Backstage Dance Studio's Newsletter February 2022

THE BEAT STUDIO NEWSLETTER

FEBRUARY 2022

TAKE A PEEK! PARENTS' NIGHT OUT & VALENTINE SPIRIT WEEK page 2 MID-WINTER BREAK CAMP & FOOTNOTES page 3 POP-UP PRE-BALLET, SESSION 2 page 4 SUMMER SCHEDULE page 5 & 6 SPRING SHOW INFO & BLOG page 7 & 8 FAQ'S & CHARACTER FOCUS page 9 "DID YOU KNOW" & PARENT ED page 10

1

With February upon us and hearts everywhere, let's take a moment for our own self love and self care! Busy parents give yourself a HUGE pat on the back for doing everything you can to help your children be successful and feel loved, all while navigating the crazy world we are dealing with! You are amazing, strong, supportive and VITAL to your child's success. You deserve some RECOGNITION! Thank you for working hard and making a difference!

- Marty

Enjoy a night out while your kids spend the evening with Ms. Charmin! Participants will enjoy a dance class, pizza, a movie and popcorn!

The featured movie for the evening is Disney's Sing 2!

For children ages 5 to 9. $35 per child, siblings are an additional $25 each. Register on the Backstage Dance website, HERE.

Valentine's Spirit Week!

Wear your red, pink or special valentine flair!! Make sure you can still move freely and dance it out! February 14 - 19th.

Self LOVE - We will be asking the kids to write what makes them special and unique and posting these hearts of love in our dance rooms! Check out our Facebook & Instagram pages for sharing! We are PROUD of our dancers!

2

Join Ms. Charmin for a week of enchantment as we dance to the songs of Disney's Encanto!

Ballet and hip hop classes, arts & crafts, story time and more! $275/camper. Register at backstagedance.org!

Footnotes Are you interested in our competitive program or just want to see some GREAT dancing? Support our Signature Competition Team on March 5th at Renton High School IKEA PAC. Dancers range from age 7 to 18 years old. More information is available on our website, showtime is 5pm, tickets are $25 and go on sale February 14th at 11am.

3

Pop Up Class 6 Week Session Preballet

March 1st - April 5th Tuesday 4:00-4:45 4-5 year olds welcome! $140.00 no registration fee required

Short Sessions

Back by popular demand! Offering a short 6 week session to test the waters in dance for our 4 and 5 year old kiddos! No long term commitment and lots of fun, movement and socialization for our youngest dancers!

4

es & s s a l C s Camp

5

Ju ne Ju ly 13 30 -

W da e c an n th ce 't is w wa su it i m h y t to m o er u !

De in tail ea s a rly va M ila ar bl ch e !

6

Our Spring Show Theme!

We c an't wait t o s h a r e A W h o l e N e w W o r l d w i t h y o u i n May! Stay tuned for d e t a ils on dre s s r e h e a r s a l s , p i c t u r e s , s h o w t i c k e t s a n d videos.

The Importance of Practice Why doing your "homework," even for extracurricular activities, is important.

Find out HERE 7

Spring Show Timeline February - March Students continue to learn new choreography and skills through March.

Attendance is important so dancers don't fall behind!

May

April Costumes begin to arrive and are passed out in class.

Dancers continue to rehearse their show piece, as well as the Grande Finale Bow!

The Final Countdown!

Class pictures in costumes.

Rehearsals at Backstage. The SHOW!

8

Top 3 FAQs When will the summer class schedule be available?

Summer classes are tentatively scheduled to run Monday, June 13 through Saturday, July 30th. We are also planning to offer six weeks of camps, beginning the week of June 20th through the week of July 25th. Camp offerings are half-day (for 3 to 6 year olds) and full-day (for 6 to 10 year olds). More details to come, registration will be available on the Backstage website in early March!

Can my child change classes at this point in the year?

Since classes are working on choreography for our spring shows, and students participating in our shows have had costumes ordered for their classes, making changes at this time of the year is not possible. Your child and their classmates will be working very hard over the next several months to learn technique and choreography they will perform for you on stage in May! Should your child have a conflict and needs to miss one or more classes, please give us a call or send an email to the studio so we can make sure the teacher is aware and that you make a plan so that your dancer does not fall behind in learning choreography.

What are your current COVID exposure protocols?

If anyone from one of your dancer's classes reports a positive COVID test within 48 hours of having taken a class at Backstage, we will notify the other members of the class of the possible exposure. Per CDC guidelines, if you have been exposed to COVID but ARE fully vaccinated and are NOT exhibiting any symptoms, you do not need to quarantine.

If you are not fully vaccinated, please make sure you receive a negative COVID test before returning to the studio. We will make sure the dancers in the class where the exposure took place remain more than 6 feet from others and that no masks come off, in addition to the continued hand washing and disinfecting around the studio and in the rooms. We are committed to providing transparent communication around health and safety. Thank you for supporting us and taking good care of each other.

There are Zoom links for each dance class available within the class list in your Jackrabbit Portal, should dancers who need to miss class due to COVID exposure or quarantine wish to participate in class.

As a reminder: PLEASE DO NOT SEND YOUR CHILDREN TO THE STUDIO IF THEY OR SOMEONE ELSE AT HOME IS EXHIBITING SIGNS OF SICKNESS UNTIL SAID SYMPTOMATIC PERSON HAS TESTED NEGATIVE FOR COVID. We are all in this together and need to look out for the overall health of our studio community, and community at large.

9

Our Character Focus for February is

Tenacity!

Persistence. Determination. Perseverence.

Tenacity is an important quality to have, especially if you're trying something challenging that takes a while to learn or finish. Look for a culture card coming home with your child when we notice them displaying this trait! This could be demonstrated by trying again, knowing your choreography this week, when you didn't know it last week, practicing and accomplishing the skill or technique you have been working on! Anything is possible with tenacity in your character!

10

Did You Know?

A proof-of-concept study at North Carolina State University finds that participation in dance programs helps students – including those in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines – develop skills such as creativity and persistence that benefited them in the classroom and beyond. “We found that study participants feel that they benefit substantially from participating in the arts – in this case, dance – and that, in this context, the arts can be viewed as a structure for fostering inclusion and nurturing persistence, among other things.”(https://news.ncsu.edu/ 2017/10/dance-and-stem2017/)

11

Parent Education Backstage would like to partner with you on your parenting journey!

We will inform you of parenting workshops and speaker series that may be of interest to you, and hope to bring you some of our own events throughout the year.

Supporting Anti-Bias Education at Home and In School FREE webinar from @ParentMap Live Wednesday, Feb 16 at 1:00pm

Anti-bias education works to expose the inherent biases we all have. Social justice advocate Dr. Scotland Nash will share practical ways that families can support anti-bias education and maintain an ongoing dialogue with their children.

REGISTER for the free talk HERE.

12

Upcoming Events February 5th

Parents' Night out

February 7-12

Virtual Watch Week

February 14-19

Valentine's Spirit Week!

February 16th

Parent Map Live Webinar

February 21-27

Mid-Winter Break, No Classes

February 21-27

Mid-Winter Break Camp, Encanto

March 1

Pre-Ballet Pop-Up, Session 2 begins

March 5

Footnotes Show, Renton IKEA Performing Arts Center