Mastery Sessions

You believe in the students you work with. You want to support them in reaching their goals. You want to help them feel seen and acknowledged as whole people to build their confidence alongside their technique. You're well-intentioned. You want the best for them. And you still have moments where you look back at a class and think: that's not who I meant to be in there. The correction that landed harder than you intended. The student you didn't quite reach. The dynamic in the room that felt off and you couldn't name why. Most teachers carry those moments privately. Dr. Jessica Zeller built her research around them. The gap between who teachers mean to be and who their students actually perceive them to be is real — and it's almost impossible to see from the inside. Even for the most experienced and well-intentioned teachers, the space between beliefs and behaviors in the ballet studio is difficult to identify without the right framework and the right questions. This session is built to help you find that gap and start closing it. Rooted in Dr. Zeller's research on teacher presence, behavior, and humanizing pedagogy, the session begins by offering a framework for identifying the difference between your teaching philosophy and your teaching practice. It then becomes a co-created experience, where structured prompts, in-the-moment reflection, and dialogue among participants inspire the development of new approaches that actually reflect your beliefs as a teacher. In this session you'll explore: — The gap between teaching philosophy and teaching practice — what it is, why it exists, and how to begin identifying it in your own teaching — Structured reflection prompts drawn from Dr. Zeller's research on teacher presence and humanistic ballet pedagogy — How shared dialogue with other educators deepens self-awareness and generates approaches you wouldn't arrive at alone — A range of tools and frameworks to use after the session ends — when you feel stuck or need realignment with your values as a teacher

Most ballet educators inherited the program they're teaching in. The syllabus, the level structure, the performance calendar, the culture it arrived before they did, and they learned how to run it. But running a program and designing one are two completely different things. Alison Hennessey built hers from scratch. As one of the founding faculty members at California School of the Arts – San Gabriel Valley, Alison had to answer every question most educators never get asked: What are we actually training these students for? How do technical progression, artistry, and student development fit together into something coherent? What does a program look like when every piece of it is there on purpose? In this session, Alison shares the framework she developed over nearly a decade of building and leading a conservatory-level dance program covering technical progression, artistry, performance opportunities, and student development as an integrated system rather than separate priorities. In this session you'll learn: — How to think about curriculum as student development rather than just skill acquisition — What intentional technical progression looks like across levels and age groups — How artistry, performance opportunity, and student support can be built into a program as an integrated system — not siloed components — Practical tools for building or rebuilding your program with purpose and intention behind every piece

The warm-up is the most underestimated part of a ballet class. Most warm-ups exist to raise body temperature and move through familiar material. But the research on athletic preparation tells a completely different story — one about priming the nervous system, building movement quality, reducing injury risk, and creating the physical foundation that makes everything else in class possible. In this session, Rob Tsai introduces the RAMP framework—a structured, principle-based approach to warm-up and conditioning that bridges the gap between general athletic preparation and the specific demands of dance training. Rather than choosing between technique time and conditioning work, the RAMP system gives educators a repeatable, efficient structure that builds long-term physical literacy in dancers without sacrificing the class time you need for technical instruction. Rob Tsai is a dance performance physical therapist, Doctor of Physical Therapy, and founder of Dance Prehab—a platform dedicated to injury prevention and performance optimization for dancers. His work translates clinical science into tools that working educators can implement immediately, regardless of their facilities or resources. In this session you'll learn: — The RAMP framework broken down: what Raise, Activate, Mobilize, and Potentiate actually mean in practice & how to apply each phase inside a real dance class — How to use non-dance exercises like bear crawls and pogo hops to build proximal stability and distal mobility, which is the physical foundation that supports cleaner technique over time — How "frontloading" athletic work creates a consistent routine students can eventually run independently, preserving your class time for high-value technical instruction — Long-Term Athletic Development (LTAD) principles and how concepts like bio-banding can help you normalize and work with physiological growth patterns rather than against them — Pedagogical shifts that encourage independent student problem-solving reducing your reliance on constant verbal corrections and building more self-sufficient movers This session is designed for the educator who wants to stop choosing between technique and fitness and start building a consistent floor of athletic quality that makes both possible. Recorded live as part of The Summer Fix 2026 — a guest mastery session series by Ballet Reeducation. Session recorded Thursday, June 25, 2026.

Your students are athletes. Not metaphorically.. literally. They are asking their bodies to do things that require the same kind of intentional physical preparation that any other high-performance sport takes for granted. But somewhere along the way, ballet decided that technique class was enough. It isn't. And most of us already know that. The harder question isn't whether your students need strength and conditioning work. It's what you do about it when you don't have a gym, a dedicated coach, or a program structure built to accommodate it. That gap, between what best practice looks like and what's actually available to most dance educators, is exactly what this session is designed to close. Jason Harrison is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and co-owner of Present Tense Fitness. He serves as a strength coach at the New York City Ballet and the School of American Ballet, and works with dancers from Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Dance Theatre of Harlem, the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, and the Sacramento Ballet. He is a member of the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science, where he has spoken multiple times and written a strength and conditioning curriculum. In this session, Jason walks through how strength and conditioning coaches think about long-term athletic development & how to translate that thinking into the reality of your studio, your schedule, and your students. The session moves along a continuum from the ideal training environment all the way to what's possible when you have none of those resources meeting you exactly where you are and giving you a framework to build from. In this session you'll learn: — How S&C coaches approach long-term athletic development and why it matters for ballet educators specifically — What the continuum from ideal to realistic actually looks like and where your program sits on it — Practical principles for incorporating athletic development into your teaching context regardless of your facilities or resources — How to think about training qualities at different stages of dancer development so your decisions are intentional, not inherited Recorded live as part of The Summer Fix 2026—a guest mastery session series by Ballet Reeducation. Session recorded Tuesday, June 23, 2026.

Christopher Charles McDaniel opens a conversation every ballet educator needs to have: what does it actually look like to build a studio where every dancer thrives? This session explores inclusive studio culture in practice, giving teachers concrete language and a framework they can bring back to their classrooms immediately. Replay available. Originally recorded June 15, 2026.

Think you're teaching the right body cues in ballet class? Think again. In this myth-busting workshop led by professional ballet physical therapist Elizabeth Tilstra (Nashville Ballet), we debunk 15 of the most common dance medicine myths that continue to circulate in studios, even among well-meaning teachers. From glute usage in turnout to the real purpose of summer intensives, you’ll leave with clarity, confidence, and an evidence-backed lens to upgrade how you cue, condition, and correct your dancers. Perfect for ballet educators who are ready to… - Let go of outdated cues that cause confusion or injury - Understand what anatomy actually supports technique - Stop blaming dancers for “not getting it” when the instructions lack clarity - Replace old language with biomechanically accurate, PT-approved strategies - Create safer, smarter, and more sustainable environments for dance training You’ll walk away with: A deeper understanding of the body systems behind key ballet skills Practical tools and cues you can apply immediately in class Newfound insight into what your dancers might be struggling with & why Permission to reeducate yourself and evolve with the science Best for teachers who are passionate about transformation, not just tradition. If you’ve ever said: “Why can’t they hold their turnout in jumps?” “Shouldn’t they be squeezing their scapula down?” “Isn’t Pilates enough for cross-training?” ...then this workshop was made for you. Let’s reframe, relearn, and reeducate together.

A student tells you it hurts. You nod. You modify. You quietly wonder if you made the right call... and whether you'll recognize the line between discomfort that's fine and pain that isn't. Most dance teachers never got a roadmap for this. We learned to push through, manage it quietly, or send students home and hope for the best. We weren't trained as clinicians & that gap shows up in real time, in the middle of class, when someone is looking to us for an answer. This Mastery Session with physical therapist & Dance Prehab founder Robert Tsai gives you something more useful than clinical training: a clear framework for your role, language to use with students and parents, and concrete tools for the moments where the line isn't obvious. You'll walk away with: 1. A decision-making framework that works in real time. The Rule of Threes gives you a reliable filter for knowing when a "niggle" needs a healthcare conversation & when it doesn't. 2. Language your students and parents can actually use. The Traffic Light Analogy helps dancers distinguish productive training discomfort from pain that needs attention in terms they can understand and repeat. 3. Updated injury care literacy. Move past outdated RICE protocols. The 2019 PEACE & LOVE framework gives you modern, evidence-based language for soft-tissue care. 4. Clarity about your role & relief from the rest. Understand what a dancer-centered health ecosystem looks like and how teachers fit inside it, without carrying the weight of clinical decisions alone. This session doesn't turn you into a physical therapist. It gives you the confidence to lead clearly the next time a dancer looks to you and says "it hurts." Instant replay access included with purchase. Ballet Reeducators Members access this session free inside the membership.

Transform Your Studio. Teach with Intention. Reignite Your Purpose. Are you still teaching ballet the way you were taught even though today’s students need more? In this workshop, ballet educator and curriculum expert Austin Crumley guides you through a fresh, research-informed approach to ballet education. Rooted in dance science, educational psychology, and student-centered strategies, this 40-minute workshop will help you break out of the cycle of burnout, outdated methods, and one-size-fits-all teaching. You’ll be introduced to how to: ✔ Begin designing lessons grounded in how the brain learns movement ✔ Create emotionally safe, inclusive classrooms ✔ Connect dance science to daily technique ✔ Rebuild your curriculum using research-based models ✔ Replace burnout with clarity and strategy Because the future of ballet doesn’t look like the past. It looks like you.