Balancing dance and academics

My parents have always supported my siblings and I in our love of the arts - paying for lessons, driving us here and there, making sure we practiced, etc.

As supportive as they were, they always stressed that school came first and extracurricular activities came second. Without decent grades and study habits, we knew that when it came time to go to college, we would have a really hard time maintaining a good academic career that would inevitably affect our futures.

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Modern families are BUSY. Nearly every minute of every day is scheduled or booked with meetings, appointments, rehearsals, practice, drive time and homework time. It can be hard to find a balance between school and extracurricular. You don't want to put too much time into one, or the other suffers in performance.

Here are some tips from one former busy student to another:

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1. Get organized and manage your time.

This is something I still do today - In high school, I started carrying around a weekly planner that listed major homework deadlines, dance practice times, performances and concerts. On days that we're busier than others, I would often block out times to study or do homework. My mom kept a monthly calendar on the refrigerator that showed everyone's events and activities to help plan out her commute. Try to plan out your whole week on the weekends.

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2. Take advantage of down time.

I would sometimes bring homework with me to dance class just in case I had some extra time to study. Because we were driving around so much, I found that travel time was also a great time to study or catch on reading assignments. When teachers would give us "free time," I tried my best to get some homework done instead of chatting with friends. No point in wasting precious time doing nothing!

3. Don't procrastinate and don't get behind on school work.

I had a terrible habit of procrastinating. It added so much more stress and lot of late nights struggling to get assignments done. If you have time to do it now, DO IT NOW. 

4. Use your weekends.

As good as it feels to just lay around and do nothing on the weekend, this is a GREAT time to catch up on school work and get it out of the way. Read, study, start writing that essay on the weekend when you know that you have a busy week ahead.

Happy studying, and happy dancing!

Miss Tess

tessc@balletpetite.com