Why Blog About Dance?

A dance studio can use a blog to interact and communicate with students, parents, teachers, and potential customers. Signing up for a free blog is relatively painless, and it is easy to update posts and pages. You may create static pages that contain info that doesn't change often (teacher bios, policies, mission statement, etc.) and use posts for things like reminders, schedule changes, rehearsal times, etc. Here are some examples of studio blogs:

• Example A


• Example B


• Example C


• Example D

My blog is hosted at Wordpress. If you have a domain for your school, wordpress can mask your blog with that domain name for a small fee, as I have done with my site.

Dance students can also utilize blog technology as more than just a diary. Perhaps you could write about your progress in class - think of it as your own dance journal, a chronicle of your goals, accomplishments, and struggles in technique classes. Others could learn from reading about your journey. Looking back on your entries could help remind you of things your teachers have said that have helped you along the way and show you how far you've come. Journaling can help you "own" your learning experience and create a sense of responsibility for your dance education. Here are some questions/prompts to get you started.

1. Today in class I learned...
2. Today, I had difficulty in class with....
3. My strengths include...
4. My weaknesses include...
5. This week I have been challenged by...
6. One question I have for my teacher is...
7. How can you connect what you've learned or experienced in dance to your everyday life or the world around you?
8. What have you learned about yourself while studying dance?
9. What do you think about when you dance?
10. What could you do to improve certain areas of your dancing?

By allowing multiple authors, your blog could also be a conversation between you and your teacher, another student or students, a parent, etc. Use your imagination!! Here is an example of a conversational blog between a dancer and performance specialist: Dance Mind

Wordpress.com: It's free, has lots of options, and is easy to use. Plus with several upgrade choices, there is room for growth.

Wordpress.org: This is the self-hosted version of Wordpress (i.e. you find and pay for your own web hosting). This is fully customizable. Your entire studio website could run on Wordpress.

Twitter: A great networking tool. Send short notes, links, questions and more to your followers. Plus set up a "learning network" of those in the industry who share news you can use.

Facebook: One of the most popular social networking sites. Connect with others, create groups and fan pages. Lots of great applications available to help you connect with readers or customers.

Ning.com: Create your OWN social network (great for studios) where users can create groups, interact on message boards, and more. Plus, it's free.

Google Reader: Where I keep up with the blogs I read. This keeps tabs on all the blogs I like, helping me generate ideas for posts, interact with other bloggers, and stay informed.

Firefox: My chosen browser. Handy button bar applications that makes my life easier.