Ballet Instructor Profile: Joan Liu

IMG_2621Instructor profiles are back! Meet Joan Liu, a ballet instructor based in New York. You can find her on Facebook at Joan Liu – Dance and Wellness, and make sure you check out this recent article she wrote about yoga and dance for Yoganonymous.

How long have you been dancing?

I’ve been dancing for 13+5=18 years.  Why 13+5? The first 13years was consecutive, then I had a health issue which led to a five-year hiatus, been back for five more years!

Why do you dance ballet?

The rigors of ballet gave me just enough discipline to support, but a blank canvas to paint my emotions.

Who/What inspires you to dance?

This is a hard one.  I have that innate eagerness to dance, emotions that constantly inspire me to strive for more.  I am also deeply inspired by my colleagues, my teachers, choreographers I work with, and my students.

How long have you taught ballet?

I’ve been teaching ballet on and off for 14 years.

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[VIDEO] Ballet Arm Positions from The Royal Ballet

Thanks to Emily who shared ballet arm positions video in the Adult Ballerinas Facebook Group!

#AdultBallet Twitter Chat

twitter-chat

A couple of years ago, I held a few Twitter chats with some of the adult ballerinas I met on Twitter. I want to hold another one, and right now I just want to get a good idea of when might be a good time (once I get a general idea, I’ll hold another poll for the actual date).

I’m also running a version of this poll over on the Adult Ballerinas Facebook group (if you aren’t already a member — go join!).

We have stickers!

If you follow Adult Ballerina Project on social media, you probably saw the new stickers we recently received in the mail:

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If you’re interested in your own, you’ve got a few ways of snagging them if you’re in the US:

  • If you’ve been interviewed for ABP, shoot me an email with your address to receive a four pack of stickers for FREE!
  • If you haven’t been profiled, send me an email about being profiled, and then once it’s complete, I’ll get your address and send them your way
  • If you’re not interested in being profiled, you can buy a four pack of stickers for $5.00. Email me to get it set up via PayPal.

You can reach me at aballerinaproject@gmail.com

  • If you’re outside the US, send me an email and we’ll figure out how much shipping and stuff is and I’ll probably ask you to pay the extra postage.

How to “Start a Dance Blog” E-Book

Some of my fellow dance bloggers recently released an e-book about how to start a dance blog, and graciously provided me a copy to read over before I told my readers about it.

The book is pretty much perfect for anyone who wants to start a blog and doesn’t know where to start. While the book is written directed towards people who want to start a dance-focused blog, a lot of it can apply if you’re looking to start any type of blog.

A lot of the book goes over the basics, like choosing a blogging platform (WordPress.com, Blogger, Tumblr, self-hosted), choosing a blog title, choosing a tagline and even choosing your specific niche. Even if you’ve been in the blogosphere for a little bit, it might be worth the 8 dollars to go over some more detailed topics like analytics, social media, monetization, and SEO.

According to the book’s webpage, the book will take you through the following:

  • Things you need to know to set up your dance blog quickly.
  • Writing better content
  • Engaging readers on and off the site
  • Getting discovered using social media and SEO basics
  • Taking those next big steps like monetization and traffic analysis

The book was written by some of the awesome pioneers in dance blogging:

Find the book here: http://www.danceadvantage.net/start-a-dance-blog.