Ep. 2 Planning the Year So It Won't Plan You: Setting the Tone in the First 30 Days

Guest: Julie Stralow

Hosted by: Kelli Woodruff

The first 30 days of the season can shape everything that follows.

In this episode of Lights, Lines, & Leadership, veteran dance team director Julie Stralow joins me for a conversation about one of the most important—and often most overwhelming—times of the year. Together, we share practical strategies for establishing expectations, building a positive team culture, creating organizational systems, and planning ahead so you can lead your team with confidence instead of simply reacting to each new challenge.

Whether you're a first-year director or a seasoned veteran, you'll walk away with practical ideas to help you create a strong foundation, reduce stress throughout the year, and set your team up for a successful season.

In This Episode

• Why the first 30 days set the tone for your entire season
• Establishing expectations, routines, and accountability from day one
• Building a positive team culture through intentional leadership
• Planning your year before it begins—from calendars and facilities to family communication
• Organizational systems and leadership lessons that reduce stress throughout the season

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Transcript

Speaker 0:04

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 teams grow both on and off the floor. Each week, you'll leave with practical strategies, fresh ideas, and real-world insights to strengthen your team, develop your leaders, and elevate your program. Today we're talking about something every dance and drill team director experiences, the first 30 days of the season. Every director starts the year with the same two things: excitement and a calendar that somehow fills up faster than we ever imagined. Before long, it's choreography, football games, pep rallies, parent meetings, weekend clinics, fundraisers, team traditions, team parties, homecoming, and somehow you're asking yourself, how is it already October? The strongest programs don't just survive the season, they prepare for it. Today we're talking about how intentional planning, clear expectations, and strong systems can set the tone for an entire year. I'm excited to welcome someone whose journey has been connected to mine for many years. Julie Stralo, I'm so glad you're here.

Speaker 2 1:21

Thanks for having me. It's an honor.

Speaker 1:23

One of the things I love about the dance team world is how connected it really is. Even though Julie and I attended different high schools, we actually shared the same dance team director, Betsy Heathcock. We both shout out. We both graduated from TCU. GoFrog. And years later, she became my student teacher at Haltham High School. Since then, she's gone on to lead one of Texas' strongest dance team programs at Capell High School. And I've enjoyed watching her career and how she's made a huge impact on so many students. So, Julie, tell everyone a little about your dance journey and what led you into this profession.

Speaker 2 1:56

Um, well, it's pretty much as you said, just about four or five years behind you. I did uh start dancing because my sister was on drill team at Camp Nurse. She was on the Cougar Brigade, and so I just started dancing at the studio and decided that's all I needed to do was get to high school so I can dance on the brigade. And then they built a new high school. So I actually went to Stephen F. Austin, which is where Betsy Heathcock, our world-class director, um, she came from the school you had graduated from and started the Angels at Stephen F. Austin. I wish I had paid more attention while I was in high school because I had no idea that my life is going to be in drill team. Um, but yeah, she was a great, just the most outstanding person to have as a director. Absolutely. Very supportive. Just so much, you know, she did so much work. And that was probably what made me think I would never do this, is because I know she was at home sewing flags because we were essentially the color guard during football season, always making costumes and stuff. She was super busy, did all the choreography. So yeah, there was no way that I ever thought I had the wherewithal to do something like that. You know, famous last words. So yeah, because I had met Kelly as an MA staff member when she did my private, and I had met Regan Jackson, and she was also a TCU student, and I just looked up to both you and Reagan so much and knew TCU had a dance home dance program, even though I was not gonna be a drill team director. I so I went to TCU with a modern dance major. And then while I was there, Regin was a senior actually, and she asked me if I wanted to work on MA staff, which it was like, heck yeah. Get to dance all summer, though it sounded like it'd be a lot of fun. Get paid. Yeah, and my friend Clayton Cross, who probably some listeners probably might be familiar with. He's a great choreographer, lives in Chicago. He and I were both at TCU freshmen together, and we didn't know what drill team was, being from homeschooling in Midland. So I was like, oh, it'll be great. You just do little dances and you teach them in the summer, and it's so much fun. Well, I didn't even know what all was involved. I got sent off to all these private camps and stuff, like in Ohio and things by myself as a 19-year-old, which was great for a lot of it, getting a lot of experience at a young age. But that's what really made me realize that I like going, I like teaching these teams, and I really hated leaving and not being able to work with them and see those dances become performances. So that was kind of a little nugget of like this, I kind of like doing this. I felt natural teaching, which not everybody does. My mom's a teacher, so I probably should have, you know, had it seen it coming. But like I said, dance teaching and directing was not, I didn't think was in the cards for me. But that experience with MA really turned it around for me. So then I ran into Kelly again. Of course, in the dance building, she was working with one of the ballet professors on a module for teaching ballet to high school kids. And she was like, Oh, you're gonna teach? Well, then you should come student teach for me. You were at Haltham, and I was like, Oh, okay, great. The road is just keeps getting laid out for me, and you know, I just kept walking down the path. So yeah, I got hooked up to to be Kelly's student teacher for the spring. So I got to work during uh competition season and spring show, although I was only there for 12 weeks, but I think I probably ended up coming the whole semester. Yes, you did. What led me to Coppel after that was I didn't get the Haltham job because she was Kelly was leaving and it didn't work out for me, and that was okay because I ended up as a long-term sub in Burleson. At this point, I was dancing for contemporary dance Fort Worth. So that was the other thing. My little stint in professional dance was at a small company in Fort Worth.

Speaker 5:08

Yeah. Our paths cross with that too. Which Kelly that's right. I forgot about that one too. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 5:14

So I was doing a little bit of professional dancing on the side and was able to find a long-term sub job in Burleson, which in fact led me right to um my long-term job at Coppel, and which led me to be hired as the JV director, which led me to be made the varsity and JV director that next year. Um, and so that's kind of the bumbling story that got me to the Coppel directing job. So yeah, so it's been um I'm starting my 24th year in Coppel. I did 15 years as the head director. And then after my kids started getting older and started having more activities, I started feeling a bit of a pull that I wasn't really being good at directing and I wasn't being good at momming. So I made the decision to step down. It became again, my path was laid for me. We were hiring another teacher to be the assistant to the head director, and I hadn't had an assistant all that time. And we had had a JV team, but no assistant. So our JV person was still gonna be JV, and the head director was gonna have an assistant. So I was like, I'll be the assistant. So that's how I ended up stepping down and said now I assist at Copel, which has been awesome because really, and we'll talk about it more, I'm sure, when it gets down to it. I like the business side more than the creative side of it.

Speaker 6:33

Besides our spectacular spring show duet, I of course remember is that you were my editor at Haltham High School. And I know I handed you every document because I knew you would find the edits. I didn't even need to worry about trying to do it myself.

Speaker 2 6:47

Yeah, and just yeah, I don't know how I got to be so presumptuous as to do that for you, but I I can't help it. I like to feel useful, and that's again why I like being an assistant, is I just want to fill in the gaps and be useful to someone and things that they don't like to do or don't want to do, I'll do it. I know that you appreciated that, and I love that you had a good humor about the fact that I was doing it.

Speaker 7:06

Yes, I know, I know my limits, and editing is not overall.

Speaker 2 7:10

That whole experience of being at Halton with you was, you know, set the tone for me for sure. I was, you know, you were so enthusiastic and again so organized. And forever I tried to recreate your color-coded file cabinets, or your file cabinet had your your subjects color-coded for your everything. And I never was never able to master that.

Speaker 7:30

I'm sure those things died down quickly after a first year. Well, let's jump into those first few weeks of the season. Let's help directors understand that first month, it's all about building expectations, about building culture and trust, not just about teaching choreography. Every director has a vision for what they want their team to become. And those first few weeks are where that vision starts to take place. So when your dancers walk into that very first practice, what do you what do you want them to feel?

Speaker 2 7:59

I want the dancers to feel like they belong first and foremost. You know, you want to let the seniors and the veterans have their like moment where they feel confident that they're coming in, they know what to expect and they know what's gonna happen. Um, and sometimes I feel like that can make them maybe pull away from our new kids and our our rookies that are coming in. Um and so I try to keep having activities and games and stuff that will keep blending them and mixing them up, do some mixers and stuff. They have lunches together and different combinations of people. But that's really the most important, I think, is just to, you know, you're supposed to be here. It's not a fluke that you made it. And I think by the end of that first week of like our line camp, you can really see that they do feel like they belong. Whether or not they're the great dancers or getting everything, they don't, you know, we've built their confidence up that you're gonna get it. This is just the first week. It's totally system overload on choreography and expectations and protocol and all that stuff. But this, you know, you were you're here for a reason. And I think that just sets the tone for them for the rest of the year that, like, yeah, they belong in the uniform, they belong in the line.

Speaker 9:02

Well, and they're nervous, especially the younger ones. They're worried and nervous and scared. What do the upperclassmen think and all those things? So that's that's beautiful. What are your expectations, your process, procedures? You know me, I'm I'm gonna teach everything from how you walk into that room and how you line it up. So, what are y'all's processes and procedures, and how do you establish those the first few days, first few weeks to set the team up for success?

Speaker 2 9:26

I mean, we do the same. We just kind of walk through everything. One of the first things also is setting up the lines of communication, making sure that they see that the officers are people to be trusted, that the officers know, you know, have the confidence to come and talk to the directors about whatever questions they have, whatever they need to be prepared for, and they can turn around and help the team in any way that they can. So that's an important factor right off the bat is letting them have their leadership time pretty early on. We don't do spring training anymore. That first week of line camp, the officers are put in front a lot. And I don't know if that's how it is everywhere else, if the directors would rather be more hands-on, but that's why we try to keep the communication open, talking to the officers about their expectations every day, every week, and then them turning around and giving that same expectations to the team with the with the line, you know, they have weird personal things that happen and they're gonna be late or they're not gonna make it, or they're have something missing that they know they can they can go to their officers and their officers can deal with it, or they can come to the directors if they need to. But building that trust right off the bat, I think helps iron out a lot of it. And then we do like pre-game stuff and stand seating, all those procedural things we do in the right now in the summer before we get to school, once school starts. You can hardly do anything other than prepare for a dance, prepare, prepare for a performance. But yeah, we try to get all the roll call, all that stuff done right off the bat. And it's not too intense, it's just a lot. And so we have to go back, you know, we go back and review, we review all those stand dances, we review pregame stuff. How do you know all those things that seem so automatic, map it out, you know, the whole line camp schedule. We take an hour to do those basic things and talk about those basic things, and then we spend and it takes another 30 minutes a few days later and review all that stuff. And then eventually they can do it in their sleep, but you have to take the time to do it. So we'll go 8 to 4:30 Monday through Thursday the first week, and then we just have three mornings the following week. So we're really hammering choreography. And I mean, we try to get just all packed in there. They also have pictures early one morning and late one night, but then they should have a full week and a half before the first day of school. They should have that full week and a half off.

Speaker 11:41

Do y'all give the calendar to like the what what the plan is gonna be for the week? Do you share it with the officers, the whole team? Like this is what's gonna be happening each day for the the summer practices?

Speaker 2 11:51

Yeah. So we just sent out last week um the schedule of all seven days, what who's coming in to teach, what element, you know, what elements of football we're teaching or reviewing, all that stuff. Because back in the day, I didn't do that. I think it was because I was always assuming something was gonna change that I was gonna wake up one day and that's not gonna work what today, or you know, leaving practice one day, I knew that tomorrow was gonna be different. And I thought that was gonna be more jarring to them if they knew what was on the calendar and then I went and changed it. But I realized over time that no, they'd they'd rather know. They'd rather know what's on the calendar and what to expect when they walk into practice. And if it changes, they can handle it. But not knowing anything was harder for them, was was more difficult for them to like buy in every morning.

Speaker 12:36

You know me, and this will be a whole nother uh podcast. I love my technique, I love working it. I yeah, I love doing all that, but sometimes you gotta stop doing that so you can get ready for those next performances.

Speaker 2 12:47

Cause I feel like in high school, we went in blind. I wasn't necessarily paying attention though. She might have been putting a calendar up. Who knows? It was high school.

Speaker 12:55

I agree. When you look back, it's like, yeah, it's it's did this happen when I was doing it. Well, over the years, one thing I found, and I had to be attentional about it, is kind of the accountability of the rules and the process and procedures. And then there was the handbook. And it started to wear on me a little bit in regards to students saying, I didn't know that was a rule or I didn't know that was there. I'm like, Well, you got the handbook, you signed the handbook. I did some short quizzes at one point, not to catch anybody, but just so that everyone would know what the expectations were before a problem arose. So, how do you guys integrate that so that they know that accountability piece?

Speaker 2 13:34

We send out the constitution or whatever, and it's pretty black and white about, but are more obtuse, I guess, about things. And then at the very bottom, what I've always said, at the very bottom, it says the director has the right to change anything. I I think the team a lot of times takes care of it themselves. Like the older girls kind of, you know, they they role model what behaviors and what's acceptable and not acceptable. And then, I mean, hopefully they're not like shaming people, but I think there's a lot of the, you know, the new ones coming in want to just make the other older ones happy and please them. And so, you know, they're like, well, I'm not gonna do anything too out of line because I don't know if those girls would ever do anything like that. So that's kind of lucky, and I guess there's a lot of parent, parent oversight that that keeps that in line too. I know one year it was kind of in a transition time because everyone had cell phones and they all had cameras on their phones. I don't know if social media was real big yet, but I felt like whatever the Constitution was covering was not really relatable to what the girls, what experiences that they were having or what things were happening with other teams that I was hearing about and stuff. I had them in their squads with with an officer. I gave each squad a topic to kind of make their own rules or make their own code of conduct, like communicating when they weren't gonna be coming into practice, like what needs to happen and in what order that needs to happen. And then behavior at school, behavior with boys, behave you know, party behavior, stuff like that. I mean, I kind of broke it up just enough for enough for the squads to to cover everything. So they wrote basically their expectations and their behavior plan, which was really nice. And then we implemented it for a couple years and uh who knows what happened to that.

Speaker 15:12

That is hard to be consistent. They grasped the buy-in so much better when they create it. That's really neat that you did that. So once you've laid that foundation, then of course the next challenge is making sure your planning supports everything you're trying to accomplish. When does your planning actually begin? What does that process look like? What things do you put on your calendar besides performances?

Speaker 1 15:34

It's all about the calendar. I start back in probably March or April.

Speaker 2 15:41

I mean, the first thing I want to know is the football schedule. Right. Yeah, then you're gonna be planning. Football season is my favorite season of drill team. So I get excited about planning that. I love looking for music, thinking about what our, you know, we call our our guys that dance with us at homecoming halftime. We call them our Larries because we're the Larriettes. We love, you know, brainstorming on that because we do, of course, full costume changes for the halftime. And then fitting in where the SAT is gonna be, because that's gonna be in our gym when we have that on whatever October morning, the days off, the day that we don't have school, but we do have a game. Is that a home or an away game? Figuring out where the pep rallies are supposed to be, what those themes are, how we can make that work with our halftime, how we're gonna plan the dances per week so that if we can not have two new dances on the same Friday, you can have a repeat day, a repeat on a day that there's a pep rally if you can't. And one of our pep rallies, and this is a big, you know, tip, is we do a traditional kick or a kick that we they've done every year, as far as I remember. It's good, it's been at least 26 years, I want to say, that they've done the same kick dance. We've modified it and kind of updated it and stuff. But having that just in the bag already during homecoming week is a godsend because we have parade, we have Larry practice, we have the pep rally, we have the halftime and the dance and the nails and the bums and all that stuff that has to happen too. So that's a big one that we like to rest on is that we at least have, of course, it's kick, so we still have to have standard to meet, but they know it, they know it, they'll they'll learn that at some point in line camp. When you say how do you prepare for that, I just visualize a calendar. You know, starting to work backwards from you got to put on playoffs, those are gonna happen, and then what dances you're gonna do then, what your girls are gonna want to perform for the senior parent night, what uniform they're gonna wear, all that stuff. It's like a big puzzle to me.

Speaker 17:31

Uh right, fitting in all the school dates and the testing and then and if you don't put those in, gonna have a surprise when you can't have rehearsal that day because there's PSAT testing or something.

Speaker 2 17:43

You'll still have all those things pop up that you weren't even playing for, like a science fair that needs to be in the gym or a band UIL needs to do something in the gym. So those things will always pop up, but as much as you can, and that's why I try to start February, March trying to get all those things on there. You know, the football coach looks at me like, Are you crazy? I like calendars, I have three or four of them all over my house, and my family will not look at them, but I write everything down.

Speaker 18:06

It is definitely a saving grace. I know when I started putting everything, everything school-wise, and the sooner the better, like you said, especially if it's a facility issue, trying to get that you guys did spring show, you got to make sure you've got the auditorium. Was there anything in your first few years of directing that caught you off guard or you didn't plan for that now you make sure you do plan for?

Speaker 2 18:30

I mean, this facilities, like you said, that was I, you know, I just being young and having this be my first and only real full-time job at its school, I just took for granted that I'd have that space when I needed it, even though it's a gym and basketball happens in there and everything. I would have my dance classes in there, but it is still a public use, like little basketball leagues from outside of the district would reserve it. And I had no idea any of that was going on. And not that I was trying to have all these extra practices on the weekends or holidays or anything, but just as I said, as a baby new new person, I was like, oh, I didn't, I didn't know that needed to happen. I didn't know I needed to go talk to somebody about putting it on the schedule because it just seems so insignificant and just nobody's ever in there at that time. So I didn't think, and then I'd show, you know, show up for something and there's something happening. Re-reassess, regroup. You got 40 girls looking at you like, where are we going?

Speaker 1 19:22

Yeah.

Speaker 2 19:22

So that kind of puts a stinker on the whatever you're supposed to be doing with them. So yeah, we've had to quickly move clinics and show offs for contests and things like that.

Speaker 19:32

Any new director listening, get everything on the calendar early when you walk in. If you're new, look at the calendar and go talk to the AP that is over facility. Sure, you have it. Because if there's something you got going on in February and it's August, you better make sure that that facility has been reserved with air and all the things. Get whoever's gonna be on charge, their phone number to get air. When you started out in your career, is there anything that you've realized wasn't as important as you thought?

Speaker 2 20:04

Yes, I would say probably the bleakest part of my time as the head director is I was trying so badly to create dances, especially for competition, that like moved other teams and other directors, or like that they went I wanted things that that other people would talk about because I had a mentor that kind of did that. Like I I felt kind of felt trapped, I guess, in my own brain about what I could do and what I could get the girls to do. They were very military traditional when I got there. And I mean, I was with the military queen for three years and I knew how to do military. I don't, it wasn't the same, and then I wasn't really interested in doing military because I'm a modern person. We did our first modern in like 2006 and it was great, but it was not what it probably could have been. I just I did not feel equipped, and I was having to teach these girls how to move this way. Anyway, but to answer your question, I just need to to create and to do what your team is built for. I don't regret that we I moved them out of this straight military pom, jazz, and kick that we've evolved since then. And that's one of my proudest things is that they they evolved and they do so much more now. But that I was trying to do it to keep up with other teams and other directors, like I said, and they're not paying attention. No one worry is worried about anybody else but their own team.

Speaker 21:23

That's so true. And you gotta worry about your own students, meet them where they're at, and not try and create something that they're not.

Speaker 2 21:30

But that's one thing that looking back, I wish I had just enjoyed what we were doing more and not felt like I'm not making a difference, I'm not being a pioneer.

Speaker 21:37

I think that's a really great tip. Directors, you you gotta be you. Yeah, and you can always aspire to do something, but you've gotta do what what you see is best with your talent and with your background and with what you've done, and then also with what dancers that you have come in with that specific team.

Speaker 2 21:56

Yeah, as I said, football is my favorite season. We win football. We win halftime every week, and we have for 25 years.

Speaker 22:03

I like that competitive spirit. Okay.

Speaker 2 22:05

But I'm not competitive, but I do really we do really great football stuff. We do really great halftime stuff, but nothing like production-wise. It's just it's always good, it's always clean, it always looks good, everybody looks good, it's entertaining, check the box. And I think because football is kind of more my bread and butter, I think your team ought naturally will evolve to to do that too. They all love football. I don't hear girls groaning about another game, which I really appreciate because there's a lot of them. We go usually 13 weeks. That's a lot.

Speaker 22:37

Before we wrap up, yes, what's one practical tip? We said a we said a bunch of things, but what is one practical tip that you could give listeners that they could implement this week? I think.

Speaker 2 22:50

If you're starting line camp soon, I would say you need to know the girls' names first and last names, how to spell them correctly, and be able to call them by name when you see their face.

Speaker 22:59

That is that is very commendable. And I my dancers will say I did not do a very good job of that right away. But doing that the sooner, that is yeah, that's a very good tip.

Speaker 2 23:11

Uh their application is online now, but we still haven't submitted picture. And I know most of the JV girls, they're not that many of them, but there's and then I know most of them that are coming in off the streets, as we say. So it's not hard at this point. Our team's small enough that it's it's pretty easy. But back in the day, I think, and even with my dance classes, I try to learn as many names before they even walk in the door, which may creep them out a little bit, but it's something to do that you're just at home doing nothing instead of scrolling, go or go look at their Instagrams or go back to your applications and look at their pictures. But the spelling of the names, I know, of course, as an editor, that's a big deal for a lot of them. I had a very simple name growing up, so I don't really have a history of of, you know, I don't have a personal reason for this, but I just feel like the Kaylee and the Kaylee and the Kaylee that all spell their names differently, they you need to be able to identify which one is which because that's their name. That's important to them. But we've had too many t-shirts go out with the wrong with names misspelled or name missing, and it just drives me crazy. That's just something offhand that is kind of not related to the the organization and the planning and all that stuff. It's just kind of something to kind of start feeling connected to them before you even have them in the room with you.

Speaker 24:16

Absolutely. That's a huge leadership piece for directors. But is there another leadership lesson that every director could remember and could implement? Something I'm still learning.

Speaker 2 24:26

And I heard it on America Sweethearts, the DCC show. They need to hear praise. They do, absolutely. We need it and they need it all the time. And we keep trying to fight it, and like this generation is just, you know, whatever, whatever. And I don't like saying that. I don't normally say that. But it it is different. You just have to come to terms with it. You're not going to make them like you were in the 90s, where you just needed the give me the short list of things I need to fix so that we can get on our way. Like they they want to hear what you liked about it. They want to hear that you, you know, missed them, that this was great. I think they can still take the criticism, but too much of that really, really, really drags them down. And it's really hard for them to recover from that. Um, so they need to hear that they are appreciated a lot. As much as you may not hear it yourself from them, you still have to do it because there's just so much more you're fighting against when they're on their phones.

Speaker 25:17

My ballet background, there wasn't a lot of fluff. It's it's pretty black and white. So that was something that I had to learn too, and the whole team building piece too. I know that that's been something that needed more and more, but there's just so many more demands and more pressures, and they're not getting enough of that praise because of the pressures and the demands. So that's a great lesson.

Speaker 2 25:37

They do, you know, compliment each other on on Instagram and stuff on their comments, and you're so pretty, gorge, uh la la la. But I feel like they already know that that's not real. And so hopefully they they want to hear from us because they trust us and they respect us and they think what we're saying is real and genuine.

Speaker 25:54

So, what are you most excited about for this season?

Speaker 2 25:57

Um, so we have new leadership. That'll be fun. I think it's gonna be a a nice fresh change, new officers, new everything, and we got some new new dresses that we're doing, like we're trying to be more basketball focused. And so we've got some cute little fancy dresses that we're gonna get. Um, that the booster club's gonna buy for us. I'm always excited about new dances for football season and all the things, you know, they just we just love performing. So we just all those opportunities coming. We haven't done anything since spring game. It's the last time we did something together, and that wasn't even the whole new team, that was just the veterans. So, you know, they I love them coming in all tan and busting their butt that first day, and then coming in the second day and being totally worn out, sore, and like, how are we gonna do this? And then they they muscle through it and they make new make new friendships and they laugh about things, and seniors get excited about all the senior things that are gonna come. So it's just the the stuff that I know to expect that I'm excited about. The stuff that I don't know what's about to happen, I'm not excited about.

Speaker 26:54

Yeah. Before we end, there's two questions that I want to ask every guest on the pod. And the first one is what's your favorite style of dance? Modern. Modern dance forever.

Speaker 2 27:07

It's just so nice. And I didn't know I loved it until I got to TCU and I was like, oh, this is so nice. Because anybody, really anybody can do it. Yes. It's not limiting, but you know, big jumps and lots of turns was never my thing. I just like to move, and that's you know, that's where I belong. Rolling around on the floor.

Speaker 27:25

That's wonderful. I will say it's one of the hardest styles to clean. What's one life lesson dance or drill team has taught you?

Speaker 2 27:31

I am immensely lucky to have a job that is evolving because styles and trends change, and your place in the the community can change. The community that it builds, you have your your people that your other directors and friends that are a part of it, and choreographers that were all in this community together, and also the community that you're building within your your institution. Our 60th anniversary was amazing to see all those girls and women um and how they've networked together. Uh, this job keeps you healthy. It should. If you're dancing a little bit, you should be able to stay healthy. Um, and it's just such a privilege to see your work. You know, there's so many careers and jobs that you don't necessarily see like a product, but to be able to see something you've worked on almost on a weekly basis or a daily basis is just so rewarding that I don't know, as much as I'm an editor and a desk person and like to do things on the computer and you know, things like that, I'm I'm lucky that I can still work on something that is a performance or a show and that other people can see and appreciate.

Speaker 28:41

Julie, thank you for spending time with me today. And I know our listeners are walking away with ideas they can immediately put into practice. 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 Lights 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.