Dance studios across the country and around the world have had their businesses turned upside down over the past few months of 2020 and the Covid-19 pandemic. These trying times make it imperative for dance studio owners to take the necessary steps to make their dance environments as safe as possible.
As a certified Youth Protection Advocates in Dance (YPAD) studio, LDC is committed to providing a healthy and safe dance experience for our students. YPAD certified studios have stepped up with YPAD certification, having staff CPR certified and a host of other factors to deliver to their students the type of environment your child deserves.
In 2020 with what we have experienced in the first several months of the year, we have to step up even further to make a safer experience for the children attending classes. Some of the initiatives that we are implementing include:
LDC is a Safer Studio™
- LDC follows the More Than Just Great Dancing!® Safer Studio Guidelines which prioritize a hierarchy of safety and wellness measures including:
- Wellness checks for staff
- Frequent hand hygiene
- Enhanced cleaning procedures
- Minimizing mixing and mingling via social distancing practices
- Curricular and facility adjustments
- Gradual re-opening and continuous parent communications.
Wellness Checks for Staff and Students
- LDC is a Youth Protection Advocates in Dance® Certified Studio. Additionally, all teachers and staff members will receive regular and continuing safety training as it relates to preventing community spread of COVID-19.
- All staff members are wellness checked before their shift.
- Parents are asked to not send their children to class if they, or a member of their household, have a fever or respiratory symptoms.
- Parents are asked to not send their children to class if they, or a member of their household, have tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 14 days.
Frequent Hand Hygiene
- Employees will wash hands and/or sanitize before and after each class.
- Hand sanitizing stations will be available at the front entrance and inside the classrooms. Students will be encouraged to wash hands and/or sanitize before and after classes.
- Hand washing posters are posted within bathrooms and classrooms.
Enhanced Cleaning Procedures
- We have increased our cleaning frequencies and sanitation procedures of high traffic areas and high touch surfaces of the studio such as door handles, barres, floors, counters, stereos, and bathrooms.
Minimized Mixing and Mingling
We have made facility, scheduling, and curricular changes to reduce mixing and mingling in support of social distancing recommendations. However, we understand that unlike older children and adults, young children cannot be expected to maintain social distancing at all times.
Facility & Curricular Adjustments
- Lobby waiting areas, kitchen area, children’s play area, student study areas, locker rooms, etc will be closed unless specified.
- Please bring clearly labeled water bottles. Drinking fountains will not be available.
- Dancers will bring all dance bags into the studio for changing shoes. Locker rooms will be closed. The unisex bathroom will be available for toileting only, but not for changing clothes.
- No food will be allowed in the studio.
- We will not have our borrow shoe bins available at this time.
- Curricular adjustments have been made to eliminate prop use and hand-holding and to reduce mixing and mingling in the classroom.
- Class sizes have been modified to reflect current county recommendations of no more than 15 in a room.
- To maintain appropriate class sizes, makeup classes will not be available at this time.
- Classrooms will refrain from high fives, “ballerina hugs”, fist bumps, stickers, and stamps.
- Classrooms will have staggered dismissal (3-5 minutes) to allow for student transitions.
Arrival & Departure
- At this time, we ask that parents wait in their cars or outside during classes to help with social distancing in the building. One parent of little dancers, age 6 or younger, is able to wait inside if necessary for child comfort.
- Please limit parent drop off to one person whenever possible. Sibling visitors cannot be accommodated during this term.
- Pending weather conditions, we may have the children depart through the side doors, on mats along the grass.
Bathroom Use
- We encourage all students to use the restroom at home before coming to class.
- Bathrooms will be limited for emergencies and will be cleaned hourly.
- Bathroom facility use will be limited to the unisex bathroom for the summer session.
