{"id":460,"date":"2015-12-02T15:54:50","date_gmt":"2015-12-02T16:54:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thetravelingyogi.com\/?p=460"},"modified":"2024-07-19T14:49:58","modified_gmt":"2024-07-19T14:49:58","slug":"allegro-performing-arts-academy-secrets-to-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thetravelingyogi.com\/index.php\/2015\/12\/02\/allegro-performing-arts-academy-secrets-to-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Allegro Performing Arts Academy: Secrets to Success"},"content":{"rendered":"

Several elite prot\u00e9g\u00e9s at PULSE dance convention, numerous awards, and a win for Best Musical Theatre number at this past August\u2019s Industry Dance Awards<\/a> (for the third year in a row). That smells like success. So how does one studio do it?<\/span><\/p>\n

Allegro Performing Arts Academy, located in Kent, Washington, sure knows how. The Industry Dance Awards go to the best competition dance pieces from studios all over the United States, and Allegro Performing Arts Academy, a winner year after year, has been reaping in success.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"Allegro<\/p>\n

Allegro Performing Arts students performing ‘Can’t take my eyes’. Photo courtesy of Allegro.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tonya Goodwillie, owner and artistic director of Allegro, notes that the studio\u2019s accomplishments are due to \u201cperseverance\u201d and \u201cversatility\u201d. Tiffany Miles-Brooks, co-director of Allegro Precision Dance Company, along with Goodwillie, adds that it\u2019s all about \u201cstaying updated\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the beginning, it was really important to us that we train equally in all styles,\u201d Goodwillie remarks. \u201cAnd as much as people fought us on that, it\u2019s really proven to be a great part of our dancers\u2019 training that are doing so well now. They\u2019re not only tapping and doing great as tap dancers but also hip hop and musical theatre. So the versatility has been a really big part of our success over the past 10 years.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then also just bringing in choreographers from the industry and always staying new,\u201d adds Miles-Brooks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some of Allegro\u2019s guest choreographers have included Emmy-winning <\/span>Tessandra Chavez<\/a>, top performer Gina Starbuck, So You Think You Can Dance<\/em>\u2019s Abe Obayomi, commercial dancer and choreographer Seth Zibalese and more.<\/span><\/p>\n

As leaders, Goodwillie and Miles-Brooks encourage their studio\u2019s staff to continue to learn and attend teacher workshops, in an effort to stay on top of the industry and to impart the best knowledge to their students.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think, as teachers, we feel pressure because we have such great dancers, and we have such great kids who are coming up, young dancers who are coming up, too, that we want to keep doing the best for them, and continue to provide them with everything that we possibly can,\u201d Goodwillie explains. \u201cAnd dance is an art form. It is constantly changing, so we can\u2019t be stagnant. We have to constantly thrive to be better ourselves. So whatever we can do to better ourselves as teachers is going to better our students in the long run. So, it\u2019s really important.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"Tonya<\/p>\n

Tonya Goodwillie and Tiffany Miles-Brooks with Rita Moreno at the 2015 Industry Dance Awards. Photo courtesy of Goodwillie.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

At Allegro, Goodwillie has also assigned different chairs to each of discipline\u2019s departments. Miles-Brooks, for instance, is the chair of the Jazz Department; faculty member Sara Palmer is the chair of the Hip Hop Department. Each week, the department chairs connect, communicate about their students and brainstorm what they can work on, as a collective studio.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s all about communication,\u201d Miles-Brooks adds. \u201cA lot of studios, they bring people in, they kind of do their job, and they leave. I feel like we have this system, and we\u2019re constantly together, constantly brainstorming, constantly thinking of what we can do collaboratively.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Allegro\u2019s group of teachers are equally invested in their students and even offer as mentors. Perhaps it is this sense of \u201cteam\u201d that has also trickled down to the student\u2019s own desire to progress.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a mentorship program for our kids, and so we get really in tune with what they want to do with their career, and we help them as best we can,\u201d Miles-Brooks says. \u201cSuch as research colleges, research companies that they may try and get in to, getting in tune with what they want to do. So that really helps. A lot of them want to choreograph, so we give them opportunities to choreograph on dancers, and put on shows.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNo one did that for me growing up,\u201d Goodwillie adds. \u201cI didn\u2019t have that at all \u2013 the opportunity to explore what\u2019s after high school. No one sat me down and talked about, \u2018Well there\u2019s this college, and you don\u2019t have to go to college right away, there are all these other options.\u2019 I didn\u2019t know anything about the industry and agents. I had no idea. So it\u2019s great for the kids to kind of get a feel of that. And then they can make a better, well-educated decision about what they want to do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\"Allegro<\/p>\n

Allegro Performing Arts Academy. Photo courtesy of Allegro.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Allegro\u2019s most recent big win, the award for Best Musical Theatre number at August\u2019s Industry Dance Awards, actually came as a pleasant surprise. The studio\u2019s number was choreographed by Eddie Strachan for the third year in a row, and still Allegro proved to be on top.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI actually came into this going, \u2018There\u2019s no way we\u2019re going to get it a third year in a row,\u2019\u201d Goodwillie comments. \u201cThere were some really great other musical theatre pieces. Three other teachers came with us, and we\u2019ve been having a really good time, and this is just a really cool event, so we\u2019re just like, \u2018Let\u2019s celebrate and enjoy it. And whatever happens, happens.\u2019 If you put the numbers together of how many competition pieces were nominated \u2013 there were eight categories, six to seven in each category, and those 50 numbers were chosen from thousands of group numbers. So just to be a nominee is really cool, too.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And there, Goodwillie possibly suggests one more secret to Allegro\u2019s success: a good, positive attitude and respect for others in the industry. Bravo, Allegro Performing Arts Academy.<\/span><\/p>\n

By Laura Di Orio and Deborah Searle of<\/span> Dance Informa.<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo (top):\u00a0A student at Allegro Performing Arts Academy. Photo by John Roque.<\/p>\n

The post Allegro Performing Arts Academy: Secrets to Success<\/a> appeared first on Dance Informa Magazine<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several elite prot\u00e9g\u00e9s at PULSE dance convention, numerous awards, and a win for Best Musical Theatre number at this past August\u2019s Industry<\/p>\n

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