Tremaine Dance Conventions & Competitions began as a dream: A dream to share the contemporary, new coaching methods and materials being taught in main cities like Los Angeles and New York with dance college students all through the nation. President and co-founder Dr. Joe Tremaine (who acquired an honorary doctorate from The College of Arizona) has a protracted historical past of working with the very best within the enterprise—as a dancer, a choreographer, and an educator. (He’s labored with a star-studded record of entertainers, together with Paula Abdul, Gregory Hines, Gene Kelly, and Barbara Streisand, to call just a few.) Within the Nineteen Seventies, Tremaine opened the Joe Tremaine Dance Middle in Los Angeles, and in 1981, he determined to develop his dedication to top-notch coaching. Tremaine threw a file participant in his automobile and hit the highway, fulfilling his dream of delivering new courses, instructors, and concepts across the nation—offering higher entry in a pre-internet period and setting lots of the requirements within the conference trade that younger artists know and love right now.
Now in its forty fourth season, Tremaine Dance Conventions & Competitions is way larger than a one-man present: With a roster of acclaimed college, a 26-city tour every year, and a big following of dancers nationwide, Tremaine continues to construct on its legacy of being an influential voice in dance training right now.
Tremaine Is for Life
Govt producer Terry Lindholm first met Tremaine as a younger dancer. He attended a Tremaine conference and was awarded a scholarship to coach on the Joe Tremaine Dance Middle. Quickly after, Lindholm joined the Tremaine conference college and taught for over a decade. He additionally had a efficiency profession working with the likes of Reba McEntire and within the movie Newsies, in addition to three appearances on the Oscars earlier than opening his personal expertise company. Having remained near Tremaine over time, Lindholm returned to the group as its government producer in the course of the pandemic.
“This can be a household at Tremaine,” says Lindholm. “It’s at all times been a terrific basis of assist.” As he’s transitioned from scholar to performer to instructor to producer, Lindholm has constructed an enormous community made up of the folks he’s met alongside the best way. “Constructing an expert profession is all about relationships,” he says—and Tremaine relationships are for all times.
The truth is, lots of the group’s college members grew up coaching at Tremaine: Business dancer Tiffany Maher was Tremaine’s 2004 Teen Dancer of the 12 months; Keri LaGrand, Tremaine Efficiency Firm director, studied on the Joe Tremaine Dance Middle; and Emmy-winning choreographer Josh Bergasse, who joined the school this yr, attended Tremaine competitions and conventions yearly together with his mother, who grew up coaching with Tremaine co-founder Julie Adler.
Core Values
Forty-four years in the past, Tremaine based his group with the philosophy “Dance coaching is life coaching,” a motto that’s nonetheless the guts of Tremaine right now. Past approach, dancers are inspired to push themselves and take dangers throughout conventions and competitions. They’re given alternatives to experiment and be impressed by the dancers round them. And Tremaine’s competitors permits younger dancers to study the dear lesson of methods to fail graciously because it solely awards first by means of fourth place, understanding that there’s worth within the course of—not simply in profitable.
Tremaine understands that many dancers who attend the conventions will not be going to pursue dance professionally, however the group believes that the teachings they study by means of dance will profit them in no matter path they select. Lindholm is a transparent instance of this, occurring to be a profitable agent after finding out and performing for years. Different former Tremaine dancers have gone on to turn out to be legal professionals, administrators, actors, and extra, together with Emmy-winning make-up artist Tym Buacharern, Step Up actress Jenna Dewan, and director Anne Fletcher.
Past dance courses, Tremaine has boards and Q&A periods for fogeys, academics, and college students on subjects like getting into the skilled world, going to school, and utilizing social media properly. Lecturers give again by sharing trade suggestions to assist dancers take their subsequent steps of their coaching and careers.
New Faces
This season, Tremaine added to its various roster of school with newcomers from quite a lot of types, together with Bergasse, who choreographed Broadway’s Smash; Rhonda Miller, who’s the creator and former director of the BFA industrial dance program at Tempo College and is the present director of the brand new Tremaine Dance / Rhonda Miller Business Dance Coaching Program based mostly in Los Angeles; and “So You Suppose You Can Dance” Season 6 star Jakob Karr. In choose cities, dancers can leap and switch with Broadway’s Depraved solid member Matthew Deloch, groove with Jawkeen Howard from Cirque du Soleil’s Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour, grasp new methods with Cyrus “Glitch” Spencer of “SYTYCD,” cha-cha with “Dancing with the Stars” professional Emma Slater, and study extra new types from knowledgeable instructors.
However at Tremaine, it’s about extra than simply bringing in big-name choreographers and dancers. All college are established educators with a ardour for connecting with the scholars. “They do a extremely good job of getting down on the ground to see and work together with the dancers,” says Lindholm. The college go away dancers feeling impressed to go dwelling and work more durable—in any self-discipline they select—thereby persevering with Tremaine’s 44-year legacy of training the following technology of leaders.
To bounce with Tremaine this summer season or in the course of the upcoming forty fifth season, click on right here.
