Kelli : 00:00
Long before the Friday night lights, and long before competition day, great dance team programs are built. One rehearsal, one relationship, and one leader at a time. Welcome to Lights, Lines, and Leadership, the podcast where passion, precision, and people come together. I'm your host, Kelly Woodruff, as a dance team director, judge, and counselor. I've spent more than 25 years helping dancers, directors, and teens grow both on and off the floor. Each week, you'll lead with practical strategies, fresh ideas, and real-world insights to strengthen your team, develop your leaders, and elevate your program. Today's guest is someone who has been part of my dance journey for a long time. Our paths first crossed when Allie Kudak was a preteen and one of my ballet students. Since then, she's gone on to become an outstanding educator, spending nearly 18 years as the director at Birdville High School. It's been so much fun watching her grow from one of my students into someone I truly respect as a teacher and educator. Allie, welcome. Tell us about your journey from growing up as a dancer to becoming a dance director.

Allie: 01:03
Oh gosh. Hi, Kelly. First of all, thank you so much for having me on. The journey is kind of hard to summarize because I feel like it's literally my life and who I am. Um, I grew up dancing at Pot Riddle School of Dance and was honored to have Kelly as one of my ballet teachers. And then I went on to Texas Christian University. Um, I got a degree in modern dance and a minor in secondary education. And then I thought I wanted to be wrapped up in the studio world, and I did that for a year. And then Birdville High School opened up, kind of felt like out of nowhere. And uh one of my students' moms told me to apply because her daughter needed a director. And so 18 years later, I coached that team for a long time, added teams and programs and expanded that DMs department a lot over the years. And now I'm on my newest adventure. My husband and I packed up and moved to Colorado and trying to figure out this freelance life after so many years in public education. But super excited to be here today with you.

Kelli : 02:05
I'm excited to hear about Colorado, and that may not be a topic for today, but I'm jealous because I love the mountains. Before I got into teaching, we lived for six months north of Denver in a small little tri-towns. Oh, I did not know that. I'm jealous that is one of our life goals is to be back in the mountains. We missed too much. And as you know, there's not a lot of dance teamwork in Colorado. So wanted to get my foot in the door as a director. So had to come back to Texas to do that. Anyway, let's get started talking about the topic of the day. One thing that people know is that I love teaching ballet. You know, there were years that I probably spent too much time on technique and not enough time on cleaning choreography. And as the years went on, I realized I needed, I didn't need less of ballet, but I needed to teach it more efficiently. I needed to make it more engaging, find ways to fit it into the realities of the dance team practice. And as you know, dance directors don't have time for an hour-long ballet class. So when you only have 20 to 30 minutes a week, what fundamentals become your non-negotiables?

Allie: 03:07
Yeah, um I love ballet too. I feel like we are very aligned in that. And it can be very hard to fit it in and fit in the basics. I try to teach the kids from the get-go that, you know, it's their vegetables and they gotta have it. Like we are not gonna be working on switch leaks and things if we haven't done tomdues for the day. So, number one, you can fit in an hour a week if you really try. But if you're doing it in little digestible bits, um, I think it's just important to incorporate it into your warmup. Like it should be so ingrained in those kids that they know that footwork and pressing through their four starch and tomdues and degages are just kind of part of it. Or when we would go across the floor to do leaps, we would start with prancing and little jete tomblevays to like warm up their feet and get the smaller intricate work going before we would even let them do a granjete or a soda chassis. So just making sure that you're building those little progressions in. And then we would kind of have not a go-to set warm-up every day, but go-to combos. So if it's like, okay, go across the floor, let's do our prances, and they would just know so we could kind of move through it quicker. So I think setting the entire warm-up can lead to boredom, right? We want the kids engaged and not kind of going on autopilot and just moving through the motions. But if you have set combos and then you're changing up the order and which ones you do each day, you're still keeping it exciting with minimizing that instructional time for some of the combinations.

Kelli : 04:37
I did set mine, but I changed music often. And that helped to keep it fresh. And it was not classical music. Learned that early on that that was not a buy-in. Painting the music, but keeping the combos the same so that they didn't have to think about it. I'm a foot judge, but I see the feet not being strong enough, not only in leaps, but also kicks, releves, pirouettes, things like that, where I even just had the kiddos lay on the floor, you know, legs up in the air, let's do foot circles, ballpoint, ball, flex, working those feet to strengthen. I don't think enough people realize how you have to have your feet strong, your metatarsals, the ball of the foot, so that you can have the strength to even go up on the releve, to even stretch the foot along the floor as it's brushing to get into that leap. Were there any exercises specifically that you did to, or what are those specific exercises?

Allie: 05:29
Sure. I agree with everything you just said. Like there's so many times, whether it's a releve or like the trending acro, a headspring, kids are trying to do a headspring and they just do not have the back strength and flexibility that's required. So I'm a huge advocate on teaching the kids to understand the physical demand of what you're asking your body to do, and then ensuring that you have the strength and flexibility and the endurance to do such skills. Pure OS, just finding that high releve. Like a lot of rolling through four-starch, pulsing in the four-starch. I think kids think they are stuck with whatever feet they have. And so getting them to understand that you can stretch your feet, you can strengthen your feet, you can increase your releve and your arch. And using Therabands for more resistance is great as well. But yeah, some type of daily footwork. And whether it's a consistent thing they do every day or you're changing it up, you can do it to pop music, you can they can sing a song while they do it, and all of a sudden it's not ballet in their brain, but they are doing the fundamentals of that ballet footwork.

Kelli : 06:34
So we both traveled with MA Dance through the summers in our college years, a little bit beyond college and so forth. And you also travel now and work with teams, and I've worked with teams. What I've noticed is a lot of the warm-up is stretching with just a little bit of some abs maybe thrown in periodically. So, how do you work with those teams and what do you give them, you know, even if it's just a little bit, so that they can efficiently put it into their practices and into their warmup.

Allie: 07:01
Absolutely. I love an across the floor warmup. Like before classes even started, we worked on the floor. Um, I did it with my team a ton. Katie, Purdue, Norsworthy, and I were co-partners in crime for eight years. So a lot of this was developed together in our ideas, but having them work out across the floor lunges, calf stretches, like a Frankenstein hamstring stretch, planks, crab walks. Like you can hit a full body workout traveling across the floor as a warmup in like one, maybe two songs, like five minutes. We would have them do the exercise down and run back. So we're hitting full body, we're hitting stamina, we're hitting everything. And once that's done, then we would do abs and arms, and then we would let them stretch for a short amount of time. If you truly warm up the muscles and you're really working out from more of a kinesiology mindset, then the stretching doesn't need that much time. Your body is warm and it's ready. Another thing I like to do is warm them up, do the abs and work pirouettes before we stretch. Um, so keeping the body tight, the core tight, and working those turns, then stretch before you get into your botmas and leaps and stuff. So the stretching is just kind of like a small piece along the way versus a 20-minute extravagant opening to class. And it can really like you can get so much more done that way if you do not start with the stretching.

Kelli : 08:26
I love the across the floor that you just mentioned. What an efficient way to get warmed up, to get toned. You can even add in some passe work, some stop and do some plies, any of those things to where it's efficient.

Allie: 08:39
Yeah. And and now cater it to what we're doing that day. So we're working leaps that day. We'll do like step down to a lunge, hop to passe, just working on that up and that power jump squats, like jump out as far as you can, and then jump up as high as you can, thinking about like knees into armpits, like prepping for those toe touches and things. So you can cater that across the floor warm up to what you're planning on focusing on in class that day, too.

Kelli : 09:03
I love that. And their bodies are getting warm and they're having fun.

Allie: 09:06
Yeah, they have so much fun with it. They race, they're high-fiving. No matter where I go, whether it was with my old team or a master class, I we herd mentality. We don't need to be standing in perfect straight lines. Like we're just like find some space and go. Everyone's moving. We're running back and forth through each other. And a lot of times, naturally, they'll start encouraging each other and high-fiving and and having fun with it. And they're out of breath and they're tired and all these things, and they don't even realize they've done like a full body workout.

Kelli : 09:33
And that is a time saving because you're not waiting for the next group to go across the floor. There are specific exercises that your dancers never seem to love, but you know they're absolutely needed. So share with us what those specific exercises are for your dancers. I'm sure that a lot of people also feel the same way.

Allie: 09:52
First of all, I always tell kids whatever you hate the most is what you need the most. So it's a great indicator. Um, the things that you dislike doing are probably the things you need more of. Um where you go, they hate push-ups and they all need them. And making sure that you're giving them a variety of push-ups, that we're working with the arms like at a 90-90. We're pulling the hands in close. I love a down dog push-up, especially prepping for headsprings, triceptips. Really, that arm strength. I find kids do not enjoy push-ups. And a lot of them, it's because they can't do very many very well. And so they like the things they feel good at. You know what I mean? But yeah, ooh, push-ups.

Kelli : 10:33
That's gonna be a whole nother pod is getting all that body toning. We used weights, used weights even with palm. Yes, I know that was a hate, but you've got to get that upper body strength. Oh, yeah.

Allie: 10:45
I'm a big proponent of weight room too. If you have the capability to get the kids in the weight room, I was fortunate my last year coaching at Birdville that our our strength and conditioning football coach took us on once a week. So that was a great addition to our training was adding actual weight training as a team.

Kelli : 11:02
And that's how your team got so strong. So you got your your new babies. Maybe they're the JB teams. When you are teaching them, because a lot of times they'll come in and they kind of know it, but or they're coming in and they don't do it correctly, whatever that movement is, the technical skill. Do you talk them through the exercise? How do you work it through so that they know I could spend an hour or a whole day on a tondu and how the foot should actually move through the floor? How do you demonstrate that?

Allie: 11:29
Part of being a strong educator is that you're able to connect to every kid in the room. So repetition is huge. And that as you're explaining it or as you're demonstrating it, you're using different verbiage every single time. So maybe you break it down with imagery, and then you break it down with anatomical terms, and then you walk over and touch the student with permission, of course, and move their foot, and then you have them grab a partner and fix each other, and then you have them watch in the mirror. I think the key is to give them as much as possible while they're doing it over and over and over and over again. You want to be careful that you're not just talking at them, that they're physically doing it with you, but that every single time you re-explain it or break it back down, you're doing it in a different flavor so that maybe a different student in the room catches it. Once they understand what they're doing, I like to really walk around, obviously get consent from kids ahead of time or know who's okay with touch and who's not. But I'm huge on just even a finger, like, no, engage here or release here so that they're getting that physical touch to indicate where they should engage or release muscles is helpful. But I think just the repetitiveness with variation so that we're not saying the same thing. We are saying the same thing over and over, but in a different way.

Kelli : 12:52
What I hear is when you're giving corrections, there's that fine line of finding out how that they're gonna feel that change. Back in back ballet training, I mean, my leg would be cranked into the correct position at Houston Ballet Academy, but it was like, oh, please do that because now I feel it. That's really hard going into dance team when you're hands off.

Allie: 13:16
I remember back in our day, it was like you were being pushed and squeezed and stuck. I mean, we would literally have teachers stand on us to increase flexibility. While while how times have changed and how far we've come in in what is best practice, I think if it's students, like if it's your team and they're your kids, a lot of that consent can be ongoing. You know who's comfortable touching not, especially with master classes when they're students, I don't know. As I'm approaching them to correct them, I just quickly, may I touch? And and most kids are like, yeah, absolutely. And it's just like a simple if you press right between their surname, then they understand and close that rib cage or so on and so forth.

Kelli : 13:54
Do you explain what the purpose is of each exercise? I'm talking about right away, like right at the beginning. So I used to take the hours, almost hours, the first week or two of summer training. We're gonna be spending quite a bit of time and I'm gonna tell you the why. And I feel like kids also, when they know the why, that it has a purpose. A tondu is not just stick the leg out, it's because you're trying to get that strength of the foot along the floor so that once it goes off, you can power with the floor to a kick. You can power with the floor into a leap. Properly brushing the foot creates that cleaner, more technically proficient movement. Um, do you go into further detail with them? Absolutely.

Allie: 14:33
I I talk a lot and I talk fast when I'm teaching. So I don't know if every kid catches every bit of information, but it's all out there and the ones who catch what they do do. And I honestly think the why is so important with kids beyond the technique. I know that's not what you're asking about, but sometimes when you tell them what t-shirt to wear on Friday, if you just give them a very simple why your decision was made, they accept it versus like moaning and groaning about what they're wearing or how their hair is for a performance or whatever. But yes, absolutely going back to technique, explaining the why while you're breaking it down. I always try to make sure they're doing it with me. I try to not let them be stagnant too long while I'm talking. So if I'm explaining the why, they're doing it as we're explaining it. And it's like, do you feel that? Do you feel this? Like now we'll do it wrong, feel that wrong. Now do it right, feel that right. And talking to the kids a lot, I'll move them out of the mirror when I'm trying to get them to feel something. Or a lot of times teaching masterclass settings, you don't have a mirror. You're in a ballroom or whatever. But even with a mirror, I'll turn them away to get the visual aid out and ask them if they truly feel what it feels like, well, like when the hip is in the socket versus lifted, et cetera, because they need to be able to recreate the feeling, not the look.

Kelli : 15:50
I beg, borrow, and steal from everybody, as we all do and should, which is why this podcast is getting dancers up against the wall in a really good deep. And we would have a contest. And so you push against the wall, you're in a nice deep grand plie, your feet are flexed, and you push against the wall to see who can shoot further, further away from the wall. So making things a contest so they see the why, and you can go, look how high your jump could be. If you really dug deep in that plie and used it and made it a working plie, that's how higher your leap could go. That light bulb would come on, and then it's like, okay, now I know why we're doing plies, but not just bending and straightening, but why we need to push down to go up and then lift up to go down so that you have that active muscular physics going on with the body, the mechanics.

Allie: 16:38
Absolutely. And you don't even really have to be teaching the little ones to give fun imagery. The older ones. Oh, high school kids love it. They love it. And um, so I love to talk about Super Mario and how he like goes down and like powers up and jumps up. And there's a great ballet rendition of the Super Mario um theme song for sautes. My kids probably like hear it in their nightmares, my former kids, because we would have our go-to saute combo to Super Mario Brothers, because I would tell them we gotta work on our jumps so we can jump high like Mario. That is beautiful.

Kelli : 17:11
I love that. Absolutely. So beyond the basics, what's your favorite leap or your turn to teach and how do you break it down?

Allie: 17:19
Ooh, you know, I think things come and go in trends. And so a lot of times I'll like really latch on to the current trend and how to break it down. One thing I've seen a lot is butterfly jumps. Everybody is wanting to incorporate butterfly jumps in solos and group members in different styles. And so really understanding like the shape and the picture we're trying to create in the air, and then again, bringing it back to the necessary strength, flexibility, and endurance. Like I always ask them, what are these three things we need for this skill? So getting kids to understand that in that butterfly jump, we need power in our legs so we can jump high off the ground. We need flexibility and strength in our back so we can achieve that arc, right? Because the goal is to see those feet up behind the head as you're kind of spiraling across. And so then it's like getting the kids to be a part of the conversation. Okay, well, we need stronger legs, lower bodies, specifically glutes, quads, hamstrings to jump. So, what are some exercises we could do? And they get excited. They're like jump lunges, squats. And I'm like, okay, you said it, not me. Let's do it. And then, you know, back arches and all kinds of, we've done a million different back things over the years as uh ballet chain dancers, but getting them to really understand what is required of the body. So the butterfly jump lately been breaking those down a lot for kids, needles and illusions, and that action of like diving down as you're going into it is super helpful as well. And then I just love breaking down good old-fashioned pirouettes. You know, if you can learn how to balance well, then you can turn in any position. So I think, you know, directors will ask me to come in and work on turns and second. And then I spend 90% of the class on releve balance control. We're not doing turns in second till the bitter end 10, 15 minutes of that hour-long class, because it's not about doing the turn and second over and over again. It's about building the control and the awareness and the strength to be able to do it for a sustained amount of time. We were always told growing up, like you should be able to balance for twice as long as you want to turn. You want to do a quad, you need to be able to balance with no baubles for eight counts, you know? And so I like to reiterate that to kids like, what are you doing in the grocery store line balancing? What are you doing while brushing your teeth? Balancing, like make it a part of your daily because that's part of it too. They can go to a masterclass and like learn ideas and concepts, but they're not gonna get better from that one masterclass. They have to then go home and apply it and do these exercises on a regular basis with consistency to really see the change and the growth. But yeah, butterfly leaps and pirouettes are probably my favorite right now.

Kelli : 20:04
And I love that you just took it back to the basics because it all goes back to the basics. Everybody wants to do all the butterfly leaps and whatever the trend is that they're seeing on social media.

Allie: 20:15
Right.

Kelli : 20:15
But if you don't have those basics, if you don't have that good, clean pirouette foundation where you can be able to balance. One thing I've noticed as a judge that I say a lot on my critiques is the balance, but not just you have to balance, but how you balance. And so, you know, we worked a lot or I worked a lot with my team of, and I say it a lot, get your belly button up and over your big toe. It's that shift of the weight. Yep. Use that all the time.

Allie: 20:42
And I stole it from you all the way back. I'm gonna date both of us. Uh, it was probably like 2004 or five, and I was doing like pedagogy classes at TCU and I had to go observe teachers. And they tried to send me to Fort Worth IST schools, but they didn't have dance at the time. And so I insisted I went to you. Um, and I was literally in a morning practice in 2004, and you were telling the kids to get their belly button over their second toe. And I have used that ever since. I used it like in Minnesota two weeks ago. My goodness.

Kelli : 21:15
Yay. But that is something, and you don't think about it. Everybody just thinks about going up, but it's not just you've got to go forward. You've got to go up and up and over. And that's where that doing those plies, doing the tondus, because when you tondu, you can't have your weight on working, your working leg. It's got to be up and over your supporting leg. And so that's why, directors, it's so important to put these basics, these fundamentals into your warm-up because it's helping you learn the transfer of weight, which then that transfer of weight of tongues, of deg, of a rondjam. Take the rondejon off the floor is huge because they've got to shift that weight. Otherwise, they're gonna fall over. Anything to practice shifting the weight. But that is one thing. I've probably said it on other people listening on your critique tapes, but get that belly button up and over the big toe and practice. It over and over. Once they find that, you can hold that balance for so long. It's it is it's that sweet spot. You mentioned pirouettes. What about just the regular leap? What are you incorporating? I think those are the two fundamentals that, you know, but they're done over and over and over in choreography. So it's so important to get those fundamentals, the basics, you know, in the warm-up and then incorporate those basics into those two fundamentals. Tell us a little bit more about just your regular granjate. Yeah, absolutely.

Allie: 22:30
I think one of the main, some of the main things we correct on granite's back leg. We say it all the time. Kids struggle with that back leg and the the jumping up, right? It's like there's kids who can make a flat leap, but their head didn't go anywhere. And so, like, it's great that you got your legs up underneath you, but you need to go in the sky. So, again, breaking down the different things, getting kids to understand that the flexibility of the front hamstring, the flexibility of the low back for the back leg are what's getting the legs to the split. But then the quad, hamstring, and glute strength are what's getting you to leap high in the sky. So getting the kids to understand that they're building strength and flexibility in two different places for two different reasons. Um, and then a lot of back leg work, a lot of botmas with a partner. Yeah, I'll have them just stand and botma from first to the back. And if the length bends or the foot point uh isn't pointed or the chest drops, it doesn't count. Your partner can check them off as if they count or not, um, and making sure they're working that that action. And then also a lot of them will get it straight and then instantly crumble in. So they're not understanding the pathway of how to come down properly. So then visually, what you're seeing is the bent leg and they're like, no, I felt it get straight. Well, it only got straight for like half a count, and then we saw it like envelope sickled back through to come down. So it's like getting them to understand to keep that leg engaged and feel it straight all the way coming through. So also doing like bat bat maw, and instead of closing first, take that bat bat maw and come enclench all the way through and transfer the weight to it so it feels more like the exit from the lead. And I think that can help a lot. And then just exercises and drills to get jump height, squat jumps, jump lunges, squat pulses, anything that's building that lower body strength so they can physically jump higher. But yeah, brand's back legs, man, it's the back leg. It is the back leg.

Kelli : 24:26
Dancers, directors, that's where those degouches come in. You know, why am I standing in first position doing these degets to the back? Because your leg is bent. So it's and it's muscle memory. That's why ballet dancers take ballet class every day. It's muscle memory.

Allie: 24:41
Like I said, not just how you're getting into it, but how you're getting out of it. I feel like we spend so much energy and effort teaching them how to get off the floor, and then we just rely on gravity to take them down. But there is a proper like pathway of that leg on the way down that a lot of them are missing.

Kelli : 24:58
And that closure of so if you're working with your dancers and you're doing the degets in first, not just the extension of the leg, but working on how the leg closes in. And it's not, it doesn't bend to come in, it comes in straight. Right. You know, so that when you're coming down from your leap, yes, you want to land in a plie, but you don't want it to collapse like you just.

Allie: 25:20
And I think that's where if you do like the back degrees and then enclenche through to the front and put the weight in it into a front lunge. So you're straightening the supporting leg and and brushing behind you, and then keep that supporting leg straight, brush the working leg through and bend into it so that they are understanding yes, you have to plie when you land, but only after the leg is coming through. Yeah. That's a great exercise.

Kelli : 25:44
And I also love working with a partner. I remember doing that a lot, a lot with balance. Get your partner balance, start head to toe, correct all of that, let go. How long can you stay? How long? Okay, it's a competition. Let's see who can stay the longest. And then I love that you just said with doing with your your plie and the cloche with the working the Arebes leg for your leap, working that with partners. That's great. They love and they're they're so great helping each other out.

Allie: 26:09
They're great. And if you build that culture, like I had a team where the culture was anyone can correct anyone. We just have to understand time and place, right? The freshman can correct the captain if they are partners in that exercise. And so getting everybody comfortable to understand that correcting each other is a group effort, a collaborative effort of getting better, that we're not nitpicking each other. For some teenagers, it's a really hard concept to be open to criticism from your peers. And I think another thing that can help with that is the way you yourself correct your students because then they're gonna model that when they correct each other. So I always try, instead of telling them, and this is just like talk tape judge etiquette, instead of telling them what they're doing wrong, tell them what they should be doing instead. So don't tell them, oh, your leg was bit in your leap again. Say, make sure you're stretching it all the way through until you step down. It just has a different tone. And so if you're correcting your kids by telling them what to do instead of what not to do, they're gonna correct each other that way as well. And then it has a just a positive impact on your culture and the way they speak to each other. Oreo cookie it. Yeah.

Kelli : 27:17
Two positives for that. Yes, two positives for that, that feedback, that constructive criticism. Right. Yeah, right.

Allie: 27:24
But also telling them what to do. Because I think when the kid is told over and over again what not to do, don't finch a leg, don't fit your leg, don't fit the leg. They're like, okay, I get it, but like can't fix it. Versus every time you correct them, tell them what to do in different verbiage. Yes, absolutely.

Kelli : 27:42
Hold in your abdominals, get up on a high releve, passe needs to be higher, exactly. All of those things. So technique, it's not just about making the dancers look better. Right. But teaching proper mechanics and controlled landings helps reduce unnecessary stress on the body. And it plays an important role in injury prevention. I always felt like when our dancers or when my dancers became technically stronger, we just naturally dealt with fewer injury throughout the season. Did you see that as well?

Allie: 28:11
Yes. I do think as my dancers got stronger, the risks we were taking were higher as well. When you have the majority of your team throwing aerials and hard acro every day, there's just a higher increase of like freak accidents happening. So I won't I won't say we were injury free.

Kelli : 28:31
Like I had a broken arm trying to get aerials. So I understand that.

Allie: 28:35
But just the normal Achilles tendons or exactly. And I have to give a shout out. I have no idea if she'll ever listen to this, but Kelly Joe is the best athletic trainer on the face of the planet. And I wish every public educator had a Kelly Joe on their campus because my dancers were very fortunate at Birdville High School to have full access to the athletic training room. They were treated like athletes. And so they also got really good at preventative habits. You know, we have foam rollers in the room, we have muscle guns, and we talk about overuse and like getting to understand your body and know when it's time to speak up and say, like, I cannot do another jump split today. Like, absolutely because what is natural about a jump split? Nothing. So at some point in time, they might need to be able to feel comfortable enough to raise their hand and say, I should not. You know, that is far better in a rehearsal than then dealing with six weeks of rehab because they didn't speak up and they did one more jump split than they should. So I do think the strength training helps, but then we also have to understand in the competitive dance world, we are asking them to do things that are unnatural to their body. Even the most trained dancer landing too many aerials or front aerials on that same foot could produce a stress fracture if they're dancing barefoot. So being aware of their surroundings and helping them learn how to take care of their bodies is so critical.

Kelli : 29:56
Teaching technique is one thing. Changing bad habits is another. Every director has inherited dancers with habits they're trying to retrain. What are the most common technical habits you find yourself correcting? And more importantly, how do you break those habits?

Allie: 30:12
Yes. Okay, so like the ongoing discussion of directors that are like, I have no studio kids, or I have this and that and whatever. I was very fortunate that I had a lot of trained kids, but they were trained at like 12 different studios, which meant really fun scheduling. And it also meant merging dancers that all danced differently. And I think the portabron, the upper body carriage, is like the most noticeable right off the bat. You know, we had some studios who would allow them to pirouette with their palms facing the floor instead of the body. Um, and they, these kids have been doing it their whole life. So getting them to change it and like rotate that pinky finger under and face the palm of the hand to them was like, you know, mind-shattering to them. But we couldn't have dances where some were turning in one position and some were turning in another. So I think another thing is like if they're still training at those studios, you want to be very careful with how you address their habits. That's their beloved teacher that they've had since they were two, telling them to do it that way. So acknowledging that there are multiple right ways, you know, to skin a cat and that when you're dancing here in this room, we're gonna do it like this. Um, and in our team way of doing it is like this versus saying, like, well, that's wrong, do it here. So being mindful of the other educators that they have in their life, I think is important. But yeah, the porta bras is definitely just the way they carry their arms, the shoulders, if they open through their clavicle or not, if they present. And that's huge for dance team. If you do have studio dancers who are trained more, you know, for those judges right at the base of the stage versus the football field, it's like getting them to perform in a in a different way conceptually too.

Kelli : 31:53
I found that also with the the port de bras, bringing their arms in to where you're you're hand in hand, hand over hand, instead of, you know, the classical. We're gonna do it more classical, correct, we're not gonna do it that way. I mean, you you can if that's the way your team wants to do it, but you've got to make everybody look the same. And that's the key in doing all of these things to have the team look like one dancer at the end of the day. Right.

Allie: 32:15
And I honestly, that is the reason for the technique. Like you've got to make sure that they're training the technique the same so that when they put it in choreography, they look the same. And it's just like any other sport. I mean, my husband's a basketball coach, they're not going in there and just playing bot games against each other every day. They're running drills and they're working on technique and placement. You know, it's you can we are an art form, yes, we're also a sport. So training those drills and those fundamentals in them aligns with any type of sport they would be doing in school.

Kelli : 32:46
We have covered a lot of information today. If every director listening walked into practice tomorrow and changed just one thing about the way they teach technique or incorporating technique, if they don't incorporate it, what would you encourage them to do?

Allie: 33:00
Okay, let me let me answer both. If you don't incorporate technique, I recommend you try in across the floor of warm-up because you will find it takes no time and you're drilling some of that strength and stuff that they need. And I've got examples of these on my website. But um, if you do incorporate technique and you want to change or self-awareness, I would say listen to yourself a little bit more for a day on how you're explaining or correcting the technique. Are you too quiet and just letting them go through the motions incorrectly? Are you correcting them but constantly telling them what not to do? And see if instead you can continually talk about what to do while they're doing the technique.

Kelli : 33:41
Is there anything else you'd like to share for directors to encourage them just one thing to add? Anything else?

Allie: 33:47
Do you have a pirouette exercise that I didn't talk about earlier? Go. Um, so and this works with the little littles too. Getting them to go from like a flat back arabesque position where like head and foot are in line, and then scoop everything up and under to that passe. So I like to do either in center, pull up to passe for four counts, and then extend the leg back as you send the head forward, make everything nice and flat like a table, and then pull right back up to passe and start it with just flat foot and then work to add the releve when they pull back in. Or you can do it across the floor, like walk one, two, three, four, come to passe, send it all back, try to pick something up off the floor and pull up to that passe releve. So they're from that flat back to the passe, they're having to correct the pelvis, they're having to pull everything up under. And I think it helps them understand that placement a little bit more in the turn itself. And get those ads engaged. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. It's a good one. It's a good one.

Kelli : 34:44
So I've got a couple questions that I will be asking every guest on the pod. And so my first question is what's your favorite dance style to teach or perform?

Allie: 34:55
I love teaching palm. Love a palm. Perform, probably contemporary. But yeah, I love doing palm choreography. What do you like so much about palm? I think like I'm a very math-brained person, and palm feels like it has a right and a wrong. It feels like a math equation. You can build symmetry. Like palm just feels so math-oriented to me, and I love that about it.

Kelli : 35:17
What's one life lesson dance or drill team has taught you that you've carried into everyday life?

Allie: 35:23
My gosh, so much. I am who I am because of dance. So it's hard to like really break it apart. But I think dance teaches you to be resilient in so many ways. Um, you grow up taking constant criticism, it could feel that way, with corrections and top tapes, and you're always putting yourself out there. So um, dance teaches you to kind of have thick skin and take other people's opinions of you and then realize how to process those or throw them out or whatever. So I'm appreciative of dance for that in my life. Dance has also taught me to just make physical fitness a part of my life and movement of the body, which I think is so helpful. In my 40s, it's turned a lot more into yoga. Amen. But just that I am a lifelong mover, which is so important in our health and wellness as we get older. So I think that's a huge thing I took from dance is the joy of movement.

Kelli : 36:14
You started an exciting new chapter working with dance teams through consulting. And so now please tell everyone a little about what you're offering, where directors can connect with you, and what you're up to these days.

Allie: 36:28
Yes, I'm doing a little bit of everything right now. Um, having been a coach for so many years, I feel like I understand the many facets of what it takes to be a dance coach. Um, so you can hire me for choreography, consulting, music editing, resource making. I do it all. Follow me on Instagram at AliHoodak. And through my Instagram, you can find a direct link to my teacher pay teacher website that has tons of resources, both directed towards the high school dancer, whether it's dance team or dance class. I also have resources dedicated more towards studio dance, music edits, coloring sheets, vocab, history. If it can be taught in a dance classroom, it is on my teacher pay teacher. And I will commission things. If you have something specific that you want created, good friend of mine, Karis Van, contacts me often. I've made marketing images for her junior clinic. I've made her activity workbooks, all kinds of things. So if you have a need or a want of something specific, you can reach out and explain what it is that you would like created and I can get to work and make it for you. I have some great former students who are little models for me and stood in every position of every genre while I took their pictures. And so I really am getting in the nitty-gritty and creating these resources. And all of my coloring book and cartoon characters are some of my actual dancers. So that makes it extra fun.

Kelli : 37:55
That is really fun to know. And I'll link all of your um social media, your website, I'll link all of that to the podcast notes for our listeners. Awesome. Allie, thank you so much for joining me today. I know our listeners are walking away with practical ideas they can use in their very next practice. And I appreciate you sharing your experience and your passion for helping dancers and directors continue to grow. It's always special getting to reconnect with someone whose journey I've had the privilege of watching over the years. Thank you for taking the time to be here with us today. Thank you so much, Kelly. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to follow the podcast, leave a review, and share it with another director, dancer, parent, or industry professional. Let's continue the conversation on Instagram at Life Lines Leadership Podcast. Until next time, keep making a difference, keep developing leaders, keep creating memories that will last a lifetime. Thanks for joining me on Lights, Lines, and Leadership, where passion, precision, and people come together.