Hello everyone, how are you? You're on my mind quite a bit. Are you happy, healthy, bored, tired, worried, or all the above? I've got to admit I'm feeling it all as I'm sure most of you are as well. It's a crazy time, but we are strong, optimistic, flexible, and confident; ready to take this on full steam ahead. It's what we preach, it's what believe, and it's what we try to instill in every single student that enters our doors. From 18 months to 18 years old we strive to equip you with life tools to help you navigate life; whether it's going well or you're struggling. We at TSDPAC want to not only celebrate the wins but teach you how to handle the difficult. What kind of role models would we be if we shut our doors and ran? What message would that be telling all our students and their families? THAT'S NOT WHO WE ARE. We work and fight for what we believe in and what we know brings joy to 300 students a week! We won't leave their side, we are going to be there to support them through this tumultuous time.
On Saturday, March 14th we sent an email about our upcoming Observation Week, which was to be March 16th-21st. We had planned to stay in session but limit the amount of people in our lobby and studio as we we're following strict cleaning procedures that we had in place for the studio. We could feel the shift beginning and wanted to stay on top of the situation as much as possible to ensure our community that we would be doing everything to keep our students safe. Covid-19 was a fast every changing situation and before we knew it the schools were closed. I sat down and researched everything, every option that we could do to keep in touch with our students. I laid out a plan for our Zoom calls, redrafted our entire schedule which includes; 73 classes, 12 instructors, and 300 students per week! I set up a Zoom call with our staff on Sunday night, explained the situation and what we were going to do. That we were going to jump in with both feet and find the silver lining. Less than 16 hours later, a video tutorial to our families, multiple attachments with instructions, and answering many many questions... we were running our first online class.
I won't say it was a perfect transition we had technical problems, communication troubles, and curriculum that needs modified to work in whatever space our students had to work in. We were committed to running every class which includes; dance, tumbling, conditioning, acro, and ninja! And I asked my staff to make it work; think outside the box, send your positivity and spirit through that camera and let those students know that we are here for them; and they did! Without hesitation or question. They jumped on board knowing our philosophy and what we stand for. My staff is awesome and I know that word gets thrown around quite a bit but they are truly AWESOME, defined as: -causing or inducing awe; inspiring an overwhelming feeling of reverence and admiration. They took every class on our schedule and modified to work within the home, to keep them moving forward, and to continue to work toward the goals we set in front of them at the beginning of the year. Whether that student is 2 years old and working toward the confidence of being able to show their whole class a favorite move all on their own or a teen that has been struggling to perfect their technique in order to land a triple pirouette it is all important, especially now. Inspiring our students to stay focused and remember what's important to them.
Our online classes are now successfully going into our 3rd week. With everything we are facing we are seeing an average of 90% attendance in all our 73 classes! It's truly amazing what can happen when we all work together. Our students have continued to grow and smile and enjoy their time with their class. Yes, it's not exactly the same as being in the studio but you can't take away the sense of family, camaraderie, pride, work ethic, and support. Those things will never change irregardless of if we are all in the same room together. We may need your help at home, helping your child get online and understanding what we're doing, but if this time has given us anything its that we can spend more time with our families, we can show them that time and support that we feel guilty about on a regular basis pre-Covid. We are together, working and having fun doing what we LOVE. Spreading joy and inspiration to all committed to staying the course and supporting us through this time. At our core we are a small business. A family run, small business with 14 employees, two locations, and and ever growing pile of bills, insurance, etc. This time is difficult on everyone and we just ask for the same support that we are extending to all of you. We just want to continue doing what we love. It's not easy, but most great things aren't. We hope to look back at this time and say, "Wow, look what we did, look at we accomplished together."
I sent an email to my staff yesterday with some encouraging words, questions, solutions, etc....I told them that we WILL be having our recital we WILL be doing everything that we set out to do this year. It may not be the same timing but we will complete everything we started. Nothing and no one can make us change course. WE are moving forward with confidence, inspiration, empowerment, and belief that what we are doing is changing lives. What we are doing needs to be a part of our students lives to give them a sense of normalcy, schedule, and a feeling of control in what can seem like an uncontrollable situation. We will be there, online, waiting for your child to sign on and we will give them 30, 40, 60, or 90 minutes of a class where they can be anything they want to be, where they can control exactly how they navigate it, where they can feel pride for overcoming an obstacle, where they can feel support and trust. Because after all that is what we do at TSDPAC. That's who were are and that's what we stand for; whether we're in quarantine or it's a normal Tuesday at the studio. This is why we do what we do. We are TSDPAC!
Thank you for your continued support!
Tiffany
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