The Pointe’s Friday FYI – 2/9/24

Happy Friday, PSD Families!
This Friday FYI email is our primary method of communication to studio families – please save it for a time when you can read through it thoroughly and bookmark it for reference!

New & Urgent this week:

• Summer Camp Registration is now OPEN! Sign up today to save your spot before they fill up!
• The Recital 2024 webpage is LIVE! Check below for all the information available now to prepare your dancer for the June performance!
• Our Company dancers compete at their first competition this weekend! See below for live stream information to support them from home!
• Our next Parent Appreciation week is next week! Save the date and join your dancers in their classes!
• We are offering Dance Team Audition Clinics in February. Our last one is February 17th – see more details below!
• We have some notes and updates regarding attendance notifications at The Pointe. 🙂
• Recital Costumes will continue to go home this week! Please read below for details on how to best take care of your costumes until the June Recital.
• Our Classical Ballet Variation Clinics continue! – see details below

Stay tuned to these regular email updates – this is your primary source for all studio news!

Find all of the important dates for the year here: www.thepointeschool.com/policies – we list upcoming dates within the next few weeks in the Friday FYI as well for your convenience!

• February 12-17 – Parent Appreciation Week
• February 25 – March Tuition & Costume Payment Processed
• March 4-9 – Skills Testing
• March 11-17 – Spring Break; Closed
• March 25 – April Tuition & Costume Payment Processed
• March 29 – Spring Evaluations Sent Home
• March 29-April 4 – Easter Break; Closed
• April 1 – 2024-2025 Rollover & Automatic Registration Begins
• April 2 – Pipe Burst Makeup Day – Studio is OPEN!

Summer Dance Camps are active and creative fun for kids – and we are thrilled to have several brand new camp themes for this year!

Bluey, Barbie, Swfities, Skill Sessions, Intensives, and more – registration is open NOW and you secure your spot in camp and save by registering early!

Don’t miss out on the camps your dancer will want to be a part of this summer – register today.
Log in to your parent portal to see all of our camps and sign up here (sign in, then click on the “2024 Summer Camps, Clinics, and Intensives” tab): www.dancestudio-pro.com/online/thepointe

Looking forward to an awesome summer – we can’t wait to see your dancer in camps!

It’s time to start preparing for Recital 2024! Our Recital webpage is now LIVE! You will find everything you need to prepare you and your dancer for a successful Recital season. Check out thepointeschool.com/recital-2024 regularly for updates.

Here is everything you can find on the website this week:

• Performance Handbook: EVERYTHING you need to know, in one convenient place!
• Quick Reference Guide – all the most important info for each class in one place!
• Music and videos for practice at home
• Picture Week Schedules
• Dress Rehearsal Schedules
• Show Performance Orders
• Assignments for Tights & Shoes for each class
• Family Dance Registration – due March 15th!

Our Company dancers will be representing The Pointe this weekend at their first competition of the season in Davenport, IA! We have dances performing in all sessions throughout the weekend, and we can’t wait to finally see everything come together on stage!

This competition will be live streaming the event all weekend. You can follow this link and click on the Davenport live stream and watch the competition and cheer on our dancers from home! We’ve included the performance numbers for our group routines to follow along, but we also have several Solos. Duets, and Trios competing all weekend!

• #305 – Safari Party
• #312 – Crusin’ for a Brusin’
• #503 – The Dance That You Do
• #514 – Up Up & Away
• #517 – All Those Pretty Lights
• #525 – Shelter
• #556 – Despicable Me – Production
• #812 – Be Quiet
• #822 – Reputation
• #839 – Looped

Parents, we are excited to celebrate YOU during Parent Appreciation Week February 12-17! During this week, we’re excited to offer:

• Parent Participation in class! (One grown-up per dancer and no siblings/other children, please – this is our second parent participation opportunity for the year, so the parent that did not get to participate in October should come this week!)
• Special discounts on Parent-specific gear in the boutique (in-store and online)!
• Giveaways – enter to win a few fun items we know parents will love
• Warm beverages & treats in the lobby
• Opportunity to try ANY adult class for free! Join us for Adult Jazz Monday from 7:30-8:15 in Studio B, Adult Tap Monday from 8:15 – 9 in Studio B, and/or Adult Ballet on Thursday from 7:30-8:30 in Studio A.

Our instructors are cooking up some FUN plans for their classes this week – you won’t want to miss it!

Prepare for your upcoming dance team auditions with this exciting clinic featuring dance team coaches & current varsity dance team members! Work on pom technique, choreography, leaps and jumps, as well as strengthening and stretching to help you have a confident audition. Clinics are Saturday, February 3rd and 17th from 2:00-4:00 PM. Register through this link today!

Our studio system has recently made some updates that allow us to connect and follow up with each dancer and family better after a missed class. We have been getting a lot of similar questions, so we wanted to address then here to the studio as a whole.

If your dancer is absent to one of their classes and marked absent in our system, you will get an automated email from us checking in and giving you information on our class makeup policy. This just helps us stay connected with our families and helps everyone keep track of their schedule – especially as life gets busier though the spring!

Important things to note:

• If you have gotten one of these emails over the last few weeks, but your dancer was in class – it is likely they were either accidentally marked absent or marked absent because the dancer was a few minutes late. We have communicated with our staff to triple check the accuracy of their attendance now that these automated messages are in place, so their should be less mistakes in the future.
• If you have submitted your dancers absence in your parent portal before the class happens – you will still get one of these follow up emails the day after their absence. Please keep submitting your absences as they come up! Life is busy and missing a couple classes is usually no problem, but it makes all of our instructors lives easier if we know ahead of time that your dancer will miss class. Unfortunately, the automation at this time is either “all or nothing.” We don’t enjoy sending you more emails than you need, so if you have previously submitted the absence – you can disregard the email.

Recital costumes will begin to go home this week and throughout the next few months as they arrive. Families will be notified by email when costumes for their class(es) are in and ready to go home. We do a quick costume try-on in class, then dancers take their costumes home that day. We have a handy guide to keep your costumes recital-ready & some information about the timeline for recital costumes below.

Experience the magic of some of the most world-renowned classical ballets! We are offering a unique opportunity for your dancers to immerse themselves into the story, technique, and choreography just like a professional ballet dancer! We have clinic options appropriate for every dancer in Level 1 and up spread out throughout the year!

Clinic Dates:

• Friday, February 16th — Romeo and Juliet
• Friday, May 17th — Don Quixote

Click here to get registered today!

Clinic Schedule (these times and prices will remain consistent throughout all dates)

• Storytime: 4:45-5:15 PM (This portion is FREE, and available to all dancers age 6+ to learn the story behind each of these famous ballets)
• Ballet 1/2: 5:15-5:45 PM ($12)
• Ballet 3/4: 5:45-6:30 PM ($15)
• Ballet 5+ (pointe shoes optional for Intermediate Pointe and up): 6:30-7:30 PM ($18)

As we get into winter weather, a few reminders about winter weather cancellations and protocols at the studio 🙂

• We do not necessarily follow any school district closures – schools consider busses, walking students, and the morning commute – where we do not have busses or walkers, and most of our classes start after the school day is over.
• If we need to cancel classes, we will notify families by email, the studio-wide BAND app, and on our public Facebook page by 8 AM for morning classes and 2 PM for afternoon/evening classes. We may not be able to reply to questions about possible weather closures before those times (if we spent the whole day replying to every individual question, we wouldn’t be able to make progress on our other important work for the studio!)
• Canceled classes for weather are not rescheduled – to make up missed classes, dancers are welcome to attend any class at a similar or lower level within 2 weeks of the missed class. Dancers can just come to the class they’d like for a makeup – no need to check with the office in advance. Questions about what classes would be great options for your dancer? We’re happy to help 🙂
• Every family has a different commute and level of comfort with winter driving conditions – please always make the best decision for your family. If we are open and you don’t feel comfortable driving, no worries – stay home and safe. Makeup classes are always available.

Did you know that we offer free trial classes for new-to-The-Pointe families – and we have a sweet deal for you if you refer a friend to our program? Families can schedule a trial class easily – just have them send us an email and we’ll take care of it!

When a family you’ve referred signs up, please have them list your name in the “Where did you hear about us?” form in online registration. We will send them a $20 gift card to our boutique to help them get the gear their dancer needs for class – and as a thank you, we’ll send one to you, too! Trial classes are easy to schedule online, and are FREE for a limited time!

• Click the links on your phone to download the BAND app and join these groups 🙂 
• Please join the Studio-wide BAND here: https://band.us/n/a7aa9b43OcwbP
• If your dancer is in COMPANY, please join the Company BAND here: https://band.us/n/a1ae9741O1XbO (dancers can and should join, too!)
• If your dancer is in COMMUNITY TEAM, please join the CT BAND here: https://band.us/n/a7ab9544OeY4B (dancers can and should join, too!) 
• Families have received an email with a unique link to join the BAND group for each class – if you’ve joined us after that message went out, please find your dancer’s instructor after class to get access or shoot us an email ([email protected]) and we’ll get you added!

We’ve added another easy method of communication to get relevant information directly to families – right on your phone!

Have a wonderful weekend!
– Miss Vanessa & your PSD Staff