The Pointe’s Friday FYI – 9/29/23

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:

• Dance with us in The NewBo/Czech Village Halloween Parade! Registration closes TODAY September 30th!
• Recital Costume Sizing begins at the Studio starting October 9th!
• Holiday Showcase Registration (for Dance & Discover, Beginning, and Chance to Dance classes) is open now! See details below (thepointeschool,com/holiday-2023)
• We are bringing back our Classical Ballet Variation Clinics! 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!

• October 9-21 – Recital Costume Sizing
• October 16-21 – Parent Appreciation Week
• October 21 – Halloween Parade & Choreography Camp
• October 24 – 30 – Costume Week
• October 25 – November Tuition & Costume Payment Processed
• October 27 – Holiday Showcase Registration Closes
• October 31-Nov 2 – Closed, Halloween & Fall Inter-sessional Break
• November 13-18 – Fall Curriculum Check
• November 19-25 – Closed, Thanksgiving Break
• November 25 – December Tuition & Costume Payment Processed

The NewBo/Czech Village Halloween Parade is BACK and The Pointe School of Dance invites your dancer(s) to participate with us in the spooky, scary fun! We will be walking and dancing in the parade this year, and would love your dancers to come along!

When: Saturday, October 21st at 6:30 PM

In order to participate, you must:

•  Be registered for Dance & Discover 3 or higher (ages 5 and up)
• Participate in our Parade Choreography Camp (details below)

Parade Choreography Camp – Saturday, October 21st from 12:00-2:00 PM  Camp Registration – $40

To prepare for the parade, we have created a festive Choreography Camp so dancers can learn the parade routines and participate in other spooky and fun activities!

This Camp includes:

• Learning the Halloween themed routines to be performed at the parade later that evening
• A Halloween themed craft
• Spooky snacks, activities, and games
• A T-Shirt to be worn at the parade later that evening (you can dress up the T-Shirt anyway you would like!)

More specific parade details will be sent out to you at a later date (i.e. when and where to arrive, what to bring with you, where to pick up your dancer, etc)

If you are interested in participating with us in the Parade, please fill out this form by Saturday, September 30th.

This will allow us enough time to order and receive all T-Shirts for participants in time for the event. If you are registering more than one dancer, please fill out a separate form for each child.

Special Notes:

* If you are in Community Team, you do notneed to fill out this form because this counts as one of your performances. You will learn these routines in your rehearsals, your T-Shirt is included, and do not need to participate in the Camp.

** If you are in Company and want to participate, you do need to fill out this form so we can order you a T-Shirt ($20). You do not need to participate in the Camp because we will teach these routines on 10/15 during your technique time.

We are already starting to plan for our June recital! If you’re new to dance or new to our studio, planning our annual recitals is a lot like planning a wedding – there are TONS of components involved! To be sure our classes have incredible costumes on stage, we start costume preparations in October!

From Monday, October 9 through Saturday, October 21, we will have a costume measuring station in the lobby! Stop by from 5-7 PM Monday through Thursday or 9 AM – 11 AM on Saturday morning. Parents, we recommend that you come with your dancer and have them wear dance clothes. We use a sizing kit from the manufacturers we order costumes from – dancers will try on a leotard or pants/shirt over their dance clothes to gauge the best size to order. Our sizing helpers will work with you to order the best size for your dancer. Parents, if you would like to give input for your dancer, please come with them to be sized! We do our best to order the size that will best fit your dancer for June performances, accounting for growth between now and then.

Our sizing helpers do everything they can to make sizing a positive experience for our dancers! Dance costumes may be a different size than their normal clothes – and that’s OK! They may also need different sizes from different manufacturers (I’ve personally ranged from an adult small to an adult large for costumes in the same year!) If a dancer is in between sizes, we always order the larger size. We can help with minor alterations for a slightly-too-big costume, but can’t do much with a too-small costume. Exchanges are not often possible – many dance costumes ship several months after we order them. We order in November, and will receive some costumes within a few weeks, and others won’t arrive until April. I know it seems wild to be ordering costumes for a June show in November – but this is what we need to do to ensure costumes arrive in plenty of time (especially with some ongoing supply chain and shipping delays). November 1 is the deadline for parents to adjust the sizing for costume orders and for any class changes before costumes are ordered.

It is time to start preparing for our Holiday Showcase! Though the school year has just begun, we are ready to share with you our plans to dance into the Holiday Season with joy and cheer! This performance will be MUCH different than in years past, so please read all details thoroughly. Here is a short synopsis of what you need to know:

• This will be a informal, in-studio performance opportunity for dancers in Dance & Discover, Beginning, and Chance to Dance classes. It is designed to go alongside The Nutcracker so dancers of all ages get the opportunity for a holiday performance!
• The performance will be on Sunday, December 10th at the studio in Studio A with performances at 1 PM & 3 PM. We will divide classes between show times after registration closes to accommodate capacity needs.
• This performance is 100% optional, but encouraged! The dancers will learn and practice their routines in class starting at the end of October.
• The registration fee for this performance is $20. We are asking that dancers wear all black dancewear as the base of their costume, and we will provide costume accessories to elevate their look and compliment their routine.
• Admission to this performance is free! We ask that you keep your party to 5 guests per dancer so we can make accommodations for capacity.

Registration for this performance is due Friday, October 27th! You can find the registration form and the performance handbook on our Holiday Showcase webpage: www.thepointeschool.com/holiday-2023 Save this page for future reference, we will post all updates there as well in your Friday FYI emails,

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, October 20th — Giselle
• Friday, January 12th — Coppélia
• Friday, February 16th — Romeo and Juliet
• Friday, May 17th — Don Quixote

**Register for 3 Clinics, get the 4th for FREE! 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)

Nutcracker Registration is now CLOSED. If you are performing, please keep an eye on your Performance Handbook. We will be adding new information regularly as we continue planning for this performance. You can find this handbook at thepointeschool.com/nutcracker

Here are your handbook updates for this week.

• Class Role Assignments – Students started learning choreography in their classes this week! You will find the full list of all class assignments in your handbook. More information about costumes coming SOON!
• Additional Large Group Rehearsals – Students will primarily focus on learning their group choreography in class. However, there are a couple sections that include several classes. We want to run these all together BEFORE dress rehearsal so we can get an idea for how a section will operate and to give the dancers a better idea of their placement on stage. To do this, we are adding a couple of full group rehearsals during our inter-sessional break on November 2nd. These rehearsals are not mandatory but HIGHLY ENCOURAGED.

Thursday, November 2nd in Studio A

• The Party Scene (Includes Party Kids, Party Adults, Clara, Dolls, & Drosselmeyer) – 5:30-7:00
• The Battle Scene (Includes Big Mice, Small Mice, Soldiers, Mouse Queen, Nutcracker, Clara, & Drosselmeyer) – 7:00-8:00

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