Classes start today! Sept news and reminders
Hello Dancestation Families! We are so excited to see you all this week!You may walk your student into the lobby for class. Your child’s teacher will come to the lobby and bring the entire class in to the studio together. Most of our teachers teach back-to-back classes. So if your teacher isn’t in the lobby yet, it is just because they are coming from their class directly before. We don’t want parents in the room when we teach because it’s too distracting too the children, who will watch the parents instead of the teachers. However, we always leave the doors open to teach unless the lobby gets too loud. So you can watch that way. Most parents, after the first week, use that time to run errands or read a book in their car. But you are welcome to stay in the lobby as long as it doesn’t get too loud. Pick up can be in the lobby or directly outside the side entrance where the trees are. Please be on time to pick up your dancers as the teachers go straight into our next class right away. Remember to use street parking as well on busy nights when the back lot is very full. Please do not park in the Ice Scream U Scream lot as their lot is very small and only for their customers. Here is your September newsletter!
DanceStation News: September 2024
Welcome back dancers and hello to new students!
DanceStation App: Please make sure you have downloaded the DanceStation app and allowed notifications. This is the only paper newsletter we will be handing out this year, besides the recital costume permission slip. The app will have all of our monthly newsletters as well as the yearly calendar that is also on the back of this newsletter. You can also pay your tuition directly from the app with your username and password to the parent portal. I send out reminder notifications/bursts from time to time for weather updates, reminders about orders that are due, parent visitation week in October, etc. The same message I send in the notification will always be posted on the news section of the app as well. If your Notification disappears very quickly on your phone and you’re not sure how to make it stay so you can read it, follow these steps – 1. Go into Settings on your phone 2. Go to Notifications 3. Scroll down to find the DanceStation app 4. It should say Allow notifications, but also you need to change the ‘Banner’ from Temporary to Persistent. On Android phones you may want to follow the same instructions as above and then instead of #4 above you would allow notifications on your lock screen.
Recital DVD’s, flash-drives, and pictures are in! They are in the lobby if you haven’t picked them up yet.
September is evaluation time. We will be making sure every student has been placed in the best class for her/his abilities.
Tuition: Tuition is due the first class of every month. There is a $10 late fee automatically added after the 15th of the month (Sept is the 20th since it’s the first month). You can pay tuition by check or cash and place it in the tuition box in the lobby, or most of our families now use the parent portal to pay online. As I mentioned previously, if you choose the e-check version instead of the credit card payment option you can save yourself a significant amount on fees from the DSP company. The credit card option charges 3% plus 30 cents per transaction. The e-check only charges .8% total. If you signed up for Autopay, it is withdrawn during the first week of every month. Autopay only deducts for tuition, it does not deduct for costume fees, tickets, workshops, etc. You must pay these manually.
Parking: Remember to drive very slowly down the alley, and please make sure to park in our lot or use the front State Street parking – you can park on both sides of the street. The ice cream lot is small and is reserved for their customers only. Please pull all the way into a parking spot to drop your child off, instead of idling in the middle of our lot, for the safety of children and other cars behind you.
Dress Code: Students are expected to follow the dress code. Our younger students in combination classes (pre-ballet/tap or ballet/tap/jazz) levels will need a solid-colored leotard (skirt attached is fine), pink tights, pink ballet shoes, black tap shoes and hair pulled back in a ponytail or bun. All students in ballet classes (Ballet 2 and up) are required to wear their hair in a bun. Ballet students must wear a solid color leotard and pink tights to all ballet, Cecchetti, and pointe classes. For jazz and modern classes – students must wear a leotard to all classes, and can wear dance shorts with tights underneath, or they may wear leggings. Tight t-shirts or tank tops are acceptable over the leotard in jazz or modern, but all students should be prepared to remove them if their teacher asks (and I usually do). Ladies, no baggy gym shorts, only dance shorts. Boys: can wear black athletic shorts or pants, or black leggings, a white t-shirt, black ballet shoes, and black tap shoes. For Hip Hop/Jazz/Tap/ Modern class, any solid color athletic tee is fine.
Calendar: on the back of this newsletter is DanceStation’s yearly calendar. I know many of you plan your vacations around (and hopefully after!!) the recital, so mark your calendars now! June 2-6th is recital week with mandatory dress rehearsals at the studio and at the Hett. Saturday, June 7 and Sunday, June 8th are recital dates this year at the Hettenhausen Center for the Arts. We have a conflict with the McKendree kids band camp that week this year, so we need to do Sat/Sun recitals this year instead of Fri/Sat like we usually have. If you end up taking a vacation before the show, please realize that this will affect not only your own child, but also those students that dance around them. Missing an entire week of classes before recital weekend is highly, highly discouraged and your child may not be able to participate fully as there are mandatory rehearsals throughout that last week.
Have a great year!!! Thank you from all of our teachers—Elizabeth Conway, Jennifer Battenberg, Sonya Doerr, Jennifer Fischer, Haley Lindquist, Mary Montes and our front desk staff—Lily, Clara, Evelyn, Emma, Taryn, and Aileen.
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