Where did September go? It is so good to see all of your children again and how wonderful it is to see their excitement to be back. Dance is going really well and we are very pleased with the easy transition to the studio. There is still plenty of construction that needs to be done, and we hope to be completed soon, we appreciate your patience. Thank you all for the kind words regarding the studio. The staff is very happy to be working here, as we think this environment is better suited to learning and teaching. Now on to the news!!
Studio Behavior
Please keep your children quiet while they are in the locker room or in the hallways. We did insulate the studio walls, however, we hear a lot of noise out in these areas. There are still many children running or playing in the hallways/locker room. Please ask them to read a book or color or something that will keep their noise level down to a minimum.
Parents of children in Temple, Allen, Rogers and Astaire must be available to change your child’s shoes during their dance time. If the instructors are left alone to tie all of these shoes, we take up to much valuable dance time. Many students in these classes have the need to go to the bathroom during their dance class. We cannot leave the rest of the class alone to bring your child to the bathroom. If you have to leave during your child’s dance class, please make sure you ask another parent to be responsible for your child. You might also want to make sure your child goes to the bathroom before his/her dance class because as soon as one child asks to use the bathroom, they all suddenly need to go to the bathroom too!
If you have more than one child taking class and their classes are back to back, you must wait with them. Please do not drop them both off and leave them unattended. There is no one in the waiting area to watch your children and we are not responsible to monitor/watch these children, if it is not their dance time. You may drop off your child for dance class and then leave when they are entering the studio and then pick them back up after dance. All parents must be on time to pick up their children; when they leave our studio you must be in the waiting area or out in the parking lot waiting for them. Please do not ask the office secretaries to watch your children. When your children are not picked up on time, they come to us scared and confused because Mom/Dad are not there. We have another class coming in immediately after and we do not have the staff or place to watch these children. It is imperative to be waiting for your children when we do not have parent watch, in the coming weeks, as we, the instructors, do not see if you are there to pick your children up when we let them out of the studio.
Please wait for your dance tapes in the hallway and not in the dance store. It becomes really hectic for your office secretaries to get all the tapes done when the students are in there waiting. And again, no students are allowed into the dance store without their parents.
There will only be parent-watch now on the first Tuesday and Wednesday of each month. Therefore, there will be parent-watch on 10-5 and 10-6, 2004 and then again on 11-2 and 11-3, 2004. Because classes are large and the smaller studio is the practice studio, we ask that only parents come in for parent watch. If you have toddlers, you may bring them in (in your arms) for parent-watch, but older children will have to stay out in the waiting area. Many of you car pool and then all of the extra children you have with you want to watch, and their just is not enough room in the studio to hold everyone. Parent-watch was designed to let you, the parents, see your child’s progress and to get you caught up on dance news. So please, I ask that only parents be allowed in during this time.
All students must have a dance bag to hold their shoes. Shoes are either being left behind, accidentally picked up by other students, or strewn all over the locker room. Our new rule will be that if students leave their dance shoes out, we will pick them up, and take them to the teachers office. Please make sure your children hang their jackets up, put their dance bags on the shelf and put their out door shoes under the bench.
A few "NO EXCEPTION" rules that we'd like to remind everyone of:
1) - There will be NO outside shoes allowed in the dance studio. We now have a very nice studio and we need to all make the effort to keep it that way!
2) - The required dress for dance class allows for only the color black. No other colors are allowed!
3) - Please have your videotapes clearly marked with your name, class and hometown.
4) - The studio doors will open at 3pm, sharp. Class now starts at 3:15pm, sharp. Please refrain from knocking on the glass to get in before this time.
Tuition Balances
Tuition bills are now due. We will allow you this week (10-5 and 10-6, 2004) to pay your tuition bills without assessing a late fee. Starting October 12, 2004 all outstanding bills will receive a $10.00 late fee per week on outstanding balances. We will enforce this rule without exception. Please see your office secretary about your bills this week.
Costumes
Costumes have started to arrive. The following classes have costumes that are ready to be bought and brought home. You have exactly one month to pick up your costumes after they have been posted. All costumes that are not picked up will have a $10.00 late fee assessed to them each month that they are left at the studio. All costumes must be picked up by 11/2/2004.
Temple: Female Jazz Costume: for "Zippiedeedoodah" : $30.00
Female Tap Costume: (song undetermined) $34.00
Male Jazz Costume: for "Zippiedeedoodah": $25.00.
Male Tap Costume: (song undetermined) $22.00.
Rogers: Ballet Costume for "A Dream is a wish" : $35.00
Tap Costume: (song undetermined) $36.00
Astaire: Jazz Costume for "Under the Sea": $37.00
Hines: Ballet for "When you wish upon a star": $37.00
Tiny Troupe: Hip Hop Pants for "Take it to the floor": $28.00
Tharpe: Tap Costume "Everything old Is new again" $35.00, hat $8.50
Savion: Jazz Costume for "I go to Rio": $37.00.
We will post the pictures of these costumes on the website under the page titled "2004-2005 Costumes” with hair, tight and shoe requirements for each costume as well as price.
Instructor News
TMDA is happy to announce that joining Miss Andrea in the maternity wing will be Miss Kim. Miss Kim has decided to take this year off from teaching to prepare for her family expansion. Miss Clarann will be taking over both of Miss Kim's classes for 2004 - 2005, and TMDA is very greatful for that! We all would like to wish Miss Andrea and Miss Kim best wishes and good luck with their pregnancies.
Halloween Party
We will have Halloween parties during the last 15 minutes of each dance class on October 26th and October 27th. Students are encouraged, but are not expected, to come in their favorite costumes! Remember, we do not want scary costumes, and that we will have normal class up until the last 15 minutes. We want to have a "treat" exchange during the party, so please come to class prepared with a treat for everyone. We will allow parents to take pictures during the parties.
Office Secretaries
TMDA will like to introduce you all to our 4 office secretaries:
Deana Williams will be the office secretary on Tuesdays.
Tammy Scott covers from 3:15 to 5:15 on Wednesdays.
Vicki Keaton covers from 5:15 to 6:45 on Wednesdays.
Sharon Pelletier covers from 6:45 to 8:15 on Wednesdays.
The office closes 15 minutes before the end of the last dance class so that these secretaries may clean the dance store and office area.
If any of you need to email one of these secretaries, you may do so at: .
Soda Machine
We hope that most of you noticed the rather large soda machine in the lobby. The price is $1.00. The machine is equipped to accept dollar bills. Please do not ask the secretary for change. Please place your bottles in the trash can by the exit, as well as, cleaning up any spills that might occur. There is 1 can specifically labeled CANS ONLY. This would be for only returnable containers. All other garbage cans can be used for trash and TRASH ONLY. We all need to do our part to keep our gorgeous new studio clean. The soda machine is a convenience that we never had the space for at the old studio. If the machine leads to more of an inconvenience regarding messes, trash, etc, then we will be forced to remove it.
New Items in the Dance Store:
Many of you have asked for newer styles of dance pants. The dance store has received newer styles of capris and dance pants. The newest dance bags are now in, and we expect the new sweatshirts and other outer wear soon! We are now also fully stocked in our shoes!
Ordered Items:
Most of the ordered items paid for before Sept, 21, have arrived. You can pick these up in the dance store. For those of you who have paid for orders after Sept 21, we expect these to arrive within the next few weeks.
Birthday Parties:
TMDA offers either a 2 hour or 4 hour rental period (weekends only) for the Off Broadway studio, to serve as a location for birthday parties. We have established a link to the rental form, which shows rental fees, at the top of this page. To inquire about availability, please contact Miss Colleen.
Bad Information:
Allegedly, there is a local merchant in the greater Presque Isle area, who claims to be somehow affiliated with TMDA and has the knowledge to recommend dance attire which is acceptable vs. what is not acceptable for dance class. Let's clear this up, very quickly. TMDA is not affiliated with any other business, merchant, salesmen, anywhere. No one, other than Miss Colleen and Miss Clarann, have the authority to recommend acceptable attire for our dance classes. TMDA policy, as posted on the TMDA policy page, is that all students will be dressed entirely in black. No other colors are acceptable. We have been lenient for the first few weeks of class, however, the leniency will end in October. If your child, is not dressed properly, he/she will be asked to sit out. As previously mentioned in this newsletter, there are NO EXCEPTIONS to this rule.
Parents of the Month:
TMDA's monthly tribute to our dance moms and dads who go above the call of mommie and daddy duty.
Steve Sager - Steve has never failed us when setting up our TV's and VCR's. Thanks for your help Steve!
Starla Enman, Pattie Dorman,and Kory Ellis for the beautiful plants that adorn our front windows.
Keith and Renee Boucher, Brian Cronin, Tammy Scott, April Dye, Miss Clarann for helping us move to the new studio. Without their help, we wouldn't have been setup to start dance on time. An extra special thanks to Keith Boucher for his efforts in making our studio fire code compliant.
Denise Nelson, Melissa Jones, Deanna Simpson for helping with auditions and registration.
Lori Collins for being Ms. Windex and providing the proper cleaning solution to keep our mirrors perfectly clean.
Mother Therese for watching my 3 kids on my dance night! Thanks Mom!
Vicki St.Pierre for continuing to feed me on dance nights.
There was certainly more than just this list of people for me to thank. There were many others involved to get this studio ready in such a short period of time. A special thanks goes out to all of you!
(does anyone notice the webmaster is never in this list? :) )
I think thats it for news now. Please be patient as we complete the studio, and get those last punch list items completed. We have an October calendar for you, that you can print and keep handy to remind you of our monthly events. You can get this calendar: here.
We have had a great start to the dance year, lets continue to work hard and enjoy the music!