Make Dance Fun

In episode 79, we're taking you behind the scenes of our 7-month journey from our October Year-End Show Retreat all the way through dress rehearsal week! We're sharing how we plan, what gets done when, and how our team brings it all together to create a magical show experience.Here's a month-by-month breakdown of our show planning timeline:November:Met with full staff to recap retreat plansSaw Wicked (three times!) for creative inspirationSent show day/time and costume info to familiesMaster spreadsheet begins!December:Ordered costumesContinued editing music for every classJanuary:Delivered music to staffLaunched costume lookbooks and theme revealsStarted choreography and prop planningCostumes began arriving and were sorted into garment bagsFebruary:Finalized music (voiceovers, sound effects, etc.)Continued choreography and prop buildingBegan building our personalized show appStarted early logistics planning with DRT (ticketing partner)March:Choreography goal: complete by month's endUploaded practice videos for dancersPreschool show leaders began working directly with classesStarted planning backstage teamApril:Routines finalized and shared with charactersSet pieces in full creation modeBegan building show programOrdered merch + goody bag itemsReleased full show info packet to familiesMay:PURE MADNESS (and lots of magic!)Final staff meeting before the big weekTickets and merch sales go smoothlyHosted our character photo shootDress rehearsal week! Rehearse, group photo, photo ops, and moreFinished and printed the program – a fan favorite!Created fun new photo ops and custom merch experiencesFilmed our Welcome Video – 15 years strong!Set the finale and wrapped up with final rehearsalsPacked up every last thing needed for the theaterFinal Curveball: Just days before the show, we were hit with a last-minute venue construction notice! We had to pivot quickly, reconfigure logistics, and communicate new plans—all during a major storm! But with quick thinking and teamwork, everything came together.Challenges:Delays due to waiting on music tied to the Wicked movieBalancing a busy comp/convention season with show planningLast-minute venue access changeWins:Incredible production value and themeMore creative and fun merch optionsOur custom app made info easy to accessOur rockstar team made it all happen!Every season is a new adventure—and we're always learning and improving. Stay tuned for our next episode, where we'll dive into everything that happens at the theater—from load-in to load-out!Thanks for listening! Have a tip or trick that works for your studio? We'd love to hear it.Let's Get Social! Join our FREE Confetti Circle Request to join our private Facebook Group Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

We're back with Episode 78! And we're recapping six big things that have happened over the past six months at Rhythm and Confetti on the Dance Floor — and giving you a sneak peek at what's coming this summer. From new Camp Confettis to our biggest announcement ever (we're moving!), this episode is packed with all the fun, chaos, and sparkle you expect from us. Here's what we cover:1. New Camp Confetti Themes We launched Pink Bubbles & Emerald Energy (Wicked-inspired) and Bark in the Park: A Big Blue Adventure (Bluey-inspired), and we're loving all the pics and videos coming in. These two new themes have been a huge hit with studio owners and dancers alike.2. Studio Owner University with MTJGD We attended Studio Owner University in beautiful Amelia Island with our team—Krista, Kelsey, and Shelley—and left full of inspiration, ideas, and to-do lists. SOU is always a reset, and having our team there this year gave us fresh perspectives on everything from tuition to communication. Plus, our Confetti booth had one of its best events yet.3. Summer at Rhythm is in Full Swing Even though summer registration launched in February, we officially kicked off summer camps just a few days ago. After a quick regroup post-show, our team is dialed in and ready—improving everything from communications and staffing to crafts and content creation. The energy in the studio is high, and we're loving it.4. We're Moving and Expanding After 32 years (and 25 in our current building), we're making a massive move to a brand new, 9-studio, 25,000 sq. ft. space later this fall. It's a huge milestone and we're still in permitting, but we're so excited to share this journey with you. Expect full episodes soon about this transition—we've got big plans to make this the most Rhythm space ever.5. Survived Competition & Convention Season January through April was wild. From intense schedules to dazzling custom costumes (shoutout to Beth for sewing every piece!), we made it through the busiest season ever. Our production number continues to be a huge creative outlet—we may not choreograph it anymore, but we're still deeply involved in all things music, costuming, and storytelling.6. RHYTHMerald City OZtravaganza is in the Books We just wrapped our epic Year-End Show and we're still buzzing. From the vibrant theme to the over-the-top production, this show might be one of our all-time favorites. There's so much to share, we're planning a deep dive soon. If you have questions, send them our way.Plus: Our Summer Confetti ScheduleDance Teacher Summit – August 8–11, New York CityEnergize Conference – August 14–17Dance Educators Collective – August 28–31, NashvilleThanks for catching up with us—we're excited to be back and have so much more in store.Let's Get Social! Join our FREE Confetti Circle Request to join our private Facebook Group Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

In episode 77, we're talking about our annual year-end show retreat, sharing our top takeaways, organization hacks, and some creative touches we add to make our year-end show is a fun and unique experience!Annual Year-End Show Retreat HighlightsPre-Retreat PrepReview last season's recap to set clear goals.Streamline props and sets; reduce and repurpose where possible.Pre-plan with team: collaborative playlists, light decor, idea sharing via Google Docs.Brainstorm preschool production ideas in advance with voice recordings.Setting the Creative SceneRetreat held in a decor-rich setting inspired by Oz and Wicked themes.Green decor, custom banners, themed books, and collectibles for an immersive environment.Key team member Beth joined for early insight into props, sets, and coordination for smoother season planning.Retreat AgendaArrange costumes on poster boards for visual organization.Finalize show concepts, music, costume sizing, and themes.Develop massive planning spreadsheets, finalize dress rehearsal schedules, and outline communication materials for families.Compile visual boards for costume inspiration and show themes.Costume PlanningQuicker costume selection process.Frustrations with character costumes addressed.Organized costumes with garment bags and tags.Finished the lookbook ahead of schedule.Fun ElementsListening to themed playlists.Candy bar, themed drinks, bell for costume choices.Oz-inspired “explosion” cake and charcuterie board.Top 3 WinsDani: Detailed notes, organized props and sets, early hand-held prop orders.Becca: Completed lookbook early, streamlined decor, more organized with Beth's support for team questions.Pro Tip:Consider planning a day or afternoon retreat if a full weekend isn't possible.Did You Know? We offer a recital planning course! Your Fun Big Show is a Complete Recital Planning Course with an extra fun Confetti factor! We'll provide you with a proven formula and lots of tools to plan the most sensational, inspirational, celebrational, CONFETTI-ational Fun Big Show ever!This Course allows you to listen and learn at your own pace to nearly 3 hours of recorded presentations from us, as well as all the notes, guides, resources and more! Purchase it today and your download will be emailed to you immediately!Related Episodes on Recital and Show PlanningPlanning YOUR Fun Big Show (+ Our Fave Recital Moments)!Fall Recital-A-RamaMake Recital Planning FunLet's Get Social! Join our FREE Confetti Circle Request to join our private Facebook Group Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

In Episode 76, we're talking all things HALLOWEEK and sharing fun things we do at our studio to make dance extra fun! Some of the things we talk about are:Encourage dancers to dress as a character from our show theme and give out a special sticker if they doStaff Pumpkin Pizzazz partyStaff photo - everyone chooses a character from our theme to dress as and we have an annual group and individual photo to use in program and on birthday posts. Halloween decor in our Year-End Show theme Class fun - our teachers all have their favorite games they do, from obstacle courses to choreo contests and a fun game called get it got it goodHalloweek on the Dance Floor - our free Halloween Hip Hop Combo for you to teach to your classes. This is our 9th year! Check out this year's video and link to all our past ones too! You can read all about it in our blog post too, and see link to our past 8 years of fun Halloween videos also!How to use the combo:Have dancers learn ahead of time - make it a competition Having an event? Teach to all and record it as a music video in diff areas of studio or outside! Learn it and teach it to your classes! Record and make some reels to post during Halloweek!Have your dancers get their phones during class and learn it! Give them some time and then have them record and put on your socialEven have your staff learn it and do it all together. Kids will love that!Don't overthink Halloweek! Just add something simple and new...use a halloween playlist in every class, share halloween coloring sheets with all your preschool classes, or create a pumpkin patch obstacle course with your elementary age dancers. Make it festive in any way you can and your dancers and families will love it. Let's Get Social! Join our FREE Confetti Circle Request to join our private Facebook Group Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

In Episode 75 of Make Dance Fun, we continue our Confetti Conversation with the amazing Melissa McGhee, Head Coach of The Ohio State Dance Team who also owns her own studio, Lineage Dance in Columbus, Ohio! Make sure you listen to Part 1 if you haven't listened yet! In Part 2, Melissa talks all things team mentality, leadership, how she scouts, recruits, what she looks for in her team members and so much more. This is a great episode for everyone in the dance world to listen to, including dancers!Let's Get Social! Join our FREE Confetti Circle Request to join our private Facebook Group Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

In episode 74 of Make Dance Fun, we are SO excited to have a Confetti Conversation with Melissa McGhee, studio owner and Head Coach of The Ohio State Dance Team! If you do not already know Melissa, you are in for a treat to learn about her background, how she became head coach of the nation's top dance team, and all about her own studio which is now in its third season! You'll also get to here the fun story of how we came to know Melissa!We had so much to talk about with her that we had to break up the episode into two parts! So stay tuned for Part 2 of this episode next week! Let's Get Social! Join our FREE Confetti Circle Request to join our private Facebook Group Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

In this podcast episode, we introduce our new TWIST program, sharing why we created it and how it fits into our dance studio, along with the many class options we offer for our K-2 dancers.We start by giving an update on our "State of Confetti" meeting, an annual planning session for our 9th Confetti season. During this meeting, we planned two Camp Confetti events, chose our marketing theme for the year (which you'll have to wait to see!), organized a photo shoot and trade shows, and reviewed what worked well last year and where we can improve. We also discussed customer engagement ideas like Halloweek on the Dance Floor and top customer gifts. Becca and Dani each shared their favorite part of the planning retreat and set goals for Confetti.Now, on to the TWIST program. We created this program to offer more class variety for our Kindergarten dancers. Some of the classes we offer include:TWIST – a tap class featured in our showFairytale BalletHip Hop and PopTWIST Petite Pizzazz – an invite-only class with tap and jazzK-2 Ballet/TapK-2 Jazz/Hip HopAcroMusical Theater DanceMarquee MagicPre Petite Spotlight (K-1)Petite SL (1st-2nd grade)We know this age group has a wide range of skill levels, so we wanted to provide plenty of options to meet their needs.TWIST was created to replace our previous Twirl Agua program for Kindergarten. After noticing that Agua had lower enrollment compared to our other Twirl levels, we realized these dancers were ready for something more challenging and different. That's when we developed TWIST, specifically designed for Kindergarten but also perfect for K-2 dancers.TWIST works similarly to our Twirl program. We provide a teacher guide with detailed lesson plans, but you can customize it to fit your classes and studio. The program focuses on Jazz and Tap, incorporating a themed obstacle course into each lesson. We use fun tools like confetti cones, hula hoops, a balance beam, and “tracks” for spot markers to keep the kids engaged. There are also Twist Tumblers (dice games) and hopscotch patterns to add even more excitement.When you purchase TWIST, you get:A Teacher Guide with 10 themed lesson plans (5 for jazz, 5 for tap)Colorful graphics and templates for activities like Twist Tumbler dice, Twist Tracks spot markers, a Twist Certificate, and moreA Twist Bag Tag for dancers' bags10 Activity/Coloring Sheets reinforcing jazz and tap terminologyTwo Twist Trackers (one for jazz, one for tap) to help dancers track their progressA source list for optional products to enhance the programA Spotify Playlist with music suggestions for each themeDecor Suggestions for each themeIf you're already using our Twirl Preschool Program, you'll be happy to know that the themes for TWIST align perfectly with Twirl, making it easier to decorate your studio for both programs. TWIST is easy to implement, but we recommend purchasing it at least five days before starting so you have time to review the materials and gather any supplies.Add a colorful twist to your K-2 tap and jazz classes by ordering your download today!Let's Get Social! Join our FREE Confetti Circle Request to join our private Facebook Group Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

Episode 72: From Year-End to Start Over Again: A Big Recap!- **Welcome Back!**   - After a long break, we're excited to return with Episode 72! Our last podcast was about planning your summer, and now we're sharing what came next—a lot has happened in the past six months!- **CAMP CONFETTI Success**  - Launched our most successful camp ever, “In My Sparkle Era.”  - Other popular camps included "Pink Pajama Party" and "Dancing in My Dreams."  - “Perfectly Pink Destination Dream Vacation” was also a big hit.  - We loved seeing how great everything looked, and we're so proud of how everyone nailed it!- **Rhythm Nation Barbie Dream Vacation**  - Produced the opening number for our show with 75 dancers.  - This production set the tone for our year-end shows and was a collaboration of our company faculty and guest choreographers.  - Came together in about 10 days before hitting the stage.- **Company Auditions**  - Over 300 dancers auditioned, and we successfully cast 11 companies.  - We used our tried-and-true formula, which we shared in Episode 42.  - Auditions were held in April, allowing us to organize schedules for the season.- **Company Party**  - Hosted two giant Barbie-themed parties, highlighting our graduating seniors and recognizing every dancer with awards.  - The event was filled with all things PINK.- **Year-End Shows**  - Faced a few more technical difficulties than usual, particularly with media on the LED wall, but everything worked out in the end.  - We elevated the lobby experience with custom setups, including a “Hotel Rhythm” registration desk, balloons, and banners.  - We went full out with props and sets but plan to scale back this year to cut costs.- **Summer Camps at Rhythm**  - This summer was our biggest ever, with 2-3 camps running each week.  - Camp Rhythm, our full-day musical theater camp, was so successful that we're considering adding a third session next season.- **The Dance Awards**  - Enjoyed seeing our students perform their best routines of the season.  - Recorded a special two-part podcast episode with an amazing guest—stay tuned!- **Welcome Back Party & Staff Kickoff**  - Themed around the Olympics with "TEAM RHYTHM - Let The Games Begin!"  - Activities included a pennant craft, obstacle course, and a step and repeat.  - We kicked off the season with new staff members, custom shirts, and notebooks during a catered dinner at the studio.- **Energize and Other Conventions**  - Attended Rhee Gold's Dance Life and Dance Teacher Web with Shelley and Beth.  - Introduced new WOW Cards and a subscription service—more info coming soon!  - Gained inspiration at Revolution's “ENERGIZE” conference in Chicago, where we previewed new costumes and attended seminars.- **Season 32 Begins!**  - Last Monday marked the start of Rhythm's 32nd season.  - We have several exciting podcasts planned for the fall—stay tuned for more consistent episodes!- **Closing**  - Thank you for listening! We hope you're having a great start to your season. Have a fantastic week—bye!Let's Get Social! Join our FREE Confetti Circle Request to join our private Facebook Group Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

Welcome to Episode 71 of Make Dance Fun! Today, we're diving into summer planning.Summer LaunchIntroduce theme with decorative elements Fun game and prizes for engagement.Next Steps:Use a Google Form to gauge teacher interest and skills, allowing for new opportunities and assistant training.Maintain weekly promotion of camps via email schedules, posters with QR codes, and coordinated social media posts.Employ Facebook ads for lesser-registered camps and include in newsletters.Schedule Summer planning meetings to organize camp details and tasks.Summer Planning Meeting:Set up working sessions to organize crafts, schedules, playlists, etc.Communicate details with staff involved in specific camps.Promotional Content:Capture fun photos with studio dancers for camp promotion.Keep announcing Summer Company Dates and other requirements clearly.Camp Confetti Planning:Plan a detailed session in May with Camp Confetti teaching team to outline activities and schedules.Preparation Importance:Early planning ensures filled camps, staff readiness, and smooth operations.Reminder:Camp Confetti new themes are still on special; grab yours now!Conclusion:Thanks for tuning in! If you're at SOU, come say hi!Let's Get Social! Join our FREE Confetti Circle Request to join our private Facebook Group Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

In this episode, we are sharing details on our amazing "team behind the scenes" and their roles! We share a short description of our ELT (Executive Leadership Team) and how each person's role contributes to Rhythm.  These employees are key in our success and keeping the studio running smoothly! Let's Get Social! Join our FREE Confetti Circle Request to join our private Facebook Group Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

In Episode 69, we're covering our busy holiday season and our focus for launching summer at our studio in early 2024!Things to Focus on for Summer Preparations:Summer Camp Planning Meetings:Scheduling camps and determining closed weeks.Identifying camp types and durations.Emailing staff for summer availability.Initial discussions on communication and marketing strategies.Determine What Camps and Themes You will Offer:Here's what we are doing! Pink Pajama Party: Dancing in My Dreams (Preschoolers - Barbie themed).Perfectly Pink Destination Dream Vacation (Elementary - Barbie themed).In My Sparkle Era (Taylor Swift themed).Return of other our other popular camps like Fierce Fashionistas & Very Vogue Villains, Brightfeather Academy Magic, Twirltopia Princess Academy, DJ Dino's Hip Hop Stomp, WOWza LUAUza, The Enchanted Confetti Casita, Pom Pom Unicorn's Magical Carnival on a Cloud, The Fancy Freeze: A Frozen AdventureEmphasizing the versatility of Camp Confetti for various camp durations and event types. You can use it for a 3-day, 5-day or single day play party! Our themes are so versatile and flexible! Save the Date - Announce Dates Early:We stress the importance of releasing dates early for summer camps.Try sending out a preliminary "save the date" flyer before the holiday break.Preparing for a Summer Launch week in February, involving the entire studio and offering discounts on camp registrations. We make it fun, very themed and involve our Year-End Show characters! Check out all 35 of our Camp Confetti Themes to get your summer planning organized and ready to go fLet's Get Social! Join our FREE Confetti Circle Request to join our private Facebook Group Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

Episode 68 of the Make Dance Fun podcast is a special Q&A episode inspired by your DMs and emails!Studio Wall Creativity: We delve into our studio's vibrant walls, offering insights on creating a fun wall space. From seamless photo backdrop paper to teachers' bulletin board paper and fabric, we share different bases and tips to make your studio walls pop.Summer Dance Camps Sneak Peek: Get the inside scoop on our Summer Dance Camps planning! Discover the significance of early announcements and registrations, our tradition of Summer Launch week in February, and this year's theme: Barbie! Plus, a teaser about the exciting new Camp Confettis.Guiding Young Dancers to Practice: Encouraging home practice for our 6-8-year-old company dancers is a journey! We discuss starting the conversation early, gentle reminders during classes, and using Dropbox for routine videos, involving parents in the practice process.Crafting Engaging Social Media: Navigating social media content for our studio can be a whirlwind! We share insights into our strategy, from thematic planning to adapting content based on studio events. Dive into our use of Reels, TikToks, and the playful #rhythmphotodump technique for an authentic online presence.Resources and Future Insights: We highlight the need for dedication in social media management and share favorite podcasts and resources for inspiration. Let's Get Social!Join our FREE Confetti CircleRequest to join our private Facebook GroupFollow us on Insta, Facebook and PinterestLet's Get Social! Join our FREE Confetti Circle Request to join our private Facebook Group Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

In episode 67, we're pulling back the curtain to reveal the magic that went into our recent photoshoot extravaganza! We cover what we did, how we did it, how it all went, and what's coming up next.What We Did:A comprehensive overview of the various scenes and setups we created.Highlighting key moments and campaigns, including a Taylor Swift-themed backdrop.Shelley's dedication to crafting the Swift-inspired social media campaign.How We Did It:The incredible effort that went into making it all happen in a short timeframe.Coordinating with 20 different models, scheduling, styling, and more.The hard work and reward of bringing it all together and capturing great photos.How It Went:An overview of the successful execution and outcome of the photoshoot.What's Coming Up:Teasers for upcoming content, including the Camp Confetti promo and In My Confetti Era.Planning for the rest of the season with the shots we've gathered.Discussion Questions:Exciting aspects of the shoot and favorite moments.Challenges faced during the shoot.Anticipation for the upcoming season and what to look forward to.Join us as we delve into the highs and hurdles of our photoshoot journey, offering a glimpse of what's on this season's creative horizon for us at Confetti on the Dance Floor!For more fun tips, check out these other episodes where we covered photo shoot details:Episode 11: Photo Shoot Fun!Episode 46: Fast + Fun Photo ShootsLet's Get Social! Join our FREE Confetti Circle Request to join our private Facebook Group Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

In Episode 66, we're sharing details about our Recital Planning Retreat you can use when you host your own! We dive into the highlights of our recent retreat and share 5 fun and 5 practical tips that made our retreat a huge success.5 Fun Things:Decor: Create a colorful theme with napkins, plates, cups, and more incorporating elements related to your show theme.Cocktails & Candy: Design themed cocktails like Barbie mimosas and create a candy board for a sweet treat.Pinterest Vision Board: Bring your vision board to life by printing it out and using it as decor. It's a great visual tool for inspiration.Goody Bag: Prepare goody bags with theme-specific items for your team, creating a fun photo opportunity.Call Bell: Use a call bell to celebrate each costume selection, adding excitement and motivation.5 Practical Things:Spotify Playlist: Share a collaborative playlist for music selection, streamlining the process.Assign Tasks: Clearly define each team member's responsibilities and priorities.Costume Boards: Create visual boards with stickers for costume details.End of Weekend Recap: Review what was accomplished and assign concept directors.Post-Retreat Meeting: Get together with the staff soon after the retreat to share details and set expectations.If you want a deeper dive into our show planning process, check out our recital planning course Your Fun Big Show available for immediate download. Don't forget to visit the Rhythm Instagram for behind-the-scenes glimpses of our Rhythm Nation Barbie Dream Vacation planning.Let's Get Social! Join our FREE Confetti Circle Request to join our private Facebook Group Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

In episode 65, we continue our discussion of creating costumes, but this episode focuses more on costumes for rec classes and lower cost options for customizing your costumes!Custom isn't always feasible: Not every dance piece calls for a custom costume due to budget constraints. We begin by discussing the choreographer's vision and create Pinterest boards to capture the desired look and vibe.Mix & Match Magic: For Hip Hop and Tap, we often mix and match streetwear elements, selecting a color scheme and purchasing items to style creatively. Amazon, Urban Outfitters, ASOS, and more are our go-to resources.Crafty Touch: We love crafting sashes, corsages, capes, and other accessories to add a unique touch to basic costumes.Year-End Show (Rec Class) Costumes:Catalog Curation: Limiting the number of costume catalogs used streamlines the process and facilitates exchanges and coordination.Customization: We select pre-made costumes for most themes, but sometimes we can't find the perfect fit. In these cases, we get creative. For instance, for an "Alice in Wonderland" theme, we paired a blue dress from the catalog with custom white aprons, resulting in adorable Alices.Theme-Specific Customization: "Are You Madder than a Hatter?" inspired Mad Hatter costumes with sequin dresses, top hats, and show logo patches. We utilize custom printed patches from THE STUDIO for a personalized touch.Creative Innovation: We apply custom touches to around 5-6 costumes each year, adding unique flair to fit our themes.Recital Hip Hop Costumes:Customization for Teens: Many off-the-shelf teen hip hop costumes don't match our themes, so we order separates like pants from Weissman's and add a custom hoodie or t-shirt featuring theme-specific graphics.Personal Style: We provide accessories like bandanas, hats, and bracelets for teens to add their personal style to their costumes, ensuring a unique look.Thinking Outside the Costume Box: Consider combining costume pieces with blazers, vests, and more to create a tailored look that fits your theme.Final Thoughts:Dive deeper into costume design and think creatively to make your costumes perfectly complement your choreography and themes. While finding the ideal costume may not always be as easy as flipping through a catalog, the extra effort can make all the difference in the final performance.Thanks for tuning in and enjoy the creative costume journey!Let's Get Social!Let's Get Social! Join our FREE Confetti Circle Request to join our private Facebook Group Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

In this episode (Part 1 of 2), we are sharing our process for creating custom costuming for our Performing Company at Rhythm Dance Center! It is one of our favorite things...from finding inspiration and creating Pinterest boards to sketching the design and searching for the perfect fabric, we cover how we make it happen! We also share some of our favorite places to shop for fabric in Atlanta and in NYC (our fave!)  Check it out! Let's Get Social! Join our FREE Confetti Circle Request to join our private Facebook Group Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

In this episode, we share a behind the scenes look at Rhythm Dance Center's Year-End Show reveal week! And, we share an overview of our Recital Planning Course - "Your Fun Big Show"...so, you can get an outline of when we do what during the season as far as our show planning goes! And, of course all the fun of announcing OUR Fun Big Show...which is always one of our favorite weeks of the season! Let's Get Social! Join our FREE Confetti Circle Request to join our private Facebook Group Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

After a very long hiatus, we are back!! We are so excited to be here! In this episode, there are three parts! In part one, we share where we were and a little bit of the crazy. In part two, we share where we are now and what has been happening during the summer! And, in part three, we share some goals and where are going! We would love to hear from you, let us know what you are interested in hearing about in future episodes! WOOOO! Happy new dance season everyone! Let's Get Social! Join our FREE Confetti Circle Request to join our private Facebook Group Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

Episode 61 of ourMake Dance Fun Podcast is Part 2 of our A Typical Day in our (Studio) Life. In Episode 56, we covered Mondays and Tuesdays, so this episode will detail what Wednesday, Thursday and Friday look like! These last three days of our “normal” work week usually vary more than our Monday and Tuesday schedule, but we do have a general structure, so we are going to do our best to share this with you guys! Wednesday: Confetti Meeting led by Shelley around 9:30a.m.  Ellie joins sometimes, tooReserve at least a portion of this day for various Confetti projects, marketing campaigns, creative work, brainstorming, creating presentations, working on Camp Confetti depending on time of yearWork from our office at Annex on any various projects we have going on for Rhythm or Confetti until around 3 or 3:30. Go home at a normal hour on this day and sometimes very early and work from home. This is also a podcast day when time allows! And, we do our podcast recordings from home since we don't have a quiet area at the studio! Thursday:Admin Meeting with Shelley and Krista. We are currently working on putting new systems in place and this is requiring extra time, so we typically meet to work on this and/or anything else that Krista or Shelley needs from us.Occasional marketing meetings as well!Work on our individual to-do lists in BasecampThursday afternoon/evening - sometimes at Annex and most the time we will end the day at Rhythm for costume meetings or rehearsals. During Competition and Convention Season,  we hold our Spirit Sesh and final rehearsals at Rhythm on Thursdays (usually a late night during competition season). We spend Thursday nights packing up and loading for the weekend as they almost always start early Friday morning. In theory, this is only once per month, but it feels like it's an every week thing when you are in it! From September - March, we are very busy with our custom costumes from design meetings to searching for fabric, meeting with Beth for our sample meetings and fittings. This takes place on all days, but because Wednesday and Thursday are more flexible, it's most often on those two days! FridaysCatch all/Catch up day. Hold any necessary meetings with Emily as she's at the desk most of the day. It's a day that not too many people are reaching out to us or asking many questions, so we are usually able to get things done.Meet with Ellie, our assistant and project manager Confetti Photo and Video Shoots  - If we are having a photo or video shoot, it usually starts mid-late afternoon (when school is out) and goes until we get it done. We almost always start setting up anything we can on Thursday evening, but this has been a challenge that we are still trying to figure out. Crafting and creating wallsObviously, we adjust each day as needed, but that's what our weekdays typically look like. We hope you've found this to be helpful in some way when mapping out your week!Let's Get Social! Join our FREE Confetti Circle Request to join our private Facebook Group Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

In Episode 60 of our Make Dance Fun podcast, we're doing a fun creativity exercise! We're using this fun box that looks like little match sticks called "SPARK YOUR CREATIVITY - 50 Ways to Ignite Bright Ideas!" We all get stuck sometimes, so we love finding “outside the box” ways to get our brains going! We each draw 10 different “sparks” included in this kit and discuss what we might do in that situation, or how it could help us in a creative way! We hope that it will ignite your creativity as well! Dani: Take a walk, tuning in carefully to everything you smell.Becca: List things that inspire you, refer to them when feeling stuckDani: Destroy something and make a new thing from the remains.Becca: Tune everything else out. Listen to just yourself.Dani: Improvise.Becca: Give yourself a time limitDani: Take a break from a project; it may help you gain perspective.Becca: Read about or learn something outside your area of expertise.Dani: Make a log of “mistakes”. Try seeing them as strategies.Becca: Look at the situation from a different angle.Dani: Hone your powers of observation.Becca: Take 5 minutes and write down as many new ideas as you can.Dani: Try working in 90 minute creative sprints - take a 30 minute breakBecca: Spend 10 minutes a day on a new creative pursuit. Repeat for a week.Dani: Take a risk, failures may teach you more than successes.Becca: Shadow someone creative for a day and see what you pick up.Dani: Find new uses for materials or elements you'd typically toss out.Becca: Turn off your inner critic.Dani: Take a walk, tuning in carefully to everything you hear.Becca: Give yourself a complete change of scenery.Now go be creative! Let's Get Social! Join our FREE Confetti Circle Request to join our private Facebook Group Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

Happy new year and welcome to Season Three of our Make Dance Fun Podcast! In episode 59, we are providing you with 23 ideas to commit to the fun at your studio in 2023! Check out our blog post to download the list and see all the fun ideas. We hope you find some fun ways to commit to the fun in 2023! Cheers to fun in the new year! Let's Get Social! Join our FREE Confetti Circle Request to join our private Facebook Group Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

In Episode 58 is a BEST OF 2022 Episode to recap the year!Top 5 Episodes:#46 - Fast & Fun Photo Shoots#38 - Best of 2021#39 - We're Back with Season 2 and Summer on our Minds#45 - Confetti Cannons - Rapid Fire with Becca, Dani & Shelley#41 - 5 Things to Gear Up for RecitalsTop 5 Locations: 1 - US, 2 - Canada, 3- Australia, 4 - United Kingdom, 5 - Germany Favorite Episodes in 2022D: #48: Fun & Fancy Five Star Staff Kick-Off B: #51: Planning YOUR Fun Big Show (+ Our Fave Recital Moments)!Favorite Craft or Project:B: Rhythm: Holiday Walls; Confetti: Rhinestone Roundup Camp Confetti CraftsD: Rhythm Story (based on Toy Story) flat characters Least Favorite Craft or Project (because of the amount of work, time and effort it took, not because of the outcome!)D: Holiday wallB: Halloween wallWhat Confetti event/project are you most proud of?B: Your FUN Big Show, Adding Diego to Twirl & Flashie Cards, and Pinterest D: New Twirl to Go themes + 3 of our newest Camp Confetti themes: Fancy Mouse Dress Up House, Prancing Pony Party & Rhinestone RoundupWhat Rhythm event/project are you most proud of?D: Recital retreatB: Staff Kick Off and Photo Shoot and Recital Retreat Top 3 Most Fun Things for Rhythm and/or Confetti?B: #4-Rhythm Fun Walls, New Camp Confetti themes,Rhythm Story, Staff Kick Off D: Your Fun Big Show, Excitement around announcing our 2023 Year-End Show theme; Staff Kick Off That's a wrap on SEASON TWO and 2022! Thank you for listening!  Happy Holidays and we'll be back in 2023 for Season THREE of Make Dance Fun! Let's Get Social! Join our FREE Confetti Circle Request to join our private Facebook Group Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

Episode 57 is all about GRATITUDE! We are so thankful for all of you who listen on a regular basis! We love sharing and love the feedback that you share with us! Please continue to share as that is what motivates us to keep recording…even on those crazy busy weeks! A few things we are grateful for!Shelley Marshall who without, Confetti wouldn't exist! She makes all the things happen! Ellie Bryant is our assistant and a project manager.  She wears lots of hats and she has been so helpful over the past year in many ways! She contributes to writing and social media, lots of crafting and errand running and photo shoots and she helps with prepping for literally everything we do! And, you will see her coming up next month with some fun HOLIDAY content we are producing! ELLIE - THANK YOU for all you do! New to our Confetti Staff is Jenni! Jenni is our Preschool Director at Rhythm and she has been a contributor to our podcast multiple times! As a matter of fact, her episodes are among our most popular ever! Jenni has just taken a new position in fulfillment for all your orders! We have just moved all our products in house and Jenni is in charge of all shipping! We are so excited for this new role and are so grateful that Jenni with her organization and thorough-ness is taking over this position! We are grateful for you Jenni! Rhythm Staff! Without all our talented staff at Rhythm who inspire us every day, we wouldn't be doing what we do! We are so lucky to have such talented and driven employees - from our ELT to all our creative teachers, choreographers to our class hosts and assistants! It takes so many people to make all the things happen and we are blessed with the best! So, THANK YOU Rhythm Staff! Y'all are awesome! And, finally - our podcast editor…Rob Gal - you make it happen and deal with our lofty spaces, speaking mistakes, coughs, drinking noises and Ruthie barks…and make it all sound fabulous! We are grateful for you, your expertise and the uber fast turnaround time when we are recording at the last minute! Again, we are GRATEFUL for each and every listener! We are so lucky to be in this creative and inspiring space and share with each of you! We are wishing you a very happy Thanksgiving and Holiday Season!And, a reminder that we just started sharing our Fun Flair Fridays in our private Facebook group where we share a fun wallpaper for your phone and laptop as a monthly gift to show our gratitude for you! The only place to get them is in our Facebook group, so request to join today and make sure you answer the 3 prompted questions so we can let you in quickly!And, don't forget to check out our Confetti Shop during our Confetti FunFriday Sale! Save 15% off ALL THE THINGS (except Twirl and Confetti Consultations!) by using the code FUNFANCY15. This is our best sale of the year, so grab some gifts for your teachers, for your studio or for you! Let's Get Social! Join our FREE Confetti Circle Request to join our private Facebook Group Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

In episode 56, we talk about the structure of our weekly schedule, who is responsible for what and and how we get things done! This episode we break down Mondays and Tuesdays!  Our schedules are constantly changing, but we do try to start with a plan and adjust as needed. We have to divide and conquer in order to really check things off the long list of to-do's.Monday is our most consistent day of the week as far as a schedule goes. 10 a.m. - Meet with just the two of us to prepare for our executive leadership team meeting and plan  the rest of the week12:30 p.m. -  ELT meeting in person at studio 2:30 p.m.  - check things off our lists, eat lunch3:30-9:30 teach classes We do have a couple breaks between classes, so we are always using that time to get back to the to-do list. Get emails sent, work on costuming, whatever can get done in a short amount of time while we are there and in full-out work mode.Dani's list: Event logistics  Communications (usually via email) with all our performing company families. Proofing email drafts  CraftingGuest artist coordinationBecca's list: Unpredictable creative tasks Social mediaMarketing graphics, images, concepting, design Creative visionary for all things Tuesday: Our "first day of the week" to get things done.  9:30 a.m. - meet with each other via Zoom to map out our day. 10:00 a.m. -  2:30p.m.- Other meetings like our meetings with our Google Ad company, production company meetings, financial advisor,  Studio Manager Krista,  marketing team meetings, Performing Company Directors, costume planning (meetings, fabric shopping, design), check ins with Ellie and Shelley. After these meetings are done and classes begin, there are several scenarios that could happen on Tuesdays:After meetings, Dani and I usually switch gears and head into our office or home and work on individual to-dos. We may have a crafting project or meeting for Rhythm or Confetti that we would stay and work on in the staff room at annexWe sometimes schedule rehearsals that we run at Annex as there are open studios there - so those would usually start around 6:00 and we will just work in our office until then.Head back to Rhythm - if we have a Guest Artist in town or if there is a Company rehearsal that we may need to be present for at Rhythm! So, as you can see Tuesdays are all over the place but it is the first day of the week that we can really “MAKE THINGS HAPPEN” and they are ever changing but usually very productive days! No matter how much we plan, it is usually derailed. Our number one job is problem solving and believe we are really good at this. As a leader, it is the thing you have to be AMAZING at! Like all studio owners, we deal with lots of crazy and dilemmas and  do creative problem solving EVERY SINGLE DAY. We hope you enjoyed getting a little insight into our work days. Stay tuned for Part 2 on a future episode! Let's Get Social! Join our FREE Confetti Circle Request to join our private Facebook Group Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

In Episode 55, we're sharing ideas & links to our fave promo items!Slinkies - Super popular with kids! Reusable Grocery Bags - You get lots of eyes on these at your local grocery stores! We also use them for costume bags when handing out our company costumes!Pop Its - Kids are obsessed!! Acrylic Key Chains - Add your logo and attach a Pop It (see #3) for a great promo item! Call it a bag tag since most kids don't use key chains and they can put them on their dance bags! Tattoos - These are a go-to staple for us for goodie bags, open house, summer launch week - fun & super cheap! Beach Balls - Use these for registration or summer camp promos and/or as give aways at community events!Large Magnets - So many options!Buttons, Stickers and Magnets - StickerMule is a go to for us for all things! “MOOD” Stadium Cups  - These color-changing cups are so fun, kids & parents alike love them.  Make Dance Fun Confetti Fun Tags - Vintage style key chains in our Confetti shop! Special Sale Price! Great for staff gifts, giveaways, ornaments and more!  We hope one of these promo items is something you can add into the mix of your giveaways! What are your faves?Let's Get Social! Join our FREE Confetti Circle Request to join our private Facebook Group Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest

In episode 54, we're talking about all the things we are doing this fall to get ready for our year-end show! Our show is our ultimate marketing tool and this time of year is packed full of prep to get started on the right foot and get our dancers and families on board with the theme! We love to make the show super exciting for our dancers and we love making our theme a really big deal and tying it into all aspects of the studio all season! Decorating Halloweek with our Theme Costume and Show Communication PrepAt Rhythm we have about 1200 students who take 3600 classes, so, we are planning for eight shows this season. This is a beast of a job to figure out!We meet with Shelley and Krista to make this task happenMeasuring for costumes Brainstorm with the StaffMeetings with Production Company and Theater - solidifying things like lobby space, dressing space, lighting possibilities, making sure the contract is secure and there are no surprises! Graphics/Logos - We make sure these are ready to go for all our upcoming communications! We use Canva teams to get backgrounds and logos all set up so our staff can access them easilyPlanning for the recital retreat: booking the house, logistics, food, travel, spreadsheets, costume books, how we are decorating, etc. We don't wing it, we plan for everything!Creative Planning for Show - watching movies, discussing themes, reading books, looking at books, etc. NEW! Your Fun Big Show Update:  We are in the process of adding a written course notes section into Your Fun Big Show course. Anyone who has already purchased it will automatically receive these notes, and of course, all new purchases as well! We will announce soon when they are complete and available! Check out this complete recital planning course!We hope you are able to take away something from these details that will help you in your show planning this Fall! Let's Get Social! Join our FREE Confetti Circle Request to join our private Facebook Group Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest ...

In episode 53, we're talking all about HALLOWEEK ON THE DANCE FLOOR -  a Confetti tradition since our very first year!! Halloweek on the Dance Floor is a fun Halloween combo that we share with you for free to use in your classes during Halloweek! We encourage you to teach it, film it and share it! This year, we are changing it up a little and creating a reel (or tik tok) with specific audio for you to use! We encourage you to create a festive space or background to film your dancers a few at a time doing the combo.More Halloweek ideas from #rhythmhalloweekPodcast Episode #32 Festive Fall Faculty Fun - deep dive on our Pumpkin Pizzazz Party for our StaffPodcast Episode #34 where we share tons of fun Halloween ideas and games and such! Studio Decor - we're doing a spooky take of Alice in Wonderland (our year-end show theme). We now have 9 studios to decorate, so are trying our best to streamline some things to make it a little easier to put up and also take down. We will, of course, go more full out on a main wall in our lobby (at both locations) so everyone has a fun place to take all the photos they want.Fall Faculty Fun - we're hosting a fun meeting for our Recital Brainstorming session where we'll serve lunch, decorate pumpkins and take a Halloween staff photo where everyone will dress as characters from our showHalloween Heels & Spooky Feels - This is something new this year that should be fun! Our adult program is really growing, so we are holding a special event for them one evening where they'll dress up, have a fun heels class and we'll provide a few snacks & drinks. This is a great way to promote your adult program! We are getting ready to start a new class for adults in November called DanceMix, a combo of jazz and hip hop, so this will be a fun and festive promo! Rhythm Halloweek - we encourage our dancers to dress up as a character from Alice in Wonderland during Halloweek and if they do, they get a Wonder in Rhythmland sticker.  This is a simple and fun way to promote the show! Performing Company Halloween Party - we host this fun event annually at a local park. Their "families" dress up in their family costume and we play games. It's always a hit! We hope you find these fun ideas to be helpful with your Halloween and fall planning.  Share with us what you're doing at your studios! Let's Get Social! Join our FREE Confetti Circle Request to join our private Facebook Group Follow us on Insta, Facebook and Pinterest ...

In Episode 52, we're sharing 5 fun things we've done this season that have been well received by our customers this season!We created a Calendar Magnet for Performing Company that we handed out during our themed company parent meetings. These are convenient for them to put on their fridge to always have access to the many dates their dancer is committed to throughout the season. We gave it to them during our disco-themed company parent meeting where we also treated them to a coffee bar, goody bags and fun photo ops and prizes for people who dressed up in the theme. Class Hosts - You may have heard us talk about this position we started during covid, but we have learned just how valuable these ladies are, and have hired them again this season. We have 1-2 at each location and they hang out at the front door, and one other area in the studio to help kids and parents navigate the studio, get to their cars, help us craft when we are in crunch time and so much more.New staff photos and headshots, plus new fun headshots for the company dancers. We held a photo shoot that was more fun and on brand for us and the pics look great! And, if you go to our faculty page, it is a fun + fresh update to our old headshots! We also did headshots for all our company dancers during their intensive week and it worked great - they were already scheduled to be here, so it was so much easier to schedule and make happen! These will be going on colorful, fun posters in to hang in the lobby very soon, and we are so excited about having this fresh update for the walls! Monthly Performing Company Update: This is a simple, but colorful and cute, easy to read “newsletter” of sorts. But, it's just the information they need to know with a date or dates attached to it. Dani designs these and she is self-proclaimed to not be a pro in Canva, but she made the template and alters it each month with updated info and sends it out.  We have been creating QR codes for multiple things. For example, we have a QR code for the make-up google form that company members have to fill out when they come in to do a make-up class. Also, if you come in for trial class, there is a QR code that you scan to sign up. On the magnet we did for company, there is a QR code on the magnet that they can use to get to their Company Landing Page - this landing page holds ALL the things they need for company, from their absence tracker and form to their schedules and more!  We hope you find some of these few things we've been doing to also be helpful at your studio!Subscribe & ShareYou are officially invited to subscribe to our podcast, and we would love you to leave us a 5 star rating and review! We'd also love for you to share on social media! Join our (FREE) Confetti CircleRequest to join our private (and FREE) Facebook GroupFollow us on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest

In Episode 51, we are sharing the basic outline of Your Fun Big Show - our complete recital planning course! This comprehensive course is broken into sections so it's easier to digest, and today is sort of like the table of contents to give you a sneak peek of what all is included! If you don't have the course, it's a great outline to use for planning your own show!We also recap our favorite parts Rhythm Story, our show from last season in a Q&A style and tell you all about our favorite concepts/themes in the show and what parts we loved most in our production number and what processes we think are most important to the success of our show (master spreadsheet and recital retreat!).Here's an outline of what is included in the course: SECTION 1: First Steps - this includes theater bookings, determining and announcing dates and theme. choosing characters and beginning the brainstorming process.  SECTION 2: Creating your show brand, logo, hashtag and all the  graphic design. Then how to use that to brand your whole year. SECTION 3: Fall planning and the recital retreat, determining how many shows and which classes are in each show,  themes/concepts for each class, prepping for the retreat, finalizing concepts, creating the master spreadsheet, selecting/editing music, determining props and sets, choosing costumes/backdrops, building schedules, and assigning theme directors. SECTION 4: Ordering costumes, creating a lookbook, status updates, starting choreography and building stage sets & propsSECTION 5: Part 1 of Spring Planning Logistics like ensuring all classes are entered into your software, running order of show, naming the routines to match your theme, populating the recital packet, lobby decor, plan crafting, finalizing logos, goody bags, ticket sales logistics, check-in process, dressing rooms, and recital program prep. SECTION 6: Spring Planning Part 2: Logistics, flowers, ribbon, tissue, ordering T-shirts, planning truck load and unload, organizing volunteers, staff meals, tech, prop and set sheets, character rehearsals and call sheets, organizing music by show. SECTION 7: Tech Week and Dress Rehearsal and all the logistics!SECTION 8: Communications: website, social media, newsletters, emails, show detail packet, parent meetings, flower sales and staff meetingsSECTION 9: Adding Wow Factors: Recital decor in your studio, characters: costume details, photo shoots, voice overs and meet and greets, craft & props for show., theater lobby set up, posters, banners & step & repeat, photo ops, goody bags, programs, stage lighting and backdropsSECTION 10: ClosingClick here to read about even more detail of what is included with your purchase. We hope this episode helps you understand all that we put into our planning of our show and all the things that we share in YOUR FUN BIG SHOW. If you have not gotten this course yet, purchase it now! Subscribe & ShareYou are officially invited to subscribe to our podcast, and we would love you to leave us a 5 star rating and review! We'd also love for you to share on social media! Join our (FREE) Confetti CircleRequest to join our private (and FREE) Facebook GroupFollow us on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest

In Episode 50, we're sharing FIVE ways to WOW your customers. The wow factor time frame really never goes away, but during the beginning of the season, you want to make sure you are setting a tone for the season and paying attention to serving your customers well!Overall Customer Experience: What does customer experience mean for you and your studio? What do they see and experience when they walk in the door, when they call/email the studio, visit your website, register and what happens after registration (welcome letter/packet). These are all ways to show that you value them, want to welcome them into your dance home. Remember that a great experience usually results in a positive word of mouth advertising for your studio!Social Media:  Take advantage of increased engagement at the beginning of the season by posting lots of different aspects of your studio from faculty to preschool, teen classes, advanced dancers. A story will SELL, a fact will TELL:  Tell a story on social media vs. just providing the facts. Make sure everyone knows where to find you on your platform of choice. Communicate hashtags and encourage sharing. Engage with your followers! REELS ARE THE THING. Remember to do Studio Tours, Weekly Recaps, Announcement videos!Open House and/or being present in your lobby during the first couple weeks of classes. If you teach a lot of classes, maybe have an ambassador do this for you. Someone cheerful to greet all your dancers and parents. Someone who genuinely enjoys talking with people and shares your love for the studio.Create a fun wall so every dancer & mom or dad has a reason to take a photo and share it on social media. This is building your community and another way to help them feel a part of it. See episode 49! WOW Cards - From big milestones to small victories, who doesn't love to celebrate a WOW moment in dance class?! Hand out these tiny compliments to your dancers when they achieve their goals and make their day! We have three different versions - Sweet Celebrations, High Fives and Oh Yeahs,  Goal Getters that each include 500 business card sized WOW Cards, 25 each of 20 different fun + fancy designs! Each card has a small area for you to write a short message, sign your name or write the dancer's name on it! Keep them by the sound system in each studio and encourage our teachers to use them as often as it makes sense, whether that's once per week or a few times per year! Occasionally you may want to give the entire class a WOW card for working as a team, or everyone executing a certain step, or remembering choreography or just having a great attitude in class! Check out #wowcarded on Instagram to see how so many studios are WOWing their students! Subscribe & ShareYou are officially invited to subscribe to our podcast, and we would love you to leave us a 5 star rating and review! We'd also love for you to share on social media! Join our (FREE) Confetti CircleRequest to join our private (and FREE) Facebook GroupFollow us on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest

In Episode 49, we are sharing how we created our #rhythmfunwall for our Open House and Welcome Back Party! We share all our crafty ways and walk through all the steps! We also suggest checking out Episode 9 Five Ways to Up Your Crafting Game as we share many of the ways that we create and craft our fun!  We also share tips on how you can create a fun wall in your studio to build engagement and a fun energy throughout your studio!  Add some fun and color to your walls with a FUN wall! Subscribe & ShareYou are officially invited to subscribe to our podcast, and we would love you to leave us a 5 star rating and review! We'd also love for you to share on social media! Join our (FREE) Confetti CircleRequest to join our private (and FREE) Facebook GroupFollow us on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest

In episode 48, we're telling you all about our Staff Kick-Off event! This is something we do every year and sometimes it's a few hours with a fun dinner and sometimes it lasts 2 days! We are celebrating our 30th season this year, so we wanted to do something extra special. Plus, our staff expanded quite a bit, so we needed to do more!We started with our theme: Rhythm BLOOM Symposyium and went full out from there! We rented a venue, had it catered, held a fun + fancy photo shoot and decorated it super cute! The set up was a little hectic even though we did so much pre-planning and pre-crafting, but it ended up looking super cute! We did a 30-year celebration staff photo shoot where everyone got new headshots and also some fun shots, lots of group shots and of course, confetti shots! We helped the staff style their outfits beforehand with things from our personal closets and our confetti closet! We had various stations around the rooms including an apothecary where they could build their own bags with fun items, drinks/coffee station, vision boards, eating tables, round tables for meeting, creative books, and a seminar room set up classroom style with a large TV for showing our presentations. We had assigned seating with cute tent cards and fun, colorful tablecloths. Everyone received folders, notebooks, snacks and a few other fun items at their place setting. On day 1, after the photo shoot, we covered our mission, vision and values, discussed goals for the season, had guest speakers Zoom into the meeting and reviewed our staff expectations.  That evening, we had a fun catered dinner and stayed at a nearby hotel to come back early the next morning.  On day 2, we held roundtables where teachers who teach the same style discuss curriculum, goals, and share ideas. There is a designated leader of each group who maintains a Google doc to capture the discussions. We also held an Admin roundtable to discuss new systems we want to implement this season.  Then, we continued our seminar and finished our staff expectations. After a catered lunch, we finished with a wrap-up with everyone contributing their thoughts on how to make the year best it can be! It was such a cohesive event, and our best staff kick off to date! Check out our Reel on Instagram from the event! And, go to our Highlights to see all the Insta Stories from this super fun + fancy event!We hope you found some inspiration in this episode! Also, if you would like us to speak to your studio at a staff event, we are open to that! We really enjoyed having that opportunity for our team at our kick off! It made it interesting and was helpful to get other professional perspectives!Subscribe & ShareYou are officially invited to subscribe to our podcast, and we would love you to leave us a 5 star rating and review! We'd also love for you to share on social media! Join our (FREE) Confetti CircleRequest to join our private (and FREE) Facebook GroupFollow us on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest

Hello friends! We are back! In this episode, we are doing a quick recap of all that has happened over the past 4 months! We are excited to be back! Here are the basics of what went on over the summer and where we are now...Fall Registration Expanded - Two Locations Dress Rehearsals Company ConcertCompany PartyYear-End ShowsWe took a long break...The Dance AwardsLots of Camp Confettis & Company IntensivesMember Rally with MTJGDStaff Kick-OffPrepping Studios (2 locations) Open House - both locationsBack to Dance - Week One - Check!Gearing up for our year-end shows! Things are moving quickly!! If you heard something we just mentioned that you want to hear more about, let us know and we will dive in deeper on that topic in an upcoming episode!Thanks for listening! 

In episode 46, we're sharing 5 fun and easy ideas for photo shoots that you can use for social media, promotions, programs, emails and more! White Wall - Outdoors  - A white background always brightens up photos! We just did this with our graduating seniors to create some cohesive photos to use on social media, our year-end show programs and also to gift to them as a graduation gift! We found a closed grocery store with a simple, bright white brick wall! We spent about 10 minutes on each dancer, got a few action shots and a headshot. The pictures look awesome, and we were able to create a cohesive, fun page in our program and also a fun poster of our grads! You could do this in any situation you needed some promo photos for! Check out our pics! Seamless roll of photo paper: This simple option can be set up inside or outside in any space available to you.  Order online or buy locally from a photography supply store. If you don't have tripods or the equipment to hang it in the middle of a room, you can simply tape it to a flat wall. You can shoot them plain or add in a few simple props. Take a photo anywhere that has good lighting and remove the background! Apps like Pic Collage and Canva make this so easy. We highly recommend the pro version and the team option! Both of these have a background remover where you can remove the background of any photo and put it on a plain background or a fun print background. Murals: This is a fun way to capture photos on a fun and colorful background requiring no effort other than finding the location. Almost every city now has painted murals and if you haven't seen them in person, you can likely find them by just googling “fun mural walls” in whatever city or town you live in. We recommend checking them out ahead of time to make sure the space is conducive to taking photos. Atlanta has quite a few mural walls and some of them are more recognizable than others.  We have one that's been around for many years, and it's painted on the back side of a grocery store. It's a giant, fun disco ball with a John Travolta-ish disco dancing guy on it, and it's just so colorful. It's right up our alley! We took our cast of characters last year on a Sunday morning really early to be sure we didn't run into too many cars in the parking lot and it was a huge success. The key here is simple and quick because other than googling and taking a quick drive to check it out, you don't have to set anything up. You just show up and snap your fun photos!Confetti Pic! The final easy photo shoot idea is launch some confetti around a dancer or group of dancers! Use your smartphone or a camera and snap as many times as you can as you launch the confetti. Tell the dancers to smile and jump around, and it is SO easy to get a cute photo! This always brings out those authentic smiles too! This is also a great video moment too to use for a reel!! We hope this inspires you to snap some fun photos! Try to do a quick photo shoot soon and tag us or let us know how it goes! We will be watching for those on instagram! Subscribe & ShareYou are officially invited to subscribe to our podcast, and we would love you to leave us a 5 star rating and review! We'd also love for you to share on social media! Join our (FREE) Confetti CircleRequest to join our private (and FREE) Facebook GroupFollow us on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest

In this episode, Shelley Marshall, Queen of all things Confetti joins Becca and Dani and they all talk about what has been happening this week (hello, Texas!) and we do a fun "Confetti Cannon"! Our "Confetti Cannons" consist of 15 questions that we take turns drawing from a hat and answering on the spot! It is a different format for us and one that we hope you will find fun, informative and entertaining! We cover several fun topics from Rhythm Dance Center to Creativity to Camp Confetti! So, check it out and let us know what you think! 

In episode 44, we're welcoming back our Rhythm Summer Camp Director, Emily Salerno! She first joined us on Episode 18 to talk about her role as Rhythm Summer Camp Director and all the things she does to help plan our summers to be amazing! Today, we 're chatting more specifically about Camp Confetti and how she preps and makes those camps happen successfully at Rhythm!What's your favorite things about Camp Confetti and how it makes rhythm summers more efficient and fun? It can be dull doing the same princess or beach camp each year. Camp Confetti has creative, over-the-top themes that are fully planned out and does the work for you!What is your general timeline for preparing for Camp Confetti? Staffing: Send availability form mid-February and secure by Spring Break. Pre-Summer Meetings: Meetings in April for each specific camp Craft Shopping: Do big run in June to get majority of suppliesHow do you prep each week for a Camp Confetti? Review camp print out again; Create craft and music list; edit music if needed; Final craft run for specific camp; Friday before camp begins on Monday: break down previous week's camp, decorate for next week's and prep the first day's craft. Camp Confetti Week: How does it run for teachers vs. camp director? Elementary camps are larger for us, we divide into 3 groups and each one takes a jazz, hip hop and across the floor class with different teachers. Focus on choreo early in the week and weave dance games and activities in between. Top 3 Camp Confettis we've done at Rhythm? Dance PAWty with My Pet, Donut Spytacular and Brightfeather Academy of Magic  New themes you're most excited about? Confetti Clue Crew: Mystery at the TOYriffic Museum of FunCamp Confetti hacks or must-do-tips? 1: Cricut for crafts! 2: Use your assistants 3: Invitation crafts - print the invitations on Avery labels so kids can stick it on instead of gluing. 4 : Use 567cre8 Cards: elementary version and teen version. Final thought to help studio owners navigate Camp Confetti and make summers better? Have fun! Remember many dancers are trying out your studio for the first time - keep them engaged and make them want to come back! Check out all our Camp Confetti Themes! Subscribe & ShareYou are officially invited to subscribe to our podcast, and we would love you to leave us a 5 star rating and review! We'd also love for you to share on social media! Join our (FREE) Confetti CircleRequest to join our private (and FREE) Facebook GroupFollow us on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest

In episode 43, we're sharing all details of our annual Performing Company Party:  planning, location, food, decor, awards, senior speeches and more! This event celebrates all our Performing Companies and graduating seniors and is one of our favorite things we do and our dancers love it too!PLANNING: The very first thing we do is secure a venue. Because our party involves all of our companies combined, we need a place that can handle about 400 guests. Once the venue is confirmed, we meet with a caterer and get all the food squared away. For us, this is a full dinner and desserts, so it's pretty full out. We've been working with the same caterer for several years now, so we have a system and they know what we like and don't like. You may be thinking, how in the world do they afford this? I will admit, it is a pretty big investment for us and Rhythm does pay for a large majority of the party, but we do charge a fee per person who attends and that usually covers most, if not all of the food and catering, which is a big help. Keep in mind, a party can be done at any budget and scale. This is just something we started several years ago and it's become a tradition for us, our dancers and their families. We also select table cloths and napkins through our caterer and that's when we really start envisioning what we want the space to look like for the night of the event.Decor: We go VERY full out but we re-use everything for our show. We have colorful table linens and create our own centerpieces (~6 versions) inspired by the characters and main aspects of our show. We also use tons of balloons, create a step and repeat, multiple photo op areas and lots of over the top fun decor!Event: It takes many people to load/unload the truck and set up! We meet at the venue and centerpieces make their way to all the tables, balloons are blown up and distributed throughout, dessert tables are created, and we don't stop until it's done! We have about 5 hours to make it and it is a marathon. But, when it's done, it feels so special and we just know the kids are going to love it when they walk in.Presentations & Awards: Once everyone arrives, mingles and takes a ton of photos, they take their seats and we begin presentations and dinner.  We create personalized company awards for each and every dancer by creating personalized bag tags. We keep with the theme of our show and come up with fun awards names to coordinate with the characters of the show. It's super fun and really personalized to each dancer. In addition, we give each of them a company t-shirt. It's always so fun seeing so many kids sporting their new shirts! We also award scholarships to select dancers for their hard work and accomplishments. Senior Speeches: We have our graduating seniors record speeches where they share what their experience at Rhythm has meant to them, thank their teachers and parents. It's their big finish to their Rhythm career! They send 50-60 photos that we show on a big screen while playing their speech. We have a lot of Seniors so we always have to get started on these early! We hope this behind the scenes look at our company inspires you to start a tradition of your own, or if you already have one, maybe we sparked an idea that you can incorporate into what you're already doing. It really is such a fun event that our kids look forward to all year long!Camp Confetti of the Week - Confetti Clue Crew: Mystery At The TOYriffic Museum of Fun! Subscribe & ShareYou are officially invited to subscribe to our podcast, and we would love you to leave us a 5 star rating and review! We'd also love for you to share our podcast on social media! Tag us and we'll repost! 

In Episode 42, we're covering our process for our performing company auditions. Every studio has their own process for selecting their performing or competing companies. What works for one may not work for another. At Rhythm, we've always held auditions for our companies and we have a formula that really works for us. That being said, we tweak a few things each year to try and make the process as efficient as possible. Company Director Meeting: This initial meeting is to discuss what went well, what changes we want to make and then we work on a comprehensive audition packet that is very specific to what we do! We make updates to each company, set dates for all the auditions, create audition forms, update pricing, etc. We use a google form for dancer audition forms and that is filtered right into a spreadsheet which makes organizing all the things pretty easy! We usually have over 300 dancers audition so organization is key! Tip: We give all existing company dancers who submit their forms prior to spring break (which is early!) a free summer open class. In addition, the first 3 dancers from each company to fill out the form earn a quick photo shoot and dancer feature that we used to promote auditions with on social media!Informational Packet & Parent Meetings: Before auditions begin, we are very upfront, clear and honest with as much information pertaining to our performing companies as we can. Of course, the packet has the dates and times of the auditions, but we also talk about what it means to be a part of our company, the weekly schedules & rehearsals, performance and competition schedule, approximate cost, our expectations from a commitment, conduct and ethics standpoint. We hold mandatory parent meetings to go through all the details of each of our different companies so parents to hear the details directly from us and can ask any questions. Company Format: We cast for four different levels for a total of 11 Performing Companies. Mini Stars - ages 5-8; Connection - ages 8-18: Mini, Junior, Teen, Senior; Fusion - ages 12-18: Teen and Senior; Edge - our most advanced level ages 8 - 18: Mini, Junior, Teen, SeniorPreliminary Audition: Ballet and Jazz, then callbacks (via posting their # on website) for Hip Hop, Tap and Contemporary.  After the call backs we post the final results on the website (again using #s only) and also send out detailed emails with an invitation to join our company or to let them know that we did not feel they were ready for company. All dancers get an email no matter what! We always try to provide feedback in those emails and even set up meetings if needed to help the dancers understand what they may need to work on in order to reach their goals. We hope you've found our process to be informative and helpful in some way when you start planning your company auditions or selections for the new season. Camp Confetti of the Week: Marquee Mixup! Elementary camp that focuses on musical theater and jazz movement. Subscribe & ShareYou are officially invited to subscribe to our podcast, and we would love you to leave us a 5 star rating and review! We'd also love for you to share our podcast on social media! Tag us and we'll repost! Join our (FREE) Confetti CircleRequest to join our private (and FREE) Facebook GroupFollow us on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest

In Episode 41, we're sharing 5 things we are doing right now to gear up for our year-end show! 1. Ordering, crafting & building props: We discuss any handheld props and stage sets during our recital retreat. We're making final decisions now, placing orders, and building/crafting anything needed. Tip: We use a temporary set each week to practice so the real ones aren't broken or lost.2. Creating our Opening Number: This huge production number includes all 4 levels of our highest level performing company, is in the theme of our show, and our favorite thing to create! It sets the tone of our show by telling the whole story in the opening, and everyone can see our talented dancers and costumes! We use music inspired by the movies and there are so many little fun details in the number, that people will likely be noticing as they watch it more! While we do compete it, it is the number that sets the tone for our show and is one of our favorite things we do all year! 3. Adding some custom fun to our recital costumes: This is something we have always done, with at least one or two costumes each year, but I predict we will be doing more of it this season.  Because our show and each piece is so specific to the theme and the storyline, we sometimes have trouble finding the perfect costume. When that happens, we get crafty and find fun and inexpensive ways we can add to a more simple costume to make it what we need it to be for the show. With costume delivery dates continuing to be pushed back, we're going to be doing even more customizing to last minute costumes we find that are available. 4. Choreography Videos/Dropbox: We have shared Dropboxes with all our classes and our teachers share class videos to help the dancers practice their routines. We created an email template for these emails along with a description of each class's theme to share. This is helpful for the dancers and parents and keeps the kids excited about their recital routine. 5. Characters & class leaders: We add a voiceover to the beginning (sometimes during) specific routines during the show and have some of our main characters make an appearance. This helps add an element of whimsy and excitement to their already exciting recital routine. We also add a class leader to our preschool and kinder routines. This is usually one of our younger mini company dancers between 8-10 years old who learns the entire routine and performs it with the dancers. This gives the dancers a peace of mind and helps them project outward toward the audience vs looking into the wings for guidance from us or their teachers.  Our leader invitation emails are going out this week so those dancers can start coming to the preschool classes to meet the dancers and start learning their routines.Don't forget we created a course where we share EVERYTHING about how we plan and execute our show! Your Fun Big Show: A Complete Recital Planning Course will give you tons of inspiration on planning a creative and fun show!Subscribe & ShareYou are officially invited to subscribe to our podcast, and we would love you to leave us a 5 star rating and review! We'd also love for you to share our podcast on social media! Tag us and we'll repost! Join our (FREE) Confetti CircleRequest to join our private (and FREE) Facebook GroupFollow us on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest

In Episode 40, we're sharing 5 things you can do to boost your summer success.1.  Schedule summer and promote now!Parents are looking NOW to plan their activities for their kids. So, if your summer is not planned now, they may be signing up for other types of camps. Make sure you are consistently promoting the camps, too. Look into hiring a summer camp director, as we discussed in Episode 18. 2. Require summer dance campsListen to Episode 5 for even more details about this!3. Offer drop-in classes, free trial classes, dance & play parties It is equally important to offer drop-in classes for those who don't want the commitment of a week long camp, or maybe they want to try out your studio. We offer drop-in classes every week, and these are usually taught at an intermediate/advanced classes, but can definitely work for placing new students too. 4. Camp ConfettiWe like to describe Camp Confetti as a full-out dance camp in a box, but your inbox! These are summer camp downloads packed with all the details you need to run a 3-5 day camp at your studio.  We have 30 different unique and original themes to choose from for preschool through elementary age dancers.  We do all the planning for you, so you or your staff can just put it into action. This saves you hours and hours of time that will allow you to take some time for yourself this summer. To learn more about Camp Confetti, listen to Episode 4 and Episode 39. You can also check out our latest blog post where we talk about our 4 newest themes, and see all 30 of our themes on our website!5. Promote summer in a fun way!Use social media (reels, etc.) to promote now and also in real time while camps are happening. Keep it in your newsletter to register, send ongoing promotional emails, pass out flyers at the end of class, and/or create a fun wall or bulletin board in studio. Listen to Episode 39 for even more details on this topic! Subscribe & ShareYou are officially invited to subscribe to our podcast, and we would love you to leave us a 5 star rating and review! We'd also love for you to share our podcast on social media! Tag us and we'll repost! Join our (FREE) Confetti CircleRequest to join our private (and FREE) Facebook GroupFollow us on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest

In Episode 39 – our first episode of Season 2! – we're talking all things summer! We just successfully launched our studio's full summer schedule & registration this week! Our theme is Carnival-A-Rhythm to tie into our year-end show theme Rhythm Story (based on Toy Story). Check out @rhythmdancecenter for pics! Camp Confetti: We launched 4 new Camp Confetti themes! These downloads are filled with everything you need to plan and teach your summer dance camp: a super fun + detailed theme with combo choreography videos, dance activities and games centered around the theme, crafts, decor, music suggestions, marketing tools and so many more fun extras, like decor ideas, playlists and more! During the pre-sale phase, you will get immediate access to the logos, social images and marketing wording to begin promoting the camps! New ThemesPrancing Pony Party - A Charming Adventure Fancy Mouse Dress-Up House Rhinestone Round-Up All Things Boots and BlingConfetti Clue Crew: Mystery at the TOYriffic Museum of FunCheck out ALL 30 of our Camp Confetti Summer Dance FunPacks!Top 3 Questions About Camp Confetti1. What does Camp Confetti Include?A detailed description and super cute social post for marketingDetailed storyline to inspire + engage dancers in the themeVideo of TWO center floor combosDetailed teacher guide/descriptions to THREE dance activitiesONE fun dance game related to the themeAt least FOUR fun craft ideas, including supply lists and before-and-after photosTHREE coloring or activity pagesCamp Confetti CertificatesLots of extra fun included, like studio decor suggestions, bonus activities and more!2. How many days and what hours will Camp Confetti work for? We designed the camps to maximize the fun over a five-day camp, but each theme can easily be adapted to fit a 3-day camp format (or any other format you choose to follow). These camps offer a lot of flexibility– go full out or use it as a supplement to an existing camp! 3. Is the download easy enough to follow so it can be passed on to any of my faculty to run the camp? Yes! Everything is broken down in a way that is very easy to understand and follow. As long as your teachers read the full download prior to starting camp, they should be good to go!Camp Confetti has been a life saver at Rhythm for the last 6 years! The organization and cohesiveness has brought the success level of our summer to a whole new level!Subscribe & ShareYou are officially invited to subscribe to our podcast, and we would love you to leave us a 5 star rating and review! We'd also love for you to share our podcast on social media! Tag us and we'll repost! Join our (FREE) Confetti CircleRequest to join our private (and FREE) Facebook GroupFollow us on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest

Episode 38 is our final episode of Season 1, and  we're sharing some of our faves (and least faves) of the year! Thank you for listening and supporting us ~ Cheers to 2022!Favorite Podcast Episodes:Dani: Preschool Dance Party Series  - Episodes 28, 29 & 30Becca: Dance Friends are the Best Friends - Episode 15 and Connecting the Dots of your Studio Brand - Episode 10Favorite Photo Shoot:Dani: The video (& photo) shoot for our recital course…Your Fun Big ShowBecca: Our most recent one, especially the Camp Confetti shotsFavorite Craft:Dani: The larger than life Twirl Ribbons, the big stars that look like marquee lights, and the set of Your Fun Big Show. Becca: Ski photo backdrop for Frozen Least Favorite Craft/Project:Dani: The Summer beach ball backdrop and the Woody and Jessie panels used at our recital retreat, and the ski backdropBecca: The beginning of any wall projectWhat inspired you most during this year?Dani: Our staff at Rhythm and also seeing so many studios push through some of the craziest times and continue to make dance magic happen for so many kids!  Becca: Travel! Personal achievement?Dani: Work in progress but getting closer after hiring our assistant EllieBecca: I moved closer to the studio and my quality of life has improved immensely!What Confetti event/project are you most proud of? Dani: The podcast! I am also proud of launching Your Fun Big Show and finishing the Twirl Update which was a massive project!Becca: Your Fun Big Show, Twirl and the podcast!What Rhythm event/project are you most proud of? Dani: Pulling off our year-end show back in June! Becca: Rhythm Frozen! Top Three Downloaded Podcasts: Episode 28: Preschool Dance Party Part 1: 8 Fun Props to Use in Dance ClassEpisode 30: Preschool Dance Party Part 3: Pro Tips from our Preschool Pro!Episode 29: Preschool Dance Party Part 2: Preschool ProgressionsSubscribe & ShareYou are officially invited to subscribe to our podcast, and we would love you to leave us a 5 star rating and review! We'd also love for you to share our podcast on social media! Tag us and we'll repost! Join our (FREE) Confetti CircleRequest to join our private (and FREE) Facebook GroupFollow us on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest

In episode 37, we're sharing 10 fun ideas for being festive at your studio this time of year.  1. Decorating the Studio2. Fun Dance Class Activities: Check out these blog posts for TONS of fun dance activities (even more than we covered in the episode): Confetti Mood: Wondrous & Whimsical Reindeer Games: Dance Activities for Preschool ClassesCandy Cane LaneWondrous Wintry Dance Class Activities Merry Moves & Jingle Grooves3. Performing Company Party: These simple parties are held during class. They dress festively, divide into teams and do fun holiday relay races and other games. It's a super fun event and great team bonding!4. Holiday Show: This 2-hour show is the first time our company dancers showcase their new pieces for the year. It motivates us to finish dances costumes before they have to compete, and it's also festive with a few holiday dances, too. 5. Elf on the Shelf: Our Elf's name is PomPom  and, she appears for about 8-10 days each season. She always ties into our recital theme - outfits included!6. Staff Party: Our staff holiday party varies from year to year in timing and type of event. We're doing the 12 Days of Rhythmas for the second time!  We rent a Furbus for a few hours take our staff on a journey with planned stops for little activities and photo ops tied into the popular holiday song. The tour ends at a restaurant for lunch and a white elephant gift exchange. 7. Confetti Holiday Cocktail/Mocktail: Fill a pretty crystal or colored glass with ice and add 2 parts prosecco or sparkling wine,  ½ part St-Germain and top with 2 parts club soda and a splash of cranberry juice (to make it pink!). Stir gently, mixing completely. To garnish, alternate Smash Mallow Candy Cane marshmallows, raspberries and cranberries on a skewer, and add a sprig of mint and a candy cane to the glass! For the Mocktail, replace alcohol with raspberry ginger ale.8. Confetti Gift Guides:  Check out our fun gift guides filled with ideas for all your gifting needs here!9. Giving Back:  We always give back this time of year by sponsoring a family or donating the profits of our holiday show. This year, to tie into our theme of Toy Story and also in honor of one of our students who is fighting leukemia, we're donating toys to Children's Hospital of Atlanta. 10. Thank You & Happy Holidays!: Use code FUNHOLIDAYTEN by 12/31 in our Confetti Shop for 10% off everything (excluding Twirl)! Subscribe & ShareYou are officially invited to subscribe to our podcast, and we would love you to leave us a 5 star rating and review! We'd also love for you to share our podcast on social media! Tag us and we'll repost! Join our (FREE) Confetti CircleRequest to join our private (and FREE) Facebook GroupFollow us on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest

In Episode 36, we're sharing tons of gifting inspo for dance teachers and studio owners, plus all of our fun specials during ThanksGifting week!For all the details and to see our gift guides, check out our latest blog post that is complete with images and links for everything we mention! We hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving AND ThanksGifting! Subscribe & ShareYou are officially invited to subscribe to our podcast, and we would love you to leave us a 5 star rating and review! We'd also love for you to share our podcast on social media! Tag us and we'll repost! Join our (FREE) Confetti CircleRequest to join our private (and FREE) Facebook GroupFollow us on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest

In episode 35, we're back after a short break sharing five fun things that are happening now that we are really excited about! Rhythm Toy Barn: In our last episode, we talked briefly about the week of Halloween and how we were considering an outdoor space. We made it happen and are calling it the Rhythm Toy Barn. We painted it in bright colors to match our show logo. For Halloween, we hung a few Toy Story themed ghosts and other spooky-ish decor and created a fun photo op for everyone. Next, we will transform it into a winter wonderland. If you do not already have a fun and creative space for your dancers to take photos, consider setting one up!Disney: We snuck in a 36-hour inspiration trip to Disney World (Toy Story Land) a few weeks ago!! Neither of us had been to Disney World in 15 years, so it was inspo overload! We have some great ideas for decor, colors and details. You can't find a better way to get inspired if you are planning to do a Disney theme! If you want to up your inspiration and creativity, look into doing something super extra to elevate your planning: see a movie with your staff, go see a show and or go to Disney!Twirl: As most of you know, we have recently finished up our Twirl Preschool Program revamp! Here are a few of our favorite things about the update:The Teacher Guide - where you find all the details, activities, music, crafts, etc to bring the Twirl Books to life. We've added SO MUCH more detail for you to carry over into your classes.Diego our adorable dancing boy character! We wanted to make sure all boys taking a Twirl class felt they were a part of all the fun.Stickers - When you order your Twirl packs, you also receive sheets of super cute stickers that coordinate with each lesson. It's another way to recognize the dancers' hard work in class, and all tiny dancers love stickers!If you aren't a Twirl Studio and want more info, check out all the details on our website and listen to episode 24!Photo Shoot: We recently held a 2-day photo shoot to batch in future content for our blog! We started planning in early September and knocked out about 6 months of photo content! Our new assistant Ellie helped played a huge role in the organizing and prepping for it as her first project with us. This was also our first photo shoot in our new space, and we have a lot more space, so we were able to set up multiple vignettes ahead of time. If you want to elevate your own photo shoot, we recommend doing some extra prep and planning ahead of time to make it the most productive it can be! Recital Retreat: We just finished this and we were so, so productive! We will do a full episode on it in the near future, but a big takeaway is that all costumes have been selected and ordering is taking place in the next 2 weeks (much earlier for us than usual).  Subscribe & ShareYou are officially invited to subscribe to our podcast, and we would love you to leave us a 5 star rating and review! We'd also love for you to share our podcast on social media! Tag us and we'll repost! Join our (FREE) Confetti CircleRequest to join our private (and FREE) Facebook GroupFollow us on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest

Episode 34 is all about HALLOWEEK, and we're sharing 5 fun things you can do at your studio! #rhythmhalloweek is a long-standing tradition at our studio. We encourage you to create a hashtag that is specific to YOUR studio for Halloweek. Create one that is specific to you so that you can easily find your posts! For those of you that are new to all the Confetti fun, you may not know about our Halloweek on the Dance Floor hip hop combos and videos. This is our 6th annual season of creating fun, age appropriate hip hop combos that we share with you and encourage you to teach them in your classes, video it, post it on your social platforms and tag us so we would be sure to see it. We love seeing studios taking our short combo and getting super creative with it and making them their own, and we of course reshare them all! You can also teach it to your staff -- your dancers will love it and it's a great way to build engagement and teamwork within your staff.  This blog post has our current version, as well as links to the other 5 versions AND several Halloweek related blog posts. 5 Fun Things for Halloweek1. Organize a SPOOKTACULAR Spotify Playlist. Start from existing playlists, and add more songs you can use in class. This is an easy and fun thing share with your dancers and teachers! Check out our Wickedly Enchanted Playlist2. Decorate a wall in your studio for dancers to take their photos. Bonus: tie it into your show theme! This is a great way to get your dancers to snap a fun photo during your Halloweek! Carry the theme into a small area in each dance room, too! 3. Halloween Dance Games. Check out the bottom of this blog post for links to posts with fun games like a haunted obstacle course, a Halloween version of Project Runway and more!4. Dress up for Halloweek! Have your staff dress up in your recital theme. Performing company big/lil/families can coordinate their costumesCreate or use a fun guide for dressing up like this one from Different Drummer Dance.Hold costume contests for students. We give out custom stickers to our dancers who dress up in the theme of our show. 5. Halloweek on the Dance Floor. Teach our super fun Halloweek on the Dance Floor combos! This unites your studio, and you can create a fun compilation video of all your classes! Tag us and use the hashtag #halloweekonthedancefloor and we are going to pick one studio to give a confetti credit to! We hope this helps get you into the Halloween spirit and find some spooky-fun things to do at your studio!  Subscribe & ShareYou are officially invited to subscribe to our podcast, and we would love you to leave us a 5 star rating and review! We'd also love for you to share our podcast on social media! Tag us and we'll repost! Join our (FREE) Confetti CircleRequest to join our private (and FREE) Facebook GroupFollow us on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest

In episode 33, we are kicking off the first episode in a new series on recital planning! We are in full recital planning mode now, and we just launched the content of our recital planning course: Your Fun Big Show! Purchase by 10/8 and SAVE! If you purchase before that date, not only will you save money, but you will also be invited to a live Q&A Zoom with us on this topic! Here are the top 3 things we are doing right now to get the ball rolling for all things show planning:Announce your theme, create a logo: We love making a big deal out of announcing our theme - which if you have listened to us, you already know this! Once we know the theme, we start dropping hints on our instagram and building lots of excitement. We usually start this on a Monday and announce the theme on Instagram on a Thursday, complete with our logo and hashtag. Our theme this year is inspired by Toy Story. We create a (secret) Pinterest board and a Google Doc to store all our ideas, then we will narrow them down throughout the planning process. Check out #rhythmstory2022 to see what we have done so far!! Figure out who is in what show and concepts: This is the very first thing we do to get everything in place before the fun creative parts start happening. Our studio manager starts this process by working on the breakdown of each show and then presents it to us. We give our input and thoughts, make a few minor changes then we are ready. We take into consideration dancers with siblings or those who take multiple classes and try to accommodate where we can. It also depends on maximum audience size.Next we decide the concept that each class is going to be in our story-based show. We make sure we have all the main characters covered and also any of the “standout” scenes . This way, the flow of our show will not only make sense for our audience because they can follow the storyline, but it will keep things entertaining for all those non-dancers in the audience as the show progresses. Plan your planning: The most productive thing we do all season is our recital retreat! We rent a house, go away for a long weekend and figure out all concepts, choose all music, edit the music, choose the costumes, start our master spreadsheet with so many details, figure out dress rehearsal, tech rehearsal, figure out all our props and sets and backdrops! Our retreat is a little over a month away, but we are planning our planning now! We will start planning our decor for the weekend (because we go full out) and start ordering that! It is great because we can use lots of this decor for the studio and even for the show! We also order items for goodie bags for our staff. We hope these first few steps we've accomplished will inspire you to get going on that planning!Subscribe & ShareYou are officially invited to subscribe to our podcast, and we would love you to leave us a 5 star rating and review! We'd also love for you to share our podcast on social media! Tag us and we'll repost! Join our (FREE) Confetti CircleRequest to join our private (and FREE) Facebook GroupFollow us on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest

In Episode 32, it's a Festive Fall Faculty Fun party we call Pumpkin Pizzazz - a fun kick-off to fall for our staff to get together and decorate pumpkins. Invitations:  Create a fun graphic to get everyone in a fun, fall mood and send via Paperless Post or Evite so you can easily track who's attending.What to wear: Make it as simple and convenient as possible for staff.  We just suggest everyone wear black and then we may provide some fun really inexpensive masks for everyone to wear for photos we might take. If your staff wants to dress up, a fun idea is to use this halloween costume generator from Different Drummer Dance. Food: Breakfast - Fall/pumpkin  flavored donuts, pastries and coffee. Lunch: Cater something simple like Chicken Salad ChickSweets: Fall/Halloween themed Donuts, cookies and candy.Set-Up: You can go full out or keep it simple; inside or outside. You can do a Fall theme, Halloween theme or even in the theme of your show. We recommend doing outside if weather permits!Craft supplies: Glue guns, E-6000, Elmer's Craft Glue, craft/scrapbook/glitter paper, pom pom balls, googly eyes, spiders, halloween stickers, rhinestones, pipe cleaners. Fall or Halloween paper plates and small bowls to use for everyone to gather their craft supplies in is key. We also set up a cute table for the food, and had a shelf outside to display the completed the pumpkins. The decorated pumpkins are so fun for the kids to look at and guess which one is from their teacher. You can create contest for dancers to select their favorite or just use them as decor! If you have time during your staff get together, this would be a great opportunity to teach them our Halloweek on the Dance Floor combo. New combo coming soon, but check out all our past combos here. You can easily this translate this event into a teen or company member bonding event. You can buy lots of $1 tiny pumpkins and use Sharpies to decorate them.Take photos and video of your event - each person with their pumpkin and a group shot. Use video footage to create a Reel/story, etc! This is such a fun event to share on social media and also great pics to use for a staff bday and on your staff page in your year-end show program! We hope this inspires you to get in the mood for fall and/or halloween and put something simple and fun on the calendar for your staff.  More Halloween Fun:Let the Spooktacular Halloweek Games BeginOctober Mood: Wickedly EnchantedOur Top Ten Spooktacular Ideas for DanceSubscribe & ShareYou are officially invited to subscribe to our podcast, and we would love you to leave us a 5 star rating and review! We'd also love for you to share our podcast on social media! Tag us and we'll repost! Join our (FREE) Confetti CircleRequest to join our private (and FREE) Facebook GroupFollow us on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest

Episode 31 was recorded from our hotel room in New York City!  We are here again after missing it for 2 years searching for fabulous fabric for our custom costumes! At Rhythm, we have always designed our own costumes and had them made for our performing company dancers. For years, we would have people ask us where we bought our costumes or how we went about designing them and the actual sewing process. So, a few years ago, we created Fabric Shopping in NYC: A Complete Guide for Designing Custom Costumes available for purchase in our Confetti Shop. It's a step-by-step guide to finding the perfect fabrics and trims to create custom costumes for your studio. We use it ourselves and this trip, we used it to confirm which fabric stores were still in business, and most are still going strong! What is the same?The feeling of being completely overwhelmed by the choices that NYC fabric shopping gives you is definitely the same! We were worried the garment district took a hit due to Covid with Broadway being shut down, but it is alive and well with most of our favorite stores still in business with tons of amazing fabrics! The many, many smells are the same! Amazing trim and appliqué options - the same! What's different?A few locations have moved or closed, not many have fully disappeared. The store owners told us the break was a great time to negotiate rent and better opportunities.One of our favorite go-to stretch houses - Spandex World (it was on 35th) is no longer there. We think they have just condensed to their Queens location, which we didn't make it to on this trip. Several restaurants are gone but we found a few new ones that we loved! Beatnik on 38th near Broadway is vegan and great! Top 3 places we shopped this week (all between 7th & 8th)Spandex House  - 263 W. 38th - Always a go-to! They have TONS of stretch fabrics, are super nice and the same people have been working here for years! They always let us store things, move fabric around and let us sit on the floor and figure things out! And, they have quantity on site, so they can handle big orders! Vardhman, Inc. - 269 W. 39th  - This TINY store has trim, elastic and ribbons. Small but incredible selection of fun appliqués and patches. Think smiley faces, flowers, eyeballs, planets and quirky, fun sparkly little things! MOOD - 225 W. 37th on 3rd Floor  - The building is called “Bricken Arcade” and you can enter on 37th or 38th. This store is the best store EVER - the options are limitless! They have every type of fabric in every color, texture, print, weight...it is a literal fabric candy store! We highly recommend checking out the Garment District -mainly 37th - 39th between 7th and 8th.  Learn more here!Subscribe & ShareYou are officially invited to subscribe to our podcast, and we would love you to leave us a 5 star rating and review! We'd also love for you to share our podcast on social media! Tag us and we'll repost! Join our (FREE) Confetti CircleRequest to join our private (and FREE) Facebook GroupFollow us on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest

Episode 30 is Part 3 of our Preschool Dance Party Series! We have a very special guest with us – our preschool director Ms. Jenni! She is responsible for so much preschool fun, we consistently get her feedback for Twirl and she is a regular contributor to our Camp Confettis and much more! She's celebrating her 16th season with us at Rhythm!Her top 4 tips for running a successful preschool class:1. Be flexible - be ready to change your plan at all times2. Creativity - give them a visual for everything you are describing3. Patience - all kinds of patience! Connect with each student, have a question of the week, get them talking4. Be comfortable with some controlled chaos and have your methods for reeling them back in5. Consistency and structure  She talks about how Twirl inspires her creativity and her favorite themes in Twirl are fairies, space, 50s and 70s, dinos (she uses plastic eggs with a big gem in it and they go for a dig and earn a gem for performing a step). Dino Foot Prints: laminate them so they last longerPlanning our Twirl Season: Track in Google Doc, usually one per month, hold round tables, the week before sends reminders and details to teachers and assistants with details about props, sets up early on the first lesson of the week. Week before send email reminder to families of theme, what to wear. Week after send recap email with fun photos. How she formats a Twirl class: Start in tap shoes, warm-up center, then across the floor. If activity is tap, bring books out earlier; if ballet, later. How we handle the books depends on the class - either inspiration or read whole thing. Let them find the page, review, put books away. Keep the same elements of the theme throughout the class even after done with the Twirl activity.Favorite props: Technical - hula hoops, color dance dots (teach jazz square), ballet barres, parachutes, footprints; Fun Props - Flashie Cards, light-up wands, finger lights, ribbon sticks, light machine, scarves.Organizing Props: Books are kept in magazine racks, uses closet rods to hang some items, baskets/bins to store like props. If you are moving from one studio to another, keep a set in a bin to take with you. Sort items that "work" from those that "don't work"She uses some of the Twirl activities/themes every week mermaids, flower stretches, rainbows, unicorns, not just on Twirl weeks. Check out our #rhythmtwirl hashtag for pics of all the Twirl fun at Rhythm!Subscribe & ShareYou are officially invited to subscribe to our podcast, and we would love you to leave us a 5 star rating and review! We'd also love for you to share our podcast on social media! Tag us and we'll repost! Join our (FREE) Confetti CircleRequest to join our private (and FREE) Facebook GroupFollow us on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest

Episode 29 is Part 2 of our Preschool Dance Party series. We're sharing  ideas for Preschool Progressions - fun ways to up our across-the-floor game! Dancing across the floor is fun and if your preschoolers continue dancing, progressions are not going anywhere! Start helping them understand standing in line, waiting their turn, going across the floor to get individual feedback from the teacher, doing a series of steps, working on coordination and just adding in some creativity and FUN! Hopscotch: Great for working on coordination skills, jumping and shifting weight from one foot to two.  Create a hopscotch path with tape, chalk, rubber mats, etc. Use animal options like bunnies, kangaroos, frogs, grasshoppers and even cats. Purchase inexpensive animal headbands, bunny ears or poodle skirts for them to wear to add fun. As they advance, add a rhythm and musicality challenge to it.Rainbow Runner: Use a table runner for a vibrant visual path that the dancers can skip down, chassé, do heel drops, etc. Purchase a 100 ft. rainbow plastic tablecloth roll for an instant colorful path! Obstacle Courses: Preschoolers love something specific to focus on like traveling to different locations and making each stop along the path something exciting. Theming them out to the fullest keeps them engaged and interested in what's going on. Our Twirl Flashie Cards are great for obstacle courses. You can place the cards at the different stops and they have to flip them over and demonstrate whatever the step or image is. Dino Feet: Cut out giant dinosaur prints from poster board ~14x8, add tape to secure, place multiple sets side by side facing different directions. The dancers  jump on two feet right on top of the dino prints but have to change their direction to match the direction the prints are facing.  You can do this activity with any feet - puppy, cat paws, snowman, etc.  Hula Hoops: Set them up for each of the stops along the path and they can jump into them and demonstrate certain steps, they can jump out of them, pick it up and use it as a handheld prop, and they can crawl or step through them. Imagine they are giant donuts or wheels, etc. Or line them up across the floor touching and the kids can pretend they are astronauts and do moon jumps from one hoop to the next. Then they can try to moonwalk back to the end of the line. Bonus fun: create a human maypole. Tie really long pieces of ribbon around the hula hoop, enough for each dancer to hold onto one. Make a circle and hold the hula hoop up high over your head while the dancers will dance with the ribbons. Ideas for Keeping Dancers Standing in Line: Stanchions, Rugs ("magic carpet"!), Yoga mats , Dance Dots (turn them into flower petals, musical notes, bunny ears, etc.) , Colorful TapeThink outside the box, add a piece of imagination to it and have fun! Subscribe & ShareYou are officially invited to subscribe to our podcast, and we would love you to leave us a 5 star rating and review! We'd also love for you to share our podcast on social media! Tag us and we'll repost! Join our (FREE) Confetti CircleRequest to join our private (and FREE) Facebook GroupFollow us on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest