Ep 43: What Actually Changes When A Studio Trains Differently

What actually changes when a studio shifts from busy classes to intentional dance training? This episode reveals how systems, structure, and strategy transform dancer results.

In this episode of It’s All Relative, Cara breaks down what truly happens when a studio commits to intentional dance training instead of staying stuck in busy, overwhelming class structures. Whether you’re a studio owner or a dance teacher, this episode dives into how dance training systems, technique clarity, and aligned teaching strategies can completely shift dancer progress, confidence, retention, and overall studio culture.

If you’ve ever felt like your classes are packed but progress is slow, or your dancers are working hard but not improving consistently, this conversation will help you identify what’s missing and how to fix it.

Cara talked about:  

• The difference between busy dance classes vs intentional dance training environments and why intentional training leads to better dance training results
• How lack of structure creates a “treadmill effect” where dancers receive many corrections but see little measurable progress
• Why technique clarity in dance training builds dancer confidence, improves alignment, and reduces dance injuries
• How understanding anatomy in dance (muscle engagement, alignment, body awareness) accelerates dancer development
• The importance of aligned studio systems and curriculum strategy so all teachers reinforce the same corrections and training goals

This episode challenges you to stop patching problems and start building a structured dance training system that creates real, lasting results. When studios shift to intentional training, dancers gain confidence, improve faster, and stay longer, while teachers feel more effective and aligned. If you want stronger dancers, better retention, and a healthier studio culture, it starts with how you train.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Welcome to It's All Relative, the podcast where dance technique meets purpose, progress becomes visible, and passion fuels the path forward. I'm Kara Dixon, co-founder of Relative Motion, and our team is made up of professional dancers, teachers, and choreographers here to make high-level training feel doable, measurable, and exciting again. Whether you're a teacher searching for fresh cues, a dancer craving more clarity, or a studio owner chasing a bigger vision, this space is for you. Each week, we'll break down complex technique, dive into real studio strategy, and share tools that spark transformation from the inside out. Because in this community, we train with intention, we lead with love, and we know that better dancers start with better teachers. So let's grow, let's move, and let's rise together. Because at the end of the day, it's all relative. Good morning, friends, and welcome to an all-new episode of It's All Relative. Today we are talking about what actually changes when a studio trains differently. So, this episode is going to be talking about the systems within a studio. And now, if you're an individual teacher, if you don't have say over the studio, this can also really apply to your classes. This can also really be amazing for one upping what results you're seeing. Sometimes as teachers, it feels like we're on that treadmill, right? We're working so hard. And we can sometimes one question if other classes are undoing the training that we're doing. And then also, is it making a difference? Is what we're doing specifically in the classroom making a difference? So we're gonna talk to individual teachers, but also we're gonna talk to studios as a whole because we wanna see incredible results. We wanna see that what we're doing is causing retention, is making a real difference. And if we're building a studio, if we're the studio owner, how can we change smaller things within our studio and make an impact full circle? How can we get our dancers to have better results? How can we get our dancers returning year after year? How can we get our dancers referring other dancers and feeling this natural flow of what's going on in and out of the studio, right? Are things happening outside the studio where our parents and families are referring people to the studio? Or is there some underlying toxic culture where the parents are leaving the studio and they're not really even sure if this is their studio home? Are they listening to what other friends are saying? Are their dancers complaining? Are they saying, oh, you know, this thing happened at the studio is spreading drama? What is happening in and out of that studio classroom that is either growing what's happening within the studio walls or it's taking away from it? Is there something going on? And a lot of this is gonna stem from the systems that we have in place and the strategies we have in place that kind of lock in a guarantee how are our dancers feeling leaving this room? How are our families feeling walking out of the door? And so we're gonna talk about that here. And so we're thinking results, results, results, right? And the first thing I want to really touch in on is a shift between busy classes and intentional training environments. So, what are we talking about when we say busy classes? We feel this as teachers, but then I know we've also heard this from so many teachers in our community is we'll spend so much time prior to developing relative motion. I would spend so much time planning my classes. I am spending an hour and a half trying to plan this hour and a half long class because I want everything to be perfect and I want to get results, and I want my dancers to leave with some serious improvements. And so I feel like as teachers, a lot of us have a standard warm-up. We go into it, and this is like the first 15 to 30 minutes of class is getting our dancers warm, getting them engaged, getting them ready. And so, even if it's 15 to 20 minutes, we're taking a significant portion of class and then we're planning the rest of class. Okay, what are we gonna do center? What are we gonna do across the floor? Is there gonna be a combo at the end and picking the music and all the things? And so there's so many times where we'll get through the warm-up, and the warmup is our standard warmup. So half the time our dancers are in it, but maybe even sometimes checked out because they're like, okay, I know what this is, and so they're just relying on muscle memory to get them through. So, not specifically using that part of class to improve what they're doing, but using that part of class just to get the body moving, right? Get the blood flowing. Then we get through the warmup, and sometimes we look at the clock and we're like, okay, we're a significant portion into class, and I have so much of my plan, and so we'll start to go into things we had plans. You can look at the clock shortly thereafter and you're like, oh my goodness, I only have this much time left. And I have, you know, I have 30 minutes left and I have at least an hour left of stuff I've planned. And we spent so much intentional time planning this. We want to get through it, and then half of our plan goes to waste, right? And we just don't get there. And so this for teachers can be a feeling of just being on a treadmill. We want our dancers to get farther, we want to do more, we want this, we want that. And it feels in many ways busy. It feels like we have so much to do, we have so much to do, we just don't have enough time in the classroom. And that feeling for a teacher can be defeating, right? We've spent all this time outside the class planning the class. Now we're in the class and we're not getting to the points we want to get to. And so it's busy. We got to keep moving, we got to keep moving. I want you guys to get here today versus an intentional training environment. And so, what I mean by that is yeah, we're spending as teachers a long time planning the class. So it feels intentional to us, but in the class setting, it feels busy. It feels like we're never quite getting there. And so what I want us to do is I want us to feel like there's a shift between what we're doing and very intentional training. So, what I mean by that is everything for a purpose. Everything is gonna build into one main idea. I think sometimes in our classes it feels busy because we have so many ideas. Maybe our idea is we're gonna really work on turns today. And that feels focused, but are we really thinking about everything that goes into turns? Are we thinking about all the corrections that could potentially work with a pirouette? Okay, we're working pirouettes across the floor today. I want us to straighten our supporting leg. I want us to go on to relevant, I want us to hug our read page, all the things. And so for us, we're like, this is intentional. We're doing a pirouette turn day. And so we think we have this hyper focus on turns, but turns are such a broad spectrum of what we could really be focusing on. And so it for us is like we're just focusing on turns, but really we're focusing on straightening the supporting, keeping the hips with all the things. There could be a plethora, right? So many corrections for turns. And so we get into class and it feels busy because we're gonna be shooting off this and we're gonna be correcting that, and so many things that now everything feels scattered. There's so many things to fix, and nothing's really getting there. And we leave class and we feel like we need more time. Oh my gosh, we need so much more time. Maybe we should add classes to the schedule next year. Maybe we should ask the parents to be here more and pay more and do all the things, right? And so that's feeling for us, we never have enough. We never have enough. We need the parents to do more, we need the kids to be here more. And so the feeling is that the kids leave the class, they didn't really accomplish that much. They've gotten tons of corrections, none of them were really fixed. Maybe like one small thing was fixed, but nothing is really significantly moving the needle. They are leaving the class frustrated. The parents are feeling that frustration, talking to the kids. Why are you feeling frustrated? What's happening? Like, da-da-da. They leave and now they're talking to their friends who might be in another studio and this and that. And the trickle effect of what's happening seeps out way past how we feel as teachers. If we're frustrated and we feel like we're on a treadmill, our dancers feel that, the families feel that, and then the questions start to come and we're like, are they really getting any, you know? And then maybe once every couple of months they get this huge technique. Oh my goodness, you hit your aerial or whatever it happens to be. And then there's like a celebration, I got it, I got it. And that lasts for a little while. But kids need to be in such an intentional training environment that every single time they come to class, they get something. They understand their body more, they see results, there's something measurable. And so we talk about this a lot because our apparel is an instant reward system. It's like bringing a guest teacher in every single time. It's somebody that is showing your dancer measure, it's something that's showing your dancer measurable results every single time they come into the classroom. Are you feeling it in this panel? Whoa, okay, you felt it a little more here. That's amazing. Let's keep going with that. No, maybe they're not getting to the full correction and the full result, but when they chip away at the results a little bit at a time, it's a win. We find ways to celebrate, we find ways to give them that win. So now when they leave the classroom, yeah, they don't have a perfect pirouette yet. Maybe it's not perfect, but oh my goodness, did you see how much your relevant improved in this one class? You were turning here, your heel just an inch above the floor, and now you're three inches off the floor. It's so crazy how fast that happened. And we celebrate and the dancers leave and they've accomplished something, and the parents are excited, and the dancers practicing at home because they're so pumped for it and they want to come back and they're sharing it with their friends. And it's this full circle effect when we get those dancers the wins every single time. And that comes from intentional training. Instead of focusing on the full pirouette, let's focus on that relevant today. Let's focus on getting that releve higher. Is the pirouette perfect by the end of the class? No, but we've celebrated, we've acknowledged, we've accomplished, we're like really going for that goal with them. And so that is the first thing we want to do is shift from busy classes to intentional training environments. Right away, you're gonna feel that. Even if you're not the studio owner, you're the teacher, you're gonna feel that. The kids are gonna want to be in your class, you're gonna feel a shift. The second thing is you want technique clarity to impact your dancer's confidence and reduce injuries. And so we're gonna pay back on the idea of intentional training where they have a specific focus. And now we want the technique clarity there. So we want the dancer not only to understand the higher releve, but we're not just talking about getting the heel higher. We're talking about where does the foot fully stretch from in the first place? So we're not just using the ankle to get the releve higher. We are thinking about that whole lower leg. Most dancers are like, I don't know exactly where the calves are. Does your dancer also understand the tibialis anterior? Does that dancer understand the partnership? And so that's one example of okay, we need to look at the releve, but really are they understanding what needs to happen technique-wise and anatomically for that releve to get higher? And how do we train that? And once the dancers understand more, things spark. Also, like if a dancer feels like they're being held back. So say they've been working on extensions forever and they're like, I just don't have mobility in my hips. I will never be able to get extensions like this dancer, this other friend in my class. Can we show them this is what your body's actually capable of doing? The reason why your body's not doing that quite yet is this, this, and this. You do have the mobility in your hips. Test your dancers, see if they do have the mobility in their hips. Test them and see where their flexibility is. A lot of times it's not that. A lot of times it's overcompensation things like the quadriceps. So if we can get our dancers to understand technically their potential and then how the body works, we can get them the confidence. We can get them the reduced injuries. A lot of times they're getting injuries from overuse and exhaustion and that lack of alignment. And so if they're constantly just whacking the leg up and every time we're digging the leg into the hip joint, we're gonna start to feel injuries. If we're pushing the knees back to get them straight and just walking in that joint, we're gonna see injuries. And so if our dancer can not only understand what their body's capable of doing, but also really have clarity on what we're asking and how to do it, then not only does that build the confidence, it builds their belief in themselves, but we also reduce injuries. And so we have that. And when the dancer has confidence in their leaving, we're gonna circle back to the fact that they're leaving and the parents see them lit up when they're leaving the classroom. And so we get this full circle retention. The parents are excited, the kids are excited, they want to come back to dance. The parents will be excited to support their kid in something they love doing. Like parents love watching their kids do what they love. And so, how do we nurture that environment? And one thing that's technically clarity, and I'm gonna bring it back to the apparel, is a lot of times kids really don't know what we're asking. They don't know where the adductors or inner thighs are, where they're located. They don't know what a tibialis anterior is. They don't really understand the IT band. And so when we can show them, hey, we're talking about this green panel. We want you to feel it in the green panel. Where are you feeling? Okay, you're feeling in the purple panel, those are your quadriceps. So if your quadriceps are taking over in this movement, we're really gonna struggle with the external rotation, which is what your body's feeling. So let's go back. We're gonna go slowly, and I'm gonna find exercises that will target just the green panel. In this exercise, it's much easier to find the feeling in the green panel. So let's start here and then we can build up to that other exercise that your purple panel kept taking over. Okay, so let's circle back later, but we're gonna start in this exercise, and it's just gonna be green, green, green, green, green. Once we understand that engagement, we can go on to the next exercise. We can move this to level two. But then we as teachers have more insight. What are they even feeling? Where do they think they're supposed to feel it? Where are they muscling through this, but not really doing what we're asking them to do? And they think they are, right? Kids aren't coming to the studio just trying to mess with us. They're not just trying to be there forever and not do it right. So it's just a gap between what we're cueing and what they're understanding. And so, can we give them the colors? Can we give them this visual alignment that's like, I want you to see the green? Okay, I want you to do this. And even the psoas, it's so much with our engagement for rotation and those extensions. The psoas is complicated. But if we can be like, hey, can you see the blue panel? And the only way to show the blue panel is if they engage the psoas and start to wrap that rotation, then it becomes easy for them. Okay, I don't see the blue panel. Oh, okay, now I'm starting to see the blue panel. But if you're like engage your psoas and you describe where that is to a dancer, it's really very, I'm gonna say too hard for most dancers to picture that and understand it. And then sometimes when dancers are thinking quote unquote engage, they just try to tighten it, right? And so now we're like locking that hip joint. So these are just a couple of examples of how if we can give them technique clarity, they actually start to get the technique really fast. And then they start to get their confidence, we're getting the retention, and we're reducing the injuries. So that's the second thing. First thing, shift from busy classes to intentional training environments. Second thing, give them that technique clarity. Make it easy for them. And then if you're a studio owner, what happens when your teachers are aligned in one system? So a lot of times we have amazing teachers and it feels like they're coming in and teaching one-off master classes. It's a great class, it's amazing, the energy is high, the dancers are excited, but none of the classes really like are streamlined with each other. So, teacher number one might give an amazing class and give 10 different corrections on the pirouette. Teacher number two might teach an amazing class and it does not align or overlap at all with what teacher one did. So now we have 10 different corrections in the first class, we have 10 different corrections in the second class. They take five, 10, more classes a week, and now they're getting a hundred different corrections that we're trying to get them to fix all within the course of one week. And we feel like nothing's moving, and we're like, our dancers have so much potential. What is happening? But nothing really aligns. And so, is there a way to get our teachers aligned in one system? Is there a way for them to have the same type of focus throughout the course of the year? And so, one thing that we love at our program is that we have something called Curriculum Plus. We're not rewriting what your teachers' strengths and weaknesses are. We hire teachers because they have incredible strengths. We do not want to wash that away. We want our teachers to have their strengths like front and center in class. What are you good at? What do you love to teach? Along with that, how do we keep it from feeling like a one-off masterclass? Is there some kind of language? Is there some kind of focus that we can have that lines all the classes up? And I'm talking all the ages, I'm talking all the genres. There are certain things that are going on in our program, certain patterns of corrections that you're gonna say it differently in tap, you'll say it differently in hip hop or acro, but if you look at the underlying issues, they're gonna be the same across the board. And so is there a way for us to really focus in? And this is what our curriculum planning does. We look at the strengths of the program, we look at the patterns of corrections, and then we focus in on what are all of our teachers saying to the dancers that we're not really seeing unfold in their corrections, that we're not seeing unfold in their progress. Or generationally, we're seeing the same corrections over and over and over again. And you might go to a comp and be like, why doesn't that studio have these issues? They have their own issues, you know, but each studio has their own patterns of corrections. And a lot of it can be generational. The little dancers are watching the older dancers and the older dancers haven't fixed this yet. Because now the little dancers are mimicking those shapes and they're mimicking that movement pattern. And now our little dancers are having the same corrections. So, how do we from the top level down rewrite that and figure out how to fix those corrections once and for all? How to rewrite those patterns once and for all. And so that's our third thing is getting our teachers aligned. If we're a studio owner or program director, how do we get our teachers aligned in one system? And for us, we use Curriculum Plus. It's such a powerful thing. But if you don't have that, or if you're not at the point where you can jump into that, figure out a system, a formula to get everyone on the same page. So I always like to give you something to take away with you. We have a brief time together each week. So here are our takeaways for this week. One, identify one area where your training feels inconsistent. And then I want you to two recognize how confusion from that inconsistency shows up in your dancer's performance. Are you noticing that in comps? Are you noticing that in your performances? And three, start thinking beyond your classes. Start looking at curriculum strategies. So where are we feeling inconsistent? What are the patterns there? Start to follow the patterns and see what are we saying all the time? How do we feel as teachers in the classroom? Does it feel busy? How does that confusion show up in the dancers? How does it show up in how the families are responding? Are the dancers excited to come back or do they feel at this point in the season, especially, do they feel overwhelmed? Do they feel burnt out? And then start thinking beyond the classes because if they're feeling burnt out, it might be from consistently taking in so many different corrections and not feeling like they're moving the needle. They feel like they're on the treadmill, their bodies are exhausted, they're at comps every weekend, they're training, they have the extra rehearsals, it's that time of year. Really take note of where you, as a teacher, if you're the teacher, if you're a studio owner, how your teachers are doing at this time of year, how the dancers are doing, how the families are doing, and look at that because we can always rewrite that for next year, right? We just have to be aware of it now in this crazy kind of overwhelm point of the season. And so, as I'm closing this out, we want to look at the difference between patching problems, which might feel what we're doing right now, right? We have a leak and we're just putting patches on it at this point in the season, and actually building the system. So the difference between patching problems and building the system, that's what we work on together with our teachers. We have RM Live coming up, it's July 17th through 19th. It's gonna be a powerful three days where we go through our program, work on our teacher certification lower body, teacher certification upper body, and then third day we build curriculum. So everything that we're talking about today with getting our teachers in the same system as a teacher, how do we individually build this incredible system and then having the community around us to make it powerful to be nurtured, to build each other up, and to be ready for an incredible season next year. So July 17th through 19th, we're gonna be in Orlando and we wanna see you there. We want to have you in the room with us. So if you are a regular listener and maybe you've done some of our free classes, we have another one coming up soon. And you love that, come into the room because being in the room is really the most powerful thing you can do to be more engaged with our community and to get these systems and strategies from here to there quickly. Okay, you guys, it's been great. I hope you had a good week with us and I hope you have a great week ahead. We will see you next time. That's a wrap on today's episode of It's All Relative. Thank you for spending. Your time with us. We believe what you bring to the dance world matters, and we're honored to support the way you teach, lead, and inspire. If this episode moved you, made you think, or gave you something new to try, hit that subscribe button so you don't miss what's next. You can connect with us anytime at Relative Motion Dance on Instagram or visit relativemotiondance.com for more tools and trainings. Until next time, keep growing, keep leading, and keep dancing with purpose. Because remember, it's all relative.