I had the pleasure of speaking to Joey Dowling last year when Julian attended the New York City Dance Alliance convention in San Jose. She told me some stories about her transition from dancer to businesswoman that I found quite interesting. Like Joey, as a young teen Julian spends all his time dancing. By the […]
Salim Gauwloos (Part 3): How to Succeed as a Dancer and a Choreographer
Maybe the fact that Salim Gauwloos appreciated Julian’s ballet technique was one of the reasons Julian enjoyed dancing with him in New York. Julian had just completed the six-week American Ballet Summer Intensive and had improved considerably during that time. Of course, he had a sound foundation in ballet after three years at Ballet San […]
How to Inspire Your Son to Dance
If you want to inspire your son to dance, take him to see other men dance. In particular, take him to see really great men dancing like real men. We drove two and a half hours on Friday night to see Rasta Thomas’ Bad Boys of Dance perform in Santa Rosa, CA. We ‘ve been […]
Words of Wisdom from Julian's First Male Teacher and Mentor
When Julian was quite young, his first male teacher provided a superb mentor. Now he offers words of wisdom to all boys who dance. And he encourages those boys starting late to work hard and catch up — just as he did.
Be Careful What You Ask For…
First, let me comment on the comment from last post concerning competition. This is a hot topic. Competitions have so much going for them, and so much going against them. I want to say one thing: They shouldn’t be about how many rhinestones are on the costume. They should be about technique and performance. Period. […]
Is Competition Good for Technique?
I’d like to write a short post based on a comment by Nichelle Strzepek at http://danceadvantage.net. She read my last post on making boys dance slowly to learn the basics, and said the following: “I have found it particularly difficult to impress the importance of learning to do things correctly with competitive dancers (again, my […]