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This week's newsletter is sponsored by Mandy Fouracre LRAD B Phil (Hons), author of the Lafour Prima Dance syllabus

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I missed wishing members a happy Chinese New Year in the last issue. I know DTOL has many members who celebrate this. So - happy Chinese New Year! I hope you had a fantastic time!

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I've added some more CDs to the DTOL Shop. I believe some members have already used the excellent CDs produced by Richard Maddock.

A native of Ontario, Canada, Richard Maddock has accompanied dancers for over twenty years, and has worked as a dance class and exam accompanist at numerous dance schools, including: Joyce Turley's School of Dance; The Art of Dance; Dancespace; and The Randolph Academy. Mr. Maddock currently holds the position of Head Accompanist at The Pia Bouman School of Creative Movement and Ballet, in Toronto, Canada.

Richard has most recently composed the music syllabus for Level 2, Level 3, and Level 4 for a new dance syllabus entitled Living Dance, which was created by Beth Baudistel in Australia which will soon become available to dance studios.

In addition to his work as an accompanist, Richard's performance experience also includes work as a keyboardist and vocalist for many Top 40 bands, including the "Relics" and "Off the Wall." His work can also be heard on singer/songwriter Lorna Vallings' CD "Confidential," as well as on Herb Walsh's CD "Hot Pies -- Man Next Door."

There are two "Ballet Studio Inspirations" CDs for class work and a series of three "As Creation Unfolds" CDs which are "fully orchestrated with many different instrumentations and wonderful for choreographic work or creative movement classes. These CDs have a wide variety of unique styles and arrangements."

Richard quotes these appreciative DTOL members, amongst others:

"I found Richard Maddock's classroom CDs to be compelling, supportive and constantly interesting music. The recording is lovely and rich in expressiveness... a teacher's delight, a student's inspiration ... and you can quote me on that!"

- Sharon Pinsley - Teacher/Choreographer - Israel

"Richard Maddock's CD Ballet Studio Inspirations: Volume 1 lives up to its name and is truly inspiring. It was like a breath of fresh air teaching to this wonderful music. My students and teachers can't wait till we receive Richard's next CD."

- Alisa Finney - Gay Wightman School of Ballet - Melbourne, Australia

"The CDs are AWESOME & the students are really enjoying the new class work I have set to your class music. Thank you so much for these. They are wonderful & very inspirational."

- Noeleyne Wilson - The Ballet School - Perth, Australia

Further details of these products, and others, can be seen from the DTOL Shop web pages:

www.dtol.ndirect.co.uk/dtol18oz.htm - for those resident in Australia
www.dtol.ndirect.co.uk/dtol18ca.htm - for those resident in Canada
www.dtol.ndirect.co.uk/dtol18eu.htm - for those resident in the Euro zone
www.dtol.ndirect.co.uk/dtol18uk.htm - for those resident in the UK
www.dtol.ndirect.co.uk/dtol18us.htm - for those resident in the USA
www.dtol.ndirect.co.uk/dtol18z2.htm - for those in other parts of the world

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DTOL member Michael Branwell (harlow.ballet@ntlworld.com) from Essex, UK emailed me with a very pertinent point:

"The DTOL Newsletter is always welcome and I enjoy browsing through it - sometimes I am moved to reply and I copied you in on the detailed Reponses I gave to a young dancer who wanted information for a project at school.

This is not the first time I have done this - but it may be the last. It costs nothing to send a reply saying "thank you": but not one of the people I have contacted as a result of appeals to DTOL has ever done that small thing.

Can you please inform anyone asking you for that sort of help that they really should make the small gesture of acknowledging that they have received the feed back and potential help and advice?

I feel really "picky" - but my most recent reply ran to over a thousand words and took a lot of detailed thought. Surely the least I can expect is a small thank you? Even if only to encourage me to do the same in the future?

What do other dance teachers think?"

This was my reply to Michael:

"I appreciate the point you make about the responses to/from site visitors and agree totally with you.

As a result, I've now changed the email text which I send in these cases, saying that their query would be included in the newsletter, to try to make sure they understand they should give the courtesy of a 'thank you'.

I'm grateful for the time which you and other members spend trying to help these people and I hope your future experiences will be better!"

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DTOL member Janet Lee Chapman (learn@jlcdance.com) from Preston, UK emailed me:

"Responding to DTOL member Gerry Jones from Merseyside, UK picked up my comment about "slightly iffy-looking requests" in last week's newsletter:

I get lots of "slightly iffy-looking requests" by e-mail and have taken to responding to all by stating that payment is by cash or Credit card only this stops all bogus e-mails as their scam only works if they pay banker's draft."

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There are a couple of recent posts on the DTOL Forum. One is about "Workshops and dance conventions in Scotland this summer" and the other about "Teacher to pupil ratio". This latter is an interesting topic, which members may wish to comment on in the newsletter. What are your class sizes? Do you have strong views on this?

The Forum is at www.dtol.ndirect.co.uk/forum.htm

and has a password: teachingdance (case-sensitive)

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SPONSOR'S SECTION

Thank you to the DTOL members who came to say hello at the British Dance Edition 2008 event in Liverpool on 1st Feb. It was a lovely surprise and really pleasing to know that people had responded to my suggestion in the last Lafour Prima Dance sponsored newsletter. Thank you!

The Trade Fair itself took place in the beautiful St George's hall and the whole event was ably organised by the Merseyside Dance Initiative.

There was considerable interest shown in the Lafour Prima Dance syllabus particularly for use in the early years Education sector. This is an area which will be pursued further when the Lafour Prima Syllabus is exhibited at the Education Show to be held at the NEC Birmingham from 28th Feb - 1st March.

The Education Show is the national education event in the UK attracting over 16,000 visitors. I will be at the Lafour Prima Dance stand (AZ C64) which is in the Arts Zone, Hall 12.

For any DTOL members living near Birmingham there will be information about the syllabus including demo DVD as well as the new booklet 'Bubbles Wings & Sparkly things' a guide to teaching dance to young children.

Do come if you can. On the Saturday (1st March) at 12.15pm I will be taking a half hour seminar entitled 'You don't have to be a dancer to teach dance to early years'.

It would be great to see you.
Mandy Fouracre

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NEWSLETTER COUNTRY-SPECIFIC SECTIONS
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ASIA SECTION
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Larysa (laraIrish@yandex.ru) from Kiev, Ukraine is "looking for summer course of ballroom and belly dances in Kiev for adults."

Josephine Guina (josephine_guina@yahoo.com) from Paranaque City, Metro-Manila, Philippines is "looking for a Christian Hula teacher to teach us the hula basics for Worship Services in church."

Toni (tonielisabetholiveros@yahoo.com) from Binan/ San Pedro, Laguna, Philippines has "a passion for dancing. I'm finding a dance class near my home."

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UK SECTION
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DTOL member Katarina Pavlek (nina-pavlek@net.hr) from Koprivnica, Croatia is "a dance teacher from Croatia, for almost 10 years my 2 teachers and me are running a small amateur dance studio for kids and teens (www.jump.hr). I wanted to ask you if you could be so kind and let us know about some workshops for teachers in UK during summer we can go to, for like 3 days. We are interested in improving our skills in modern dance, jazz dance and cheerleading, and maybe get to know other teachers and offer them the same (to come and visit us here). Please, let me know what you think about it and visit our web pages. Have a nice day! Katarina Dance studio JUMP Croatia www.jump.hr

Beth Corfield (hypa_b4life@hotmail.com) from Birmingham is "looking to be trained up to be the best dancer I can be, I did dance as a G.C.S.E and now doing it as an A-level but I want to become a professional. Dancing is my dream please help me and give me some advise on were to start I have joined dance classes in jazz, and street. Also in my school I do contemporary but I would love to do dancing all day long and go to a dance school which one would you advise me to go to? Please contact me."

Jane Johnson (janiej72@hotmail.com) from Warrington, Cheshire is "looking to join a tap or modern dance class, preferably classes that run during the day."

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THIS WEEK'S NEW DTOL MEMBERS

The reason for listing new members each week is to foster DTOL's community. I hope that, from time to time, you will find a DTOL member in your area, or who is teaching your specialism in another area, and you will want to make contact with them, to share experiences. That's what DTOL's all about! But the listing is also a "welcome" to the new members. Perhaps you can take a minute this week to email one of these members to welcome them to DTOL.

The second line in each case is what each member says about themselves.

margaret greenwood, Worcestershire, United Kingdom. Email: margaret_dance@btopenworld.com
ballroom.latin,salsa,tango. venues-greig hall alcester, stratford college etc

margaret greenwood, West Midlands, United Kingdom. Email: margaret_dance@btopenworld.com
ballroom,latin,salsa,tango.venues-dickens heath village hall, alcester-the greig hall etc

Edwin Morales, Philippines. Email: mymax18ebm@yahoo.com.ph
Bolshoi Ballet School of Davao/ Teaching Ballet & Jazz Technique

Julie, Ohio, USA. Email: jewel9673@hotmail.com
Belly dance, Middle Eastern, Tribal, Sacrad Dances for children and adults

kumar jaik, India. Email: jai.in9@gmail.com
our school teach u the style of all dance.

marie calahan, Dorset, United Kingdom. Email: jenk5@hotmail.co.uk
private tuition in ballet,contemporary dance and choreography

Aisling Byrne Gaughan, Ireland. Email: missaisling@hotmail.com
Professional Trainning in Ballet,Tap,National,Modern/Jazz,Stagecraft&Musical Theatre

Claire Buckley, Kent, United Kingdom. Email: clairebuckley@ntlworld.com
Classes on offer are Ballet Tap and Jazz for ages 3 years to Adults

Lindsey Galaugher, British Columbia, Canada. Email: aussielindsey@hotmail.com
VTDS, Dance Express, Footloose - Tap, Jazz, Stage and Hip-hop

DTOL now has 6,097 members, in 88 different countries.

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For further information about Lafour Prima Dance or to order the syllabus please view the Lafour Prima Dance website @ www.lafourprimadance.com

email Mandy Fouracre at info@lafourprimadance.com

or call + 44 (0) 1344 466017

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