Lisa Allred – Communication Skills for On and Off the Stage

Welcome to Communication Skills for On and Off the Stage. In this workshop you will learn how to communicate effectively in everyday conversations and difficult ones. After you register, you will receive an email with access to a new module every two days, This workshop was originally “live”, but we converted the format so you would have the opportunity to learn all this content we worked so hard to put together.

First, a little about us. Terri and I are both trained therapists (I am a Social Worker by day) familiar with communication skills, techniques and conflict. We are also American Tribal Style® dancers, with a history of studying and teaching other styles of belly dance including Egyptian and Tribal Fusion.

Dancers are constantly communicating on the stage. In improvisational dance, our steps are words, our cues are punctuation, and each dancer who leads the group forms sentences. Each sentence spoken by the lead dancer is woven with the sentences spoken by the next lead dancer to tell a story for the audience. Even in choreographed dance, the rules of communication are clear while on stage.

Off the stage can be a different story…

Just like on the stage, communicating off stage takes clarity, trust and courage.

In this class you will:

-explore your own communication style

-learn tools for communicating when conflict is involved

-explore tips for having a conversation when conflict is involved

-practice what to do if these strategies don’t work (e.g., handling REALLY difficult people).

For most of us, having difficult or conflictual conversations is not an easy thing to do. Preparing for conflictual conversations help make them successful. Handling conflict effectively off-the- stage can positively impact communication and performance on stage and make your class or troupe even more successful.

In this class we will focus on conflict because this is the most challenging form of communication and because these skills can be taught and learned.

This is an area where your personal improvement will positively affect any group with whom you interact. This is true because people learn through modeling. Even if you belong to a group where conflict is an issue with multiple group members, when you change, the dynamics of the entire group change as well.