Blog
Our End Of Year Concert Is Here!
It’s finally here! The end of the year, and of course, at Ballet Coaching, that means the end of year concert! This year, we showcase the wonderful talent produced in our studios through the year. Our young dancers get the opportunity to show us what they’ve learnt, and we get the opportunity to be dazzled! The students at Ballet Coaching glow with pride, as they perform on stage. It is such a special evening, and we are so looking forward to it!
[read more]
AWCC Artist Business Award Winner 2017
Exciting News! Monique Feain Balletcoaching@The Dance Warehouse Awarded Alstonville and Wollongbar Chamber of Commerce Artist Business Award
[read more]The Immeasurable Benefits of Dance
A conversation with Monique’s student, Jen, and her mother Sandra.
Jen came to Monique as a teenager for further ballet coaching and mentoring over 10 years ago, having been accepted into the Interstate Australian Ballet Junior School. Today, Jen and her mother Sandra talk about how training with Monique gave Jen confidence, resilience, grace and strength, as well as many other life skills that have helped Jen become the person she is today.
Grand opening of The Dance Warehouse
After many months of preparation, and years of dreaming, together with approximately 80 friends, family and current and alumni dance students and their families, we celebrated the opening of The Dance Warehouse at Palm Shopping Centre, Wollongbar.
[read more]The doors to THE DANCE WAREHOUSE are OPEN!
(But first some blood, sweat, tears and love…)
After coaching young dancers for twenty-four years, the time has finally arrived to offer classes in our very own custom-designed dance studios in Wollongbar.
I have dreamt about this project for months – years! And we spent at least a year developing plans and gaining approval from council. Just after our concert last year, we could finally begin developing our new space in the Palm Shopping Centre, Wollongbar.
Dance Studio Grows New Wings
Alstonville/Wollongbar based dance studio, BalletCoaching, is set to sign a lease for a new studio space on the eve of its end of year show, so on the 1st of December this year, Ms Feain's pen will be poised to sign the lease on brand new purpose built premises in Wollongbar, which will become The Dance Warehouse.
[read more]Surviving Dance Auditions in Germany
Surviving Dance Auditions in Germany - A Dancers passport to the world of auditioning in a foreign tongue! - Common Class Vocabulary in a foreign language.
We are lucky as dancers that our basic ballet instruction is in the universal language of French no matter where we are in the world. All you need to then do is attune yourself to the Accent and you will hear it clearly, then add a few key words from that language and you can take a class or audition anywhere in the world!
[read more]Why do I have to take Ballet? By Laura Di Orio
A dancer is like building a house from the ground up. You can’t start by adding the roof and interior decorations; rather, you must start by creating a solid foundation to support the structure and make it last. Similarly, a dancer must establish that foundation in technique before adding all the “tricks” and performance quality. And that foundation, according to many dance teachers and professionals in the field, is ballet.
“Because ballet has been constantly evolving for over 400 years, it has arrived at a very solid method of developing human movement potential for the stage,” says Stephen Pier, director of the Dance Division at The Hartt School of the University of Hartford, located in Connecticut.
“It’s still the most relevant technical training all around and can serve as a very effective way of organizing and developing the facility of the dancer. Most other techniques or styles have not been around that long. They are too limited to be the sole basis of training, and they haven’t worked out the science and art of dancing to the depth that ballet has.”
“Ballet is the ‘grandmother’ of them all in the Western world,” Pier says. “This system has evolved over centuries and has survived and absorbed every fad imaginable. It has great wisdom and logic imbedded in it, which every dancer should learn about. It’s not important whether or not you think you will become a ballet dancer. It is very important, however, that you become educated about your art and respect all of its various practices and practitioners
[read more]Shad Martin: Why I don’t pay for Dance anymore…
The other night someone asked me "Why do you pay so much money for your girls to dance?"
Well I have a confession to make, I don't pay for dance. Personally, I couldn't care less about dance. I grew up in a family of 4 boys and no girls. The "Nutcracker" was something you did on a dare off of the high dive at the pool or something you unpleasantly surprised your brother with. Up until the day I met my wife if I were asked to go to Swan Lake I would have asked if we were water skiing or fishing.
[read more]
Turnout Insight for Dancers, Dance Teachers, and Dance Parents By Jennifer Denys
Turnout is every dancers dream but some bodies will be injured in their quest for more turnout. Read Canada's National Ballet School's physiotherapist Jennifer Denys series of tips "helping to demystify what turnout is and how you can approach the passionate pursuit of “more turnout” without getting injured along the way. "
Balletcoaching.com is EVOLVING
Balletcoaching.com is EVOLVING. Join us today!
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams ~Eleanor Roosevelt
Join us for Dance classes in Alstonville & Wollongbar
[read more]The Shift Movie
The Shift Movie - A very beautiful film! Free to watch until end Sept. Don't miss it!
"There's a place deep within us that wants to know that my life made a difference and that someone's life has been profoundly touched because of my existence ...wherever you are at, whatever your age, you're only a thought away from changing your life"
"When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor. It's to enjoy each step along the way." ~ Wayne Dyer
Motor skills
Certain Motor skills will not be achieved until children reach a certain age, regardless of years of dancing! Postural control and balance are the foundations for success in almost all movement in dance, and it is essential to focus on these aspects of training in the early years. Teachers’ effectiveness and dancers’ skills can be enhanced through a sound knowledge of motor development. Locomotor skills follow a particular developmental pattern: walking, running, jumping, galloping, hopping, and skipping. These skills must be presented in order, and at the right age.
[read more]3 Mindset Changes You Must Adopt to Succeed in Dance
Through dance we learn a lot about ourselves and how to use our bodies. We learn to express ourselves physically where we’ve failed to do so with words and this helps us become stronger people, physically and mentally.
[read more]Benefits of Dance
A number of studies have shown that people who dance are less likely to be depressed and report higher levels of emotional well-being.
[read more]Competitions: Good or Bad? with Clare Morehen
Thank you Clare Morehan for your valued opinion!
[read more]Behind every Dancer…
Realising your potential... to be the best that you can be
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams
[read more]Teaching Your Child about Perseverance
“I always tell my kids if you lay down, people will step over you. But if you keep scrambling, if you keep going, someone will always, always give you a hand. Always. But you gotta keep dancing, you gotta keep your feet moving.” -- Morgan Freeman
Teaching your child how to persevere at a task is one of the most important life lessons they will learn...
[read more]5 Amazing Life Lessons that Ballet Teaches Children
If your child is enrolled in ballet lessons, you’re already well aware of the wonder, excitement, and physical benefits that dance brings to children.
But you’ll be even happier to know that by supporting your child’s exploration of dance, you are setting the stage for success in other areas of their life.
In fact, research has shown that dance teaches children important life skills. The skills that children learn at a young age are carried with them into adulthood – and the arts are particularly important in the formative years of their life.
Here are our favourite 5 life lessons that ballet teaches children:
[read more]R.I.C.E New research suggests Ice delays recovery from soft tissue injuries!
Dr Gabe Mirkin, the man who coined the phrase acronym R.I.C.E in the treatment of soft tissue injuries in 1978 has recanted this method in his article on 16 March 2014! In his article he states "Coaches have used my “RICE” guideline for decades, but now it appears that both Ice and complete Rest may delay healing, instead of helping...In a recent study, athletes were told to exercise so intensely that they developed severe muscle damage that caused extensive muscle soreness. Although cooling delayed swelling, it did not hasten recovery from this muscle damage" Click the link to read Dr Gabe Mirkin's full article.
[read more]14 Reasons Your Parents Are Lucky That You Are A DANCER!!
We know they might complain sometimes about the cost of your dance tuition so here is a list of reasons your parents should be thankful you are a DANCER!
[read more]Turn Boards
From time to time different training aids and products hit the market designed to give dancers an advantage and improve on what nature provided. More recently a training aid called a Turn Board has been creating a buzz around the dance world and is now for sale on-line in Australia.
[read more]Your turnout
"What most enthusiastic young dancers don't understand is that your turnout is largely predetermined. We can continuously work on our rotation, but it must be done in a healthy, productive way. It can but should never be forced."
[read more]Paris Opera Ballet School
A rare treat - A peek inside the Paris Opera Ballet School to watch a beautiful class work demonstration video with the Paris Opera Ballet etoile, Mathieu Ganio and Alice Caonnet, who is a quadrille. The teacher is a former principal dancer Gil Isoart
[read more]Dear dance gods
Dear dance gods, I am writing to you today, as the wonderful and expansive step vocabulary that you gifted our artform seems to be drowning in a sea of crotch shots and badly placed spins that once resembled a fouette pirouette.
[read more]