LGBTQIA+ communities go underappreciated and unrepresented in spaces where recognition is necessary. Without these communities striving for inclusivity and freedom of expression, the styles that we know and love today would be completely different. In LGBTQIA+ culture, dance is a very important part of expressing joy and expressing themselves anytime they can. Attend any Pride event or gay club and you will see the joy and expression that dance can bring to such a big community. Here are just some of the ways that LGBTQIA+ communities have paved the way for dance!
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While they look very similar, demi-pointe and pointe shoes are actually incredibly different! Demi-pointes are a training shoe to help build your strength and get your toes and feet ready for the real deal. For many they are an important and necessary tool to use before stepping into a pair of pointe shoes.
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Tightening the taps of your tap shoes is an easy but crucial thing to know how to do! DWC Social Media Manager, Emma, will show you what you need, how to do it, and some important tips to remember!
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Getting ready for Nutcracker or another ballet show? Or maybe it’s your first ballet class and you need a little guidance on the hair? We’ve got you covered with this ballet bun walkthrough!
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Dancers come in all different shapes and sizes, and hair is no exception. All different types of hair from textured to straight are thrown into ballet buns every single day, but sometimes it can be a struggle to find the right way to put up your hair. Former DWC Ambassador Niyah Pratt is here to show you just how you can do it! Here is how to do a ballet bun with braids:
Read MoreMany people in western culture generally feel comfortable with a binary kind of thinking because it's a way of processing information that we’ve grown up with. Things are either black or white, day or night, right or wrong. But when we make binary statements about people and art, we can create a rather limiting perspective for ourselves. I’ve found that such generalizations are often made about certain genres of dance or dance unique to specific cultural communities or regions.
Read MoreAs a young dancer I never really considered the importance of warming up. If you looked across the room before a ballet class I remember seeing dancers sitting in their middle splits, legs on the barre stretching forward and chatting about their weekend plans. When I got to college level dance I discovered my schools recreation center and weight room. It was not until my Anatomy and Physiology class in college that I learned how to strength train and why it is so beneficial in activities like jumping and leaping that was necessary in dance.
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The Flexistretcher is a great tool that is used for the recovery and strengthening that dancers around the country find themselves using. Luckily, we have a certified Flexistretcher instructor on our DWC team that has a great tutorial on how to use this product. Read on to learn more about the FLX Hamstring Stretch with DWC Staff member Emma Neilson!
Read MoreSeattle Dance and Performing Arts Medicine, also known as SeaPam, is a fantastic resource for dancers who are in need of medical treatment from an injury! This community is filled with committed professionals in the industry that strive to promote healthy performance, education, training and help maintain a beneficial lifestyle for dancers in the Seattle area. They hope that they can enable all performing artists to pursue long, healthy performing careers!
Read MoreHere at Dancewear Center, we host a lunch and learn on the last Wednesday of every month where we bring in local experts in our community to give a presentation about their expertise in that field. Fortunately we get the opportunity to have Santina Rigano-Lesch be one of our presenters this month! She will be presenting on her business Don’t Do It Yourself Virtual Assistant Services (DDIYVAS). Read on to learn more about her dancing journey and more information on her business!
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