Katie Flashner’s life changed forever when she found ballroom dancing seven years ago. 

Since then, the pro-am competitor, who you may know on FloDance as “The Girl with the Tree Tattoo,” has made it her mission to share her passion for ballroom in an accessible way—detailing both the ups and downs along the way—through her blog, videos, podcast, and series of “Dance Diaries” ebooks.

Now she wants to help you eliminate the stress of practicing away from private lessons.

Do you dread having to practice on your own? Do you have trouble figuring out where or when to practice? Are you unsure what to practice or run out of ideas after 20 minutes? 

Then the “Solo Practice Guide” may be the resource you need to help you improve as a dancer, boost your confidence, and progress your journey as a competitor to the next level.

In this Q&A, The Girl with the Tree Tattoo explains what inspired her to create the Guide, which is currently available for preorder, and what the ballroom community can learn from practicing smarter instead of longer.

FloDance: For those who aren’t familiar with your background, how did you get started in ballroom dancing?

Flashner: My very first exposure to ballroom was via private lessons for my wedding in 2011. While we weren’t interested in a choreographed first dance, my fiancé and I wanted to be able to dance together at our 1920s-themed reception. He was over the whole dancing thing once we were married, but I was completely hooked. About a year later, a coworker invited me to a party at the studio where she was learning to dance ballroom. That studio became a second home for me, and I still train there today!

I started out just going to the practice parties, while I saved money to take group classes and private lessons. At the end of 2012, I received a gift certificate for a 10-lesson package. That gift started me on this incredible journey of personal discovery and transformation through dance.

What inspired you to create this Solo Practice Guide?

In 2014, I discovered competitive ballroom was where I wanted to be. I thrived there, always placing in the top three at competitions (usually as first or second). Then something shifted in 2017. I was working hard in my lessons and I felt like my dancing was improving, but it didn’t seem to be enough. I started dropping in placements and ended the 2017 season with a fifth place, my lowest placement to date. Nothing to scoff at, but my ego took a major blow. It felt like I had plateaued, and that frustrated me. 

I had the passion and drive to become an amazing ballroom dancer. But I couldn’t afford to take more lessons or coachings, and I didn’t have the time to spend hours every day practicing in the studio. So how could I continue to grow as a dancer? Instead of throwing countless dollars or hours at my problem, I focused on learning and practicing smarter. Since I couldn’t add more lessons to my schedule, I figured out where I could add the most effective practice time, even if it was only once a week for an hour. I worked with my teacher on practice drills and homework assignments. Within a few weeks of me committing to a new, organized solo practice routine, both my teacher and I noticed major improvement in my dancing. 

As with the rest of my dance journey, I shared my progress on The Girl with the Tree Tattoo blog and social media pages. I learned other dancers struggled with similar issues related to their solo practice. They didn’t know when to practice, how long to practice, or what to practice after they reviewed their routines for 10 minutes. The desire was there, but the knowledge and confidence to act on that desire was missing. That’s how the Solo Practice Guide for Ballroom Dancing got started. I first created a simple one-page worksheet that I gave away for free. It consists of a sample practice outline, telling exactly what one can do for their solo practice from beginning to end, and various tips and strategies for specific struggles that my readers have brought up. Once that worksheet was out in the world though, I knew I could go more in depth and answer more questions on how to really make a solo practice effective. So I wrote a whole book on the subject!

Why do you think dancers from all skill levels and styles will find it helpful?

The whole point of the Guide is finding and creating a solo practice routine that works for you and your life. It provides the framework for creating that routine, so as you develop as a dancer, you can break down that routine and build it back up again to suit your needs. While the context of the Guide is based in ballroom dancing, the content of the Guide can be adapted to any partner dancing at almost any level. Even newcomers can benefit because the Guide was also designed to complement training with a teacher or coach. 

The Guide’s framework will help them figure out when and where would be best for them to practice, and then they can include their teacher in figuring out the content of that practice. More advanced dancers will appreciate the flexible structures that they can apply to their solo practice, and I think they’ll very much relate to the items discussed in the chapter dedicated to mindset. 

How have the readers of your blog and the wider ballroom community embraced this project? Have you received any feedback from them on the guide so far? 

I have been overwhelmed with the amount of positive feedback I’ve gotten so far on the Solo Practice Guide. When I opened up a paid beta group to read through just a draft of the Guide, spots sold out in a little over a week! I also partnered with Dancesportplace.com who loved the idea of helping people practice on their own more effectively and created a special offer for their website specifically for people who invested in their solo practice by purchasing the Guide.

Here are a few of the testimonials I’ve received so far.

Can people who purchase an ebook version or hard copy of the Guide expect additional content over the coming months? Are you planning on regularly updating it and do you hope to release future editions?

Your physical (or digital) copy of the Guide is just the beginning. People who buy the Guide will have access to a private Facebook group as well as a private Resources area of the Solo Practice Guide’s website. This Resources area is going to be continuously updated with both written and video content that addresses whatever struggles come up in our solo practice. Like Dancesportplace.com and its excellent library of training videos, I’m also planning on adding additional partner resources to supplement what I provide.