The Reality of Competitive Dance with Alexis

TL;DR:

Competitive dance is an elite sport requiring intense athleticism and a sharp mental game. This post covers how to turn stage fright into fuel, why technique always beats flashy tricks, and how to use the "off-season" to level up your dance career.

What does it actually take to be a competitive dancer? If you think it’s all glitter and effortless twirling, you’re missing the grind behind the glamour. On the latest episode of the DanceVibes Studio podcast, I sat down with Alexis from The Space Dance Company to peel back the curtain on studio culture, the mental game of performing, and what it’s like to train for the big leagues.

Debunking the "Just Dancing" Myth

One of the biggest misconceptions about competitive dancers is that we don’t work as hard as "traditional" athletes. Alexis pointed out that many people think we just hop on stage and spin. In reality, it’s a grueling cycle of strengthening, conditioning, and mastering multiple styles. It’s not just about the performance; it’s about the athleticism required to make the impossible look easy.

Mindset: Turning Nerves into Excitement

We’ve all been there—the "shakies" right before the curtain goes up. Alexis shared a game-changing tip from her coach: your body has the same physiological reaction to being nervous as it does to being excited. By simply telling your brain, "I’m excited," you can flip the switch on performance anxiety.

To stay grounded, Alexis also recommends:

•Finding your circle: Surround yourself with a "dance family" you trust to breathe and shake out the nerves with you.

•Setting class-specific goals: Instead of worrying about everyone else in the room, focus on one thing—like nailing every accent or perfecting your spotting.

Technique vs. Tricks: The Hot Take

In the age of TikTok and Instagram, it’s easy to get caught up in "trick-flation." But Alexis dropped a truth bomb: a trick without control or technique has no real value. You can have a world-class routine without a single "wow" trick if the choreography and execution are solid. It’s about movement quality and musicality—letting the music move you, rather than just moving to the music.

The Summer "Developmental Period"

For many, summer is a break. For dancers like Alexis, it’s a "developmental period." It’s the time to drop into new classes, experiment with styles, and prepare for the upcoming season. Whether you’re eyeing a conservatory like CLI or The Space or dreaming of dancing backup for Tate McRae, the off-season is where the real growth happens.

What’s Next for the danZING App?

We even talked about the future of dance tech! Based on Alexis’s feedback (and a ton of your DMs), we’re looking into adding a corrections counter and personalized training experience to the danZING App. Imagine tracking how often you get the same correction and having a specific drill to fix it. Stay tuned!

a note from the interviewer, Prisha:

I’ve been wanting a true dancer yap conversation for a long time, and this episode with Alexis came at the perfect moment. We dive into competitive dance, dancer mindset, and how dancers can make the most of their summer training, goals, and downtime. Alexis shares thoughtful insights on balancing growth, motivation, and the realities of being a dedicated dancer.

If you're wondering how to spend your summer as a dancer, navigating competition season, or simply looking to hear another dancer’s perspective, this episode is for you.

One of my favorite parts of our conversation was discussing the future of technology in dance and the tools dancers actually need. That’s exactly why I created danZING—a free app designed to help dancers organize corrections, notes, choreography feedback, and training resources in one place. Instead of juggling notebooks, WhatsApp group chats, and endless Notes app pages, dancers can keep everything organized and accessible whenever they need it. Download danZING for free on the App Store and streamline your dance journey.

One Week in Step: How danZING is Upgrading Your Summer Choreography Routine

TL;DR

It’s been one week since the danZING app officially launched, and it’s already changing the game for summer choreography season. Ditch the old days of forgetting rehearsal packing lists, losing track of your critiques, and endlessly scrolling through group chats for videos. With danZING, you can seamlessly log your corrections, sync them to music timestamps, and prepare for an organized, stress-free season—with even bigger calendar and costume features dropping later this summer.

It has officially been one week since the danZING app launched in the App Store!

Whether you downloaded the app after spotting it on our website, seeing other dancers post about it, checking out our Instagram, or reading my official launch letter—I just want to say thank you.

Now that we are a week in, I hope you’re already seeing just how much better your day-to-day dance life can be. More importantly, I hope you're realizing how much smoother your entire upcoming competition season is going to look.

Right now, it’s summer. You know what that means: summer intensive and choreography season is officially kicking into high gear.

Before vs. After danZING

Let's take a quick trip down memory lane to look at how chaotic this time of year used to be without a system, and how danZING completely flips the script:

1. The Rehearsal Packing Amnesia

• Before: You would inevitably show up to a massive choreography weekend forgetting half the things you actually needed to pack. Did you bring the right turn shoes? Where was the schedule again? What was the dress code?

• Now: You can save and organize all of your rehearsal logistics, schedules, and packing needs right inside the danZING app so you never walk out the door unprepared.

2. The Lost Corrections & Post-Rehearsal Rush

• Before: You’d finish an exhausting rehearsal, rush straight to your car the literal second it ended, and completely forget to write down your notes. Or worse, you'd forget what your corrections even were by the next week, leading to frustrating conversations with your teammates or teachers about what the choreography was supposed to look like.

• Now: Instead of sprinting to your car, you take two minutes to log your specific corrections right into the app. Even better? You can sync your corrections directly to music timestamps so you know exactly what note applies to what count.

3. The Endless Group Chat Scroll

• Before: You’d spend hours endlessly scrolling backward through cluttered team group chats just trying to find the one practice video from three weeks ago.

• Now: You just type a quick search into the danZING app and find your choreography videos instantly.

Big Upgrades Coming This Summer

Dance life is already a whole lot easier with danZING, but it’s about to get even better. We are actively working on major updates to roll out later this summer, including our Routine Archive feature and our highly anticipated Calendar and Costume Dashboards.

We're designing these features to make sure your upcoming season is entirely stress-free, keeping your outfits, checklists, and call times entirely organized in one single place. If you want to keep tabs on our progress, check out danZING Updates.

Let's Level Up Together

If you are a dancer, dance teacher, or studio director who wants to experience a smoother, more organized way of training, we are here to help. You can explore our website pages to learn more about what the app can do, drop us an email, or book a call with us. Prisha and the team would be absolutely thrilled to help you get your studio set up!

It's going to be a hot, productive dance summer. Let's make it the most organized one yet!

An Open Letter to the Dance Community: Why I Built the danZING App

TL;DR

Competitive and performance dance teams deserve tools built specifically for their unique needs, not generic apps or chaotic group chats. Created by 16-year-old competitive dancer Prisha, danZING is a new dance team management app designed to eliminate the chaos of lost files, endless text threads, and disorganized schedules. With just five intuitive tabs, it centralizes corrections, music edits, and costume details so dancers, parents, and studio directors can finally stay on the same page and focus on what matters most: the performance.

Dear Dancer, Teacher, Dance Parent, or Studio Director,

If you don’t already know me, my name is Prisha. I’m 16 years old, a competitive solo dancer, a student, and the founder of DanceVibes—a growing company dedicated to creating apps by dancers, for dancers.

I’m writing this letter to you because of something I noticed after doing a quick check through the App Store and Google Play Store: there aren’t really any apps built for competitive or performance dancers. Almost everything out there is designed for beginners. But as competitive dancers, studio owners, and dance parents, we have a unique set of intense, fast-paced needs. That is exactly why I founded DanceVibes—to fill that massive gap in our community. And today, after more than a year of brainstorming, planning, and intensive development, I am incredibly excited to share that our flagship app, danZING, is officially launching!

danZING is the next-gen, and honestly only, dance team management app designed entirely by a dancer who gets it, for the dancers who live it.

From Beta Testing to Launch: Built With Your Input

I didn't just build this in a studio. I ran a beta testing round for several months because I care deeply about the experience of the dancers, teachers, and directors who will be using this. I made sure almost every single feature, color palette, and font choice we added was approved by our real-life testers. After a year of hard work, we’ve finally arrived, and I want to share why this milestone matters so much for the dance world.

Let's be real: dance teams are inherently chaotic. To an extent, that energy is just part of the fun and the overall dance team experience. But the operational side of dance—staying organized, remembering your corrections, keeping your files straight—that should never be chaotic. That should be seamless, standardized, and stress-free.

Unfortunately, dancers haven't had the right tools to make that happen. Other sports teams have custom, high-tech platforms to analyze their performance and manage their logistics. Dancers deserve that exact same level of support. When I pitched this app to adult investors and tech founders in other fields, they'd ask me, "Why build this specifically for dancers when sports apps already exist?" My answer is always the same: Because dancers don’t have something that speaks to their unique craft. Dance is a beautiful, highly athletic sport where athleticism meets artistry. Because of that, we need a specialized ecosystem.

Ditching the "Solutions" That Don't Work

We’ve all tried to fix the organizational chaos with generic tools, but let’s look at why they fall short:

• BAND: It’s cluttered with ads, has way too many confusing tabs, and features that teams just don't need.

• Google Workspace: You simply cannot run an entire dance team ecosystem across a messy web of Google Docs, Sheets, and Drives. It forces you to use too many different apps, leading to lost files and missed updates.

One Single Source of Truth

Instead of juggling five different apps, danZINGkeeps your entire dance season in one easy-to-use application with only five intuitive tabs. It contains only the features you actually need to succeed:

• For Studio Directors & Teachers: Easily upload music edits, schedules, and choreography videos without worrying about expired links.

• For Dancers: Take immediate accountability by typing in your specific corrections after every rehearsal, creating a personal growth archive.

• For Dance Parents: Keep up with exactly what your kids are doing, where they need to be, and what they need to pack.

It’s a platform rooted in accountability, but made incredibly simple.

What's Coming Next This Summer

We are just getting started. This summer, we are rolling out a highly requested Routine Archive feature. You’ll be able to archive your old routines and performance videos so they don't clutter your current season, while still keeping them fully accessible for nostalgia, reference, or technique tracking.

We are also actively building a comprehensive Calendar and Costume Dashboard. For the calendar, we are designing a feature where you can upload a PDF schedule straight from a competition, and the app will parse it automatically—showing individual routines, call times, and which dancers need to be where. The Costume Dashboard will keep track of every outfit checklist, ensuring no one ever forgets their red lip gloss, extra hair ties, or the exact bobby pins needed for those perfect space buns.

Our ultimate goal is to create a single source of truth so nothing gets lost in translation, buried in a group chat, or missed in an endless email chain. If you’re interested in seeing our progress on this, check out danZING Updates.

Join the danZING Movement

If you are a studio director, teacher, or team leader who wants to streamline your studio's workflow and upgrade your organization ahead of the next competition season, I would love to connect. Feel free to email DanceVibes or book a call with us to see how we can bring this to your studio.

And if you’re a dancer or parent who wants to try it out for yourself to see how it can transform your personal dance routine, you can download the app right now. Check out the App Store or Google Play Store link below to get started!

With love and dance vibes,

Why Serious Dancers Need Systems (And How to Build One)

TL;DR

Talent and hard work can only take a dancer so far; to truly grow, prevent burnout, and scale your brand, you need systems. The danZINGapp provides a centralized routine where serious dancers can seamlessly track critiques, manage choreography files, and organize packing lists—eliminating the mess of group chats and notes apps so you can focus on performance.

If you are reading this, you’re probably a serious dancer. You love dance, you want to do it for as long as you possibly can, and you want more out of it than just taking a casual weekly class. You want to keep learning, growing your personal brand, mastering new styles, performing, teaching, choreographing, and creating. You want to do it all.

But there comes a point in every dancer’s journey where you realize that talent, luck, and raw hard work aren't enough to move you up the ladder. If you want to take your career to the next level, you have to start taking yourself seriously—and that means building systems.

The Truth About Talent

Truthfully, talent can only take you so far. Without structured routines in place, you are on a fast track to burnout. Systems are there to protect your energy and promote sustainable growth.

Without a system, you find yourself trapped in two extremes: either you are dancing 24/7, burning out, and running your body ragged, or you are slacking off and losing hard-earned progress. You need a reliable routine to strike that perfect balance, and that is exactly why a dedicated tool is essential.

Using a specialized platform like the danZING app makes building that routine effortless. Instead of letting your hard work go to waste, you can instantly record your corrections after every single rehearsal, set automated reminders to review them, and save all your training media in one secure place to visually track your progress over time.

You Won't Remember Everything (And That's Okay)

Let’s be honest: you are not going to remember every piece of feedback you receive. As a dancer, you get showered with dozens of minor corrections every single day, week, and month. Expecting your brain to retain all of that while simultaneously executing complex choreography is unrealistic.

That is why keeping a digital archive of your training is a game-changer. With the danZINGapp, you can simply tap a button and record your specific corrections for whatever routine you are working on this season. We are even rolling out a new update that allows you to completely archive your old videos and routines. You will still have full access to your history, letting you look back and see exactly how much your technique has evolved.

Preparedness Equals Professionalism

As Gabby Roberts—a famous former Radio City Rockette—often emphasizes, preparedness translates directly into performance and professionalism.

In the dance industry, prepared dancers simply go further. It’s the ultimate competitive edge. When you show up completely prepared, you immediately command respect and project a professional image to directors, choreographers, and casting agents alike.

Ditch the Chaos and Organize Your Season

If you want to step into your excellence, you need to stop managing your passion with disorganized tools. It's time to say goodbye to:

• Confusing, cluttered text group chats

• A messy, disorganized smartphone notes app

• Random physical notebooks you leave behind in the studio

The danZING app brings your files, corrections, packing lists, and schedules all into one easy-to-use platform built specifically for dancers. Whether you are leveling up your personal routine or looking to streamline your entire studio's workflow, the upcoming competition season is the perfect time to build better habits.

It is completely free to get started by yourself. Take your dance career seriously—build your system today.

Why Your Dance Team Group Chat is Stressing You Out (And How to Fix It)

TL;DR

Group chats are ruining your dance team's sanity. While they are great for sharing memes and hype videos, they are terrible for keeping track of schedules, music edits, and packing lists. Ditch the endless notification spam and switch to danZING—the all-in-one app designed to centralize dance team logistics without the drama.

You probably don’t even realize it, but your dance team group chat is actively stressing you out.

Don't get me wrong—group chats are great for a lot of things. They’re perfect for sending funny Reels from Instagram, sharing inspirational dance quotes, spamming jokes, and sending GIFs to hype each other up. But when it comes to the actual logistics of running a dance team? Group chats are where important details go to die.

The Information Overload is Real

Think about it. You probably have your notifications turned off for your team chats because there are just too many messages. But because you've muted the chat, what happens when you actually need crucial information?

Important updates get completely buried under a mountain of casual chatter. Good luck trying to find:

• When and where your next extra rehearsal is.

• What exactly you need to pack for your next competition.

• Your specific call times for competition day.

• The video from last week’s rehearsals to practice your choreography.

• The latest cut of the music edit.

When everything is mixed together, you spend more time scrolling through hundreds of texts trying to find a PDF than you do actually practicing.

Group Chat Drama and Miscommunication

Let’s be real—group chats are a breeding ground for drama and miscommunication. Someone accidentally sends the wrong thing, a message gets misinterpreted, or team drama starts spilling into the main thread. Suddenly, the official channel for your team feels like a toxic environment instead of a supportive community.

Plus, who is actually checking the group chat regularly anyway? Usually, it's just the teacher or director who is trying to moderate it. Most dancers and parents don't look at it unless someone explicitly reminds them to.

Enter danZING: The End of the Group Chat Chaos

That is why I am completely committed to bringing an end to the traditional dance team group chat.

We don't need to completely eliminate communication, but we do need to separate the "fun" from the "functional." Keep your group chats for the jokes and the memes, but use an app like danZING for everything else.

Why danZING works: It is one centralized app designed specifically for what dance teams actually need.

Instead of an endless stream of text messages, danZING organizes everything into clear, easy-to-find categories:

• Files & Music Edits: No more expired links or lost audio files.

• Choreography Corrections: Easily view notes from your instructors.

• Packing Lists: Know exactly what costumes and shoes to bring.

• Reminders & Schedules: Get notified only for the things that matter.

One App for Dancers, Parents, and Teachers

The biggest mistake dance studios make is creating too many separate group chats—one for the dance moms, one for the dancers, and one for the teachers. It’s exhausting.

With danZING, parents, teachers, and dancers can all access the exact same platform. You only get notified when there is a legitimate update, meaning you can finally say goodbye to information overload and buried updates.

It’s time to protect your peace, clear out the clutter, and switch to a super simple, easy-to-use app that keeps your dance season running smoothly.

The Future of Dance is Now: Why the Industry is the New Creative Powerhouse

I’ve (Prisha) always said that the future of dance is massive, but I realized I’ve never truly sat down to elaborate on why. If you look around today, dance isn't just an art form anymore—it is the heartbeat of modern marketing and digital culture.

From the screens of our smartphones to global ad campaigns, dancers are becoming the primary storytellers for the world’s biggest brands. Here is why the "dance economy" is exploding and how DanceVibes is building the infrastructure to support it.

1. Dancers as the New Face of Global Brands

Have you noticed that almost every major consumer brand targeting Gen Z is dance-centered?

• Apple leaned heavily into movement for their "I'm Not Remarkable" campaign.

• Gap has revitalized its image through high-energy, dance-focused commercials.

• Athletic brands like Alo Yoga are shifting from traditional athletes to "dance-fluencers" for their brand partnerships.

Dancers are no longer just "background talent." They are the influencers, the creative directors, and the artists themselves. This shift is creating an unprecedented number of job opportunities for dancers, ranging from exclusive content creation and brand deals to high-profile world tours and cruise ship contracts.

2. The Commercial Revolution: More Than Just Moving

The "Commercial Dance" world is expanding. We are seeing a massive surge in:

• Professional Assisting: Dancers helping world-class choreographers.

• Dance Conventions: Where networking and posting content are just as important as the technique learned in class.

• Vocal Integration: More dancers are becoming "triple threats," taking vocal lessons to transition into full-scale recording artists.

3. Solving the Industry's "Centralization" Problem (An Example)

While the opportunities are growing, the tools to manage them are stuck in the past. Right now, the industry is fragmented. If a teacher wants to find a reliable assistant, they are often stuck scrolling endlessly through Instagram.

The industry needs a centralized hub. Imagine a dedicated platform where you can:

• Find and hire dance assistants using specific filters like style and location.

• Streamline studio management with software that is actually user-friendly and modern.

• Manage competition teams without the paper trail headache.

4. How DanceVibes is Shaping the Future

This is where DanceVibes comes in. We started with our danZING app—designed to handle competition team management, file sharing, corrections, and even packing checklists.

But that’s just the beginning. We are currently working on a massive calendar component to help dancers and studio owners stay organized in this fast-paced environment and many other app, branding, and architecture products. Our mission is to move beyond the "status quo" of outdated software and provide dancer-made products for a dancer-led world.