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Strength Training: Technique and Injury Prevention
w/ Olivia Lou Evers
Confronting the Sexualization of Girls
w/ Jessie Levey
Culture by Design: How Leadership Shapes Outcomes
w/ Tiffany Prout-Leitao
Training Young Dancers for More Than One Future
w/ Loren Williams
From the Inside Out: Dance, Wellness & SEL
w/ Jessica Steinhart
Are You Really More Than Dance?
w/ Chasta Hamilton
30 Minute Paper Presentations (2)
11:00 am -11:30 am
Protecting Joy: Honoring the Dancer Experience
w/ Terrell Lefferts
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11:30am -12:00 pm
Friend or Foe? Online Education in the Digital Age
w/ Caitlin Trainor
Bridging the Gap: The Competitive/The Exploratory
w/ Donielle Bailery Horst
Opening Keynote
Olivia Mode-Cater
Boundaries & Burnout in Dance Studios
w/ Anna Rose
Why Your Studio Needs a Tap Company
w/ Lisa Swenton-Eppard
Meeting Them Where They Are
w/ Candis Alston-Davis
Studio Safety: Bringing HRO Culture to Dance
w/ Kristen Stevens and Lauren McIntyre
1:15pm - 1:45pm
Home in Hip-Hop or Renting Space?
w/ Neo Lynch
1:45pm - 2:15pm
Navigating Socio-Emotional Needs of Young Dancers
w/ Cassidy Svercauski
Tap Dance as a Vehicle for Navigating Change
w/ Andrew Nemr
Make the World Move: Leading with Impact
w/ Christina Duncan
The Intentional Studio: 5 Strategies That Work
(pre-recorded)
w/ Michelle Loucadoux Fraser and Kristen Deiss
The Student Dance Summit: Developing and Showcasing Student Choreography
w/ Sandi Stratton Gonzalez, Omonike Akinyemi, Roy Fialkow and Sarah Billings Wheeler
The Anatomy of Choice: A Movement Framework
w/ Alexandra Beller
Engaging Families at Your Studio
w/ Liz Vacco
Move & Market: Dance Branding Essentials
w/ Tarayjah Hoey-Gordon
4:15pm - 4:45pm
Built to Scale: Structures for Studio Success
w/ Emily Gray
From Recital to Revenue: Building a Profitable Dance Studio
w/ Elizabeth Boehnlein
Closing Keynote:
Authentic Artistry in Dance Auditions, Performances and Beyond
Stephanie Klemons
Even more sessions to come...stay tuned!
9:45 am - 10:45 am
Strength Training: Technique and Injury Prevention w/ Olivia Lou Evers
Stronger Dancers, Safer Training: Implementing Strength Training in the Private Studio Sector
In recent years, strength training has become increasingly recognized as an essential component of growing a dancer’s technique, performance, and injury prevention. However, many studio teachers and studio owners are unsure how to incorporate strength training into their programs withouts sacrificing valuable class time or compromising artistic training.
This session will provide dance educators with the importance of strength training for dancers, practical studio-friendly strategies for integrating it into existing class structures, and actual exercises targeting specific technical elements to walk away with. These exercises with improve stability, alignment, and power while also protecting their bodies from injury with correct engagement and understanding of muscles and how they work. Creating stronger dancers now for long-term career of movement.
This session will explore common challenges such as limited time, space, and equipment. Educators will learn what classes they can add to their schedules or incorporating this training into their already packed scheduled classes. From recreational to competition dancers, strength training is beneficial for all.
Through discussion, demonstration, and practical examples, attendees will leave with a clear understanding of how strength training can support both technical development and injury prevention. Participants will also receive sample exercises to get them started on this path of improved strength and health for their studios.
Confronting the Sexualization of Girls w/ Jessie Levey
The sexualization of girls is increasingly problematic in the field of dance education, and can be seen in television shows, marketing, dance competitions, and other performances. This force is so powerful and influential that it blinds us to the point where many people do not even recognize girls as being sexualized. Normalizing the problem, however, does not make it normal, and this treatment of girls holds risks that we need to consider.
In this session, we focus on three central questions:
1. What constitutes sexualization?
2. Why is it so dangerous?
3. How can dance educators reject sexualizing their students and empower them with agency instead?
Participants will leave this workshop with a better understanding of sexualization and the potential risks it carries. Teachers will walk away with tangible tools to be used in the studio, which include:
1. Talking points for addressing this critical issue with students.
2. Teaching techniques proven to lower the risk of sexualized choreography.
3. Alternative music and costume choices.
Culture by Design: How Leadership Shapes Outcomes w/ Tiffany Prout-Leitao
Studio culture does not happen by accident. It is created through everyday leadership decisions, clear expectations, consistent communication, and the values modeled from the top down.
In this session, Tiffany Prout-Leitao shares practical strategies for building a studio environment where dancers feel safe, seen and secure, staff feel valued, and families feel supported and informed. From hiring and onboarding to boundaries, retention, conflict management, and student leadership directly impacts confidence, growth, loyalty and long-term success
This presentation is ideal for studio owners, directors, administrators, and educators who want to strengthen their culture while still maintaining high standards of care and strong results.
11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Training Young Dancers for More Than One Future w/ Loren Williams
Private studios often define success through performance outcomes such as casting, awards, and stage opportunities. However, today’s dancers enter training with diverse goals, timelines, and levels of commitment. This session explores how educators can design studio environments that prioritize process-based growth while still meeting performance-driven expectations. Drawing from the evolution of a pre-professional ballet program within a competitive studio setting, this presentation examines how structure, expectations, and leadership decisions shape training culture. Participants will consider how to support multiple student pathways without diluting rigor and how redefining success beyond performance outcomes can strengthen retention, engagement, and long-term participation in dance.
From the Inside Out: Dance, Wellness & SEL w/ Jessica Steinhart
Today's young dancers are managing anxiety, comparison culture, and social media pressure alongside their technique. This interactive discussion offers studio educators tangible, ready-to-use tools for building emotionally intelligent classrooms. Drawing from certifications in Mindful Education and Children's Yoga and over two decades of studio and independent school teaching, we'll explore mirror affirmations, calm corners, peer compliment practices, small group choreography, and SEL-informed class structures as well as practical strategies that build self-trust, community bonds, and brave creative spaces. Dancers who feel safe take more risks, grow faster, and perform from a place of joy rather than fear.
Are You Really More Than Dance? w/ Chasta Hamilton
“More than dance” has become a comfortable slogan in private studios, but for many, it’s just that: a slogan. This session confronts a critical question: are you actually producing confident, capable, self-aware humans, or simply marketing that idea? If your systems, curriculum, and culture don’t reflect it, your messaging isn’t the truth. It’s performative branding. Participants will examine the gap between what studios claim and what they actually build, and learn how to intentionally design training that develops executive functioning, leadership, authenticity, and wellness without lowering standards. When we align our practices with our intent, dance, and the humans it shapes, becomes stronger.
30 Minute Paper Presentations
Protecting Joy: Honoring the Dancer Experience w/ Terrell Lefferts
Private studios are often a dancer’s most influential experience with identity and belonging. Yet, alongside technical growth, many students struggle with anxiety and comparison that can shadow their long-term love for the art. This session explores how everyday practices and leadership decisions influence not only technical growth, but also emotional well-being, retention, and lifelong engagement in dance.
Drawing on decades of experience as a dance teacher, parent, author, and advocate, this session invites educators to reconsider common systems and assumptions—from placement and competition culture to language, storytelling, and expectations—in order to best support the whole dancer through every stage.
Participants will leave with practical strategies to • Reinforce joy, resilience, and intrinsic motivation • Foster environments that balance excellence with humanity • Reduce harmful comparison and identity disruption • Support multiple pathways in dance (professional, recreational, career-adjacent, lifelong) • Build studio cultures that sustain both dancers and communities
Friend or Foe? Online Education in the Digital Age w/ Caitlin Trainor
How is the digital space influencing dance education, and how can online learning support studios? What value can be found in longer form content, and how can this content be used to improve outcomes, student retention, and teacher satisfaction? In this session, founder and educator Caitlin Trainor discusses how the online dance space has changed in the past decade, the most successful case stories of use of online learning for studios and directors, and how studios and directors can broaden their expertise while improving student outcomes amidst increasingly busy schedules. The digital space isn’t what it was during Covid: here we discuss how online learning enhances real world education beyond the flash of the latest 15 second clip.
Participants will be asked about their experiences with online dance and how they imagine the future of online learning.
12:15 pm - 1:15 pm
Sponsored Session - Coming Soon
1:15pm - 2:15pm
Boundaries & Burnout in Dance Studios w/ Anna Rose
Studio owners and teachers are often the emotional and operational backbone of their communities—but at what cost? This session explores the realities of burnout in the dance studio setting and how a lack of boundaries impacts leadership, culture, and longevity. Drawing from nearly a decade of studio ownership, this session will offer practical strategies for setting sustainable boundaries with students, parents, and staff, while maintaining a supportive and high-quality environment. Participants will reflect on their own practices, identify areas of imbalance, and leave with actionable tools to protect their energy, strengthen leadership, and build a more sustainable studio model.
Why Your Studio Needs a Tap Company w/ Lisa Swenton-Eppard
Repertory-based tap dance ensembles offer studio owners a powerful way to elevate both artistry and community, and this session will show you exactly how to make it happen. Designed for directors and teachers working with youth and/or adult dancers, this class dives deep into the impact of building an in-house ensemble rooted in shared repertory and collective ownership of the art form.
We'll move through each topic together as a group, with dedicated discussion time followed by open Q&A so you can ask questions, share what's working in your own studio, and leave with answers that are specific to your situation.
What we'll cover
Building confidence through performance readiness. When dancers work toward mastering a shared piece of repertory over time, something shifts. They stop performing for approval and start performing from a place of genuine ownership. We'll discuss how the repetition and depth that come with repertory work, as opposed to recital-style preparation, build the kind of stage confidence that carries into every other aspect of a dancer's training. After our discussion, we'll open the floor for Q&A on how to set benchmarks and milestones that keep dancers motivated without burning them out.
Peer-to-peer learning and studio culture. Ensembles create a natural environment where more experienced dancers teach and support newer ones. This isn't just good for the younger or less advanced dancers. It deepens the understanding of the senior dancers and builds leadership skills you can't teach in a solo technique class. We'll talk through how to structure rehearsals so this kind of mentorship happens organically, then take questions on managing group dynamics and mixed-level casts.
Performance opportunities and revenue. A well-established ensemble opens doors that a standard recital program simply can't. We'll examine the landscape of local performance opportunities, including community festivals, corporate events, paid gigs, and cultural showcases, and talk about how to position your ensemble to get booked. We'll also look at how visibility in your community directly feeds studio enrollment. Q&A will focus on how to price performances, handle contracts, and build relationships with local venues and organizations.
Structuring rehearsals and selecting repertory. One of the most common questions studio owners have is where to start: what repertory do you choose, and how do you build a rehearsal structure around it? We'll cover repertory selection criteria, like accessibility, artistic integrity, stylistic range, etc., and walk through a sample rehearsal arc from first learning to performance-ready. This section's Q&A will give you space to troubleshoot your specific scheduling constraints and ensemble size.
Retention, sustainability, and lasting connections. The studios that see the biggest long-term impact from ensemble programs are the ones that treat them as a permanent part of the culture, not a seasonal add-on. We'll discuss how ensemble membership drives retention by giving dancers a reason to stay, a community to belong to, and goals that extend beyond the recital calendar. We'll close with a broader Q&A where you can ask anything we haven't covered, from parent communication to budgeting to how to introduce the concept to your current faculty.
Walk away from this session with a clear, practical framework for launching or strengthening a repertory ensemble program, one that deepens training, generates income, and creates the kind of lasting connections that keep dancers in your studio for years.
Meeting Them Where They Are w/ Candis Alston-Davis
In this session, fellow educators and studio owners are invited into an honest, practical, and deeply personal conversation about what student-centered studio culture actually looks like in practice. I will challenges participants to examine not just how they teach, but who they are teaching and why it matters.
The session weaves together two urgent realities facing today's dance educators. First, that students arrive at our studios with vastly different goals — some headed to BFA programs, some to commercial careers, some to community dance, and some simply moving their bodies for joy and that all of these pathways deserve equally rigorous, equally affirming instruction. Second, that today's young dancers are navigating a socio-emotional landscape unlike any previous generation shaped by social media comparison, approval-based worthiness, shortened attention spans, and heightened anxiety and that dance educators are uniquely positioned to respond with both compassion and structure. Not only are these topics a cornerstone of teaching dancers in this highly competitive atmosphere, but they go hand in hand.
Through interactive discussion, real classroom scenarios, and reflective practice, participants will leave with concrete tools to differentiate instruction without lowering standards, to build studio environments where every student feels seen and challenged and to develop a personal pedagogy that actually matches their practice.
Studio Safety: Bringing HRO Culture to Dance w/ Kristen Stevens and Lauren McIntyre
Dance studio owners are responsible for the health and safety of minors as well as teachers and other adults in a multitude of settings. Yet potential barriers such as funding, structural limitations, and dance culture “norms” can result in little to no guidance for safety planning and emergency response. How can studio owners, dance educators, and administrators shift from “Oh, crap!” (reactive) to “If_, then_” (proactive) policies and plans?
Starting from a High Reliability Organization (HRO) healthcare perspective, leaders of this workshop will review primary and secondary risk reduction in the context of a biopsychosocial lens; emergency response; injury and concussion management plans; medical collaboration; self-advocacy; and more.
Together we will workshop concerns specific to participants and ways that we might apply these strategies in our studio settings and teaching practices. We will also unpack psychological and social considerations around safety and emergency response in dance communities.
If you have ever found yourself navigating an injured student, teaching alone in an unlocked studio late at night, coping with a student in a mental health crisis, or any other situation that presents a potential emergency, safety, or litigation risk to you or your students, this talk will provide crucial guidance on the resources that will support best practices.
Home in Hip-Hop or Renting Space? w/ Neo Lynch
Hip-hop is one of the most frequently taught and requested forms in private studios, especially within competition settings where studios are constantly responding to trends, judging expectations, social media choreography, and what is currently scoring well. Yet despite its popularity, hip-hop is often one of the most misunderstood forms being taught.
Too often, studio hip-hop classes prioritize choreography, tricks, visual polish, competition scores, or viral movement trends without helping dancers understand the culture, history, values, and communities that shaped the form. Drawing on the presenter’s research around colorblind and color-conscious approaches to hip-hop choreography, this session examines how many studios unintentionally create “rented spaces” for hip-hop—spaces where aesthetics are borrowed, repackaged, and detached from their cultural roots—rather than true homes where hip-hop culture can be respected and supported.
This session is designed specifically for studio owners, competition directors, and teachers who want to remain current and competitive without blindly following trends. Participants will explore how to work within popular commercial and competition aesthetics while still honoring lineage, musicality, groove, individuality, and the cultural values of hip-hop.
Topics will include understanding hip-hop as a culture rather than simply a dance style, identifying common missteps in competition studio settings, and recognizing how social media can influence both positive exposure and harmful oversimplification. The session will also offer guidance on what to look for when hiring hip-hop teachers, including the importance of cultural knowledge, musical understanding, freestyle ability, and respect for lineage, not just the ability to teach fast choreography or recreate trending combinations.
Participants will also discuss practical ways studios can support hip-hop culture even if leadership does not come from hip-hop backgrounds. This may include inviting guest artists, incorporating cyphers and freestyle, crediting regional styles and creators, teaching music and cultural context alongside choreography, and building stronger relationships with the communities and histories that shaped the form.
Through discussion, reflection, and practical examples, attendees will leave with tools to create hip-hop programs that are both relevant and responsible, helping studios stay current, competitive, and connected to the culture rather than simply chasing trends.
Navigating Socio-Emotional Needs of Young Dancers w/ Cassidy Svercauski
Youth dance educators typically see their students once a week for one hour. As dance educators, we pride ourselves on bringing joy and movement into the lives of young dancers, but nothing is more frustrating than spending the majority of class managing emotions, disciplining children, and helping them change into tap shoes—especially when parents are paying for their children to dance and expect tutus and smiles onstage at a spring recital.
The nature vs. nurture debate is an age-old theory that presents itself in every child’s behavior, attitude, and personality. So, how can we, as dance educators, recognize our students’ nature and effectively nurture them into creative, independent, and disciplined dancers in just one hour a week? Effectively managing diverse needs by focusing on how we nurture our dancers is key to creating a successful dance class—one in which young dancers feel safe to explore, play, and learn.
2:30-3:00pm
Lunch Break
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Tap Dance as a Vehicle for Navigating Change w/ Andrew Nemr
Our students are experiencing change all the time. Physical, mental, emotional, and social change is constant for a growing dancer. Some experience it more dramatically than others, but it is always there. As a trusted person in our students' lives, what if we could offer them tools to navigate change while fulfilling our classroom responsibilities? Based on material found in The Tap Dance Method, by Andrew Nemr, the session will present a specific framework that dance educators can apply immediately in their lesson planning and classroom activities to in-directly give their students the confidence to navigate change inside and outside the studio. We will use tap dance as the example form, but the framework may be applied with other dance forms, as well. When applied, students will think they are just learning how to dance while actually learning the life skill of navigating change.
Make the World Move: Leading with Impact w/ Christina Duncan
Studio culture is not built by accident. It is shaped by the leadership decisions dance educators make every day, from how they set expectations to how they create safety, inspire growth, and define success. In a time when students are navigating increasing social, emotional, and developmental challenges, dance educators have an opportunity to lead beyond technique and shape spaces that truly transform lives. This experiential workshop explores how leadership can balance excellence with empathy to create studio cultures where students feel both challenged and deeply supported. Through interactive reflection, practical leadership tools, and real time engagement, participants will examine how their decisions influence confidence, connection, and outcomes, while learning how process and performance can coexist in today’s evolving dance landscape. Grounded in a proven leadership framework, this session equips educators to strengthen culture, expand impact, and make the world move by shaping the next generation through leadership that lasts.
The Intentional Studio: 5 Strategies That Work (pre-recorded) w/ Michelle Loucadoux Fraser and Kristen Deiss
Transform your studio from the inside out. Dance educators have the power to create a lasting, positive culture, but it requires intentional action. After all, you’re already shaping dancers with every decision, so be sure to make them count. Join Danscend to discover why your leadership choices matter and get 5 tangible strategies for fostering an environment where every student thrives.
Bridging the Gap: The Competitive/The Exploratory w/ Donielle Bailery Horst
As our population ages, more people are living with and acquiring disabilities. Neurocognitive disorders like Alzheimer’s Disease and other dementias affect movement, cognition, and daily functioning, often leading to physical and cognitive disabilities. Older adults, particularly those with dementia, are also at higher risk of social isolation and falls, which limit wellbeing and increase risk for adverse health outcomes. Dance uniquely integrates movement and social connection, and supports balance, mobility, cognition, and quality of life. This talk explores how dance educators can create inclusive and accessible spaces that empower older adults, particularly those with disabilities, to keep moving, connecting, and exploring their creativity.
The Student Dance Summit: Developing and Showcasing Student Choreography w/ Sandi Stratton Gonzalez, Omonike Akinyemi, Roy Fialkow and Sarah Billings Wheeler
Founded by members of the NYS Dance Education Association, the The Hudson Valley Dance Cultivators Collective seeks to nurture the next generation of dancers and dance makers by expanding dance education and performance opportunities for children and teens in the Hudson Valley. The Dance Cultivator’s flagship project is the annual Student Dance Summit, a full day of dance for children and teens ages 8-18 that includes master classes, a community dance making experience, a performance of work by student choreographers, and a talk-back with the artists. Our most recent summit, in March of 2026 at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park, featured work by 12 young choreographers representing 8 dance studios and schools. In addition the show included the premiere of Friendship Dances, created by participants at the Summit! 2026 Master Classes were taught by Steve Rooks (contemporary), Toni Llanas (Caribbean), Hillary Jackson (Ballet), Walter ‘Sundance’ Freeman (Rhythm Tap), and Sarah Wheeler (Swing Dance).
The session will open with a short video of students in performance. Panelists will then share the process behind creating the Student Dance Summit (SDS), addressing the follow questions:
鈼� What are the goals of the SDS? What needs does the Summit address? 鈼� How is the SDS organized? 鈼� What outreach takes place? 鈼� How is the SDS funded? 鈼� How are youth choreographers selected, and what support are they provided? 鈼� How is the Community Dance making session structured? There will be time for questions and discussion following the panel presentation.
4:15 pm - 5:15 pm
The Anatomy of Choice: A Movement Framework for Bu w/ Alexandra Beller
Studio teachers face a persistent challenge: how do we move students—and ourselves—beyond aesthetic imitation toward distinctive, evocative movement invention? Whether creating competition solos, recital pieces, or developing original vocabulary in class, the pressure to replicate trending styles often overrides the cultivation of personal artistic voice.
This session introduces practical choreographic tasks and scores drawn from Laban Movement Analysis that help dancers generate movement rooted in sensation, image, and individual curiosity rather than external models. Participants will experience methods for building creative agency in teen choreographers while also gaining tools to refresh their own choreographic process. We'll work with prompts that produce specificity, not stylistic conformity—useful for solo competition work, group choreography, and improvisational exploration in technique class. Bring your questions about teaching choice-making, developing expressive range, and fostering choreographic independence across different studio contexts.
What I Wish My Teachers Had Taught Me w/ Cassidy Bastiaensen
This session explores the gap between traditional dance training and the realities of the professional industry. From what I wish I had learned earlier, as I transitioned from college into professional work, and now into teaching across multiple studios while traveling extensively with competitions and conventions through Jo+Jax. These experiences have given me a real-time perspective on what dancers are missing, what is being rewarded, and how expectations continue to shift.
I will explore how educators are navigating challenges traditional models did not prepare us for, such as social media influence, rapid trend cycles, shortened attention spans, and the demand for versatility, while also reflecting on what may be overlooked in established practices. Attendees will gain practical tools for strengthening technique, developing adaptable and artistically aware dancers, and creating studio environments that prepare dancers not just to win, but to work, adapt, and sustain long-term careers.
Engaging Families at Your Studio w/ Liz Vacco
In this session, participants will engage in activities and conversation about ways to build active and positive participation from the families at their studios. The centerpiece of the session will be interactive movement activities from Liz’s Family Style class, which happens monthly and is popular with families with kids from ages 2-12. Additionally, participants will have time to consider and discuss ways to strengthen engagement with the families from their studios, walking away from the session with ideas to put into practice.
Move & Market: Dance Branding Essentials w/ Tarayjah Hoey-Gordon
In this dynamic and interactive workshop, artists will explore the intersection of dance movement and personal/professional branding. Participants will gain the tools and insights needed to create a distinct and compelling brand kit that resonates in the professional industry. We will be using Canva software to complete the task.
Key Outcomes
Join us for an inspiring session that empowers you to articulate and express your movement brand with confidence and clarity.
Built to Scale: Structures for Studio Success w/ Emily Gray
What happens at your studio when you are not in the room? Many owners build reactively, layering solutions year over year until the program cannot function without the founder at its center. Drawing on doctoral research examining success factors in dance education businesses and nearly two decades founding, scaling, and directing multiple programs across schools and studios, this session presents a five-domain framework for building studios whose structures outlast any single owner: documented curriculum and pedagogy, faculty development systems, financial infrastructure, transferable brand equity, and intentional owner role design. Participants diagnose their own program against each domain, identify where founder-dependency currently lives, and leave with a self-assessment tool and one prioritized ninety-day action. The framework is research-grounded, tested across multiple builds, and designed for studios at any stage.
4:45pm - 5:15pm
From Recital to Revenue: Building a Profitable Dance Studio w/ Elizabeth Boehnlein
My session, “From Recital to Revenue: Building a Profitable Dance Studio That Runs Without You,” walks studio owners through a clear framework to:
The session is highly practical, with real numbers, examples, and implementation steps studio owners can use immediately.
5:30 pm - 6:00 pm
Keynote Address w/ Stephanie Klemons