The Radiant Dancer

✨ FREE INFO SESSION: Discover the Missing Foundations for Movement and Learning Success ✨
Why do some students continue to struggle with coordination, confidence, focus, and skill development — even when they are working hard and receiving quality instruction?
What if the challenge isn’t the student’s ability… but something foundational that hasn’t yet been developed?
Join Mariah-Jane Thies for a free introduction to Radiant Spark Dance — an approach designed to help dance educators understand the deeper foundations that influence how students move, learn, and develop.
Mariah-Jane Thies is a dance educator, mentor, and movement specialist with nearly 40 years of experience helping dancers and teachers unlock their potential. She is the recipient of the 2024 RAD Innovation in Dance Teacher Award, a TEDx speaker, and the creator of Radiant Spark Dance. Through her work in dance education, movement development, and brain-body connections, Mariah-Jane brings a deeper understanding of what supports students in becoming capable, confident, and connected movers.
In this free information session, you’ll be introduced to:
✨ Why some students struggle despite their effort and motivation
✨ The hidden foundations that influence movement learning and skill development
✨ A different way of understanding student potential through the connection between the brain and body
✨ How the Radiant Spark Dance can expand the tools you have as a dance educator to release and accelerate potential in all students.
This session is an opportunity to explore the ideas behind Radiant Spark Dance and discover how this unique approach can transform the way you understand and support your students.
The deeper exploration continues in the Radiant Spark Dance 2-Day Course, where we dive further into the concepts, tools, and practical applications for your teaching.
📅 Date: Wednesday July 22
⏰ Time: 11:30 am PST.
📍 Online via Zoom (recordings available)
Register here: https://www.radiantdancer.com/offers/EfDoNyFj/checkou

What If It’s Not About Trying Harder?
Discover the Missing Foundations Behind Dancer Success

Dance teachers — what if some of the challenges you see every day aren’t about a student needing to “work harder”… but about missing pieces in their movement development?

After almost 40 years of teaching, I’ve learned that the body and brain have a powerful role in how dancers learn, coordinate, express, and build confidence.

The Radiant Spark Dance Teacher Workshop brings together developmental movement, Brain Dance, brain integration, and practical teaching strategies you can immediately apply in your classes.

This is for teachers who want to:
Understand their dancers at a deeper level
See the needs of every dancer from the perspective of foundational movement
Discover why some corrections don’t “stick”
Support stronger, more confident, capable movers
Add powerful tools to their teaching toolkit

If you’re curious about the movement foundations that may be the missing link for your dancers, I’d love for you to take a look:
https://www.radiantdancer.com/brain-dance-2-day-course-2026

Your next teaching breakthrough may begin with a new way of seeing movement...it's roots!

Hello my lovely teachers!
For those of you still in the lead up to your year end recital/concert, may the link below provide you with some support. It is an excerpt/free lesson from the mini-course Recital Readiness Secrets. This course shares my insights, strategies and tips not just based on 40 years of teaching, but from my unique angle of the need for brain integration for a good performance.
This idea of nervous system regulation and brain integration is starting to seep into our dance world but there is not a lot of info yet on how to actually do this backstage, for our teen beginners, youngest dancers, adults AND our competitive teams.
This course is extremely practical. I hope you find the free lesson useful!

Recital Readiness Secrets Free Lesson Offer If you are a teacher or a studio owner, that means you are involved in preparing students for a dance recital. And, there is much more to it than simply teaching and polishing a dance. This course shares unique strategies to address the brain state of dancers before performing.

✨ Your Dancers Look Amazing in Class… But Do They Shine on Stage?
You’ve cleaned the choreography.
You’ve rehearsed the spacing.
You’ve done all the things…
But then recital day comes—and suddenly nerves, overwhelm, and backstage chaos take over 😬
So here’s the real question:
How do you prepare dancers so the recital feels exciting, confident, and stress-free… instead of overwhelming?
🎭 Recital Readiness Secrets
This course gives you clear, practical strategies to guide your dancers through the most overlooked part of training:
👉 The transition from studio rehearsal to stage performance
Because the truth is…
💡 A successful recital isn’t just a show—
It’s one of your strongest retention tools.
When dancers feel confident AND parents see joyful performances…they come back year after year 💫
Inside You’ll Discover:
✨ Studio Preparation Strategies
Build confidence and performance skills—without feeding perfectionism
✨ Preparing Dancers for the Theatre
Help dancers feel at home in a completely unfamiliar environment
✨ Dressing Room Readiness
Go beyond warm-ups and teach dancers how to truly prepare to perform
✨ Backstage Focus Techniques
Simple tools from The Diamond Method: Shine Under Pressure to keep dancers calm and centered
✨ Confidence & Emotional Regulation
Support each dancer’s unique emotional needs so they can self-regulate
✨ Performance Imagery
Quick, powerful techniques to create confidence, connection, and stage magic ✨
What You’ll Get:
✔ 4 hours of practical, reusable training
✔ Done-for-you checklists & tools (no more guessing!)
✔ Clear understanding of why these strategies work
🎁 Bonuses
• 2-hour Backstage Strategies Teacher Webinar
• 2-hour Student Workshop
• Unique Vision Training Lessons
Why This Matters ❤️
A recital isn’t just a performance.
It’s the moment students become dancers…
Confidence is built…
And families decide if they’re coming back for next season.
If you’re ready to create a recital experience where your dancers feel calm, confident, and truly ready to shine 🌟
Drop a ✨ in the comments or send me a message and I’ll share the details!

If you want dancers to be able to actually have good Spatial Awareness in stage performances and exams...we need to consider whether the dancer's brain is integrated allowing for the eyes to team to have depth perception.
Check out the other posts I just made to learn more. But, FB won't let me post a link and a photo in the same post (grrr...)

The video mentioned in the previous post is this one (please subscribe if you have not already done so - thanks!).

Dancers! Improve both Learning and Performance by Addressing your Brain State www.radiantdancer.comDance Teachers you are invited to join the FB group for The Radiant Dance Teacher https://www.facebook.com/groups/220513962945833Dancers...

Hi my fellow dancers and teachers!
One day I'll be ready to be super fast on making/editing and posting a video that answers questions I see on other FB groups...but in the meantime, I thought I'd share about the question and answer I gave since a bit of a written answer is better than none at all and there is a good chance you may be having a similar challenge to the original poster.

Here is the Post from the Dance Teacher/Choreographer Network:

Looking for suggestions!
My routines have great spacing when they are in studio rehearsal.
However, once they get on stage, particularly my younger students, lose sense of special awareness and ensuring they are executing their formations.
They’re novice/intermediate.
Would love suggestions, tips and tricks to work on preventing this.

Hi Julia, I have a slightly different take on the traditional advice that is often given. I have been teaching dance for 40 years and also have certifications in additional areas focusing on using movement for brain integration. An integrated brain, means that all our various skills are online and available. And that would include spatial awareness and depth perception. For example, we need both eyes to be working together (what’s called teaming) in order for our depth perception to be accurate. And each eye is processed by the opposite brain hemisphere. Imagine trying to space your dance movements effectively with an eye patch on!! It would be very tough even if you’re trying hard AND looking for markers on the stage.

In essence, it is quite possible that for both learning and performing your dancers are wearing an eye patch: meaning their brain is not integrated and even with all the great teaching strategies it is simply never going to fully work. Sounds like you are feeling this frustration right now.
This lack of brain integration in your students can be from even the stress of living a life with screens or having been at school all day with academic and social pressures, which even young students are feeling.

The solution is movement based so it is perfect for dance teachers and I believe all dance teachers should be adding to our responsibilities to actually help our dancers to thrive in all areas of life, because of the movement that we offer them. Likely no one else is going to, so it falls to us; not as a burden, but as something very exciting too share!

I have a few resources you can check out. There is a youtube video about brain integration and there is also a course with a whole host of backstage movements you can do to ensure that they are in an integrated brain state. And, of course, you teach those movements in class, so that what they are learning is able to truly imprint and be remembered for performance.
I guarantee it will make a massive difference for both learning and performing. I hope you check out the resources and of course, reach out with any more questions you may have.

Here is the link for the course:

Backstage Strategies Webinar Series The essential course for leading edge educators is here! Truly help dancers to perform on stage with confidence and fully available skills.

Happy Sunday everyone. I've just uploaded another video to assist students in those last few minutes backstage...and the science behind why it works.
Please enjoy (and subscribe if you have not already)

Dancers: Try This Before You Go On Stage Do you get nervous before going on stage? Backstage nerves and performance anxiety are very common for dancers — whether it's a competition, exam, recital, o...