A Dance Captain’s Handbook

Going back to the issue on youth competitive dancers practicing for 30 hours a week and constantly training. I found an article from the New York Times, "Inside the High-Drama World of Youth Competition Dance", that covers this same issue. Being that there are other articles on this topic shows the wide range of problem this issue causes. It is happening in various locations. In this article, the author Lizzie Feidelson, focuses on a dancer named Angelina Velardi, who is a 12-year-old competitive dancer for the Prestige Academy of Dance. This article shows focus on the high intensity of stress and anxiety these youth dancers experience. The author mentions, Angelina practicing to herself in the corner before going on to perform by herself because of all the anxiety with practicing with other girls she is constantly around. This focuses on how practicing for extraneous hours consecutively with the same people, proves that after a while you get anxiety being around them. ...

Being part of the dance community is time consuming and not always the easiest experiences. Between late night practices, competitions, special appearances, end of year shows, etc. One really has to be dedicated to this partnership between their love for it and actually doing it. However, currently there is an issue in the dance community that no one is speaking upon. Youth dancers between the ages four-eighteen who are on competitive dance team rehearse for an extraneous number of hours. Those typically range at thirty hours. Dance studios are taking it to their advantage of the free time that is available from their students and they abuse it. Bringing awareness on this issue and help reducing the number of hours practiced can become a detrimental factor on the youth. Between their mental health and physical health, bringing awareness and speaking on this issue can help youth competitive dancers. Not only does bringing awareness to this issue help youth competitive danc...

Hello! My name is Samantha Hess. I have been dancing for as long as I can remember. My dance journey began when I was five years old as a ballerina. After that, I started venturing out into hip-hop and even joined a competitive dance company named "Dancer Masters" from my hometown: Miami, Florida. After being in the competitive dance world, I told myself I needed a break from the high intensity of it, but I did not want to stop there. When I began high school, I joined my school's dance team named "The Charmers". I joined this team my sophomore year, became an officer my junior year, and was captain my final year. Being apart of an amazing team like that has shaped me into the person and dancer I am today. The purpose of my blog is to address issues in the dance world and provide future dance leaders on the insight of what it is really like to be a leader. I encourage young dancers like me to utilize this blog as a resource. When I became a captain, I had li...