Next week at The Pointe, we have our fall Intersessional Break! These breaks are built into our studio's school year calendar. At The Pointe, we don't do things like everyone else - for a reason - and we're happy to share some of the "what" and "why" behind these shorter, unique breaks from regular classes on our schedule.

What is an Intersessional Break?

Simply put, an Intersessional Break at The Pointe is when our Cedar Rapids dance studio closes for a few days that aren't connected to a typical school closure (like Spring Break) or a holiday (like Labor Day and Memorial Day weekends). These are unique dates for our studio to take a little break from our typical schedules and catch up on other important matters during our school year session. They operate a little like built in professional development days in the local schools - time off for school staff to catch up on administrative work, or learn new systems or skill sets, or accommodate parent-teacher conferences.

While we aren't in our typical school year schedule for classes and front desk/boutique hours, we are working behind the scenes to keep bringing the very best in dance education to our students and families. We use Intersessional Break times for staff meetings & trainings, Nutcracker rehearsals, Company rehearsals, and some time off to rest and recover for our families and staff.

Why The Pointe Began Intersessional Breaks

We started featuring Intersessional Breaks for the 2020-2021 school year, after a spring and summer filled with uncertainty and rebuilding our entire studio to work virtually while we needed to stay home, in a hybrid fashion, and in modified operations through the pandemic. While we were (and still are!) incredibly proud of the way our team launched virtual classes over spring break without cancelling a single class, we realized that a few built in days off on the calendar could have allowed for some flexibility that we could have used in those days. In addition, a pain point for some families at the dance studio had been an uneven number of class days for different weekday classes. Because of Labor Day, Memorial Day, depending on where Halloween and Christmas fell... some classes met 3 or 4 fewer times than their mid-week counterparts. Makeup classes were always an option we offered - but we knew that wasn't ideal. A Wednesday class meeting 36 times during the year but a Monday class only meeting 32 didn't seem fair. We looked at the calendar, counted class meeting days for each weekday, and then added intersessional breaks on our 2020-2021 calendar to ensure that each class, regardless of week day, was scheduled to meet exactly 34 times.

These shorter breaks also gave us opportunities to have weather makeup days easy to access if a specific weekday had inclement winter weather repeatedly. We have used this in the past when we had three snow days on Thursdays, and no snow days any other day of the week! This also came in handy during the winter of 2023 when a pipe burst in our ceiling and we needed a few days closed for water clean up. In the fall, we use two of our intersessional break days for Act 1 and Act 2 of our Nutcracker to rehearse - combined classes get together, routines that combine a soloist and an ensemble get to work together, and we practice transitions between big scenes. This is the first time our mice and mouse queen battle with the soldiers and Nutcracker all in the same room!

We have our first Intersessional Break of the 2023-2024 school year next week (October 28 - November 1) - we are closed Monday through Friday, with staff meetings and trainings and Nutcracker rehearsals on some of those days. We will still have staff checking our emails, texts, and voicemails periodically, and we'll have a team member at the front desk & boutique during Nutcracker rehearsals. Otherwise, we'll be back to our regular schedule of classes on Saturday, November 2!

Enjoy your intersessional break! If this means more days off for your family to enjoy the fall weather and spend time together, we hope the time is restful and relaxing for you. If your dance time is shifted to accommodate a Nutcracker rehearsal, we hope your dancer comes home invigorated and excited about their important role in our special production!