Hello TDW Families, How are you holding up?! Are you hanging in there and riding the waves as they roll in, or are you trying to flag down the lifeguard? We are currently somewhere in between. Thank goodness for lifejackets! We are thinking about everyone daily and wondering how you are doing and hoping for the best for your families! Just like everyone else, we are trying to navigate this season, the best way that we can.....there is so much up in the air, and the decision fatigue is real. We are an incredibly creative team, and as a team, we have been non-stop brainstorming the best way to continue to connect with and serve our students and their families. We hope you'll take the time to read about where our hearts are at, but if you just can't take one more quartine-mail, we get it, and we put the bullet points at the bottom. We know our calling is to serve your children and be a source of love, inspiration, and dance education for them. In addition to that, we aim to be a blessing to you, their parents. Because of our desire to bless you, we will NOT be doing live zoom classes for every class at their regularly scheduled times. We weighed the pros and cons of this, and on top of the added burden for you, it would be a massive challenge for our staff. Figuratively and literally, we do not have the bandwidth. The stress of coordinating all of the zoom meetings and then instructing multiple classes would be mentally unhealthy for our staff. Also, as a parent myself, I'm feeling the weight of all the new requirements my child has for at home school work and new commitments that must be parent-led. I want to add a quick disclaimer for what I am about to say: I am by no means discounting the fact that there are so many unknowns, and that this time is wrought with extreme heartache. As a small business, we are feeling the stress, worry, and grief. We are consciously choosing each minute to seek the positive and let our hope and faith lead us through this time. As I was listening to our church sermon yesterday, I was struck by the message to cease striving and relax. Not to sit around and do nothing, but to cease striving. Amidst the incredibly scary time we are in, it feels like a huge blessing to think we could cease striving and just be for a moment. How often have you longed for an opportunity to rest? To be at home with nothing to do? To spend extended time with your family? That time is here, and it is now. A gift of this magnitude may never come around again. My hope for my own family is that we come out on the other side, stronger and refreshed. Not run even more ragged from all of the commitments we still tried to keep. Not tired from striving to have more and do more at the expense of our sanity, our energy, and, most importantly, our family. I hope that we used our time to love each other and our neighbor. I hope that we replaced our complacency with intentionality. I hope all of the same for your family. So... with those thoughts in mind, we crafted a plan for the next month at TDW. We will continue to engage, and we will create and post content for your students to consume at their leisure when it works for your family. We will have games, classes, video content, and things for them to do in TDW Online Hub, but only if it uplifts and brightens their day. Not if it is just one more thing to check off the "to-do" list.
Bullet Points
We are praying to be able to begin classes again on Monday, May 4th.
We would hold lessons for all of May and June.
We will conduct an abbreviated version of our spring recitals the week of June 25th - 28th. We will keep you informed of all the details as they develop.
We will NOT charge tuition in April.
If you paid the year in full, or the semester, we anticipate being able to complete the last weeks of class, so at this time no refunds will be necessary.
We are unable to return any recital costumes. Please ensure your costume fees have been paid, as this will help us out greatly during this time.
These are all tentative plans. We will keep in contact and update you as we know more!
We say it all of the time because we mean it and we feel it, THANK YOU for your continued support. We truly work with the best families around!
Our Best!
The Dance Works