources -

Episode Webpage: https://chelseapierotti.com/94

Submit a question to be answered on the show: www.speakpipe.com/passionfordance

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers

Word of mouth is still the best way the show can grow! If you have a dance friend out there who you think would benefit, please share this episode with them!

93. Why Setting Goals During Competition Season Can Be Harmful and What to Do Instead Jan 12, 2023

As a coach or a dancer, have you revisited the goals you set over the summer or at the beginning of your season? Have those big goals been on the forefront of your mind as you go to practice every week? There is no time like the present to get razor-focused on your goals!

In January, most people are trying to set big new goals for the year. But for those of us in the dance world, we’re usually mid-season right about now, and it may not feel like the right time to set new goals. However, I say it’s the perfect time if you take the right steps to do it well. Setting goals now will keep your mindset in the right place, help you be more resilient through this challenging season, and even give you that added motivation.

In today’s episode, I’ll fill you in on the six principles of a quality goal, how I approach mid-season goals, and I’ll also share a free download (linked under “Resources”) to guide you through the process. Pause and think about your goals now because there is still time to make them happen!

Resources -

Workbook Download: http://www.chelseapierotti.com/93

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers

Word of mouth is still the best way the show can grow! If you have a dance friend out there who you think would benefit, please share this episode with them!

92. I May Have Failed in 2022 but I'm Finding my Purpose in 2023 Jan 05, 2023

Do you set New Year's resolutions or new goals this time of year, or are you like me and go through a reflection process to choose one word for the year that serves as a compass or a guide? While I do think goals can be very powerful when done correctly, I first have to know where my focus is. Because this focus will guide my mindset and help me course correct when I get off track, choosing my one word to focus on each year makes achieving my goals much more likely.

Since this is the first episode of 2023, I’ll share about my own reflection process and what happened with last year’s word. I’ll also share with you how I chose my word for this year and offer some guiding questions and things to consider so you can choose your own word for 2023. My word is what I need in my life right now, and your word will be very different and should reflect what you need. I hope listening to this episode will help you find your own compass for the year. If you take the process seriously, and it’s truly connected to you, the impact is incredible.

Once you have your one word for 2023, I’d love to hear about it! Send me a message on Instagram or email me to let me know what you’ve chosen and why it matters to you.

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/92

Revisit Episode 43 - My One Word for 2022 And Why You Should Set One Too

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers

Word of mouth is still the best way the show can grow! If you have a dance friend out there who you think would benefit, please share this episode with them!

91. How to Feel Happier and Achieve More with Reflection Dec 15, 2022

Summary: Do you ever pause and reflect on your day or your week as a dance educator or a dancer? The truth is, sitting down with your favorite journal and truly reflecting on the current state of things is a bit of a luxury, but it’s one that’s more than worth your time because the return is both powerful and verified time and time again in psychological research. Reflection is essential for learning and growth. Taking the time to pause and reflect on what we’ve learned improves our performance and that includes us as teachers and coaches.

In this episode, we’re gonna dig into the mindset strategy of engaging in personal reflection. We’re reaching the end of 2022, and New Year’s planning and goals are the common theme this time of year, but I don't believe in planning or goal setting at all until you can get through the personal reflection part first. So, by the end of this episode, my hope is that you’ll understand why taking time to reflect is worth your precious time, how often to do it, and where to get started.

As a reminder, there will be no episodes for the next two weeks during the holiday season. A large part of why I do that is for my own deep-dive reflection. So, while I’ll be gone for a couple of weeks, I hope you take the time for your own reflection and see what kind of growth you experience with it.

Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/91

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers

Word of mouth is still the best way the show can grow! If you have a dance friend out there who you think would benefit, please share this episode with them!

90. Why You Shouldn't Tell Your Dancers to Get Out of Their Head Dec 08, 2022

Summary: Have you heard the saying “get out of your head” when talking about athletes who are anxious for a competition or a performance? Oftentimes, dance teachers will say, “You’re overthinking! Just get out of your head,” to encourage dancers to be more present and just dance. I get it, but while that’s generally good advice, it might not actually be helping your dancers the way you think it does. When you ask a dancer to get out of their head, is that considered mental toughness, is that mindfulness, or is that neither of the two?

In this episode, I’ll clarify the difference between mental training and mindfulness, and I’ll take you through an explanation of why “getting out of your head” isn’t actually the best strategy. I hope this episode helps you understand the differences between the two and walk away with actionable strategies to help strengthen your dancers’ mindsets.

Resources -

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform!

Episode website: https://chelseapierotti.com/90

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers

If mindfulness is something you would like to learn more about, I’d love to hear from you - send me an email or hit me up on Instagram to let me know what you think.

Word of mouth is still the best way the show can grow! If you have a dance friend out there who you think would benefit, please share this episode with them!

89. Why Do Human Beings Dance? With Natalie Orr Dec 01, 2022

Summary: Have you ever had to grieve the loss of your dream even if it was your choice to choose a different path in life? I know I’ve gone through that, and there were a lot of tears involved. My guest today, Natalie Orr, has been there too, but she turned her dance experience and passions into a coaching business that helps people understand those hard life transitions in a new way. Natalie is an ex-professional dancer, a teacher, and a dance and life coach with a background in dance anthropology. She works with dance teachers who want to break out of the restrictions of how things should be done, overcome perfectionism, and enjoy the dance journey.

In this episode, Natalie breaks down what dance anthropology is and why music and dance connect us and create such a true sense of community. She also dives into how dance teachers and dancers alike shouldn't let ourselves lose sight of the origins of dance and music in our cultures.

Key Highlights -

[2m 26s] - Natalie’s Dance Journey

[11m 35s] - Embracing the New Journey

[16m 49s] - Taking the First Step of Action

[21m 14s] - Natalie’s Definition of Dance

[24m 14s] - Dance and Music as Part of Community

[28m 57s] - Natalie’s Practical Advice for Dance Educators

Resources -

Episode webpage: https://chelseapierotti.com/89
Follow Natalie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nataliedanza/
Follow Natalie on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/NatalieOrr
Natalie’s Website: https://www.natalieorr.com/

_______

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers

88. Why Gratitude Lists Don't Work Nov 24, 2022

Summary: Gratitude has become a bit of a buzzword lately with people everywhere telling you to start a gratitude journal, have a gratitude practice every evening, write down the top three things you're grateful for today. Expressing gratitude, either verbally or writing it down, on a regular basis can help rewire your brain. There’s an old saying: “You can’t live a positive life with a negative mind.” However, we have to train for that positive mind, and practicing gratitude is one simple and very powerful way to train your brain to see more positives in your life.

In this episode, we’ll focus on how gratitude can deepen our relationships and improve our mindset. I’ll be sharing with you a little behind-the-scenes peek at some scientific findings that back up a new way to tap into the power of gratitude. I hope this episode encourages you to think about gratitude in a different way than you have before, especially during Thanksgiving. I hope that this episode serves as a reminder to tell the people in your life when you are grateful for something that they have done or the impact they have made. Happy Thanksgiving!

Key Highlights -

[1m 56s] - Training Your Mind with Gratitude

[3m 32s] - Gratitude is Finding Joy in the Little Things

[4m 20s] - Gratitude Lists

[5m 59s] - Gratitude Research

[7m 11s] - Gratitude in the Form of a Narrative

[9m 21s] - Gratitude Prompts

Resources -

20 Gratitude Prompts for Dancers: https://www.chelseapierotti.com/88

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers.

Dr. Huberman’s Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/huberman-lab/id1545953110?i=1000542687520

87. How to Flip that Mental Switch from Negative Thoughts to Positive Actions Nov 17, 2022

Summary: Do you have big goals and dreams for the year, but when it comes to actually put in the work and practice, you find yourself feeling stuck, too tired, and unmotivated to push through? In this episode, we’ll be talking about what to do when we need a mental reset as dancers or dance educators. Sometimes we can get stuck in a negative mindset, and we need a way to kick us back into a more productive mood. I will share with you ideas about how my favorite old mantra “control the controllables” isn't just about competition and those big events in our life. It’s about all the small things, too. This mantra can help us find the motivation we want to get it all done or even just to show up at rehearsal tonight in a better mental space.

I’ll also be sharing more about my membership, Relevé. This membership is all about building a community for dance coaches on the rise, and it’s open for new members. I created this membership to help all of the dance coaches out there who want to rise up and make a difference for their team and help them through the new challenges that we’ve all been facing lately.

Key Highlights -

[1m 49s] - The Dance Coach Membership: Relevé

[2m 38s] - “Control the Controllables”

[4m 10s] - Getting Caught Up in the Negative Thoughts

[5m 30s] - How to Flip the Mental Switch

[5m 50s] - Set Your Intentions

[6m 44s] - Finding Joy in the Small Things

[8m 09s] - Choosing Kindness

[8m 20s] - Listening to Those Around You

[8m 41s] - Having Time for Reflection

[9m 13s] - Being Present in the Moment

[10m 35s] - Taking Action

[14m 09s] - What is In Your Control Today?

Resources -

The Dance Coaching Membership: Relevé - www.chelseapierotti.com/membership

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers.

86. The Power of Asking the Right Questions with Dr. Noah St. John Nov 10, 2022

Summary:

If you’ve ever used affirmations with your dancers, this episode introduces a tool for a different way to use them. My guest today is Dr. Noah, a former professional dancer and a peak performance executive mental coach to the stars, who speaks on the power of using AFFORMATIONS instead of affirmations. This might be a subtle change, but it might make a huge difference for you and your dancers.

Dr. Noah danced with the Richmond Ballet, the Boston Ballet, Hartford Ballet and is also a keynote speaker who’s famous for helping people and companies take out their head trash and make more money while fulfilling their mission. He teaches his clients about the power of asking the right questions to help plant more positive thought seeds in your brain. Dr. Noah also teaches the Freedom Lifestyle Formula. Tune in to find out more!

Pull Quotes -

Dr. Noah: “So I said, “Wait a second. What if instead of saying statements we don't believe, why don't we just cut out the middleman, go right to the question, and that would instantly change the thought seeds we’re planting and, thereby, enable us to change our habits, change our results, and change our life. And I said, “Holy cow. I think I just invented something!”

Key Highlights -

[2m 40s] - What Getting Your Life Back Means to Dr. Noah

[5m 45s] - The Freedom Lifestyle Formula

[7m 45s] - To Change Your Life, Change the Thought Seeds You’re Planting

[10m 01s] - Affirmations vs. AFFORMATIONS

[18m 23s] - Advice on Helping our Dancers Believe in Themselves

[26m 13s] - A Starting AFFORMATION

[29m 40s]c- More About Dr. Noah and His Work

Resources -

Dr. Noah’s AFFOMRATIONS Method: https://afformations.com/get-afformations-secure

Dr. Noah’s Website: https://noahstjohn.com/

AFFORM Wear: https://afformwear.com/

Millionaire AFFORMATIONS Book: https://millionaireafformations.com/get-millionaire-book-secure

To submit a question, anonymously or not, head to www.chelseapierotti.com/podcast and you’ll see a link to submit a question.

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers.

85. Confidence Q&A Nov 03, 2022

Summary:

Just imagine you get up on competition day and you are pumped and excited but actually not nervous. You know your dancers are ready to crush it today! Just imagine how good it would feel to know you did everything possible to support your dancers and no one is going to be a deer in headlights when they take stage or fall apart today. You’ll be able to just exhale, relax, and enjoy competition day knowing it’s all handled. That’s truly what I want for all of you.

I put out a call for listeners to send in questions, and I picked two to answer. In this episode, you’ll hear from two of our listeners who asked about making sure your new dancers are prepared and making sure we don’t end up with that blank stare, panic look at our first event.

I’ll also be sharing about my audio course, Confident Dancer Formula. If you’re a part of this wonderful community, then I know you take your dancers’ mindset seriously and you understand that it could be the thing that makes the difference for your dancers this year. If you know your dancers need some more help with confidence this year and you want to take that little extra step, then listen in and see if this is a good fit for you because saying most dancers struggle with mindset all season, but then they just hope it’ll be okay when it’s time to take the floor.

Resources -

The Course: The Confident Dancer Formula

To submit a question, anonymously or not, head to www.chelseapierotti.com/podcast and you’ll see a link to submit a question.

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers.

84. University of Kentucky Dance Coach Dawn Walters Oct 27, 2022

Summary:

We’re going back in the archives today with an interview from 2020 with the amazing Dawn Walters of The University of Kentucky Dance Team. Dawn’s approach to coaching is so relatable and refreshing. She has such genuine advice and a superpower as a coach. We talk about opening the door for more dancers of different genres and backgrounds to join a big university program. She really led us behind the curtain and shared how she runs practices, how she cleans her routines, and even how her coaching style has changed. She was really open with me when we got into some of the hard stuff and we talked about addressing race in the dance team industry and protecting yourself as a coach from that one angry parent who could tear it all down.

Dawn was a UK cheerleader and dancer, and she started coaching UK in 2009. She has a long list of accomplishments including national titles, starting her own all-star gym, judging for top competitions, and, of course, just impacting so many young lives through her program at The University of Kentucky. I hope this beautiful interview brings you a dose of motivation and inspiration as we head into competition season.

Pull Quotes -

Dawn: “So I’m hoping that coaches will now step back and go, “Wow, okay, I was being so strict on that,” and not to be mean but just for sake of going everybody has to wear their hair in a ponytail and in a bun and whatever... Let’s take that pressure off of those coaches that go, “But I have to or I’m gonna get a point taken off ‘cause everybody’s hair wasn't this way.” ... It felt like I had to have a weave or I had to do this to my hair because otherwise I wouldn't have made the team or I wouldn't have been able to do things or whatever. Hopefully, those things go there. That’s what I really hoped that the dialogue and the communication would be there so then your kids of color and your Black kids would feel like, “Wow. I’m accepted.”

Key Highlights -

[1m 53s] Team Culture

[7m 52s] Dawn’s Two Teams: The White Squad and The Blue Squad

[11m 23s] How Dawn Runs Team Practice

[19m 27s] Dawn’s Cleaning Style

[25m 15s] Go with the Flow!

[27m 01s] You Cannot Treat All Your Dancers the Same

[32m 10s] What Dawn Would Like to See Change in Our Dance World

[37m 30s] Dawn’s Biggest Challenge as a Coach

[42m 41s] Dawn’s Favorite Memory as a Coach

[45m 07s] Dawn’s Advice for Coaches

Resources -

To be a part of a future episode, visit: www.chelseapierotti.com/beontheshow

Transcript and further resources at:

www.chelseapierotti.com/84

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers.

83. [LIVE COACHING] Personal Mindset, Honesty, and Reaching Goals without Pressure Oct 20, 2022

Summary:

You may or may not yet know that I do a lot of coaching the coaches in my business. This is where I work with dance teachers and coaches to help them discover how they can best support their dancers’ mental skills while improving their own skills. After doing this work for years, I’ve found that many people are struggling with similar situations, and I believe in the value of hearing how other people are dealing with these particular things.

Today, I am excited to share something new with all of you! We’ll be doing a one-on-one coaching for dance educators episode with Coach Erin, a high school coach in Missouri. In this episode, we discuss personal mindset tips for dance coaches, how to build up intensity and excitement earlier in the season, the benefit of discussing possible obstacles and reflecting on performances with dancers, and more.

These episodes will function as a way to come together in the community to support other dance educators, and this is the first of many episodes like these to come. These types of episodes will allow us to see that we’re not alone and also help us gain insight into how things can improve when it comes to both our dancers’ mental skills and our own skills as coaches.

Resources -

Episode Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/83

To be a part of a future episode, visit: www.chelseapierotti.com/beontheshow

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers.

82: 5 Steps to Cleaning Your Dance Routine While Building Leadership Oct 13, 2022

Summary:

If I know our dance world, then I know that one thing you can count on every season is you’re going to have to clean your routines. Whether your dance team is game-day focused, you're preparing for a championship, or you're performing the nutcracker this holiday season, we all want our routines to be as clean as possible. I always, personally, admire the routines that are exceptionally polished. It makes the artistic message easier to read and understand (and it’s just plain impressive) but cleaning can get really monotonous.

From the mental side of things, I know that’s one of the times where we really need our dancers to be more mentally tough. We need them to dig down and stick with us. Learning how to stick with a long, boring task is a good skill to have, so challenge your dancers to stay with you even if you’re spending a long time on one small section. That said, sometimes we all need a break and a little motivation boost.

Today, I’m going to share a cleaning idea that I learned from fellow coaches who were using this a lot during the pandemic when they had to stay in small groups, but, truly, it’s great anytime because of the mental break, the built-in leadership challenge, and that shift in focus.

Pull Quote -

Chelsea: “This Station Cleaning Method is a great way to take a mostly-clean routine that isn’t quite consistent yet and give it that last polish. It allows your leaders some autonomy, each dancer has some time for more feedback, and it’s simply just a way to change it up when cleaning monotony is just obnoxious and we can’t do it anymore.”

Key Highlights -

[3m 12s] The Station Cleaning Method

[3m 57s] Step One: Divide the Routine into Sections

[4m 28s] Step Two: Divide the Team into Four Equal Groups

[5m 28s] Step Three: Add Giant Sticky Notes to Each Section

[6m 36s] Step Four: Send Each Group to Their Station to Clean

[7m 35s] Step Five: Come Back Together and Run Each Section as a Whole Group

[8m 27s] Recap of The Station Cleaning Method

Resources -

Show Notes, Transcript, and Resources: https://chelseapierotti.com/82

Submit your question for the upcoming Q&A episode about building confidence here: https://speakpipe.com/passionfordance

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers.

81. Increase Joy and Motivation When You Celebrate Small Wins Oct 06, 2022

We naturally bond over shared complaints rather than shared wins. Why do we find a better connection with people when we share our frustrations? Why do we simultaneously feel like we aren’t allowed to share a win or it’s boastful? Research even shows that while we may bond over shared complaints, it can put us all in a bad mood. So why don’t we share wins and put everyone in a good mood instead? Let’s talk about why sharing wins is hard, but we need to do it more often.

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Show Notes and Resources

https://chelseapierotti.com/81

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers.

80. How To Easily Shut Down Your Brain At Night Sep 29, 2022

Imagine this, you’re lying in bed, exhausted from a long day. You start thinking about the email you need to send to that one parent. Then you start to fix the opening sequence to your jazz routine in your head because it isn’t reading the way you want it to. Then you start to calculate how long it will take you to rhinestone one costume and realize you have some late nights ahead of you. Have you ever had those sleepless nights where your head hits the pillow and the to-do list starts growing in your head?

If you can relate, then this episode is for you. I share my own method for controlling the mind clutter before bed to ensure better sleep plus some science about how forgiveness may actually be the key.

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Show Notes and Resources

https://chelseapierotti.com/80

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers.

79. Why Genetic Testing Can Be A Valuable Tool For Dancers Sep 22, 2022

Do you have more slow twitch or fast twitch muscle fibers? Does your body process B vitamins quickly making you more sluggish sometimes? Maybe you’re like me and you have no idea. So what if a genetic test could tell you specific information like that and even more like information about nutrition, and heart health, plus caffeine and sleep?

Today I talked with Sarah Haslock Johnson, founder of Dance RX, which I’m telling you, is so exciting. It’s an at-home genetic test and wellness resource, specifically crafted with dance optimization in mind. In this interview, we talked all about Dance RX, but also what it takes to be a good teacher, the industry-wide mental health concerns that were part of her motivation to create Dance RX, and more. So this is the story of Sarah’s journey and the power of Dance RX.

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Show Notes and Resources

https://chelseapierotti.com/79

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers.

78. 3 Steps to Make Sure You Can Compete in Any Context Sep 15, 2022

Have you ever had your dancers do really well in practice, everything looks fine in the studio, but then when you go to competition and change venues, all of a sudden, the routine is a mess? Some of that can come from getting too stuck in a repetitive rehearsal structure.

As coaches and teachers, we can all get in a rut sometimes, we have a similar warmup every day, we do similar drills for turns and jumps. We have a formula for working across-the-floor combos. We work on choreography, run it a few times full out and then rinse and repeat the next day.

There are definitely aspects of having a routine that is comforting, but if you get stuck in a rut, you can actually make it harder for your dancers to compete. There is a concept called practice variability in motor learning that focuses on how we can change up the way we practice a motor skill in order to improve how well we learn that skill and our ability to perform that skill at a competition. So while it is important to change things up sometimes so practice isn’t boring, it’s actually going to help your dancers better learn the skills they're working on and ensure they can perform them when it counts. In this episode, I’ll tell you all about practice variability and 3 ways to use this new knowledge to help your dancers compete in any context.

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Show Notes and Resources

https://chelseapierotti.com/78

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on your favorite podcast platform!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers.

77. How Focused Mental Skills Can Support You After Injury Sep 08, 2022

Dealing with an injury can be devastating to a dancer. And it’s not just the physical pain, but the mental load that we deal with during recovery is substantial. As dance educators, many of us have been through this ourselves, or we’ve had our students struggle with serious injuries that just break our hearts. But why does being injured hurt so much mentally as well as physically, and how do we help? In this episode, I share a case study of how I helped one dancer through a serious injury so you have some tools and ideas you can use the next time you have a dancer who needs support.

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Show Notes and Resources

https://chelseapierotti.com/77

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers.

76. Functional Nutrition: The Important Advice You Didn't Know You Needed Sep 01, 2022

If you’re a dance teacher who feels like you can’t dance like you used to but just chalk it up to being old, you have to listen in to today’s episode. My guest today is a functional dietitian who was also a studio dancer, college dancer, and cheered for the Kansas City Chiefs. Kelsey sat down with me to talk about improving your ability to sustain energy during long performances and competitions and why we need more minerals in our diet. I seriously learned so much, and not to give it all away, but we need more minerals when we’re stressed, which includes physical stress like exercise! Kelsey also shared her important advice about the dangers of coffee (and no, she doesn’t just tell you to quit caffeine) and so much more.

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Show Notes and Resources

https://chelseapierotti.com/76

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers.

75. Toxic Positivity and What To Actually Say Instead Aug 25, 2022

Have you heard of the term toxic positivity? It’s becoming a bit of a buzzphrase, so I want to dive into this complicated topic. I’m seeing it more and more on social media and hearing it in conversations with the dancers I work with. Sometimes is a great conversation, and other times there’s a lot of misinformation going around. I even recently asked my community on Instagram if they had experienced toxic positivity and 96% said yes. There is clearly an issue, and I think it’s time we talk about it. So in this episode, I explain what it is and what it isn’t, give you some common toxically positive phases to avoid, plus some better options of what to say instead.

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Show Notes and Resources

https://chelseapierotti.com/75

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers.

74. From World Renowned Dancers to Children’s Book Authors: Stories of Resilience Aug 18, 2022

As you may know, one of the main themes of this show is resilience. I love talking with successful and talented dancers about their own resilience journey and to hear what they can teach us about perseverance and following your dreams. As for today’s guests specifically, they not only have multiple ballroom championship titles, but they have also coached and worked with some of your favorite dancers on shows like SYTYCD and DWTS. They even wrote a children’s book that I can attest my 6-year-old loved. There are some wonderful words of wisdom in this episode so listen in as Corky Ballas and Carolina Orlovsky share their inspiring stories of resilience and advice for following your dreams.

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Show Notes and Resources

https://chelseapierotti.com/74

ChloeBook.com

@corkyballas

@carolinaorlovsky

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers.

73. “I Can’t Do Left” and Other Lies We Tell Ourselves Aug 11, 2022

There are so many times I’ve heard dances say things like “I can’t do left” or “I’m not a turner.” And of course, there are many times I’ve thought those things too. As a coach, it honestly wasn’t a lot better. I would think, “I wish I could be as talented as she is,” or “I can’t do that like he can.” But I’ve learned something over the years that I want to share with all of you today. We lie to ourselves a lot. Maybe we don’t mean to, maybe we don’t even know it, or maybe we really believe those negative thoughts in our own heads. But we can be better. So let’s talk about the lies we tell ourselves and what they really mean.

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Show Notes and Resources

Freebie: 23 Growth Mindset Questions

https://chelseapierotti.com/73

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers.

72. How To Handle Those Big Life Changes Aug 04, 2022

If you are a dance educator long enough, you will go through some big life changes that will impact your career and your dancers. When you have something big happening in your life like a wedding, a medical issue, the birth of a child, or moving, it usually causes a lot of stress and can be hard to navigate as a leader. When I think about my own big life changes over the last 15 years, I know I would start to just go through the motions, or stress about what it all means for my dancers. But even really positive changes can be difficult to cope with. So in this episode, I share some advice about how to handle big life changes as a leader.

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Show Notes and Resources

https://chelseapierotti.com/72

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers.

71. The Most Important Conversation You Need to Have With Your Assistant Coach Jul 28, 2022

Are you an assistant coach? Do you have an assistant in your program? Maybe you’re in the school setting and lucky enough to be an assistant coach. Or maybe you’re a head coach doing everything alone and wishing for some help! While this typically applies to a school or all-star setting with head and assistant coaches, it can also apply to studio teachers and owners who have younger teachers that report to you.

If you work with more than one dance educator but you have to be on the same page sometimes and this episode is for you. I’m going to share a little about my journey as a head coach with and without an assistant, and if you have assistants, the 4 questions you should ask them at the beginning of the season, plus if you are the assistant, I have some questions you should make sure to ask of your head coach or studio owner before we get back to the fall season.

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Freebie Download: Assistant Coach Questions

https://chelseapierotti.com/71

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers.

70. Developing a Confident Dancer Off the Marley (Part 2) Jul 21, 2022

Last summer, I hosted an online conference called the Confident Dancer Summit, where 20 different dance educators came together to teach a short course on different aspects of confidence. It was a great weekend and I decided to share one of those inspiring conversations with you today. One of the summit speakers was Mary Wendt, an incredible woman I’ve had the pleasure of working with a few times. She’s the Education director for the USASF (or US All-Star Federation). For her class at the summit, she paired up with another USASF director Kinshasa Garret and they brought together other successful coaches and had a panel discussion about increasing dancers' confidence.

This episode is PART 2 of this conversation, so if you missed last episode, go back and start there! Here is part two of the Confident Dancer Summit Panel discussion with Mary Wendt and Kinshasa Garret.

All Resources Mentioned in Today’s Show:

https://chelseapierotti.com/70

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers.

69. Developing a Confident Dancer Off the Marley (Part 1) Jul 14, 2022

Last summer, I hosted an online conference called the Confident Dancer Summit, where 20 different dance educators came together to teach a short course on different aspects of confidence. It was a great weekend and I decided to share one of those inspiring conversations with you today.

This summit class brought together many successful coaches and had a panel discussion about increasing dancers' confidence. I love how this turned out and am excited to share it with you. I’m going to break it up into two parts, so here is part one of the Confident Dancer Summit Panel discussion with Mary Wendt and Kinshasa Garret.

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All Resources Mentioned in Today’s Show:

https://chelseapierotti.com/69

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers.

68. My Teaching Philosophy and How it Changed Me Jul 07, 2022

Do you have a teaching or coaching philosophy? Personally, it took me years to come up with my own personal teaching philosophy that was really specific to me and not just words you say on a job application. It took years of experience, challenges, successes, and choices. After all of that time, my personal coaching philosophy is simple but powerful. And above all else, as an educator, I have learned why it's so important to reflect and come up with your own personal teaching or coaching philosophy. So in this episode, I’m going to share why it matters, how it will save you so much time in the future, and some tips to get you started if you haven’t written one before. And of course, I’ve got a free resource for you to help you tackle this if you’re up for it.

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All Resources Mentioned in Today’s Show:

https://chelseapierotti.com/68

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers.

67. Finding Your Unique Professional Path with Caroline Liviakis Jun 30, 2022

Today’s guest is Caroline Liviakis, she is the Founder and Executive Artistic Director of the Caroline Liviakis Dance Company (CLDC), choreographing and producing live performances and interactive experiences. In her most recent project, she brings her creative visions to digital form as a choreographer and director of film, music videos, and commercials. Caroline currently teaches at Loyola Marymount University and is currently in pre-production for her debut feature-length film: Lessons In Love. And towards the end of our conversation, today shared this amazing idea…What happens if dance isn’t just a backup to the star of the show, but dance is actually an integral part of telling the story?! It’s an amazing vision for our dance industry.

Caroline and I talked about transitioning from dancing for fun to choosing it as a career, the importance of connecting with the audience in commercial dance, the importance of cultivating relationships and what networking really means, and some great advice for those of you trying to chase your own dance career passions.

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Resources mentioned in this episode:

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/67

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers.

66. Supporting Our Dancers’ Mental Health Jun 23, 2022

This episode is a little heavier, but I’m learning to lean into the hard, so I hope you’ll join me. I’m grateful that there is a growing conversation around mental health, increasing awareness and hopefully supporting your dancers. However, I also think that can leave dance educators feeling like they should be doing more or that they don’t know enough to be responsible. Consider this episode an introduction to help you feel more comfortable with this challenging topic and know where to go next. I’m going to clarify the difference between mental health, mental illness, and mental toughness. I cover some current statistics on mental illness in athletes, and finally, what YOU can do to support your athlete’s mental health.

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All Resources Mentioned in Today’s Show:

https://chelseapierotti.com/66

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers.

65. Team Building with Champion All-Star Coach Stephanie Westbrook Jun 16, 2022

Today’s guest is Stephanie Westbrook, who is based in Sydney Australia, and currently coaches the University of New South Wales Warriors Premier Dance Teams. Over the years her teams have won multiple National Championships, multiple international bids, and multiple Dance Grand Champion titles, and Stephanie has also received several awards for choreography. In this conversation, Stephanie shared with me that she only gets 1 hour a week with her team… one hour! It’s crazy to me, so I asked her all about building team morale and trust, and she shares some great exercises to try in the summer to set the team up for success, turning things around when morale is low, what it means to be competitive, and Stephanie's great advice to “drop it and swap it!” She also shares advice on how to start a team from scratch and her coaching non-negotiables. This was such a fun interview and I’m excited to share it with you now, let’s get to it!

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/65

64: 5 Simple Ideas for Continued Personal Growth Jun 09, 2022

If you’re a part of this community, I am pretty confident you are a lifelong learner and someone who cares about being the best version of yourself. Not every dance educator out there will spend time reading books, listening to podcasts, and attending conferences in an effort to improve. But you are here… so let’s talk about personal growth today. When you are reading or listening and consuming all this new information, is it always focused on how you can be better for your dancers? What about a purely personal mission of YOUR growth? Today let’s focus on you the teacher and coach and not your dancers, here are 5 simple ideas to help you focus on your own growth.

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All Resources Mentioned in Today’s Show:

https://chelseapierotti.com/64

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/64

63. When Do I Teach My Dancers About Mental Skills? Jun 02, 2022

It’s summer, which for me as a mental performance consultant means busy season! Lots of dance studios and coaches want to focus on mental skills training in the summer, which is great. It’s our “off-season” or as I like to say, “improvement season”. So in today’s episode, I want to address a question I get a lot… when should I teach my dancers about mental skills? It’s a great question, so let’s talk about when it’s best to train for mental skills.

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Interested in having Dr. Chelsea teach a Mental Skills Workshop?

https://chelseapierotti.com/services

All Resources Mentioned in Today’s Show:

https://chelseapierotti.com/63

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/63

62. How I Plan My Dance Season May 26, 2022

Summer is often a time of vacations and relaxing, but also, intensives and summer camps, and usually whole love of planning! If you are someone like me who loves a good planner, color codes everything and enjoys mapping out your season, I’m excited to share my planning process with you. And if you are NOT a planner, I encourage you to stick around. While it may not come as naturally as it does for others, that doesn’t mean you can’t do it.

If you want to see some growth in your dancers next year, let’s talk about the 4 step planning process that will help you make it happen.

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Annual Reflection Download

https://chelseapierotti.com/reflection

Planner Download

https://chelseapierotti.com/planner

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/62

61. The Positive Coaching Framework May 19, 2022

We know that being a dance coach with a positive impact is more than teaching dance skills and helping your dancers perform well and achieve competitive success. But how? What are the coaching strategies that actually help you teach your dancers those important life skills? How do you challenge them and help your dancers achieve mental strength and perseverance while also supporting their mental health? Well, there are 3 key pillars of being a positive dance coach and it’s all inside the Positive Coaching Framework

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Relevé: A community for coaches on the rise

https://chelseapierotti.com/membership

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to visit me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/61

60. Do You Know How to Give Tough Love Without Hurting Your Dancers? May 12, 2022

In this episode, I talk about the need for a little tough love in coaching. I’m not telling you to be mean and rude, but there is a time and place when it is our job to challenge our dancers. It’s a common misconception that positive coaching means going easy on them, but that’s not true. This episode explains how to give your dancers some tough love when they need it, because I know sometimes it’s hard to be hard on them. But there is a time and place, and process, for doing just that. And your dancers will be stronger for it.

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Work with Dr. Chelsea

https://chelseapierotti.com/services

__________

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to come visit me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more mental skills advice for dancers.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/60

59. Advice from Passionate Dance Educators Joe Nickel & Michelle Tolson May 05, 2022

Today's episode features two special guests, who are both professionally accomplished and exceptional dance educators. As I say in the episode, sometimes you just click with people right away because you are grounded in the same philosophy and approach to life, which is why I clicked so quickly with Joe and Michelle.

In today’s conversation, we talk about our passion for dance and teaching, why we believe dancers can't take a compliment and need support from us now more than ever, and how we can help our students define success and get through the hard times.

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JAM Podcast

Joe and Michelle’s Dance Podcast

@jamdancepodcast

Thrive Dance Experience

@thrivedanceexperience

https://thrivedanceexperience.com/

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/59

58. Never Regret a Day Apr 28, 2022

Coaching and teaching dance is hard, it’s really rewarding, but hard. It’s easy to feel beat down sometimes. When your dancers aren’t listening, when the parents are pushing every last button, when your hardworking dancers aren't seeing the competitive success you wish for them… it can feel so defeating.

So today I want to share a short message for you in the hopes it might help on those harder days when you feel like you don’t want to do this anymore. This is a simple mindset shift that might help you through… Never Regret a Day.

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Did you know Dr. Chelsea is available for speaking at your next event?

Learn more at: https://chelseapierotti.com/servies

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to follow me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti for more dance mindset tips!

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/58

57. How to Prepare your Captain to Become an Influential Leader Apr 21, 2022

This episode is a continuation of last week where I talked about 3 of the key qualities to look for in a captain. If you choose to have formal leaders, I believe choosing a captain is one of the first and sometimes more difficult decisions you make at the beginning of the season. But once the appointment is made, your work has just begun. Developing leadership skills is an ongoing process, every day, all season long. You can’t assume they will automatically be a good leader. Even if you believe they have the right personality, they’re a talented athlete, or have already demonstrated skills as a ‘natural leader’. That doesn’t mean they actually know what to do if you give them a leadership role.

A captain’s influence is powerful. If you spend the time to specifically help your captains develop into the type of leader you want, you will be able to make sure their influence is in line with your vision and direction for the team. Let’s talk about 2 key actions you can take to develop strong leadership skills in your captains.

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Mentioned in the Show:

Free Download: Roadmap to Choosing the Right Captains

Journey to Elite Captain

Self-Paced online leadership course for dance team leaders: Journey to Elite Captain

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/57

56. 3 Key Qualities of an Effective Dance Team Captain Apr 14, 2022

If you choose to have captains or formal leaders of any kind on your team, that choice can shape your entire season. And I believe the choice of who makes a good dance team leader has nothing to do with dance technique! When you are thinking about who will make the best leaders, there are 3 key characteristics to look for. And this isn't just me talking from experience, although that’s always in there too. This is based on science and a lot of research on what makes a high-quality, effective peer leader. This episode covers the 3 most important leadership qualities to look for in your dance team captains.

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Mentioned in the Show:

Free Download: Roadmap to Choosing the Right Captains

Journey to Elite Captain

Self-Paced online leadership course for dance team leaders: Journey to Elite Captain

__________

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, research references, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/56

55. Coaching Advice Inspired By My Darkest Moments Apr 07, 2022

I feel like many of us are having a hard time lately. There’s a lot of burnout, overwhelm, and negativity. And I get it! There are so many reasons why our work is hard right now. But you aren’t alone. And sometimes we all need a little pick-me-up and reassurance that we’re on the right track. Over my years of coaching, I’ve definitely had some dark moments. Times when I felt like I was completely lost, a terrible coach, and my team deserved so much better.

But I learned a lot in those dark moments. So today I’m going to share a little advice about what I learned in my darker moments, with the hope it reminds you to look for the bright side.

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Need more support Coach? Check out Relevé: The community for dance coaches on the rise

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/55

54. How to Stay Motivated After Competitive Success Mar 31, 2022

Have your dancers ever experienced success at competition, and then started to back off on the hard work that got them there and act like they can coast through the rest of the season? This phenomenon of slacking off after success is not something we talk about often in the dance industry, but I think it’s important to address. How do you stay motivated after competitive success? I’ve got 3 tips to help you do just that.

Related Episodes Mentioned in the Show

Episode 18: Growth Mindset

Episode 3: Dealing with Disappointment

Did you enjoy today’s episode?

Please share it with your dance friends!

53. 1 Big Reason Team Conflict Isn’t A Bad Thing Mar 17, 2022

Positive team culture doesn’t happen overnight, and it doesn’t happen without a lot of effort and intentional team building. But in today’s episode, I want to share the 4 step process of how to go from a group to a team. And spoiler alert… it includes conflict. You have to go through the storm to come out the other side. So here are the 4 steps to go from a new group that just came together, to a true team that reaches its full potential.

__________ Looking for help with dance team culture? Dr. Chelsea is available to host workshops with your dance team to help you create the positive team culture you're looking for. Email to inquire about pricing and availability! https://chelseapierotti.com/services

__________

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/53

52. The Mindset of a Dance Boss with Erin Pompa Mar 10, 2022

Have you ever thought about using your dance experience and education to do something other than teaching dance? Now, if you are a dance educator out there who loves what you do, I’m certainly not the one to tell you to leave. But, I have a guest today who opened my eyes to what is possible for dancers who might be ready to break the mold. I invite you to listen in today with an open mind, and maybe you’ll see things in a new light too. Today’s guest is Erin Pompa, she is the host of the Dance Boss Podcast and helps dance professionals launch virtual group training programs and increase revenue to 5k months. Erin is on a mission to help dance professionals build wealth financially, spiritually, and emotionally. Erin and I talk about our identities as dancers and dance educators, the mindset challenges of starting your own business and paving your own path, and share some inspiring stories of other dance professionals who have taken the life lessons dance taught them and turned them into a whole new career.

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Mentioned in Today’s Show:

Erin Pride & the Dance Boss Podcast

https://erinpride.com/

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/52

51. Hard-Working Dancers have Teachers Who Do These 3 Things Mar 03, 2022

We all want dancers who are hard working. Dancers who show up and stay focused during class, Dancers who put in 100% effort even if the teacher isn’t looking. But how do you create an environment where classes and practices are full of that type of dedication? In this episode, I share 3 things dance educators can do to encourage hard-working and self-motivated dancers.

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Mentioned in Today’s Show:

23 Statements and Questions to Encourage a Growth Mindset

__________

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Dr. Chelsea would love to speak at your next conference or create a private workshop for you and your dancers. Find out more at https://chelseapierotti.com

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/51

50. My Dance Story and How it Shaped Me: The Birthday Episode! Feb 24, 2022

Today is the Passion for Dance Podcast’s birthday! One year ago, I started this journey, and because I launched the show on my actual birthday, it’s also my birthday! So, to celebrate one year and 50 episodes of the show, I figured it was time to share a little more about my own story and some moments in my dance life that shaped who I am today, and why I do this work. I’m getting a little more personal today, but many of you asked to hear my story and I think all of us have important moments in our dance lives that shaped us. And when I went to prepare for this episode and look back over those important moments a pretty clear theme emerged.

All of my life I have been shaped by trying to please others while staying in my values. And the constant struggle between people-pleasing and staying true to who I am, became the foundation of a lot of the work I do now.

So, here is a little bit about my personal dance journey and the lessons that came out of them...

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Mentioned in Today’s Show:

Positive Coaching Framework Free Training

https://chelseapierotti.com/framework

__________

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/50

49. LSU Tiger Girls: The Coach’s Story Feb 17, 2022

What if we were “Like a Boy?” Would you treat us differently if we were male athletes? The LSU Tiger Girls had a clear and powerful message in their recent hip hop routine, the choreography was top-notch, and the dancers are so talented. But have you ever wondered what it felt like to coach the team through this journey?

I wanted to celebrate the person behind the team. The one who, along with her assistant coach, had to deliver the bad news when they couldn’t compete, the one who picked them back up and wouldn’t let them quit, and the coach who created a team culture of humble hard-working athletes that stole our hearts and got us all fired up. This is the story of the LSU Tiger Girls, straight from Coach Kandace.

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Mentioned in Today’s Show:

Instagram: @lsutigergirls

Doctors for Dancers

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/49

48. Fueling for Competition: Advice from Registered Dietitians Melisa and Yasi of MY Dance Nutrition Feb 10, 2022

Do you know the difference between a dietitian and a nutritionist? My guests this week are both, and the distinction is an important one becuase it means they have the education and training, plus the dance background to go with it, so they can support you and your dancers' nutrition needs. I have Melissa and Yasi from MY Dance Nutrition on the show today, and we purposely wanted to record and get this out to all of you in the thick of competition season when you’re preparing for long days or traveling to national championships because they have great advice for how to fuel your dancers for competition. They even have a bonus for you during the episode, so listen in to hear more about the Fueling for Nationals Coaches Guide. During the episode, we talk about diet culture, our relationship with our bodies as coaches and teachers, that carbs are your friends, recovering from long days, having snack time at practice, and even how to support your dancers around food when they walk into practice eating candy or sugar cereals.

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Mentioned in Today’s Show:

Website: My Dance Nutrition

Instagram: @mydancenutrition

Click the website link and sign up for our email list to receive the Dancer's Plate handout and bonus - Fueling for Nationals Coaches Guide.

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/48

47. Coaching and Mentoring for Professional Dance Teams featuring Sabrina and Amira of the Cultivate Code Feb 03, 2022

Today's guests are Pro Dance Team Coaches and Founders of the Cultivate Code, Sabrina, and Amira. These women have a wealth of knowledge about dancing in the NBA or NFL and I think a lot of our conversation translates to high school and college teams as well. We talk about mentoring professional dancers and why it’s so different, giving honest feedback as a coach at any level, the importance of coaching the whole dancer, finding your confidence as an NFL or NBA dancer, misconceptions about what it takes to really takes to be successful in the pro dance team world, and my new favorite topic: coaching your dancers to have a learning mindset. Listen in today for great coaching advice from Sabrina and Amira.

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Mentioned in Today’s Show:

Website: The Cultivate Code

Instagram: @thecultivatecode

Growth and Gratitude Journal: https://www.cultivatecode.co/GGJ

3-Day Cultivate Confidence Challenge (happening Feb 6, 7, 9) - https://www.cultivatecode.co/ac

LCS Clean & Confident Waitlist page (cart opening Feb 15-22) - https://www.cultivatecode.co/lcsccwaitlist

__________

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/47

46. Love Languages for Dance Team: How to emotionally connect with your dancers in record time Jan 27, 2022

Making a genuine connection with each of your dancers can be really challenging, but it’s so important as a teacher or coach that we try and connect with our dancers. I’ll be the first to admit that this doesn’t come easily, or rather some relationships are easier than others. Over the years there are dancers where there was an instant and easy connection, and others that took a lot longer. So in this episode, I want to talk about how we can reach out and connect with our dancers using something you may have heard of… Love Languages.

_____________

Book a Workshop with Dr. Chelsea!

https://chelseapierotti.com/services __________

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/46

45. 5 Mindset Lessons from Dance Team Nationals Jan 20, 2022

Why do we compete? If you have dancers who take on big national championships every year, why? Have they lost track of why? Throughout my consulting career, I’ve had the privilege to travel to a few different national dance team championships, as a mental skills consultant or a judge, and sometimes as a spectator who simply loves watching dance competitions. On the way home from one such event recently I really started to think about what these trips to nationals mean to the dancers and coaches who compete. I know how much time and energy goes into competing, as well as the hard work on the backend from judges and companies who run the event. So, what is it all for?

I decided there were 5 lessons that really hit home for me this year, and I hope at least one resonates with you too.

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Join the Community of Dance Coaches: Relevé

https://chelseapierotti.com/membership

__________

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/45

44. Confidently Amplify Your Personal Brand with Sonja McCord Jan 13, 2022

Do you think that being a professional dancer is out of your reach? I definitely thought so as a young dancer, but my guest today taught me a lot about chasing your dreams through being yourself. Joining me today is Sonja McCord, a professional dancer, a marketing expert, and CEO of her own incredible company. Sonja is a classically trained dancer who has performed with Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre, Nashville Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, and Dance Theatre of Harlem. She is also a pointe shoe specialist for Capezio and has used her marketing expertise to travel internationally to educate, lead, and advise professional dancers, artistic directors, and dance businesses on branding, visibility, marketing, and artist development. Sonja and I talked about having an identity crisis after a professional career ends, building your brand online, being your authentic self and setting clear goals, shaking up the dance industry, and even a little about Beyonce and Lady Gaga.

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Mentioned in today’s show:

Sonja McCord:

dance@thesonjamccordx.com

www.thesonjamccordx.com

@STARRINGSONJA

@THESONJAMCCORDX

Mental Skills Workshops with Chelsea

https://chelseapierotti.com/services

__________

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/44

43. My One Word for 2022 and Why You Should Set One Too Jan 06, 2022

I don’t set New Year’s resolutions, even though I’m a big fan of goal setting. And there’s a good reason I don’t set one big goal for the year. Because in order to have effective goal setting all year, it’s important to have an overarching focus and reason for those goals. I need a sense of purpose first. Sure, it’s good to figure out what you want to change and set goals to make that change happen, but understanding WHY you’re going to change is more valuable. That leads to the HOW which allows for you to set small actionable goals.

So rather than setting a New Year’s resolution, I set a one-word intention for the year, and in this episode, I’ll share why the one word process works, the impact of past words I’ve used, I’ll walk you through my process, and share my word for 2022 with some encouragement that you consider coming up with your own word for the year.

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Mentioned in today’s show:

Mental Skills Workshops with Chelsea

https://chelseapierotti.com/services

Jon Gordon’s Book: One Word

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/43

42. 4 Dance Coaches Share Their Best Mindset Lessons Dec 10, 2021

I am a firm believer that we should not have to coach alone on an island. And if I’ve learned lessons along the way, I’m going to share those lessons with anyone who’s interested in learning. Plus, I’m invested in my own learning as well. And today I want to take you behind the scenes a bit and share some of the great lessons and resources being shared inside the membership. I talked with 4 member coaches who all shared resources or lessons they learned inside Relevé, so you can listen in today for 4 ideas of mental skills resources you can take with you to your team. From journaling to community support, to mental preparation for competition, these coaches have some great advice to share.

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Mentioned in today’s show:

Relevé: A Community for Dance Coaches on the Rise

__________

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/42

41. Developing a Pre-Performance Routine for Confidence Dec 02, 2021

Mental skills are how you get the most out of your physical skills, and it helps ensure your dancers peak at the right time, and compete at their highest ability. Whatever physical skills you have trained are what you see on the competition floor.

See, confidence is just one aspect of mental skills training, but it’s an important one. And while every coach wants athletes to have mental skills like focus, resilience, and confidence during competitions, we often only talk about them and train for those mental skills during competitions. We try to build resilience and confidence through the act of competing.

But mental skills should be practiced when your body is calm and you aren’t in a stressful environment. You want to practice these skills when you’re relaxed, master them in that scenario, then move on to using those mental skills in competition. This episode gives you one idea of how you can do just that… by developing a pre-performance routine.

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Mentioned in today’s show:

Confident Dancer Formula

_________

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/41

40. How to Encourage Mental Toughness in our Dancers with Chelsie Hightower Nov 18, 2021

Recently I had the chance to sit down with Bri from Apolla Performance and professional dancer Chelsie Hightower, who you might recognize from So You Think You Can Dance and Dancing with the Stars. Chelsie and I found each other when a mutual friend connected us because she knew I would resonate with the mission behind Chelsie’s clothing line. Inside Out works to produce dancewear that encourages the next generation to know their worth. That mission for understanding your personal value and worth struck home for me, so I immediately wanted to connect and work with Chelsie.

That brought us both to Apolla’s Beyond the Steps show where Chelsie, Bri and I worked together to try and answer the question, “how do we encourage mental toughness in our dancers while still validating their feelings and emotions? It was such a good conversation I wanted to share it with you here so this is my conversation with Bri and Chelsie about encouraging mental toughness in our dancers.

_____________

Mentioned in today’s show:

Dance Inside Out

Dance Elevated

Apolla Performance

__________

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/40

40. How to Encourage Mental Toughness in our Dancers with Chelsie Hightower Nov 18, 2021

Recently I had the chance to sit down with Bri from Apolla Performance and professional dancer Chelsie Hightower, who you might recognize from So You Think You Can Dance and Dancing with the Stars. Chelsie and I found each other when a mutual friend connected us because she knew I would resonate with the mission behind Chelsie’s clothing line. Inside Out works to produce dancewear that encourages the next generation to know their worth. That mission for understanding your personal value and worth struck home for me, so I immediately wanted to connect and work with Chelsie.

That brought us both to Apolla’s Beyond the Steps show where Chelsie, Bri and I worked together to try and answer the question, “how do we encourage mental toughness in our dancers while still validating their feelings and emotions? It was such a good conversation I wanted to share it with you here so this is my conversation with Bri and Chelsie about encouraging mental toughness in our dancers.

_____________

Mentioned in today’s show:

Dance Inside Out

Dance Elevated

Apolla Performance

__________

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/40

39. Is Your Passion Making You Better or Weighing You Down? Nov 11, 2021

I feel like in the dance industry we use the word passion to mean your performance on the floor, to be believable, and truly go for it. But honestly, it’s a lot more than that.

If you have a passion for dance, I have some important news for you to consider: your passion for dance may be hurting you. In this episode, I share some of the psychological research on passion to highlight the fact that there are two different types of passion: harmonious passion and obsessive passion. I’ve bet you’ve seen both types of passion in the dancers you work with, and maybe even in yourself, and understanding the difference can go a long way to ensure a career filled with joy.

__________

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/39

38. The Shame of Failing at Work-Life Balance Nov 04, 2021

Work-life balance is a myth, and I have some thoughts on the idea that I want to share with you today. There are so many self-help books and podcasts, and influencers out there telling you how to balance in work and life so that you never feel overwhelmed or guilty. I argue that true balance is impossible.

But not because it’s impossible to balance, but because I don’t believe your life and your work should be in opposition to each other. The phrase “work-life balance” implies these two things are sitting on opposite sides of a scale. And in order to be happy, you have to figure out how to keep these two things balanced every minute of every day. When the scales slightly tip one way or the other, you feel guilt, shame, and a sense of failure. In this episode, I talk about the harm of that myth and what you can do about it.

__________

Mentioned in the episode: Time management and life organization expert Kelly Nolan

https://www.kellynolan.com/

__________

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/38

37. Why Don't Some Dancers Take Accountability for Their Bad Choices? Oct 21, 2021

If you’ve ever experienced a rehearsal where dancers aren’t giving full effort, there’s eye-rolling or disrespect, it’s incredibly frustrating and it could be a sign the dancers lack accountability. Accountability is when you do what you say you’re going to do to the best of your ability. Accountability doesn't mean perfect or without mistakes, but if you promised you’d do something, you do it. And it’s more than being accountable to the coach or teacher in the room. We don’t want a group of dancers who only do what they’re told when someone is watching. We want them to do the right thing even if no one sees them. We want a group of dancers where everyone is accountable for themselves AND accountable to each other.

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/37

36. The Upside of a Dancer’s Stress Oct 14, 2021

Let’s talk about stress. Stress is something we all deal with, but today I want to share something with you that you might not have heard before… science has actually taught us that stress can be good for us! I know that sounds crazy but stick with me for this episode and I’ll tell you all about it. Also, this episode is a little different... I’m going to speak directly to the dancers. Now dance teachers and coaches out there this is will certainly still be helpful for you, but I’ve had some requests recently to cover this topic in a way you could simply share with your dancers. So, this is that episode! Listen in, and then feel free to share with your dancers. This is my take on the upside of a dancer's stress.

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Mentioned in the show:

Stress Management Tools free downlod

Book: The Upside of Stress by Dr. Kelly McGonigal

*affiliate link*

__________

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/36

35. How to Win Without Losing Your Soul with Chasta Hamilton Oct 07, 2021

Do you feel like competing is an important part of your dance life? What would it look like if your dancers didn’t compete? My guest today is Chasta Hamilton. She is the author of Trash The Trophies: How To Win Without Losing Your Soul, and the owner and artistic director of Stage Door Dance Productions. Chasta is reinventing the dance education model by focusing on character development and community involvement over the traditional competitive approach. Chasta and I agree that dance is a wonderful mechanism for teaching our dancers important life lessons, and I bet many of you agree with that too, but Chasta’s perspective on how dance teaches those life lessons is pretty unique.

There are affiliate links below, which means I get a small commission if you follow the link to purchase Chasta's book. It's no additional cost to you, and supports both of us!

Mentioned in Today’s Episode

Book: Trash The Trophies: How To Win Without Losing Your Soul

Website: https://chastahamilton.com/

Nonprofit: Girls Geared for Greatness

__________

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/35

34. How to Start Journaling with Your Dancers Sep 30, 2021

Journaling has so many benefits for dancers including reducing stress, noticing progress to boost motivation, organizing your thoughts, improving confidence, and growing as a dancer and person. I often talk about the lessons I’ve learned after years of teaching and coaching and in this episode, I want to talk about one of those lessons, in the hope that you choose to integrate some of this strategy into your time with your dancers a whole lot sooner in your career than I did. If I had known then what I know now, I would have introduced my dancers to journaling right away.

In this episode, I’ll cover the benefits of journaling, what to expect, setting some ground rules, and how to get started.

Mentioned in Today’s Episode

Free Download: Starter Journal Prompts

__________

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/34

33. Why You Shouldn’t Tell Tour Dancers to “Leave it at the Door” with Ali Phillips Sep 23, 2021

Have you ever told your dancers to “leave it at the door?” I know I used that phrase a lot and it’s because I wanted dancers to come into class with a positive mindset and let go of any drama or challenges that might get in the way. But in this episode, we’re going to challenge that idea because maybe telling your dancers to leave it at the door is doing them a disservice.

My guest today is Ali Phillips, an Embodied Leadership Coach and she really opened my eyes to a new perspective. Ali owns Bust a Move Dance which is a dance company for children, teens, and adults with disabilities. We discuss our egos as dance teachers, developing a teaching philosophy, and trusting ourselves as young professionals by tapping into our bodies for the answers.

Mentioned in Today’s Episode

Bust a Move Dance: https://bustamovedance.com.au/

Instagram @bamdance_ @aliphillips.official

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/33

32. Why Do I Always Focus on the Negative Side of Things? Sep 16, 2021

Why do we take a good performance for granted and seem to spend way too much time thinking about mistakes and performances we regret? Why do we naturally tend to docs on the bad side of things? Well, today I’m going to talk about how your brain processes information in a way that makes it so easy to hold onto the negative experiences and harder to focus on the good things. But the more we can learn how to intentionally spend more time on the good things in our dance life, the more resilient we become to the hard times. In this episode, we’ll cover why our brains naturally focus on the negative and what we can do about it.

Mentioned in Today’s Episode

Dancer-Fitness.com: https://dancer-fitness.com/membership

__________

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/32

31. Thinking about High School Dance Team Alternates? 5 different perspectives Sep 09, 2021

This episode comes straight from all of you, I’ve had many people ask me to talk about having alternates on the team. It’s a tricky situation, mentally and logistically but I didn’t feel like I could talk about this topic on my own. Instead, I interviewed 5 successful high school coaches to get their insights and perspectives on using alternates in their programs. As I hoped and expected, there are some themes running through the interviews, but also some unique ideas and different approaches.

Here are some highlights:

[1m 58s] Kevin Mathis, Lake Central High School, Indiana

[12m 22s] Ta Fett, formerly Frazee High School, Minnesota

[23m 30s] Jennifer Cryder, Joliet West High School, Illinois

[38m 17s] Renee Buchholz, DC Everest, Wisconsin

[52m 46s] Jana Blue, formerly Denver East High School, Colorado

[1h 04m 28s] Chelsea’s summary

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Mentioned in Today’s Episode

Dancer-Fitness.com: https://dancer-fitness.com/membership

Erin Manske & The Tiers System: Ep. 25- Bringing Stats and Analytics to Dance Team – with Erin Manske

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

30. How to T.A.R.G.E.T. Your Dancers’ Motivation Sep 02, 2021

In my opinion as a sport psychology consultant, a positive motivational climate is the holy grail of teaching and coaching. Every class you attend has a climate… a feeling… a sense of energy in the room. Your job as a dance educator is to make sure that every day practice climate is one that fosters hard work, self-discipline, fun, and progress.

So how do we achieve this ideal positive motivational climate?! One of the research-based ways to increase intrinsic motivation comes in six steps, and many sport psychology consultants use the acronym T.A.R.G.E.T. to remember all of the areas you can use to improve your team’s motivational climate. In this episode, I’ll walk you through these six strategies so you can apply them to your work as a dance educator and enjoy more self-motivated dancers. This episode is one you’ll want to reference in the future so take notes, or go to https://chelseapierotti.com/30 to download the cheat sheet that goes with it!

Mentioned in Today’s Episode

Growth Mindset Podcast: https://chelseapierotti.com/18

Positive Reinforcement Podcast: https://chelseapierotti.com/23

Dancer-Fitness.com: https://dancer-fitness.com/membership

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/30

29. Finding Intention for Your Dance Career with Caitlin Sloan Aug 26, 2021

Do you have a young dancer in your life with big dreams of a professional ballet career? Knowing where to go for advice and how to choose the next step can be daunting for the young pre-professionals in our lives and I hope today’s interview helps you guide them.

I had the pleasure of working on a project with a woman who serves as a wonderful ballet mentor recently and I’m so excited to share her advice with you today. Caitlin Sloan is a former professional dancer and founder of the Brainy Ballerina. Here’s my interview with Caitlin about mindset and finding intention in your dance career.

Mentioned in Today’s Episode

Caitlin Sloan instagram @TheBrainyBallerina

The Brainy Ballerina Mailing List

Brought to You By:

Dancer-Fitness.com: https://dancer-fitness.com/membership

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/29

28. 3 Mindset Lessons I'm Glad to Take With Me into the 2021 Dance Season Aug 19, 2021

What lessons did you learn from 2020? It’s time to reflect on some of the mindset lessons I’ve learned last year and I want to share those lessons with you. The last 18 months have disrupted our normal routines and in different ways, our work-life balance. One of the important lessons psychologists have taught us is the value of reflection. It’s a chance to pause and notice what’s different and how you truly feel about it. We know reflection is a powerful way to learn and grow. So before we dive headfirst into whatever this next school year brings, I’m going to share 3 mindset lessons I'm glad to take with me into the 2021 dance season.

Mentioned in Today’s Episode

Starter Journal Prompts for Dancers

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

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Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/28

27. Nutrition and Mindset for the Retired Dancer with Jenny Accettura Aug 12, 2021

In this episode, I talk with a registered dietitian and former competitive dancer Jenny Accettura. As usual, I bring the mindset perspective into the conversation and Jenny shared a major mindset shift about nutrition that might serve you if you’re a former dancer...aka an adult who doesn’t train as many hours as you used to! We also discussed the challenging food rules you learned as a dancer and how they may not be serving you now, and how you can talk to your dancers about nutrition if you’re nervous to bring it up because you aren’t an expert. Because I know it was a conversation that intimidated me as a young teacher. And finally, we end with some practical advice about helping our body recover after a long dance day.

Mentioned in Today’s Episode

Centerstage Nutrition for the Recovery Guide: https://centrestagenutrition.com/

Jenny Accettura on Instagram: @centrestagenutrition

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/27

The Confident Dancer Summit Aug 05, 2021

The Confident Dancer Summit kicks of Friday, Aug 6th 2021

Grab your free ticket: https://confidentdancersummit.com

The summit will run from Aug 6th through Aug 8th 2021
Each day will be packed with amazing speakers who are ready to help you improve your own confidence and learn the tools to help your dancers
We’ve got a pop-up Facebook group where you’ll find all of our experts, connect with other dance coaches and teachers, ask the speakers questions, and whatever else we come up with!
You can attend the summit absolutely free, but you can choose to grab the All-Access Pass at any time that will give you an all-access pass to the summit (meaning you get all the videos for a year, a private podcast version of the summit, membership trials, discounted video critiques, other downloadable resources and more!

26. The Cycle of a Dancer’s Confidence Jul 29, 2021

This is part 1 of a two-part series about improving confidence and for part 1, I focus on where confidence comes from because if we understand where it comes from, we are in a better position to change it. And to help explain this in the episode I share a story of one simple competition day that changed my coaching career. Then I cover the 3 sources of confidence and a takeaway for how you can use your everyday practice time to improve your dancers’ confidence.

Mentioned in Today’s Episode

The Confident Dancer Summit: https://confidentdancersummit.com

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/26

25. Bringing Stats and Analytics to Dance Team - with Erin Manske Jul 22, 2021

Do you ever wish your dancers would focus more on individual growth rather than being the best? I know many dancers who only found success in the win or in being the best, when I know they would go so much further and enjoy their success more if they defined success differently. For this episode, I brought in Erin Manske because she has a unique background and take on dance team. She developed a way to bring a little objectivity to our sport without losing the artistry. She used her background in research and data analysis combined with her dance training to build a skills tracking app called The Tiers System. The Tiers System helps coaches build the best possible team by bringing data and statistics to the dance team world. Through The Tiers System, Erin has helped coaches across the country improve consistency, transparency, and equity in their coaching while empowering their dancers to be more motivated, independent, and intentionally focused on team culture.

Throughout our conversation, we talk about her new app, and we cover some of the challenges many of us face like motivating our dancers and building confidence. Erin even shares an exercise she does with her team to help them build trust and confidence in each other that I know you’re going to enjoy.

Mentioned in Today’s Episode

The Tiers System: https://thetierssystem.com

The Confident Dancer Summit: https://confidentdancersummit.com

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/25

24. The Danger of the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Jul 15, 2021

Have you ever heard of the self-fulfilling prophecy? It’s the phenomenon where an individual’s or a group's expectation for the behavior of another individual or group serves actually to bring the expected behavior. As a dance educator, it means that your expectation of your dancer’s behavior and ability can actually bring about that expected behavior… good or bad.

Here’s one example where it plays out as a dance educator… There are so many decisions I wrestle with when I'm preparing a competition routine. I seem to spend a lot of time deciding which skills to include, and once I've decided, I then struggle to choose who should perform those skills. What should be a team trick? What should we do as a highlight trick? Who can I COUNT ON to perform that trick when the pressure is on? It’s one of the bigger coaching decisions we all have to make.

What I didn’t always realize is that my expectation of who could do the skill (and who couldn’t) would actually influence the end result. That’s the self-fulfilling prophecy and as coaches and teachers, it’s a scary but important reality. Our expectations can become an athlete’s reality.

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/24

23. You Don't Have to Punish Your Dancers - The Power of Positive Reinforcement Jul 08, 2021

Whenever I discuss the negative side of punishment, and why you should always avoid physical punishment I get questions about what to do instead. The focus is usually on the side of consequences. Coaches want to know, how do I get them to stop doing that bad behavior? How do I get them to listen, how do I get them to work hard, how do I get them to remember everything. Punishment is only part of the equation. I believe the flip side, focusing on positive reinforcement will have a bigger long-term benefit and it creates a very different team climate. So in this episode I’m explain how to shape the behavior you want in your dancers using positive reinforcement

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/23

22. Accept that Technology Changed Our Gen Z Dancers... Here's what you can do Jul 01, 2021

There is no denying that the current generation of athletes is different. Not necessarily good or bad, but they are different. There are some things to consider this season when coaching and teaching Generation Z: the advantages, the challenges, and specifically in this episode I want to talk about how technology influences this generation and our ability to teach them. There’s no question growing up as digital natives has changed our dancers. But it’s not all bad and I’ve got some suggestions for how to help.

Click the links for journal prompts designed for dancers

Starter Journal Prompts

Confidence / Competition Day Journal Prompts

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/22

21. 7 Proven Steps to a Successful Goal Setting Meeting Jun 24, 2021

One of the biggest mental skills training sessions I do in the summer is goal setting. Why? because it is the foundation for a lot of other things. If your dancers know how to set and track goals properly, they can rely on that skill to boost confidence later on, or increase work ethic and accountability. It’s a great way to start off your new season with a school dance team, or set the tone with a new studio company. So if you would like to incorporate a goal-setting meeting into your season this year, this episode breaks down the 7 steps to a successful meeting so you start off on the right foot and reach your highest potential this year!

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This episode is brought to you by the Tiers System.

The Tiers System is an app FOR dance coaches made BY dance coaches that gives you the tools to empower your dancers to take control of their technique and development. The app provides you with over 150 skills broken down by category (turns, leaps, jumps, acro/tumbling) and by level (beginner through elite), and the skills lists are customizable so you can make sure it fits your unique team.

The app tracks dancers' progress through the skill progressions so you (and your dancers) can transparently see where they are in their skill development and what they need to do to move to the next level (or Tier). You can access a dancer's full skills list, see which dancers are strongest in which categories, and select any skill to see the list of dancers on your team with that skill with the click of a button.

Learn more at https://chelseapierotti.com/tiers

__________

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/21

20. Ten Doubts Every Dance Coach Has About the New Season Jun 17, 2021

I used to start every season with a mix of emotions. Excitement, nerves, doubts, plans, goals… there are a lot of moving parts! I talk a lot about self-talk with dancers. It’s a really important and challenging mental skill that doesn’t come easy to most of us. Today however, I want to focus on some of the negative self-talk that coaches and teachers may be experiencing at the beginning of the season. No matter how many years you’ve been at it, self-doubt trickles in. And I want to dispel the myth that there are dance educators out there who always have it all together and never doubt themselves. Because in my experience, those people don’t exist. We all have some negative self-talk and doubts, that deosn’t make you a bad coach. So in today’s episode, I share 10 common self-doubts I see in coaches and teachers and what you can do about those doubts.

Mentioned in the Show

Other resources to help you start off on the right foot this season...

Practice Planner: the roadmap to organizing your schedule this year so you can achieve your goals without feeling rushed right before competition

How to Write a Coaching Philosophy – the best way to have a drama-free, focused, and motivated season is to make every decision from a foundational coaching philosophy.

Captain Leadership Training – don’t just name the captains and let it be. Help them be the leaders you want!

Add some fun Team Building Games to your practices

Start a Journaling Practice with your team – bring everyone closer and set the tone of motivation and intention for the season

Project Management Tools:

Asana

Trello

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/20

19. Mental Toughness, Success, and Confidence with Kelsey Nelson Jun 10, 2021

This week I have the pleasure of sharing an interview with Kelsey Nelson. You know how sometimes you meet someone and it just clicks? Kelsey and I clicked quickly and I think we have similar philosophies and approaches to teaching dance. In this episode, we cover topics like how to get more mentally tough dancers, how Kelsey defines success, and concrete tips for improving confidence in our dancers.

Mentioned in the show:

Kelsey Nelson

Instagram: @kjndance

Spotify Playlist for dance teachers: kjndance

Facebook: Kelsey Nelson Training technique

Journal Starter Prompts for Dancers:

https://chelseapierotti.com/starterjournal

Matthew McConaughey Inspiring Graduation Speech

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmCTQ_mkzHU

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This episode is brought to you by The Tiers System.

The app tracks dancers' progress through the skill progressions so you (and your dancers) can transparently see where they are in their skill development and what they need to do to move to the next level (or Tier). You can access a dancer's full skills list, see which dancers are strongest in which categories, and select any skill to see the list of dancers on your team with that skill with the click of a button. You can download the app and learn more at https://thetierssystem.com

_________

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/19

18. Want Stronger Dancers? Change Their Mindset Jun 03, 2021

This week’s episode is all about growth mindset. You may have heard of it, but do you know how to implement it with your dancers? Change how they learn and everything else improves along with their mindset. I start by sharing a quick definition of the concept of a growth mindset, but the heart of the episode is talking about how you can implement growth mindset strategies into your classes and practices.

Along with this episode, you can download the freebie 23 Questions and Statements to Encourage a Growth Mindset in Your Dancers to help you implement what we cover.

Mentioned in the show:

Relevé: Community for Dance Coaches on the rise

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/18

17. Why You Should Be a Mentor and Have a Mentor at the Same Time May 27, 2021

This episode is all about mentorship and community, and why I believe it’s the secret to success in our dance industry. I share the mistakes I made early on and the lessons I learned along the way. I’m grateful to be a mentor and have mentors in many aspects of my dance career. I truly believe the best path for personal growth is to continue to grow your village of support by giving to others while also being open to receiving support.

Mentioned in the show:

Relevé: the membership for dance coaches and dance teachers on the rise

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/17

16. Ask Chelsea Anything: Motivation, Mindset and More! May 20, 2021

Recently I asked this wonderful village of dance coaches and teachers to submit questions that I could answer on the show. So in this episode, I have 3 questions about sport psychology and dance straight from the community. One of my favorite things about my job is getting to know and connect with fellow dance professionals and passionate coaches. So know that my inbox is always open, or send me a DM on Instagram and tell me what’s on your mind.

In this episode we address:

How do I keep motivated towards the end of the season
How do I make my dancers believe in themselves the way I do
How to break the mindset barrier between being the dancer and now the coach, i.e. teaching your dancers things you could never do with confidence

Mentioned in the show:

https://dancer-fitness.com/ and check out my conversation with Katie in Episode 10!

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/16

15. How to Measure Success May 13, 2021

Whenever a dancer is competitively successful, we see lots of social media posts, public praise, and gratitude. And rightfully so. When a dancer comes out on top of the rankings the coach and dance teachers are usually a big reason why. We should celebrate and congratulate those dance educators on a successful event.

But what about when dancers don’t have a great competition and they fall short of their competitive goals? Is the coach any less successful?

I think it’s important to stop and consider what makes a successful dance educator, and more importantly, how you as a coach and educator should measure your own success each year. Your personal success is very different from the competitive success of your dancers. Let me reiterate that… how your dancers perform is not tied to your self-worth as a person or value as a coach.

Mentioned in the Episode:

How to write a coaching philosophy

Book: Life is Short, Don’t Wait to Dance by Valorie Kondos Field

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Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/15

14. How to Choose the Best Leaders for Your Dance Team May 06, 2021

This week we are going to focus on leadership specifically for high school and college dance teams. But if you don’t have captains on your team or you’re in the studio world don’t leave me just yet. You probably have informal leaders at your studio or ballet company, and whether you call them captains or they are the appointed leaders of the group here are an important concept to remember: A leader’s influence can be either positive or negative, but it’s never neutral. So whether you have formal or informal leaders, they are making a difference for every dancer around them. Dance team leaders can determine if the rest of the team learns cooperation, teamwork, passion, and motivation, or if the other dancers learn to be lazy, complacent, and unmotivated. A positive leader can encourage a team with less than ideal technical abilities to rally and reach unimaginable competitive heights. On the other hand, a team captain or leader may be apathetic and ineffective or actually harmful to a team’s success. (I’ve seen both first hand, and the quality of my team leaders has a lot to do with which years were my favorite). Here’s the bottom line, leaders, whether formal or not, are an ESSENTIAL element on your dance team’s road to success. In this episode, I’m going to cover the 3 types of leaders and the characteristics to look for in a leader.

Mentioned in this episode: The Roadmap to Choosing the Right Dance Team Captains

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/14

Did you know I have an online leadership training course for dance team captains!? It’s called Journey to Elite Captain and it’s self-paced and ready for your dancers whenever they’re ready to dive in. Find out more at https://chelseapierotti.com/leadership

13. What is Sport Psychology and How Can It Help Dancers? Apr 29, 2021

When I was dancing 20+ hours a week and basically living at the studio, I was always focused on improving my technique. All my energy went into getting stronger at the ballet barre, working flexibility, and trying to nail that hard across the floor combo in turns and leaps class. What I wasn’t thinking about, was my mindset. I wish I could say I “got it” intuitively and knew how to harness the power o

f sport psychology at an early age. But in reality, I was (am) a perfectionist who worries about what other people think ALL THE TIME. There were some tools in the sport psychology toolbox that I used regularly like visualization, but for the most part I was a typical studio kid who was desperate to keep my place in front of the jazz routine, get noticed by my ballet teacher, and win at competition. I thought the only way to accomplish those goals was to work harder and push my body further.

I wish I knew then, what I know now. I wish I knew the power of sport psychology, and in this episode, I share just that… how sport psychology can change your life as a dancer and a dance educator.

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This episode is brought to you by the membership:

Relevé: A Community for Dance Coaches on the Rise. Learn more at https://chelseapierotti.com/membership

______

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/13

Did you know I have virtual and in-person workshops for dancers, teams, studios, and teachers!? I love working with dancers and dance educators by creating a workshop that is custom to your dancers. We can talk about motivation, goals, resilience, confidence... any mental skill! Find out more about my workshop offers by going to https://chelseapierotti.com/servcies

12. What Every Tired Dance Teacher Needs to Know About Burnout Apr 22, 2021

As a coach or a teacher, we’ve all been through the challenges that come with the end of the season. You’ve been training your competition routine for months, it’s rounding to the end of the season and it’s time to push through those last few big events, planning a recital, or getting ready for nationals, however, you end your year. For me, there were years where this transition into that last big push went smoothly. The dancers were ready for the increased practices, motivated each other to keep fighting, and we had a great end of our competitive season. There were even years when I felt ready to handle it. But there were a lot of years where just the thought of getting through that last show was exhausting. So if you are feeling tired this year, maybe a little more irritable with your dancers, or maybe you’re even ready to give up… then this episode is for you. Let’s talk about burnout.

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/12

Did you know I have virtual and in-person workshops for dancers, teams, studios, and teachers!? I love working with dancers and dance educators by creating a workshop that is custom to your dancers. We can talk about motivation, goals, resilience, confidence... any mental skill! Find out more about my workshop offers by going to https://chelseapierotti.com/servcies

11. To the Sensitive Dance Coach with an Aching Heart During Tryouts Apr 15, 2021

As dance educators, we often have to make difficult, emotional decisions. It might be tryouts for a school team, or a studio making decisions about company level, who is in which routine… there are many times where we have to make decisions that we know will have a big emotional impact on the dancers we love. That can be a really heavy feeling! I know we all have different levels of emotional attachment, and I know I’m on the more emotional end of the spectrum, but I also know that many dancers are passionate. We love dance, we love teaching, and we love our students. So if you ever struggle with those more emotional decisions or need a little pick-me-up, I want you to understand learning to deal with our own stress, emotions, and disappointments as a dance educator is even more important than helping our dancers manage it all. So today’s episode is a bit of an open letter, to all the dance educators out there who feel stressed, overwhelmed, or emotional when you have to make tough decisions.

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/11

This episode is sponsored by the National Dance Coaches Association. Go to nationaldancecoaches.org for more information about the conference and all the great things the association has to offer.

Did you know I have virtual and in-person workshops for dancers, teams, studios, and teachers!? I love working with dancers and dance educators by creating a workshop that is custom to your dancers. We can talk about motivation, goals, resilience, confidence... any mental skill! Find out more about my workshop offers by going to https://chelseapierotti.com/servcies

10. Uncovering Your Dancer’s Strengths with Katie Groven Apr 08, 2021

It’s the first guest interview episode of the Passion for Dance Podcast, with Katie Groven of Dancer-Fitness.com! Katie is an ACSM certified personal trainer, holistic health coach, and two-time world champion dancer. She is the creator of dancer-fitness.com an online exercise database designed to optimize dancer’s skills with strength training. She has combined her 25 years of dance and her expertise in fitness to empower dancers of all ages to view themselves as athletes and give coaches and teachers the tools to increase their strength, endurance, injury prevention, and overall performance.

In this interview, we talk about the importance of strength training specific to dancer’s needs and goals, why it doesn’t take as much time as you think, our views on whether dancers are athletes, and so much more.

Katie Groven

Website: Dancer-Fitness.com

Email: katie@dancer-fitness.com

Instagram: @dancer_fitness.com_

Episode Sponsor: National Dance Coaches Association

Website and conference information: https://nationaldancecoaches.org

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/10

Did you know I have virtual and in-person workshops for dancers, teams, studios, and teachers!? I love working with dancers and dance educators by creating a workshop that is custom to your dancers. We can talk about motivation, goals, resilience, confidence... any mental skill! Find out more about my workshop offers by going to https://chelseapierotti.com/servcies

9. 5 Specific Strategies to Boost Your Confidence as a Dancer Apr 01, 2021

How do you become a confident dancer? Are some dancers just born as more confident people while others have to struggle with self-consciousness? The short of it is, yes some people are naturally more confident but no matter what, you can learn to be more confident. There are specific things you can do to train your brain to see the world differently and feel more confident every time you take the stage. But even if you are usually a confident person, no one feels confident 100% of the time. It’s natural for confidence to fluctuate a little and everyone needs a boost now and then. So in this episode, I share 5 specific strategies to boost your confidence as a dancer.

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/9

Did you know I have virtual and in-person workshops for dancers, teams, studios, and teachers!? I love working with dancers and dance educators by creating a workshop that is custom to your dancers. We can talk about motivation, goals, resilience, confidence... any mental skill! Find out more about my workshop offers by going to https://chelseapierotti.com/servcies

8. Mental Toughness Training: How to Overcome Mental Blocks Mar 25, 2021

Many of us have seen the dancer who freezes when they try to do a hard skill. It could be a new hip hop trick, new jump, aerial, just about anything. But it’s common when dancers are trying to learn a new challenging skill that they freeze up and absolutely can’t do it. OR maybe it’s a skill they’ve had before but something happens like they miss it during an important competition or they get injured and now they have a mental block and can’t perform the skill anymore. As a teacher, you want to keep encouraging them and say “you can do this! Just go for it!” But they are frozen in place. How do you help a dancer get over their mental blocks? In this episode, I share with you the simple 4 step process to overcoming a mental block.

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me on Instagram @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/8

Did you know I have virtual and in-person workshops for dancers, teams, studios, and teachers!? I love working with dancers and dance educators by creating a workshop that is custom to your dancers. We can talk about motivation, goals, resilience, confidence... any mental skill! Find out more about my workshop offers by going to https://chelseapierotti.com/servcies

7. The Quick Breath Training Solution to Calm a Dancer's Nerves Mar 18, 2021

Have you ever choked under pressure? Let the nerves get to you and ruin an audition or performance? What about as a director or coach, have you watched one of your dancers get so nervous that they freeze and you get that deer in headlights look? You know what I’m talking about, and it’s devastating. In this episode, I share a very simple one-minute breathing exercise that will help you calm the nerves in order to perform.

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/7

Did you know I have private workshops for dancers, teams, studios, and teachers!? I love working with dancers and dance educators by creating a workshop that is custom to your dancers. We can talk about motivation, goals, resilience, confidence... any mental skill! Find out more about my workshop offers by going to https://chelseapierotti.com/servcies

6. Want to create a culture of devoted dancers you adore and want to work with? Mar 11, 2021

Dance educators work for the love of dance. But it certainly helps if we have a group of dancers we adore and want to work with every day. This episode is a conversation about creating a positive culture and it will apply if you coach a school team, teach at a studio, own a studio, or really any situation where you are working with dancers or other dance educators. Team culture is what keeps us going. If you work with good people, you stay. Dancers work harder for a team they feel a part of. Dance teachers stay loyal to a studio with good culture. It’s what makes a lot of the hard stuff worth it. So how do you create a positive culture? I’ll share the two key elements of creating a positive culture, values and communication.

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode. Remember to use the hashtag #passionfordancepodcast so I can share it on my stories!

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/6

Did you know I have virtual workshops for dancers, teams, studios, and teachers!? I love working with dancers and dance educators by creating a workshop that is custom to your dancers. We can talk about motivation, goals, resilience, confidence... any mental skill! Find out more about my workshop offers by going to https://chelseapierotti.com/servcies

5. The simple motivational mindset you need to accept uncertainty Mar 04, 2021

As educators, we are trained in the skills of our sport. We know how to teach our athletes to clean up a routine, improve their turn technique, or achieve a new hip-hop trick. What we don’t always understand is how to coach them to prepare for competition day. Or lately, how to coach through a pandemic. If you never talk to your dancers about mindset and spend time specifically training your athletes to deal with unpredictability, you’re allowing for the unexpected to clutter their minds and pull their focus to the wrong place.

In this episode, I share my #1 mindset mantra that usually functions as a competition day mindset, but lately, it’s my whole mindset for the pandemic. It’s the mindset you need to stay motivated and accept the uncertainty: “Control the Controllables.”

_____________

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode. Remember to use the hashtag #passionfordancepodcast so I can share it on my stories!

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/5

Did you know I have virtual workshops for dancers, teams, studios, and teachers!? I love working with dancers and dance educators by creating a workshop that is custom to your dancers. We can talk about motivation, goals, resilience, confidence... any mental skill! Find out more about my workshop offers by going to https://chelseapierotti.com/servcies

4. How to make Sure Your Punishments aren’t Destroying Your Dancers Feb 25, 2021

Many of us choose to teach our dancers with the same disciplinary approach we grew up with and that often includes punishment when dancers don't follow the rules.

Why do we use punishment? Because it usually works and provides the desired short-term result. But is it the best thing for the long-term goals of your program and the psychological health of your dancers?

In this episode, I want to let you know about the research in psychology around punishment and performance, discipline, and mental health. Hopefully, you can take this information and use it to guide your own teaching style based on the age of your dancers and your overall approach to education.

Because punishment is necessary sometimes, but there are important guidelines to how you implement punishment that will help protect your dancers' mental health.

And if you have struggled with punishment and how to handle it in your specific dance context, send me DM on Instagram, I’d love to chat with you more about it!

___________

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode. Remember to use the hashtag #passionfordancepodcast so I can share it on my stories!

Check out the full show notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/4

Did you know I have virtual workshops for dancers, teams, studios, and teachers!? I love working with dancers and dance educators by creating a workshop that is custom to your dancers. We can talk about motivation, goals, resilience, confidence... any mental skill! Find out more about my workshop offers by going to https://chelseapierotti.com/servcies

3. Six Steps for Dealing with Sizable Disappointment Feb 21, 2021

Let’s talk about that terrible emotion ... disappointment. Disappointment is normal, and everyone goes through it, but it can be really hard to get over. There’s probably something in your dance past that haunts you. I know I do have plenty of things I’m disappointed about over the years!

In this episode, I share the six steps to dealing with disappointment, the story of my own biggest disappointments as a dancer, and how I wish I had used these strategies to get over it.

___________

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to the episode. Remember to use the hashtag #passionfordancepodcast so I can share it on my stories!

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/3

Did you know I have virtual workshops for dancers, teams, studios, and teachers!? I love working with dancers and dance educators by creating a workshop that is custom to your dancers. We can talk about motivation, goals, resilience, confidence... any mental skill! Find out more about my workshop offers by going to https://chelseapierotti.com/servcies

2. How to build resilient dancers who fight Feb 21, 2021

Dancers train our whole lives for only a few minutes on stage. Just a few minutes under the stage lights, just one opportunity to show off what we’ve worked so hard on. And sometimes we leave the stage feeling like it wasn’t enough.

I want to make sure if your dancers leave the stage and feeling like they made a mistake, or wishing they had a chance to do it over again, that you’ll know how to support them.

Because dancers have to learn to be resilient. We need to teach them how to bounce back after bad news and how to pick ourselves up and try again when we lose.

Resilience is one of the greatest life lessons we can learn from dance. But it won’t happen automatically. That’s why in this episode we talk about how to build resilience in dancers.

Why are some athletes resilient in the face of failure and others lose hope? In short, It takes resilience training. And in this episode, I share a 3 part resilience training, including the READ method for building resilience.

Also: if you have ever had a hard time coming back after a failure, come over to Instagram and DM me. I’d love to hear from you.

_________________

Did you enjoy today’s episode? Please leave a rating and review on Apple podcasts!

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening to this week's episode. Remember to use the hashtag #passionfordancepodcast so I can share it on my stories!

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and more: https://chelseapierotti.com/2

Plus you can download your free copy of the R.E.A.D. resilience method recap sheet. That way you’ll have it at your fingertips the next time you need it!

1. Do you wish you had more motivated dancers? Feb 18, 2021

In this episode, we are going to talk about motivation. It's one of the biggest questions I get: How do we get our dancers to be more motivated in class?

Don't worry, I've got you covered... I’m going to tell you about the 3 basic needs behind motivation. If you can incorporate these 3 needs into your classes and practices, you’ll be able to motivate everyone.

Check out the full Show Notes, including episode highlights, key takeaways, exclusive resources, and the free download: 15 Ways to Be a Motivational Coach https://chelseapierotti.com/1

Be sure to snap a screenshot and tag me @dr.chelsea.pierotti as you’re listening this week. Remember to use the hashtag #passionfordancepodcast so I can share it on my stories!

Rate, Review, and Subscribe to the show, then send me a dm @dr.chelsea.pierotti and share your biggest takeaway!

Trailer Feb 18, 2021

Welcome to the Passion for Dance Podcast!

I’m Dr. Chelsea, a former professional dancer and dance team coach turned sport psychologist. This podcast focuses on 4 main pillars, motivation, resilience, mindset, and community. Each week, you’ll learn actionable strategies, mindsets, and tips, to teach your dancers more than good technique. We’ll cover topics like confidence, grit, growth mindset, and teamwork that all allow you to be a dance teacher with lasting impact. This is a podcast where we can all make a lasting impact and share our passion for dance.

Website: https://chelseapierotti.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/dr.chelsea.pierotti

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