Welcome to Technique Transformation!
Technique Transformation was developed slowly throughout my career of educating dancers. A unique part of this curriculum is that we educate dancers to be teachers as they are developing throughout their own training. There is so much value in learning to spot areas for improvement in other dancers. By learning to spot misalignment in other bodies dancers are able to find their own alignment more thoroughly and efficiently. By learning to explain movement to one another and describe what is happening in their own body, they delve into a deeper level of their own training. As I began to see these deep improvements play out student after student I started to document the drills and tips we were finding to be helpful training modalities. Thus began Technique Transformation. I eventually took this curriculum into studios nationwide. Through this mind, body, and spirit training studios are able to establish a more positive, more productive team culture that better serves staff and clients alike. The more I connect with like-minded teachers, the more technique transformation evolves. It’s a culmination of the advancement of myself, my staff, like-minded dance educators, life coaches, yogis, Pilates instructors, and a defined, established, and evolving curriculum that meets educators and students where they are while promoting growth and evolvement.
Thank you for your consideration,
Scarlet Ryals
Essentials Dance Company
Founder and Artistic Director
Technique Transformation
Founder and Educator
Our Curriculum
Besides the classes listed below our workshops can include staff meetings covering curriculum revamps and teacher consultations to address specific classroom needs, challenges, and goals. The events can also include choreography in any of the styles below, as well as teacher trainings on implementing the technique transformation curriculum year round.
We’ve recently been helping dance studios shift to a more positive team culture. These strategies also include boosting student’s self esteem by helping dancers engage in more positive self talk. This journey has become really rewarding as we just love helping people, especially those in our industry. Our innovative tips for improving technique combined with proper alignment and lots of approaches to safe flexibility training are totally customizable to your studios needs. We look forward to speaking with you on how we can best meet your studio’s needs. Class descriptions are listed below.
Technique Fundamentals
Technique fundamentals- This class is the foundation of our curriculum. This class includes body awareness fundamentals focusing on core stabilization, proper usage of feet and ankles, and shoulder mobility and stabilization. These placement fundamentals are explored to allow each dancer to find proper alignment in their own bodies.
Ballet
Flexibility Training
Flexibility training- increasing flexibility involves a balance of relaxing and engaging muscle groups while maintaining proper alignment. This class will engage the students in the proper placement for each stretch as well as how to successfully go deeper into each stretch utilizing breath work. Partners are utilized for PNF (proprioceptive neuromuscularfacilitation) stretching. Students are guided through safely working with other dancers to find more range of motion in their bodies. Myofascial release techniques are implemented to open the dancers bodies in new and miraculous ways often opening restrictions that have been in place for years.
This ballet class is jam-packed with knowledge. The curriculum includes proper terminology, spelling, and definitions as well as lots of analogies and examples to help dancers achieve and remember how to execute ballet correctly, safely, and effectively within the parameters of each dancer’s unique facility, strengths, and limitations.
Pirouettes
Pirouettes- This class will establish proper alignment for secure consistent balance, proper use, placement, and strength of releve’, as well as engagement of port de bras and expansion through the upper back for support and placement of the arms and shoulders. Students will receive information on spotting and drills to increase from 1/4 turns to multiple pirouettes. An emphasis will be placed on the timing of the initiation of the pirouette, how to fully engage all muscles related to arriving and remaining on a fully stretched supporting knee, and how the alignment of the prep establishes the success of the pirouette.
Tumbling
Our tumbling series reviews and establishes the basic building blocks leading to the skills dancers need such as side and front aerials, front and back walkovers, front handsprings and head springs, as well as backhand-springs, tucks, and layouts. We have a progression for all levels and can make even the older beginner tumbler successful at overcoming fear and mental blocks sometimes associated with tumbling. Tumbling- our tumbling series reviews and establishes the basic building blocks leading to the skills dancers need such as side and front aerials, front and back walkovers, front handsprings and head springs, as well as backhand-springs, tucks, and layouts. We have a progression for all levels and can make even the older beginner tumbler successful at overcoming fear and mental blocks sometimes associated with tumbling. We bring insider knowledge of the gymnastics world to set up dancers for success with drills, tips, and tricks used by junior Olympic and elite gymnasts world wide.
Improv Techniques
Improv can be daunting to dancers of all levels. This class will cover creative thinking to encourage each dancer’s natural movement patterns while growing their repertoire through expanding their thoughts about movement. Students will delve into imaginative scenarios, opposition work including high/low, fast/slow, light/heavy, as well as contact and negative space improv. An emphasis will be placed on how creative thought facilitates organic movement as well as musicality and how the music can be explored in a variety of ways to affect movement.
Jazz Class & Progressions
Jazz class and/or progressions- this class is a culmination of the elements discussed in our leaps and pirouette series combined into across the floor combinations utilizing fundamental and unique transitions in and out of traditional and contemporary jazz techniques. This class incorporates direction change, isolations, and many variations of battements, pirouettes, and leaps to push the dancers’ versatility and consistency.
Conditioning
Conditioning for dancers should...
-
Educate dancers on proper fitness movement quality and alignment and it’s value
-
Increase dancers' full-body strength to improve their work and recovery capacity
-
Balance patterns of overuse to prevent injuries
-
Build endurance
-
Be a positive and fun training modality developing faster muscle twitch, and creating strength and stability in the core, hips, knees, and ankles.
Contemporary
Our contemporary work improves coordination as dancers explore intricate footwork and direction changes, utilize grounding and weight transfer in transitions, and add to their movement vocabulary with unique use of port de bras.
Leaps
Successful leaps encompass fast muscle twitch, ballistic flexibility, a strong and stable core, and an awareness of the use of the plié and push against the floor that increases amplitude. Our leaps class will work all of the above with an emphasis on the timing and specific placement of each leap and sauté position. Focus will be placed on proper execution into and out of the leaps, with lots of tricks and tips along the way to achieve these jumps most effectively.
Hip Hop
Our hip hop curriculum is not only fun and high energy but also rooted in hip hop basics. The class structure sets up students for success. Class begins by engaging the dancer in groves and fundamentals establishing a comfortable, fun, and safe environment. The next portion of class progresses across the floor building confidence and increasing movement vocabulary while developing style within transitions. The pinnacle of class is an age and level appropriate combo incorporating and elaborating on the elements discussed in the warm-up and across the floors. Opportunities to find comfort in freestyle are presented in a way that puts the dancers at ease. In upper levels, this class can also incorporate work on kip ups, head springs, k-stands, etc.
Rhythm Tap
This class incorporates working through the principles of tap including rhythm, clarity of sound, syncopation, and weight shift. Emphasis will be placed on the proper execution of the step, the sound quality desired, and the skills to create your own rhythms with or without the music.
