The Truth About Dance Comp Teams: What's Working (and What's Not) In Your Studio

Hello, friends. I'm Amanda Barr.

And I'm Rebecca Lou Brennan. And welcome to Dance Principles United, the podcast.

Together, we are passionate about helping studio owners with the business of running their studio.

Join us as we talk everything from marketing systems, studio culture, motherhood, life, and everything in between.

This is the Dance Principles United podcast.

Hey, friends, and welcome to the Dance Princip People's United Podcast. Hello, lovely Beck.

How you doing? Great. I feel like we're having too much fun today.

We've had a ball.

We are still having a ball.

We always have a ball. I love podcasting with you. It's my favorite thing.

It is, actually.

It is so much fun.

Yep.

I wanted to talk. It's like that time of the year. Wait a second. Let's hold up, because I haven't had a chance. Wait a minute. We haven't had a chance to, like, get some updates. What is going on in your life? We've been interviewing people. Update me. What's going on?

Oh, what is it?

Musical Last weekend on.

We had musical last weekend which was amazing.

What did you do?

What did we do? Frozen. God, I couldn't remember.

I knew what it was, but, you.

Know, there's a lot happening.

We did Frozen Junior.

Is it Junior Last week.

So cute.

It was so good. We have two casts. It's a lot of kids. Maybe like 80. Yeah.

So about two casts of 40 sort of thing.

No, we just do like, there's two casts of 80, but each child has a different role. So BB for example, in one was Anna.

Yes.

But then in the other cast is just a cast dancer, singer kind of thing. So they.

To give different.

Just to try and give as many kids an opportunity to sing or talk.

So everyone's in the. The two shows, but they just play different.

So we have two different Annas, two different Elsa's, two different Olafs, two different Svens. Yeah. It's good.

I love that.

Yeah.

I just want to be a Sven. I'm sorry. I just want to go back to that.

Can I be really honest with you about that? So I don't teach musical, and we've done this for a long time now, so I don't want people to think that things just magically happen because that is not the case. But this is our fourth musical, I think. Third or fourth, I can't remember. Anyway, I didn't teach it. I didn't organize the props. I didn't organize the costumes. I had never seen the musical until I turned up on the day and watched it.

Did you get in the audience or.

Did you sat in the audience for both.

You said that you didn't even run it from side stage.

No. And I did not go to the rehearsal because the girls said to me, and I'm very proud of my team, we don't need you at rehearsal. In other words, you're going to be actually a pain in the ass.

Please don't come to rehearsal. Opinions. Yeah.

And I. And I loved it. I actually. It's probably the first experience of me with Bibi where I actually. And you would understand this now, but I've never ever had that experience with my child where I haven't seen any of the journey, haven't been a part of the planning, haven't been a part of. Of anything. And obviously there's been a lot of staff training that's gone into that. You know, run it. Who have been with me for 16 years and know about critical parts and know about all of the things. But I was just like, wow, that is just.

And you got to be a mum.

And I got to be a mum. And it was a really special day. And of course, I stayed for the second cast and watched them as well. And Josh was fan in it and I love that.

So it was. It was. Anyway, it was really cool. What else is happening? I've got seven concerts coming up next weekend. I actually have this weekend off and I'm actually having time to do this. I'm actually thinking about just going away for a night just to get away from the noise.

Okay.

Anyway. Because we've had so many weekends in a row, like tree lighting. All right. So I haven't really had time. And then I've got seven concerts the weekend after that. And then I've got our troop concert on the Thursday after that. And then we've got.

We haven't talked about that on the podcast. We'll have to do one a debrief.

Afterwards because that's debrief. Much fun. Yeah. And then one more week of classes and then we're done.

Crazy. And then it's Christmas and all of that kind of stuff.

Yes.

Nuts. Right. I just got Bay. Wow. Well. Well, we're in Fiji last week. Came back for a day. Went to Harvey Bay for, I don't know, three days, but it felt like about 28. I don't know why. I had a few. Not. Not in a bad way. Just, you know, I had a few problems in the flight on the way home and was on standby and all this sort of shit. Had the Most.

You like, 15 hours to get home at least. Maybe more. Crazy. That's crazy.

Maybe like 16 or 17. It's not. And it shouldn't be that far.

No, it's not that far. There was a cyclone, though, so.

Cyclone. But they didn't say that was the reason for the problem.

Yeah, but there was probably delays the day before that.

Yeah, but they said the delays were in Canberra. Anyway, off topic, who the knows? But I had the most incredible day with Candace and Brad from the League Studios. Right. And Beck and I, we're really talking about this for the first time. I haven't actually had a chance to update her, probably. They won our open week competition inside our studio, Growth Club members, where they got like a VIP day. And so I spent, you know, seven or so hours in their studio with them, with the two owners, and their manager was in for some of it as well.

That should probably be a podcast as well.

Should, absolutely. And it was so incredible. We got to do 20, 26 planning. We got to, like, you know, really set some great goals. You know, we did things like we changed up, you know, some of their comp teams and the structure of a few things with their classes. You know, there was a whole heap of amazing. It was so much fun. I love doing it. I had so much fun doing it.

I love that.

And they're just lovely people.

They are beautiful people. Yes.

It was so, so nice.

Speaking of comp teams.

Absolutely.

That is literally what we're talking about today.

That's a nice little segue that was.

We planned that segue.

So we play into that segue. I always want to say, Sugui.

I listen to another podcast and they always say that, and I just. Now it's become like, my word that I really use. Yeah. Anyway, but that was a great segue because we want to talk about comp teams because it's that time of the year that a lot of us are, you know, we're doing re enrollments and we're talking about how do our comp teams work for next year. Some of you probably have already made the decision, but we kind of wanted to talk about pros and cons and how we've both done it in the past, how you're doing it currently. You know, is it auditions? Is it invitations? Is it, you know, a minimum number of classes? Is it free for all? Like, there's so many different options.

Right. So many. And I don't know that my answers are correct, but I'm gonna give you what I do and tell you the whole thing. When Amanda was Just chatting about us doing this. I said, yep, I'm gonna be totally raw and honest about this because I feel like it's. The comp world is changing so much and so quickly. Yep. That it is. I'm. I'm grasping at straws right now to decide what is best to move forward and how to move forward. And I know that a lot of our studio owners are doing the same. I was actually talking this morning to Chloe and Kiralee about this exact thing and they're unsure what to do and how to do all the things.

So because the level has just increased in comps.

Such a small period of.

Time, it is so out of control. Like it is.

The talent is amazing.

Well, it's. Yeah, I don't know about talent. I'm gonna be honest. I feel like it is how much we are training the kids at such a young age. It's like it's the insane amount of hours these kids are doing as well as how crazily they are being trained that the level is just insanity. But you have to do that to keep up with the level. It's like. Yeah, it's a vicious circle.

It absolutely is. So how have you. You and I have always differed in how we. Like, let's not. Before we talk about how you're doing it next year.

You start with how you.

Okay. So I have always done invitation only to comp teams.

Right.

We had a very large recreational program. So it was a little bit different to. You always did invitation only. I didn't do an audition as such because I feel like that sets kids up for failure.

Agree.

And let's be honest, you know, the kids, you don't need to. It's not a 20 minute audition. It's the whole year worth of watching them.

Right, right.

So.

Invited kids into our comp teams.

After and that's how we always kind of worked. We also had minimum number, minimum requirements that they had to do to be in the comp teams, which towards the end were quite high, like very high. And that really worked well for us. What we did do after a long time, maybe after 10 years or 15, like we probably did this about maybe six or seven years ago. Let's go back to that.

Was we started like a. Now I don't want to say a B level team, but you know, a development kind of.

I didn't know you did this.

We called it performance team.

Right, Right.

And so it was a performance team. So we had our, our troop teams and then our performance team. So we've had those for years and years and years. And that was a really great, like introduction. So we'd put them in that first quite often. It had. And we also talked about it, that it wasn't always as such a. About their level, that they weren't as good, but sometimes that it was that they were prepared to have a lower level of commitment because they were a soccer player or because they were a netball player. So, you know, our trip kids had to do like, for example, eight classes a week and they only had to do three. And so that worked really well for some kids who also wanted to play comp net ball or do anything.

I've got questions. Yeah. Did the performance team do computer?

Yes. But we never let them compete at the same comps, which was a lot of work.

Yeah, that's, that's and 100.

So they did different comps so that they weren't competing against each other. And the problem with that was, you know, we, we obviously tried to find them the inverted commas, easier comps. But sometimes you don't know what the. These.

There is no easy comp anymore.

There isn't an easy comp.

I do not exist.

But sometimes the way it would fall as well, you know, we do on the week, you know, if they were two weekends back, would have the troops in one and then the performance team in the next one were like, last week's comp was so much easier and we had our better kids in it and it was like the wrong way around. You can't choose because you didn't know.

You don't know what amazing school's gonna enter any.

Absolutely. And you know, for us being a bit down the coast, we'd be like, oh, we'll just go a bit further down the coast and it's a bit right. You know, it's not as competitive. It's not. There's not as many studios. Not always the way. You'd have these incredible high level Sydney ones come for a day trip down and you know, you never knew. Right.

And that was the hard thing. But it was a good experience for the kids and it gave them kind of a stepping stone from rec. So there was like three levels. We had rec, performance team, comp teams.

Right.

Always did invitation only. That's all we did. What did you do? Always?

We always did. Everybody could be a part of the competitive team, like every single person and.

Which blows my mind.

Yeah, I know.

Be honest. Yeah, blows my mind.

Yeah. And we did. They only had to do a technique class at first. I didn't do that actually, when I first had the studio, I had a whole heap of things I had to do. But then I found that my comp teams, especially with the younger levels, were quite small. So then I changed it up so that everyone just had to do technique. But then I found that kids did extra stuff anyway. So I think with that, it worked really well for us. But we also. I want to sound arrogant, but we had a very high level of training. And we still do.

Absolutely. Because I'm very much a big believer in that. That great teachers like. It's not actually about what the kids are capable of. It's about the teaching, the technique, the choreography, all of those things.

And 10 years ago, I don't think it was as high a standard as it is now, by any means. And Also.

When there's 34 to 40 kids on stage, you can be smart about your choreography and have those kids that aren't as good doing more simple things and not. Not showcase them. But obviously you're not going to have them doing any hard tech stuff, and you can showcase your sections and, you.

Know, choreography blocks and stuff like that.

So we did that pretty successfully for quite a few years, actually.

Yeah, absolutely. And you have huge groups like you.

Huge, massive.

Like in your six and under group. I saw them recently. What is it, like 4,000 of them?

Well, two years ago. Yes.

Yes. Two years ago I would have seen them. Sorry. That's when I came to the.

Yeah, we would have had 42 in that group that you saw two years ago. Now we've divvied up into a four, fives and sixes. We still have 25 in each group, but we.

There's three different age groups.

We've just done that because it was getting too big. Like this year, I had, for example, 57 kids enroll in six and under. Jazz. I can't put 57 children on stage at once. So we. That's why we.

So could I just ask on that? I know this isn't the point. So you have, like, fives and sixes. They compete against each other in six and unders, Correct? Yeah.

Well, all three competed against each other quite often.

There wouldn't be a four and under section.

Not very often at all.

No. So quite often it would be four, five sixes, three different routines with three different sets of kids. Any kids that went across them?

No, never.

Never.

It is age. As of 1st of January, the end, we never let anybody dance up in any age group except for teens. Okay, we'll let some of our 12s go. Into 14s and we'll let some of our 14s go into senior because I think by that age they can handle doing the extra groups. But our sixers this year did hip hop, ballet, jazz, tap and lyrical intercourse.

Okay, so you had.

So they're going to a comp and doing five routines.

Yeah. So you can't ask them to do the fives, five dances and the sixes. Five dances?

Well, I could, but I think no, it's ridiculous. Yeah, it's a bit.

Absolutely. Okay, so you've done that successfully. You've always just let anyone else in. Tell me what. What does that look like when you get like, you know, it's one thing for sixers, right. To let any sixes in. What about the 12 year olds that you have start? Who isn't great? We've all been that. Do you let her in?

Yep.

Even into your competitive 12 group?

Yep.

What about the 14 year old?

Yep.

Really? That blows my mind. That so shocks me. You should see my face right now. I'm like, really? You really let her in.

But Amanda, when you, like, I think you're thinking about a group of 15 kids where it's very obvious and when that child's in there. But when you have a group of 30 kids, I just don't think it's that obvious.

Like, we were very successful with that.

Oh, yeah, I know. I've seen your group. So, like, they're incredible. Yeah. Just. Yeah, it blows my mind.

And that's the thing. You would have seen those groups too.

And I didn't realize.

And we crushed it at that comp that you were at. And you would not have realized that there were kids in there that has. Yeah.

Politely say that as technically great, right?

100%. But.

But you made a change this year. So let's talk about that. You've made a pivot.

Whether it was the right pivot or not, I don't know. But we have made a pivot because I think our soloists. We've got. God. Well, we just did re enrollment day and 140 kids enrolled in a solo.

Me. It's a lot of soloists.

Is that.

And some of them do too. Too, right?

Yes. But does that blow your mind?

It's a lot of soloists. Yeah.

Anyway, so we've had 140 kids enrolling solos. And because our soloists are training so hard and probably have been for the last two or three years, I have to say, starting to split too much. And last year, for example, our tens, who were an incredible group, there was probably four or five of them in tens that I was. You are nowhere near the level of the others. Like, I'm not saying every kid in there is a soloist. That's not the case at all. But. And then those tens didn't do as well as I thought they should have. So now I'm getting to a point where my elite kids don't want to be with those kids. And not in an awful way, but they feel like why should we have to keep going over things when they are the ones we're going over? And then those kids are probably feeling bad because they know they're not as good as the other kids and it's.

Not as enjoyable for them.

And so for me, I was like, this isn't fair to anyone. But we'd had kids that in that tens, for example, who had been with us since they were two with all these other kids who had always done comp. So my idea was to do tribe and company. And tribe was still a comp.

Yeah. Class my performance team or whatever. Yep.

And then company was. But company was our higher level kids and then tribe was our not so high level kids. And I thought it was a really positive experience for the tribe kids because, okay, we put them in the same comps because I'm not going to be bothered with going to different comps. And also, to be completely honest, I have too big an ego with paws to then put them into a separate comp.

That's always the thing. And people see them and go, oh, that's what this studio is like, capable of.

And I think it's hard for me being who I am now with the coaching, like in dance principles united to then be.

That's just real.

Yeah. So anyway, that's my ego right there, guys, as you can all hear. So then.

No, I've got to be honest with that. That absolutely killed me when I'd go to comps and I didn't want to be rude and go, oh, these are just our b kids. But there'd be studio owners. I'd be like, oh, my God, this isn't actually what we're capable of.

These are just.

And we'd only have like, you know, three performance, you know, routines. And then normally we'd have, you know, 45 troops or whatever in the other comp. I'm like, oh, this is just. Yeah, it's hard. Right.

And as you said, like, it's not even that I'm not proud of those kids. Those kids still are achieving amazing things with doing what they're doing. But it's just different level. Yeah. So then for me, okay, the tribe, I mean, we did had a really great year with comp. I'm going to be honest and say we really crushed it this year and placed first, second or third in pretty much everything we did, which is amazing. Very proud of our team and all the things the tribe kids didn't place right or they very rarely placed or they'd get a highly commended or whatever it was.

So. But you felt it was positive for them regardless because they would shine 100.

And like the kid who would never ever get a special part was doing a mount or a back walkover and.

Before they were hidden at the back, basically.

So for me, I was like, this is amazing.

It doesn't matter that they're not placing.

They're to going like, yeah, parents did not feel like that. Some did. Yeah. And probably parents who hadn't been in the comp teams the rest of the time and who hadn't been so much a part of that were the ones that were like, this is the most amazing thing. Thank you. We're so grateful our child's having the best time. We don't ever make it about winning either when we're at comp. Like, even when our comp kids win, we never go, yay, you won. We're always like, yeah, you did a great job off stage. So even if they come up to me and go, we got first, I'm like, great job. Move on. Yeah. Like, so we're very clear on that. But they still clearly felt at the tribe kids, so they were not happy about it. And I had parents at re enrollment crying, oh, God. That their child had not been given an invitation to go up into company.

Okay. So they were in the tribe which was the b and then they were hoping for an invitation up. So now it's just invitation only. It's not let's take anyone. It's invitation only into company. Into company. But you still have the tribe.

No, I'm changing it next year. So I'm doing tribe classes and then I'm doing a development program where they're going to learn one troop. And so we've invited the tribe kids into the development program where they'll do a technique class and then a troop class and trying to change it up. So as I said to you, I don't have all the answers, but I think that's okay.

To be real.

Yes. But what I can tell you is it is by far the best thing for my company kids. It has also boosted my private Lessons as you can hear, out of control. Because everybody wants a private so that they're now in company. So do they have to.

They don't have to have a private to be in company?

No, definitely don't have to have a private. But they all want a private because they want the opportunity to be in company. So that's gone crazy.

And so you've had some hard moments with kids that you probably adore that haven't been invited because they're not at the standard.

Correct.

Do you think you're going to lose clients over it?

No, because I offered so two of the tens, for example. And I had this parent meeting last night. So I said to them, one, I'm not here to set your child up to fail, and I don't want to do that.

Y.

My suggestion is we have an assistant teacher, Jordan, who's working with Locky, who's teaching that class. Book a private lesson with Jordan and just work on the choreography. But also, let's stay in touch with each other and make sure that those children are actually cope because I. I genuinely do care about the child.

Oh, I know.

And I genuinely do care that I don't want them to be in that group because one of these mums was like, I need her confidence built in. Her confidence isn't built being in tribe. And I'm like, yes, but her confidence also will not be built. Yes. Actually her confidence is being built in tribe because she's very featured and sent in front of.

It's probably your confidence. It's not. It's your ego as the mom 100.

But then I'm like, okay, let's try this as a stepping stone and see what happens.

So wait, just so I'm clear and sorry if I missed this. This kid you've put her in, but she has to have privates to make sure she's up to scratch. Is that right? Or you put it with the choreography. With the choreography, yeah.

So the assistant teacher in there is take her for a private lesson just.

To go over the choreography to make sure. And you're going to stay in touch just to check that she's doing okay on it. I love that you've taken the time and the care to rather than just go, oh, look, you're not invited. Sorry. And then being too scared to answer the phone. Being too scared. Because I feel like that's a lot of studio owners, right?

Yeah.

You send out like comp team invitations or audition notice or whatever and then be like, oh, that mum's gonna be mad. At me. So I'm just gonna hide from her. You've obviously had a meeting and, like, worked it out with her and worked on saying, that's a good solution for both of you.

And I'm really big on that. And on VIP enrollment day, she was really in my face about it. Like, not aggressive, but just very passionate about her child. And I just. And there's a massive line of people as well behind her. And so I just said to her, this is a bigger conversation than today, and I don't feel like I can answer all of your questions right now. So let's have a meeting next week when you and I can actually sit down properly, because I also wasn't clear on a solution, and I said that to her yesterday. I said I'm. I was shutting you down at that time because I didn't have a solution yet.

Yes.

And I don't want to try and come up with this quick.

Yeah, you don't want to just make it. You want to think about it and do what's best for the child and for the studio and for the other children in the group. I love that. It is, like, it's such a journey, and I think we all have to evolve our studios and make. So you're making big changes, like 20, 18, three. I don't know how many years you value studio. 22. 23 years in 22. Yep. Which I think so impressive. And sometimes we just got to do that, and there's not always a right or wrong answer. It's just about making decision and. And moving forward with it.

It's constantly evolving. And so with our four fives and sixes, we don't invite. We just tell everyone they're in four fives and sixes. True.

Okay.

So when they leave preschool, we just say to them, you go into comp. We don't give them another option. There is other options. We have. We have three days of rec. Kindy to year two. Three days.

Okay.

So it's not like there's no other options, but we just say to them, great, you're graduating preschool. Now you go into fours, fives or six, because fours. Sometimes kids start school at four. Right. So you just go into that. And they do four comps a year, and they.

So how do you word that? You don't say you're now a comp kid. You just say, hey, cool. So now. Now four and a team, they do four comps a year.

Yep.

Yep.

They purchase one costume. Yep.

Don't have anything the whole year.

And, you know It's a great experience for them. The end.

I love that because when we sign up for soccer, right, we don't go.

Oh, do they do comp?

Are they playing in a team? I thought, we'll just come into training. Like, if they don't know that, like, it's just what's expected.

Correct.

So you just go, hey, awesome. So now you're doing a couple of comps a year. This is what's happening. Plus our end of year and mid year concerts. That's. Yeah, I love it.

Correct. So we. That's why we have. Well, we actually. So we had 57 in jazz, but overall, over the five different things that we do, we had 82, 6 and unders this year in comp. Is that crazy? Yep. So those kids, now, we can see such a journey with some of them. And I really believe this, that you can have a four and under who you think is a total space cadet, but by the time they're six, they're one of your best kids. And that's where they grow a lot. That age group shouldn't be selected because you will never know that that child could become the next rock star. But I feel like that across the board, because if we talk about bb, she was the back line of sixes.

She was flexible but floppy. And I used to complain to my staff and say, I can't believe I've had a child who's not going to be a dancer.

Isn't that funny?

And she just won World Day. So I do think that we have to look very carefully at our students and at the potential that they can have.

Yes. And not judge them too quickly.

Correct. Keisha's another example. Keisha joined us when she was nine. I remember Kiran Kulik taught a tap routine and there was 40 in the tap routine. And Keisha was back corner of that routine. And she was back corner of every single routine. And she just did full time at Dance Force and is probably one of my amazing dancer and singer and all the things.

Yeah.

Incredible. So just don't deny them that journey if they're passionate. And that's how I felt about these two little ones as well. Because their mums are like, they're so passionate. They're practicing all the time. They want it so much. And so when I hear that, I'm like, okay, let's invest some time and effort into them because they might be the next Bibi or Keisha.

Yes.

Just because they're not quite there now. You never know.

Absolutely. And you never know when all of A sudden it's going to click for them, Right?

Correct. Correct. So that's my comp journey, guys. So am I doing it right? I don't know. Another question that people ask me is how many classes do our comp.

Oh, yes.

Do you? And I know that's a question that a lot of the clients are asking me at the moment because obviously we have a very high standard apps. I think right now I'm probably the highest I've ever been in my career of owning the studio. But I also think I have to be because as you know, I'm very competitive. I want to win and I want my kids to win.

Absolutely.

And also they're putting hard time in. So what do we expect of them now? It's changed. Definitely. And we don't expect this of sixes. So with sixes, they don't have really anything they have to do except a.

45 minute tech plus their choreography class. Like a jazz choreography.

Well, if they do hip hop, they don't do anything except hip hop. They just learn a hip hop troop in there. Hip hop. If they do ballet, they have to do the ballet exam class before and then they do the ballet troupe. Lyrical and jazz. They do the 45 minute tech and then they do the jazz and then they do the lyrical. Okay, so we don't have those records. Okay.

So some of them would be doing an hour and a half a week to be in their cop teams.

Correct. Which is fine.

And then what about when they get older? What about for your eights, for example?

Eights we've now just this year added and I have 34 enrolled, so I'm not regretting it. Acro and ballet.

So they have to acro ballet technique and then each style that they want to be in the routine.

Correct.

45 minute classes.

Yes. Cool.

Love that. Older ones, the same order does it Older ones.

So for like.

Well, they just all do it. So it's really not a drama.

Well, that's the thing. Like.

It'S interesting. Right. So I was looking at our stats this year and 15 of our kids do 10 plus classes, which is huge when you think about it.

Absolutely.

And so it's just because they start to get fomo so they see that a kid in sixes, for example, and I can tell you now that I would say out of our 25 sixes, at least 15 of them are now doing privates. And it's because they see the kid do the back walk over and then they want to do the back walk over and then they See, the kids.

Becomes the male section.

They want to do them out. So majority of our kids would be doing all the classes anyway because they have fomo.

Yeah. It's interesting.

Very.

So most of your, like, let's talk about a 12 and under troop. Most of them what, doing like 8, 10 classes a week? At least. Yeah. 45 minute classes. At least.

At least. And so when they get to 12, their ballet class becomes an hour and a half. Their tech class is an hour and a half.

So they have to do those.

Correct. If they do contemporary troop, they do a contemporary tech. Because contemporary tech is very different.

Yeah. Okay. So they do a contemporary tech plus a contemporary choreography class. So there's a bit more. And then the hip hop, the jazz, the lyrical.

Correct. And there's. There's probably a kid that'll just come and do hip hop and an acro.

So they can just choose just to be part of the hip hop routine and that's it. Little ones can.

Yes, the little ones can.

Yeah.

But I also think it's important to remember that we are very passionate at my school about allowing kids the opportunity to go to full time and become professional dancers. And so I have to train them accordingly.

Oh, absolutely.

Any. Anyone that's interested in professional dance, I will say to them, tell me now at age 12 that you want to do it, because I can't get you to the level of ballet I need to get you to. Because ballet's the most important.

Absolutely.

Every audition has ballet. I was talking to Michelle Leong, who's one of our teachers, but she just subs at the moment because she's in so many musicals. She did the Lion King audition. Four hours of ballet. Oh, not a pointe shoe to be seen in that musical. You will not see a giraffe on pointe. However, every one of those girls had to bring their point shoes on.

Wow.

It's just very interesting. And I think, how does she like?

Because probably some of them haven't done point. Like, you know, they might still be taking ballet class, but not point.

Right, right.

That's gonna be crazy. Yes. Yeah.

And I think we as teachers need to realize how important that technical ballet side of things is.

We're talking about this at the table. Absolutely. Studio growth club today. But they. We're starting to lose those technical elements because we're just teaching them choreography and tricks. Well, the tricks for the commercial and the tricks for acro solos, but that's not actually what happens in an audition. It's interesting.

Absolutely. I find that also interesting. And I Think it's so great that you allowed to different kids to have different journeys. And I think I want to pull back to, you know what, you were kind of just touching on there like, you know, you're a very high end studio. That's why you've got like, you know, the kids do huge amounts of hours, etc. But the way you got there and the way you got that many kids there was by lowering the minimums to start with.

Correct.

You lowered the minimums and as you said, it was only like. And you still have low minimums at sixes.

Very.

To sort of start them on that journey and let them fall in love with it themselves. I think that's kind of where I'm seeing because, you know, it's not like, oh, they have to do this, they have to this. You're like, oh, they just all do it because you're teaching them that's the way to go. But you let them fall in love with it themselves rather than going, oh, it's compulsory, you must do this, you must do that. Which then puts people off and they just don't sign up for your comp teams.

Right, Correct. And even our eights and tens only have to do four classes. Yeah, but I, I'm telling you, it would have been 3% of my school that do four classes. Like it's such a min amount of kids because they all want to do more.

So you've instilled that love rather than making it compulsory. And then the mall just like. Yeah.

And it's not just love, it's fomo, you know, and it's, it's the band. We have a band for every age group. And I mean like an app where we post every single day. Every teacher has to post what they did in the class. So they're seeing what the acro kids, the circus kids, the jazz kids, the hip hop. They're seeing what all of those classes do every single day on their app and getting fomo. Yeah.

Super clever. I love that. Hopefully this inspired you a little bit to think outside the box and didn't.

Confuse you and didn't confuse you because. Yeah.

And like, we don't have all the answers. Like, I don't think there is a right or a wrong answer sometimes. Yeah, I think there's the right answer for your studio. And that's why, you know, sometimes you need a little bit more context to give people advice, which obviously we can't do on this podcast. But it's just interesting hearing other people's journeys.

Right. So interesting. Love chatting about it always.

Thanks, friends.

Bye.

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