Raise the Barre:  Cheryl is currently assessing plans for Raise the Barre.    We will be in touch as soon as there is an update.

• Masquerade Birmingham – June 5-7 has been postponed to September 18-20. Please remember to cancel your hotel reservations, if you had made any, for the June 5-7 weekend.
• Bravo in Athens has 2 possible reschedule dates of either July 24-26 or August 14-16, dependent on when the venue is able to reopen.
• Turn It Up Dance and Revolution Dance have not given Cheryl any re-scheduled dates yet, but they are allowing our monies to be used at ‘sister’ dance competitions. Other “sister” competition options being considered are:
  • Rainbow Dance Competition in Atlanta on August 7-9
  • Applause in Chattanooga on June 19-21 or in Atlanta on July 17-19
• As we communicated last week, we do not have an update yet from Masquerade Nationals in Fort Walton Beach.   We should hear an update from them a later in May (after May 18).

Showcase Videos

On this Friday, May 15 from 4-6pm, we will be out on the sidewalk at FootNotes for you to drive by and pick up your Showcase 2020 DVD’s and USB drives if you purchased one (click here as a reminder to determine if you purchased one).   We will be practicing appropriate social distancing (wear masks if you choose.) If you are not available at this time or are not comfortable driving by, we will keep your DVD and/or USB for pickup at a later date.

Raise the Barre

Cheryl is waiting on guidelines for whether she can hold Raise the Barre the week of June 15.     We will update you as soon as we know more.

Vibe End of Year Party

Our Vibe End of Year Party is scheduled for Thursday, June 25…we are unsure of whether The Falls neighborhood pool area will be opened by then. We will update you as soon as we know more.   If it is not opened by that date, we will look to re-schedule it in July or early August.

Status Update and a BIG THANKS to our Vibe Members,

First, we wanted to let you know that all of FootNotes, Cheryl and the entire FN dance instruction staff are SO grateful for your continued support and encouragement during this unprecedented time!    We have heard the Zoom classes are a hit with the dancers, and we are so inspired to see all our dancers adapt to our current format and continue to do what they love!  We are all thankful that our dance family has remained supportive of our dancers, our studio, and each other throughout this time.

Below is current status/what we know as of today…

• Masquerade has not yet canceled the Birmingham competition that is scheduled June 5-7.  Of course, the final decision on whether the competition can be held that weekend is not up to Masquerade but rather the Alabama government & state health officials who will make the final decision.
• Masquerade’s Nationals competition has not been canceled until they are updated by Florida government & state health officials.
  • Cheryl will likely not have an update until at least May 18 as this is the date that some are projecting that Florida will have a better picture of what is happening in their state. We hear that short-term vacation rentals are restricted until Phase 3 of their state re-opening plan…but  we do not know how quickly they will get to Phase 3.
  • We would suggest if you have not already, reach out to whomever you booked your condo rental with to see what you can work out with them regarding upcoming deposits/payments/cancellation policy. We know that some have amended their cancellation policy to 2 weeks prior to the arrival date.
• Raise the Barre (week of June 15) has not been postponed yet…Cheryl is continuing to evaluate based on information from GA government and health officials.
• Cheryl has not heard from other competitions on possible re-schedule dates. She is looking at ALL competition opportunities in hopes of us competing dances as soon as it is allowed/deemed acceptable within government/health official guidelines.

As soon as Cheryl knows more, we will continue to update you.

National Dance Teacher Appreciation Day is May 7

May 7 is National Dance Teacher Appreciation Day. Details are below on what this appreciation day is.  Let’s all plan to use this Thursday to THANK all of our dance instructors for everything that they have done and ARE DOING to make our children’s lives more complete and fulfilled with their love of dance.  Tag FootNotes and dance teachers on social media as we support them on #ThankADanceTeacherDay.

#ThankADanceTeacherDay is a global movement to shine the spotlight on dance education and the teachers who make it possible. It was started in 2014 by the National Dance Education Organization to raise awareness of the benefits of dance education through social media. A quality dance education can have a life-changing impact on students, providing physical, social, emotional, cognitive, and psychological benefits. Professional development allows dance teachers to provide a better dance education experience for their students, as the teachers take what they learn back to their studios, classrooms, and communities!

Lastly, I will share a favorite dance quote that always makes me smile and think of our beautiful dancers…

To watch us dance is to hear our hearts speak.

We are excited to announce the Showcase 2020 videos are available!! Given that we are “shelter in place” until at least April 30, we wanted to deliver the Showcase 2020 videos for both Saturday and Sunday shows via a YouTube link to our Vibe families for a limited time (until we are able to distribute the DVD or USB drive that you purchased).   We will send out the link (likely by the weekend) via email from the GMAIL account when the videos are uploaded and available for viewing.

REMINDER: PLEASE DO NOT SHARE any of the video(s) on social media as we plan to compete these dances at competition as soon as we are allowed.   Distribution of videos of the dances is not allowed until the end of competition season.

Cheryl received confirmation today that BravO! Dance Competition in Athens, GA (weekend of May 1-3) has been officially postponed. We will let you know when we hear other details of a possible re-schedule date.   Please remember to cancel your hotel reservations for this competition, if you have them.

Break The Floor (the company that brings us NUVO, JUMP, and 24 Seven dance competitions) is offering a VIRTUAL DANCE CONVENTION this Saturday and Sunday, April 18 and April 19, along with a few classes next week.   Click here to access the dance convention schedule.    

It is an AMAZING line up of faculty…so we encourage you to add this into your schedule this weekend.

• It’s free, and you do not need to pre-register.
• To access the classes, you just need to access the live.breakthefloor.com website at the scheduled times listed (note the times are PDT…so adjust for our time zone…8:30am PDT is 11:30am ET).  They say it will ask for your name and email address and then you can access the classes.

Attention Vibe Dancers: Next week, Cheryl has setup 2 Live Classes with 2 of our favorite choreographer/instructors!

• Jon Carr will be teaching class on Wednesday, April 15 from 5pm – 6pm for dancers 12 & under, and 6pm – 7pm for dancers 13 & up.
• Ricky Maalouf will be teaching class on Thursday, April 16 from 5pm – 6pm for dancers 12 & under, and 6pm – 7pm for dancers 13 & up.
• We will send out links to the classes on the day of each class.
• Note…there is no extra charge for these classes.

Get your dance clothes on and be ready to WERK and have some FUN!   Please make plans to attend!  The Master Calendar has been updated.

We hope all Vibe dancers are having fun dancing and working out with the videos posted on the FootNotes Let’s Get Digital link. Thanks to those that have already entered in your dancer’s hours for this past week!  If you have not had a chance to log your dancer’s hours yet, click here to access the form to enter the info.  Please fill out the form for your dancer each Sunday for the prior week’s dance activities completed.  Cheryl and all of the FootNotes instructors want to see how much the dancers are keeping up with their training and rehearsal.  Cheryl asks for the dancers to keep posting videos dancing and having fun using the videos.  Tag FootNotes @footnotesdance and use the hashtag #fndaletsgetdigital.

Masquerade Dance has re-scheduled the Birmingham competition to the weekend of June 5-7. Please block the weekend on your schedules (the Master Calendar has been updated).  We are all unsure of what the next few weeks and months will hold, but we can always plan and hope for the best.   Obviously, the competition and FootNotes will follow the lead of what health officials are recommending at that time.  Feel free to go ahead and book a hotel reservation at your hotel of choice that weekend. It takes a while to secure a hotel block rate (we will be working with the hotels next week and will communicate details as soon as we have them.) Masquerade wants Cheryl to confirm that we plan to attend the competition that weekend (assuming we are allowed to attend per government guidelines.)  If you/your dancer has  any  kind of scheduling conflict for the June 5-7 weekend, please email us ASAP at footnotesdanceblog@gmail.com.

Additionally, Turn It Up Dance competition has officially cancelled/postponed next weekend’s dance competition at McEachern High School. We will let you know when we hear other details of a possible re-schedule date from them.   Please remember to cancel your hotel reservations for this competition, if you have them.

While we do not know how COVID-19 will reshape the coming weeks, we feel that our dancers should continue to practice their dances with the anticipation that we will have a competition season at some point.   Our dancer’s performing their competition pieces gives us all something to look forward to and something to strive for. And we believe that is an integral part to everyone’s well-being during this time.  Stay safe and we all pray that everyone is well!

The owner of Masquerade Dance just informed Cheryl that this weekend’s dance competition in Birmingham is CANCELLED. This is a result of orders from the Governor of Alabama (he decided to cancel events over a certain number of attendees, and our competition exceeded the amount of people allowed to gather).  We do not have any other details from Masquerade at this point…we will update you as soon as Cheryl hears any other information (on a possible new date for this regional competition, etc.) Please cancel your hotel reservations ASAP…if you have any issue with canceling your reservation with one of the hotels we worked with, please let us know.