First two weeks of online dance
We have come to the end of the first 2 weeks of our online dance class provision...
And what a busy 2 weeks it has been! Our regular dance classes were suspended from Monday 23 March 2020 due to the 'lockdown' restriction enforced by the Government during the Covid-19 pandemic. To encourage our students to keep active and engaged, we have been establishing a range of online resources to provide materials for home practice as well as interactive virtual tuition.
Live interactive lessons
In the first week, we held 10 live lessons using the Zoom platform, and in the second week, this doubled to 20 lessons. These lessons have covered every age group and dance style in our regular timetable from preschool to advanced ballet, Teeny to Senior jazz, acrobatics and Elite team training. The lessons are being delivered from the homes of our teachers and, if the students have their webcam on, the teachers can provide both general and individual feedback. We have also been delighted to welcome guest teachers to offer tuition.
We hope to establish a set schedule for the coming weeks so that our students and their families can resume some kind of routine in the daily lives, as well as perhaps run some special Easter workshops. Links and details for classes are on our online dance classes page.
CSBS YouTube channel
Our YouTube channel has had over 30 new videos uploaded over the 2 weeks with practice materials for all styles, and tutorials in steps and technique. Some of our live lessons have also been uploaded to YouTube to use as reference. Over the past 2 weeks our videos have had almost 7500 views. Our channel was established in 2012 and already had over 200 videos of performances, events and demonstrations.
You can subscribe to the channel and hit the bell icon for notifications when new videos are uploaded. Visit the CSBS YouTube channel here.
Facebook live lessons and events
We have used Facebook Live to deliver some lessons including a desk stretch session for parents working from home; musical theatre lesson in our closed Facebook group; and a fun Strictly Online Special for our dance families hosted by teacher Amanda. You can still view the Strictly video and learn a cha-cha!
Additional activities
We have provided additional resources such as CSBS and dance related colouring sheets, wordsearches, cross words and quizzes. These are available to download from our Online Dance class page (scroll to the bottom). There has also been a weekly challenge; the first was an alphabet choreography challenge and the results were superb!
Other links to external workshop providers have been posted regularly on our Facebook events page.
Positive feedback
We are delighted to have received some great feedback so far and thank you to those families who have sent in videos and photos!
"The girls are LOVING the online classes (albeit mucking about sometimes) so thank you for keeping the dancing going!"
"Just wanted to say a BIG thank you for the live pre school class this morning! S loved it and it was a bit of normality in these strange times!"
"My 2 have joined in when they can and have both loved having some sort of dance/normality. Yeah it has its challenges ie my living room and dining space have been emptied to make a dance studio LOL but thank you for continuing to supply dance classes it’s helping keep them sane."
We hope that you are all keeping well and active, and beginning to cope with these extraordinary circumstances, and we hope that continuing to deliver our dance classes will provide some relief for our students. We are also sending our best wishes and a huge virtual group hug to those CSBS families who have already had to deal with Covid-19 illness and bereavement. We hope to see all our dancers back in class soon.