Congrats!

Congrats to all of the wonderful teams at the Dance & Drill State Championships in Washington this weekend. For results click here.

More details are being planned for Elite's two dance sessions this summer. Elite's staff is lining up speakers, dance instructors, and more for a great camp this June/July 2010. Our newest announcement is that we will include team leadership time led by professional speakers and relationship counselors in each session where dancers will get to take personality tests. This will help each member know what type of person they are and help the whole team work with each strength together. It will help build camaraderie and leadership within your team, ultimately assisting your team in operating better together as a whole. There is so much to look forward to. Sign up today to be apart of Elite Performance Dance Camps this Summer 2010!

Exciting News!!!

Elite Performance Dance Camps has some exciting and much awaited news! We now have our Master Teacher scheduled for both camp sessions and can reveal who it is, and it is none other than Kherington Payne from Season 4 of So You Think You Can Dance. We are very excited to see what she brings to the dancers at Elite Performance this summer. Get your registration in early coaches/campers so you can secure a spot in this one of a kind opportunity, and get your dancing shoes ready!

Tips for State Competition Preperation

Happy New Year from Elite Performance!!!

We anticipate an exciting year in the dance team world. As teams are beginning to prepare for the state competitions in a few months we thought we'd lend a hand in offering some tips as you get your teams ready.

1. Choose dynamic music. Don't limit yourselves to the TOP 40 names, but check out movie soundtracks, music from different eras, songs on your favorite album that haven't been played out on the radio. Get second opinions about whether the music will be fun to dance to and stir emotion within the audience.
2. Set goals. Choose to work on your most challenging piece first so your team has time to master it. Have your goals mapped out about when to start and finish each routine, when to clean, and when to do formations so you do not get overwhelmed, nor behind the clock.
3. Choose a theme or two or three. Incorporate a theme in the dance to make the audience/judges connect with the routine more. There are so many ideas out there.
4. Tap into other people's talents. Bring in other choreographers to change up your team's style.
5. Find time to clean, clean, clean. Fun choreography is great, but if the team is not executing the moves, your team will not fare well with the judges. Bring in other coaches, dancers to give positive criticism. A new set of eyes is often good.
6. Take the advice. When your team competes take the judges critiques into consideration. Do not be afraid to change formations, pockets of choreography up from the original.
7. Most importantly, have fun! Help your team be the best they can be in 2010!

Celebrate the Season

Celebrate the season together with your team by doing a team building activity in December!!!

• Go ice skating all together
• Have a gingerbread house or cookie decorating contest
• A funky Holiday sweater party
  
• Go caroling
• White Elephant gift exchange
• Secret Santa
  
• Visit Santa Claus and have a group picture
• Share holiday traditions altogether, drink cocoa and have cookies
• do a Winter show for the school or parents/friends

Whatever you decide, enjoy the festive time of year with your teammates where you can build camaraderie and foster fun altogether!!!

Booster Club

No great program or business is built by one person alone. It takes support, help, and vision from many individuals interested in the cause. Coaches do a lot, but to be the most successful, they can’t do it all. We need our parents help and involvement! Our young dancers are full of potential, talent and creativity. They need to know that they have a support system that will not fail them and is working hard to help them achieve great things. A great avenue through which parents can be a support to the team and coach is through a parent booster club! If you don’t have one, we encourage you to start one. If you have one, seek out ways to make it better. Booster Clubs are one of the best ways to build your program and keep it running successfully.

We have gathered documents that provide the steps and information you need to know to start and run a booster club. Instead of posting them, we ask that you just send us a quick email to performelite@yahoo.com if you are interested and we will send you the documents. If you have further questions or desire more resources, please email or give us a call and we would be happy to help you out!

Money, Money, Money!

Looking for a great way to make some money for your team, build unity and camaraderie, and make an impact on your community? Dance teams and coaches have limited time so we have some BIG ideas to make the best use of your time fundraising.

1. Extended Junior Clinic: Many teams hold a one-day junior clinic for K-9th graders. This is a GREAT fundraiser. We suggest you take it one step further! Offer a month-long junior clinic that runs one afternoon or night a week for one hour, charge a reasonable drop-in fee, and throw in a t-shirt for fun. At the end of the month, invite the class to join your team in performing at a half-time game or parent show. For example, in the month of January, hold a one-hour class (can be jazz, hip hop, ballet…whatever your team excels at) for 6^th – 8^th graders. Each week, do a warm up, some technique and then teach a small combination. At the end of the month, the students will have more time to develop the skills they will need for tryouts in the spring. Let’s face it, if they wait until the free clinic in the spring, that isn’t enough! Your dance team will develop leadership and organization skills as well as a chance to inspire those younger dancers hoping to be on the team one day.
2. Sell Coffee: Check out the opportunities at Olympic Crest Coffee Company.
3. Wreath and Swag sales for the Holidays. One or two parents can help head this up and it is a great annual fundraiser your neighbors will begin to count on and plan for!
4. Baby sitting Clinic or “Parent’s Night Out”. During the Thanksgiving break, offer a half-day or evening baby sitting night for parents in the community to get some Holiday shopping done. Charge by the hour or by the child and make sure you set a safe age requirement and limit on the number of children the size of your team can handle. Bring crafts, games, balls, dress-up clothes, music, and play with the kids for a few hours. Your team will bond as they help entertain and keep kids smiling…certainly a memory! The community will appreciate your thoughtfulness to families.
5. Car Wash: Don’t have a car wash without pre-selling tickets! Standing out on the side of the street is great, but you get the most money for your time if you pre-sell tickets to your fellow students and community.
6. Community Dinner at a local restaurant: Talk with a manager at a local or chain restaurant to see if you can get a percentage of their profits in return for bringing large crowd to their restaurant one night or throughout a specific month. Some managers may be willing to make a deal to give you a percentage of their sales, or if you are really fortunate, 100% of the sales. A local MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group recently partnered with a well known chain restaurant, and was able to get a MOPS night at the restaurant (they had extra staff available, lots of balloons, and the restaurant mascot there to meet the children) and earned 100% off of dinner coupons the manager had given to the MOPS leader. It is always worth a try!
   
7. Sponsorship Books: Sell advertisement spaces to local businesses, and put together a booklet that dance team members hand out at school sporting events, and other activities at the school (plays, musicals, music concerts, etc). Have a picture of each team member in the booklet and a little information about him/her as well.
   
8. Rummage Sale: Organize a dance team family rummage sale with all of your old items. One person's junk is another person's treasure!
   

To find other ideas for fundraising, see this site. Some of these ideas might take a bit of effort at the start, but they will most likely have greater returns than smaller, more common fundraising ideas. We hope these BIG ideas help you start fundraising off right. Stay tuned to our blog for more fundraising, team building and other great ideas! Next month, we will be talking about creating successful parent booster clubs.

Starting the season off right!

By this time everyone is back to school (finally, for some of the districts that had a rocky start right?), and back to dance team practice. As you are getting into full swing of your Fall schedule, Elite Performance wanted to help encourage you along the way with great tips for starting out the season well. Many of the coaches, team leaders, and students gained awesome suggestions at camp this past summer about making and keeping up a well oiled dance team, so it is time to pull those ideas out from under your flip flops and beach bags.

• Set goals and rules for your team. Include your team leaders and members in brainstorming. Make sure your members feel invested in the goals and rules for their team. Revisit the goals and rules you set up periodically to make sure they still jive with where the team is at.
  
• Start practice out right. Have a schedule that works well for the coaches and team members. Plan ahead and be ready to start practice on time, members ready to lead warm ups (in a healthy and proper way) and technique (begin with the basics and work up), choreographers ready to teach routines, clean, do formations, etc. Being prepared and staying consistent at each practice is key.
  
• Begin with what you know best. Build up your team's confidence with having routines they feel excited and pumped up about.
  
• Step out of the box. Try new types of choreography. Have team leaders or new choreographers teach a routine that uses a different style than what the team is used to. Dig out the video camera from camp and remind the team about all the different routines they tried this summer. The more diversity your team is exposed to the better. If hip hop is your team's nitch, try jazz, or lyrical, a kickline or show routine for the first time.
  
• Get to team building. Don't forget to work on the camaraderie in your team. The team will only improve with cohesiveness. Get some new ideas here for games to schedule in at practice, plan a fun social outing altogether, serve in the community together, etc.
• Find opportunities to perform. Whether it is at a football game, pep assembles, or for the nursing home around the corner, the team will build their confidence with each performance, and will be ready for competitions when they come.
• Get busy fundraising. Start organizing and running a rummage sale, car wash, wreath sales. Find a local restaurant that will give you a percentage of their sales if you frequent their location. Be creative and start working together to raise funds for your team! Start a booster club, a great way to have support and funds for your team (more information on starting booster clubs will be in our October post).

We are excited for you and your teams this year! Let us know if we can help you in any way, whether it be connecting you with an educator or choreographer from camp, helping you start a booster club in your school, or just being their to cheer your team on for a performance. You can leave comments on our blog here, or email at performelite@yahoo.com. Make it a great start dance teams!