Hello friends, I'm Amanda Barr and I'm Rebecca Lubrennen and welcome to Dance Principles
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systems, studio culture, motherhood,
life and everything in between This is the Dance Principles United podcast Hey
friends and welcome to another episode of the Dance Principles United podcast Cass,
I'm so excited we're in a bit of a fancy studio today.
It is very fancy here at Opus Media.
I'm feeling so special in the amazing podcast room.
They've even put pink lights up for us. It's pretty cool.
Gotta love that. So you do need to check this out on YouTube because
we have upped our game so that you can watch us on YouTube as
well as listen to us in your ears,
but we're super excited. It's looking very nice. I was just saying to Tom
though, I feel like I need a chilly margarita to go with my shirt.
You do. I would make the podcast even better though,
right? It would there is a pub across the road, so we could have
a sneaky prosecute between maybe we'll do that afterwards What do we think
so I'm excited. We're gonna talk about you know Finding leaders
in your studio and bringing them up through your studio,
which I'm super excited about but first tell me what's going on in the
life of Beck So much happening God life is so huge isn't
it but I think the biggest exciting thing is we go to Italy in
a month baby and I and my mom have to take my mom she's
so crazy and fun right dance grandma she's so awesome um but
yeah so really excited we're actually going to the UK first and baby's
doing a photoshoot with Hamilton theatrical which is very exciting amazing
and then we go to the comp in Italy for a week um Sean
Nackens is there with us which will be incredible adore her always a fun
time with her. And then we're going to the Malfi Coast for five nights
just because yeah it's going to be so good.
Why don't you tell our podcast listeners the reason for your trip was are
your daughter baby, one dancer of the year. She did showcase dancer of
the year last year so she won a trip to Italy to go to
worlds which I've never experienced before and yeah Shannon said like
the dancing industry is very different there so I'm super excited for that.
They actually do workshops for the whole week every day and then they do
a performance of what they learn in those workshops at the end.
Ah, so it's a little bit different to a normal calm.
It is. Yeah, that's exciting. Yes. What a great adventure for her.
That'll be so amazing. How generous of Peter Oxford to like get that kind
of a trip for his dancers. That's amazing. Yeah and I think there's like
eight of us going or something. Oh, it's incredible.
incredible. I'm so excited. So exciting.
So exciting. What's happening with you Amanda?
Oh, what is happening with me? I'm having a bad day. I'm excited
to be in these great studios, but I'm having a bad day.
I, you know, it was one of those mornings with the girls trying to
get everyone out the door, Nathan,
the gym, the dog jumped up.
We have this new puppy, right? It's sort of puppy anymore.
It's like the size of a human. It's the size of a human,
but it's six months old and it started to stand up on the kitchen
cabinets and like go through the lunchboxes like after we've made lunch and get
the lunch. Take a selfie just now. And today took the whole packet of
crumpets and the whole loaf of bread off the thing and it was just
yeah so it was one of those days and then I forgot my laptop.
I drove halfway here you know I was better than an hour into the
drive and Nathan called me going you forgot in your laptop it's sitting on
the desk so I'm working the best I can off my phone.
You're crushing life. Oh I don't know about that.
It's a bad day, it's a bad day. But hey,
we're here to talk about, you know, spotting leadership potential in your students.
Do you want to talk a little bit? Like you've had heaps of students
come through and end up teaching for you as well.
Is it the best dancers, the loudest kids in class?
What do you think like, you know, makes people stand out as,
you know, potential leaders? Oh, look,
there's so many different things and there's so many different types of great teachers.
I don't definitely don't think it's always the best answer but sometimes it is.
I also, I think the biggest thing for me is an eye for detail.
I think that has to be really out there and
that they have fun with the kids. I think that's like,
I'm, you know, we get really high level kids.
I know you did it at your studio as well but if you don't
make it fun they don't want to stay. And you know,
even though I'm teaching high level ballet, I'm still having so much fun with
them and we're laughing and I think that's the biggest key is,
and they've kind of got to be able to make fun of themselves almost,
like not in a bullying way, but just in a like,
you know, like just to be able to keep it light.
I think that is really, really important.
big voice. Yes, you know,
you can't be quiet and teach a class of 20 years.
Absolutely. You've got to use your voice and obviously,
you know, a lot of these things can be trained and you can train
people on using their voice better.
But some people just have a voice of authority and some people don't,
right? Some people can confidently speak in front of a class or a group
of people and some people can't.
Sometimes there's a bit of both to that. Like, It is a learned skill,
but it's got to be some sort of natural ability to it as well.
Yes, and like you can teach it,
I've got a little girl at the moment who's teaching ballet with me and
she's a really sweet little thing by little girl.
How old are we talking? Oh, like 14, yeah, okay.
I teach it, yeah, yeah, sorry. I see her as little girl.
It's so hard, it's a when she was a little girl at some point
since I were two. She's very quiet,
like really quiet, but I do do you think she's going to have a
good eye for detail? But I'm saying to her like,
just trying to get her to do little things. So, Lily,
let's mark the role today. Let's use your big voice and I have seen
her get better. So sometimes you don't know.
Sometimes they can become rockstar teachers,
but it takes a lot more time with them.
Absolutely. Whereas I think some people just have it,
right? They have that natural ability.
I always looked for in my teens,
the skillsets I was looking for were,
people that were great with kids, quite often they had younger siblings or something
like that. I love to see the commitment levels from them.
To me that was a big thing. Not so much their natural ability,
but their commitment to learning. Not just commitment to the
studio, but just you know, like they're just a kid that just wants to
be there and wants to be involved. Not a slacker, let's be honest.
Not someone that was like slacking off. That's not what I wanted from a
staff member. So I had always looked for that and I think,
you know, sometimes if there was someone of Influence in their class because I
think some kids can have influence in their in their class in their
peer group Even if they're not the strongest the best But there's just that
something about them that kind of creates that influence do you find that yeah
and people that Naturally will go up and help others that maybe aren't
feeling comfortable or you know like even in a tenant under troop you can
see the kid that you would say okay um you know Sally can you
please go up and help such and such with the choreography while I'm working
on this. Like you know those kids that are going to be able to
go up and talk to that child and help them to feel comfortable and
yeah I think you can definitely recognize that but I know
you had a heap of student teachers. I have huge huge amounts
of student teachers it's insane how many we have.
Um, what do you think,
how did you get them into the student teaching? Did you ask them,
did they ask you? Did you allow everyone to go in?
I'm actually interested to know this myself. Ooh, okay,
so we changed it.
I used to ask specific people,
um, and that worked really, really well for me because then it was the
people I wanted. Sometimes when someone would ask me,
I'd be like, oh, okay, and let them in even if I didn't feel
they were right. So I used to have a smaller number of assistant teachers
that were all fantastic and
most of them at hand picked them. It's interesting,
some of them are still teaching at the studio today,
like been at the studio teaching now for,
you know, 10, 12 years. And they were a part of that group where
I would only ever have like four or five at a time but really
great ones. And they'd stay with me for a long time because I gave
them a lot of training,
a lot of care, a lot of love early on.
And that really, you know, built their skills and made them stay as well,
right? I was also able to offer them a lot of work because
I only had a small number. Whereas towards the end,
you know, I did change it up where it was like application process,
but everybody got a place.
I do it application because I didn't want to make it too easy.
So they had to fill out like full application forms of why they thought
they should be a teacher, what they were going to do, a whole heap
of things, because I wanted it to be hard,
but yeah, it did mean that we had a lot,
like sometimes 20 to 30 at
one time, about where I'm at at the moment. Yes.
And some of them are great and some of them are not.
There's such a hard thing though, right? Because then they assist and teach for
a few years and some of them you know that you're never giving them
a job. And then that's that really hard thing because they're a paying client
and you've got to battle the fact that they're a paying
client and you want to keep their parent happy and you want to keep
them happy with the fact that you know that they're actually never going to
be good enough to have a job at your studio.
Do you have that Absolutely,
but I always just put them together with another teacher.
That's how I combat it. So when they get older,
I'll put them both on a class, which I know isn't financially ideal,
but it is what it is.
I don't want to, I don't want them to then leave the studio because
it's that thing, right? Like, is if their parents are paying you whatever,
$150 a week, is it worth losing $15 a week for
that one class just to keep that parent happy? Yes,
probably is. And that's what I would always kind of think about it too.
So yeah, I have done that as well because I just thought,
hey, you know what, it's basically like me giving them a $15 discount a
week or whatever that is for however much I pay them for the one
class. And I think sometimes you've got to think about it like that.
That's how it's tricky. It is tricky. It is tricky.
It's such a tricky thing. But I think you've got to value them as
well. And sometimes I think, look,
I've seen teacher training done really well in some studios I know you have
as well. Absolutely. And then I've seen it done really badly where the kids
are just thrown in. There's no feedback.
There's no watching them. There's nothing.
Sorry. There's no feedback.
There's nothing that's gonna help them along the way.
It's like I said to you with Lily, I'm giving her feedback all the
time and saying to her, okay,
let's try and get you to do this.
I want you to go and talk to this person. So we're really big
on the head teachers doing that with them We do so much training on
weekends like one of the things that we notice with their assistant teachers Just
a few weeks ago is there not smiling enough and especially Yeah,
I talk to them about all the time and I like I have to
self reflect on my own self because I am very prone to having the
resting b**** face when I'm watching you know what I mean though having a
resting b**** face never that was shock me is
mine. Yeah but like when you're teaching a child they
will see that as you are either being angry with them or upset.
You know so I'm always saying to myself when I'm teaching back smile,
smile at them, smile and I think our teachers forget that and
especially when they're teaching younger kids they need to always be smiling.
Absolutely, that's the body language too. It's not just the facial expressions,
it's the body language. To me that's a big thing I used to.
That was always my first teacher, assistant teacher training thing that we would do
all the time, I would talk about body language,
leading against the wall, being nervous and covering and like folding your arms.
I feel like that such a big thing that so many of them do
or fidgeting and that that can come across as your
board rather than your nervous or your too cool or whatever that is,
right? So I think that's so so important to really be You know,
that's what you started talking about was the importance of training them,
not just throwing them in there and actually doing training sessions to start
with and then giving them feedback. So what kind of teacher training do you
do with your assistants? Well, I actually didn't do the teacher training for that.
And that's what I want to say as well. It doesn't always have to
be you as the studio owner, I know how busy we are as studio
owners. My rock star preschool,
well, I have a few rock star teachers, but Tanya God is just next
level. Like she is a kind of teacher,
she always puts her teacher hat on the second she walks in and she
is just the most bubbly, happy person you've ever met.
And so I just said to her,
can I just pay you to come out and she loved her.
To come out and talk to them about how you're bubbly,
how to talk to them, how to talk to them and she thought it
was great. So you could just pick a rock star like that.
I actually talked them through all of that sort of stuff and I think
they did a two hour training session with her on a Saturday afternoon and
it was great. So I think,
but what do I do with them so much?
You know, my studio managers had one-on-ones with all of them,
we're always giving them feedback. Our head teachers are always helping them.
Some of them are assisting private lessons at the moment and then they're allowed
to take 10 minutes of the private lesson for those teachers is to give
them feedback, it's a consistent process within
the studio. Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's important that it's some a process
that they go through. We would do teacher training at least once a term
just with the assistants. Absolute minimum,
always before their first class as well. On top of that,
the teachers that had them had to speak to them about it every week
after class. Just as they're walking out,
how you did a really great job with marking in the role.
Please make sure next week, you know,
give that correction to Susie, you know,
on the side or a bit quieter. Don't interrupt me while I'm speaking.
You know, whatever that is, but you can't expect them to know what to
do. They're not mine readers.
It's been a long time since they've been a preschooler,
and they're nervous. Like, assistant teachers are so nervous.
Absolutely, absolutely. I want to take go back to,
you know, we're talking about training our assistant teachers,
which is obviously very, very important. Absolutely.
I'll tell you another really important thing, having conversations with them about what they
want to do when they get older. I love this.
Like I think we forget, you know,
obviously I have a high in school and there's a lot of my kids
that want to go to full time and that's great,
but they're not the ones that are going to stay.
So I'm going to put all this time effort, energy into them and then
they're going to go off to full-time when they're 18 anyway and then I've
got to just keep churning it through. Whereas if you have the conversation,
sometimes they say to you, and I've had two in the last six months
say this to me, Amanda, that they're not really sure if they want to
go to full-time and actually they just love really,
they really love the teaching and they really love choreographing and that's really their
two big things and they want to work on that and then I can
say to them, well great, there's a career pathway here for you and
I see other thing, we need to show them that there is a pathway
for them because I think sometimes them and parents just think that
it's just a side hustle, it's a fun thing,
but it's not a proper job. Yeah. And we know that's so not true,
right? Exactly. And I,
that was a big thing that I was always all about and,
you know, obviously a little bit selfishly sometimes is trying to keep them in
the studio rather than, you know,
going to try the hand at performing or whatever.
And so I really would benefit drive,
you know, being a teacher, um, one incredible opportunity it was all the other
career ideas that they could have at my studio,
uh, you know, if that was that they wanted to go to uni locally
and get paid so much more than they would working at a local cafe
and having so much more fun and impacting students' lives,
like what a great thing for them to do for the four or five
years at their uni, or whether that's that they want to be full-time teachers
and talking to them about the pathways that they could take and you know
that they could go on to be a studio manager or own their own
studio and I really would take a lot of time and love giving
that, I guess, career advice and having that constant conversation because when they're 14,
you can't just have it with them once, right? You're gonna do it every
six months. 100%. They forget.
Bit we think it is real. And they do change and things can change
in their little lives to make them think maybe I'm not really about this
after all and you know So yes definitely consistently having that conversation
with them is so important also. I think Letting them know that you will
help them through the training process So if they're like I'm really into
social media great. I'll send you through your social media I'm really into teaching
ballet fantastic I will help you with going through your Royal Academy of Dance
Teachings to see if you're like, I really think upskilling
them and putting them through courses is only going to benefit you in your
business. Absolutely. I'm all about that.
And I love investing in team.
I think it's such a valuable thing. And also, you know,
if we're talking about those really young people that were identifying really young,
you know, telling their parents that you're going to do that as well.
and like actually following through but having those conversations with their parents really
early on you know and I think that's such a great thing you know
when I would speak to a 13 or a 14-year-old and they'd say oh
I want to do this and I'd then be calling their parents after I
had a great conversation with them going hey I wanted to let you know
about conversation we had I told and you know relaying it to the parent
as well so that you can one gauge their excitement levels for it but
also let them know that you're looking after their child's best interest.
And you know, I think that goes a long way to build rapport,
whether that's what ends up happening or not. But it's just such a good
rapport builder showing them that you believe in their child is so important.
And generally, you know, there's some incredible kids in the studio like we believe
in all of them and we want to see them succeed.
Parents genuinely don't think this is a real job though.
Like it's it's such a thing like I'd whether it be performing as a
career or being a dance teacher or only raised,
they still There's so many of them that don't see it as a real
job. Yeah, that's so sad. And I have to,
I feel consistently tell the past stories of how many of my
students have become either teachers,
actually all studio owners or dancers and how amazing their
career has been in that for parents to go,
oh, maybe it really is a thing like it's just,
you know, that's crazy isn't it? And I get it though,
I do understand it because I think it's seen as like a professional football
player or as a musician or it's just so they see
it is so rare for people to be actually succeeded.
Which it is it is hard. Absolutely but I love that it's the same
as we educate our parents on techniques it's educating them on career progression as
well and I think that's so so important. So I think it's so important
that if you see someone who is you know 12,
13, 14 showing potential in their studio,
really like call them out on it and bring them in and have a
conversation whether you're ready for them to start assisting, teaching or not.
I think there's so much value to approaching them and giving them some validations,
some love, some all of those things because,
you know, so my daughter is only 12 and I forget that that she's
only 12 because I was about to tell the story and then go,
no wait, she's only 12. She's very mature of She is a very mature
12-year-old and she has just started assisting teaching and I
think her personality should be a great assistant teacher because she is
very confident she speaks very well for her age
so I think there's so much to that but you know as a mum
being called by the studio owner going hey she has so much potential that
means the world to me especially you know I've spoken on the podcast quite
candidly that she's not the best one in the class she doesn't have incredible
technique, she's not winning dancer of the year,
and that's okay. But she does have huge potential to be
an incredible dance teacher if that's what she wants to do.
You know, she would be amazing at that. And if that's what she wants
to do, great. But just, you know, finding what people's strengths are and
celebrating those strengths, because the strength isn't always,
you know, winning the trophy. Yep,
I think that's a really important thing. Absolutely,
flip side of that, getting an assistant teacher in who needs the confidence,
who needs the, Absolutely. You know,
I know I keep referring back to Lily, but she is that child,
and she is quite a technical little dancer,
but definitely not the most expressive on stage,
won't talk to anyone, like, will not,
would not say boo to me, but now is starting to talk to me.
So, and her mum actually reached out and said,
I'm very concerned about Lily because she She won't talk to anyone and she
won't. So teaching's kind of bringing her out of her shell.
So it can have that effect as well, I think.
I love that. That's so, so valuable.
So I think that's where we kind of want to leave it.
We want to really encourage you. If you have an incredible child that you
see potential in, make sure you start fostering it.
Tell the parent, you know, tell the child because that can keep
their dance journey going longer. I've got to be honest as well.
it can keep their dance studio, it can keep them as a client.
That respect that parent has for you will,
you know, just go up so much.
I think it is such a valuable part of the retention strategy as well
for keeping them in class. Yes.
I think that there can be so much to it.
So yeah, I love all those ideas. And making them feel like a leader
as well, you know, we always hear about our clients saying that their teens
are dropping off and I think when your teen feels so much a part
of things and is the one that is running the discos or running the,
you know, it does help them to stay.
Absolutely. So allowing them that opportunity,
but yeah, fish them out, but also don't then just disregard them.
Really give them your time and effort because I know from my successes,
they can become your biggest rockstar teachers.
Absolutely. Keep them for 10, 15 years.
Yeah. And how incredible is that? Absolutely.
So so good. Well, it's been so good being in this lovely studio.
So I hope you guys have gotten some great value out of today's podcast.
We can't wait to be back in your ears next week on the Dance
Principles United Podcast. Thanks friends. Bye.
We hope you enjoyed this episode of the Dance Principles United Podcast.
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