How to be an Effective Dance Captain Part 2

• Seek advise from those more experienced than you. You should constantly be asking people how you could be better. There will always be people who are better at your job than you are. Alumni dance captains are great sources of input. If you’re having trouble with something, seek their advice. They’re older and wiser and have probably dealt with it before. Your director is an excellent source too. You should feel comfortable talking to him about anything. Be sure and ask his advise and even ask for help if you need it. Don’t be too proud for assistance. Plus, having a fresh pair of eyes look at a dance can open up new flaws, ideas, and things you could work on. Expert advice is priceless.
• Come prepared to practice. Don’t walk into a practice and wing it. You should constantly have a running list of things to do. If you can keep it in your mind, that’s good, but you should write it down. Once you write it down, you can keep track of everything and you don’t waste time trying to figure out what to do. If your director catches you off guard and gives you cleaning time you didn’t expect, be able to use it to its fullest potential. When you have time, look at your list, determine what to do based on the amount of time you have, and then do it. Come to practice with goals for what you want to do and if you accomplish those you can move on to new things because you have your list handy. If you have to go back to something, its super easy to remember because you just take note of it on your list. Plus, if you have to remember something like an idea that was said, you just jot it down by the task and then you will automatically remember. When you look flustered at practice, that doesn’t get you respect.
• Never use sarcasm. If you’re frustrated, get frustrated and use a sharp tone. Using a sharp tone is way scarier and more respectable than sarcasm. Sarcasm makes you sound weak and it’s just unflattering. No one will take you seriously so just don’t use it. Don’t use derogatory language either. It’s not necessary and it honestly just pisses people off.  It’s okay to get mad, but be smart on how you express your mood. Pick a way that gets respect and gets things accomplished.
• Don’t lecture unless absolutely necessary. Keep your words short and sweet. Don’t add filler words. If you want people to stop talking, you say, “Guys, stop talking”. If you want more energy, say “guys you need to be doing this full out!” The absolutely incorrect way to say these things is by saying, “guys you really need to stop talking because if you talk then you wont hear and then we’ll have to do it all over again and then we’ll just have wasted so much time and you might have the same question so listen.” or “guys you should be doing this full-out because we need to see what it looks like and if you don’t do it full out, we can’t see and we’ll all end up looking like crap.” All of these filler words just make people roll their eyes. Also, once you lecture, people tune out. If you make a long speech, people just think you’re really egotistic and they don’t pay attention. If you feel like it’s absolutely necessary, make sure you think about what you’re going to say before you say it. Don’t just pull it off the cuff and ramble on. Also, never talk about personal things. All of this will just get the eye roll reaction and you will lose respect instead of gain it. (636 words)