Hello friends! Back to school is barreling toward us, and for our house that means a new studio, a new audition, and a whole lot of feelings in my stomach. This week I’m flying solo to talk about what’s coming this fall, what my wife and I are doing to keep the anxiety in check — his and ours. Deep breath. Here we go.
🕰️ How we got here
We stepped away from big studio dance in early 2025 after about five years — still not ready to tell that story, but I will eventually
What followed was a great year of Atticus as a free agent, working with a dance consultant who plugged him into networking, coaches, intensives, and camps he’d never have found otherwise
He started at a performing arts high school expecting big-studio intensity, and that expectation didn’t match reality — no fault of the school, just a misalignment that led to some disappointment
By this spring, my wife and I knew he needed a studio again to feed the hunger
😬 Why the audition brings anxiety
Big studio dance can be full of cliques, it can cost a fortune, and the social pressure is real
For most of his dance life, Atticus was the only guy on his team and started later than everyone else, so he was always the new kid on the block and trying to break into circles that were already tight
✅ What’s landing in the pro column this time
A small number of teams, with placement based on age. After years of "why am I not moving up with my older friends?", that kind of transparency deflates a huge amount of pre-audition dread
A staff that says openly they’re a low-drama studio: if we see something, we say something, we squash it. I don’t think you can fully separate drama from dance — it’s baked in — but I love the effort
A lighter competition schedule that leans toward events with classes and workshops built in, so the kids come home having learned something instead of just surviving an assembly line
📱 The broken record about likes
When he tells me his dance video got 50 likes, my answer is always the same — the people who really love you love you at zero likes or 20 million
Some friends and family think we’re a little too brutally honest with him about this. I’m okay with that. Instagram is a real app with real videos, but it’s not real life
🎓 The parallel track
He turns 16 this summer, has his permit, and already has a list of about six colleges he found through dance — so social media is actually a gift here
The honest conversation we keep having: your physique and flexibility run out eventually, so let’s build the rest of your life in parallel. Right now he’s eyeing forensics programs (thanks to a deep love of procedural crime shows) or a business degree
💡 His strip mall studio idea
He pitched us on leasing a small space and turning it into a practice studio — a real problem worth solving, since most studios won’t let you reserve a room for random practices
Even small spaces around here are wildly expensive, but I love the business drive behind it. Maybe in a few years
❤️ The message underneath all of it
As parents we say “We’ve got your back. Compete and network, but also build your life beyond just dance.”
And no matter how many triple-ruby-upside-down-diamond-hyper-uppercut-platinum-sapphire-silver awards you do or don’t bring home, it doesn’t change our love for you one iota — and it doesn’t define who you are
I‘d love to hear your thoughts on this one, or anything else we’ve talked about. Everything lives at dadofadancer.com, where you can subscribe and leave a comment on any post. You can also just DM me, which seems to be what most folks are comfortable with — but hey, why not make a friend in the comment section?
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Have yourself a wonderful rest of your week, and we’ll talk to you all next week on Dad of a Dancer. Bye-bye!
