In the previous post we posed the question of “What can a dance studio do when the government shuts down businesses due to a pandemic?”
We at Liberty Dance Center in Waukesha, Wisconsin acted quickly when the state imposed a “Safer at Home” mandate. That order to close non-essential businesses may have closed our physical building, but it didn’t stop us from continuing to serve our students and provide their weekly classes for them. With the help of More Than Just Great Dancing™ (which Liberty Dance Center has been a member of for 5 years), the Liberty team made a quick pivot to adapt all of their 100+ weekly classes to a virtual platform.
Our team worked around the clock that first week, learning new technology, creating password-protected links for our students, and adapting their lesson plans to work in the new format. We offered nearly 20 free test classes which allowed the students and teachers to get comfortable with the new format, as well as iron out any kinks.
The Liberty Dance Center team also created a free resource site, which we named “Love. Dance. Connect.” This virtual learning site included videos of recital dances, fun activities to do at home, prerecorded dance combos, storytime readings, and more! The following week, we went to live classes with all of our 100+ weekly classes, giving the kids the opportunity to keep connected to dance, their teachers, and their classmates.
The feedback from our customers was very supportive, appreciating the joy on their children’s faces when they could get some sense of normalcy to their lives. As members of Youth Protection Advocates in Dance® we are always striving to keep our students Happy, Healthy, and Safe in dance. This was another chance for us to do so and we are proud that we are able to provide that for them. And we will continue to do so as long as we need.
(Click here to go to part 3 in the series.)
