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Enter the March Harlequin Floors
Scholarship Contest
The March 2014 Video Scholarship Contest is underway, so click here to enter your video today for a chance to be one of four $250 scholarship winners this month!
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Music to Rev You Up
Dancers know better than almost anyone: music is vitally important! It dictates our timing, infuses us with energy, and evokes our emotions in cycles of response and reflection. Outside of the studio or theater, it can drive you through a workout, or carry you off into daydreams. In a recent Quartz article, author Adam Pasick applies some neuroscience to the creation of the Perfect Playlist to help you power up whatever you're doing.
If you're tackling something that demands concentration, music with a consistent rhythm and no (or incomprehensible) lyrics works best. Your brain can't help but pay attention to words you understand. Depending on the lyrics and what you have to get done, this can sometimes be more distracting than inspirational.
"Your brain is a prediction machine, making an endless series of guesses about what's going to happen next. When it comes to music at work, you don't want your brain to spend cognitive resources predicting what it's about to hear. Listening to constant, relatively unchanging music -- songs that don't have a lot of emotional peaks and valleys, or changes in mood -- has been shown to enhance some simple cognitive skills. Other research has shown that "low-information-load" music -- simple tunes without a lot of complexity -- have the strongest positive effect," explains Pasick.
If you're trying to be more creative, variety leads your brain down pathways of new connections between ideas and helps your mood stay positive. "Your brain thrives on predicting the future, so throwing some randomness into the mix can reward you with a surge of the pleasurable neurotransmitter dopamine," says Pasick.
Interestingly, whatever kind of musical effect you're going for, the benefits diminish with use. (You've probably noticed that without science -- after a while your favorite cardio songs just don't keep you going like they used to.) This seems to have particularly useful implications for dancers rehearsing for roles as well as supplementing daily routines with strategic song doses. Obviously you need to know your music inside out and be tuned in to all its subtleties. But to keep the emotional connection fresh, it might be best to put it aside for a while between rehearsals.
In rehearsals and classes, you don't have much choice. But the rest of the time -- schoolwork, chores, day jobs, driving, what have you -- you can control a lot of what you give your mind to work with. Personally, when I need to feel seriously focused and revved up, this music
from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet score does the trick.
By Tamara Johnson
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Planning a New Floor for your Studio this Summer?
3 Things You
Need to Know Now!
The summer months are the perfect time for many studio and school owners to install new flooring. Planning now is key. You will want to order your new floors early to make sure you have everything in place for the summer months. Every situation is unique. Contact dance flooring manufacturers now to get all your questions answered. To give you the best advice for the proper flooring within your budget, the flooring manufacturer will need to know the exact dimensions of the area you plan to cover. Are you renting or do you own the space? Do you want a flooring solution you can take with you if you move to another location? Do you plan to tour with the floor? What types of dancing will be done on the floor? In addition to vinyl (marley) flooring, do you need a sprung floor to protect your dancers from injury and maximize their performance? The most important thing you can do is get started right away finding the answers you need from your flooring manufacturer.
Harlequin Floors will happily walk you through all your decisions to ensure you get the right floor for your needs and budget.
You may reach Harlequin Floors at 1-800-642-6440 and visit www.harlequinfloors.com.
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Best Wishes on
Saint Patrick's Day
We've all heard the quote "dance as if no one is watching" but did you know that those words are only the beginning of an old Irish saying?
Happy Saint Patrick's Day! And we wish for all of you to...
"Dance as if no one is watching,
Sing as if no one is listening,
and live every day
as if it were your last."
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