Hi dancers, and welcome to The Reel Deal! Today, we’re diving into the mindset you’ll need as we start a new dance year. With the session just beginning and everyone settling back into their routines, it’s the perfect time to check in on your mindset for the year ahead. A new dance season is always exciting—it’s a chance to achieve new goals, travel to new places for competitions, and learn fresh performance routines with your friends. However, it can also be a bit daunting. You might have lingering worries or concerns from last year, or perhaps you’re facing new material that feels a bit overwhelming.

Wherever you’re starting from, remember that this is a fresh start and you have the potential to achieve great things this season! A strong mindset is key to reaching your goals, so today I’m introducing a fun, easy-to-remember acronym to help guide us:

PIC-ture it!

My challenge to you for this upcoming year is to PIC-ture yourself where you want to be by the end of the season. Consider your tangible dance goals, like physical goals or competition placement goals: What do you want to accomplish? What skills do you want to improve? But also think beyond those kinds of goals. How do you want to feel at the end of each class? And by the end of the season? These more abstract goals are just as important as your placement or skills goals! 

Now, let’s break down how to tackle these goals using our acronym PIC!

P is for Preparation

In PIC, P stands for Preparation. Preparation includes anything and everything you can do to set yourself up for success. It covers a wide range of actions, from planning to practice, and when you break it down, a lot fits within this category.

You can prepare for your dance goals by:

• Memorizing your dances

• Attending class consistently

• Warming up and stretching before dancing, and stretching after to prevent injury

• Packing your bag the night before a performance

• Arriving a day before a competition starts

• Getting enough sleep

• Eating enough to fuel your body

• Completing homework before a competition weekend, so you can focus fully on your dancing without distractions

And the list goes on!

As you can see, preparation isn’t just limited to the studio. It extends to what you do at home, school, or work. It’s essential to approach preparation from many angles because anything you can do to set yourself up for success counts!

One thing I have found essential to effective preparation is learning how to prioritize. Prioritizing means identifying the most important thing to focus on right now before moving on to other tasks. Our brains aren’t designed to multitask, and when you try to focus on too many things at once, none of them will get the attention they deserve.

That’s why prioritizing is so important. Here are some examples:

• If you know you won’t be able to focus in dance class if your homework isn’t finished, prioritize getting it done before class!

• If you didn’t sleep well last night, prioritize getting to bed on time tonight.

• If you’re struggling with high kicks, prioritize stretches that improve flexibility.

Preparing in this way works for all types of goals—whether they’re skill-based, placement-based, or more abstract goals!

I is for Information

In PIC, I stands for Information. Think about the types of information you need to know to achieve your goals: the correct steps, proper technique, when and where your classes are, the location and times of competitions or performances, who your ceili partner is, whether you’re the gent or the lady, the order of movements in Trip to the Cottage, which costume to wear… that's a lot of information!

But there’s another kind of information that can be just as important for reaching your goals, especially as dancers. I like to think of information as anything you know to be true. Everything listed above is factual information. But what else do you know to be true? You’ve learned new dances before—that’s true. You’ve mastered new skills before. You’ve improved things that were once difficult. This kind of information is just as essential to achieving your goals because it helps build a strong mindset. These are truths you’ve created through your experience, and you can use them to make new statements like: I can learn new things because I know I’ve done it before! See how that works?

Another key to using information effectively is identifying what are called “controllables.” Controllables are things you can control—everything else is out of your hands. Where it gets tricky is when uncontrollable facts still affect us. For example, it’s true that you’ll compete against dancers you don’t know. You might not know how good they are, how much they practice, or how long they’ve been dancing. This kind of information can make us uncomfortable because we know it’s true, but we have no control over it.

Learning to let go of uncontrollables is a valuable skill. It’s easier said than done, but with practice, it becomes easier. Here are some examples of things that could be true but not within your control:

• The competition is starting late

• You are competing against someone older/younger than you

• You are competing against someone who’s won many times

• The audience is really small/really big

• A teammate is missing during a performance

Your time and attention are valuable, so don’t waste them on things you can’t change. When sorting through all the information you have, focus on what you can control and let go of the rest. This frees you to direct your energy toward what really matters in reaching your goals.

C is for Collaboration

In PIC, C stands for Collaboration. I think we can all agree that we wouldn’t be the dancers we are today if we had tried to do it all alone. Collaboration is key to bringing Preparation and Information together. Think of all the people who have supported you on your dance journey so far—teachers, parents, teammates, friends, role models, audience members, and adjudicators. So many people want to see you succeed, and allowing them to support you can help you reach your goals!

Sometimes, it feels easier to work on things by yourself. You might feel shy or embarrassed to ask for help, thinking you should already know what to do. But if you’re unsure about something, always ask! Whether it’s asking your teacher for help with a step you’ve forgotten, asking your mom what time you need to leave to get to class, or asking a teammate to help you tie your shoe or fix your hair, I promise they’ll be there for you and want to help.

Feeling embarrassed or nervous isn’t the only thing that stops us from collaborating. One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that dancers often find it easy to collaborate with teachers and parents but struggle to collaborate with other dancers, whether from their own school or others. Many dancers avoid practicing with those they feel are better than them, especially in a competitive setting. I’ve definitely been guilty of saying, “Oh no, I don’t want to dance with her, it’ll make me look bad!” ... Not the best mindset.

It’s important to remember that someone else’s success doesn’t mean we’ve failed. In fact, viewing others’ successes as inspiration rather than as a threat can motivate us to reach our own goals. Like many things, this shift in thinking is easier said than done, but it’s a game changer when you can embrace it.

Collaboration means being open to learning from everyone around you—whether it’s teachers, parents, or even competitors. You’ll find that you’re much more motivated to work toward your goals when you have people supporting you, caring for you, and pushing you to be the best version of yourself! 

I hope this has given you some new insights or helped you think more deeply about how Preparation, Information, and Collaboration can strengthen your mindset and help you crush your dance goals this year! Now it’s your turn to put PIC into action. Start thinking about how you can PIC-ture yourself reaching your goals this season!