Coronavirus Updates

Message to Community – July 13, 2020

July 13, 2020

Dear Not Just Dance Families,

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It has been a little while since I’ve done an update and figured you might like some information about re-opening procedures at Not Just Dance for the fall. Again, I’d like to start by thanking all of you for all of your support over the past few months! Since the last time we spoke, we have successfully completed performances of A Chorus Line and our Twisted Tales production of Mr. Goose’s Charlie Chocolate and the Charming Chips and are ½ way through with the Seussical performances. In some cases, we have been able to secure the rights to do a digital ticket and in some cases, we were not granted permission. Our audiences have been small but so amazing and supportive. Thank you to everyone for following our guidelines for reopening for students and for patrons. Not Just Dance has produced Level 1 reopening Procedures (following a pandemic), reopening procedures for patrons attending performances and reopening procedures for all of our summer camps. We are working on an update for Level 3 reopening, so you will have the specifics for when students return in the fall. However, for today, I’d like to focus more high level on what reopening, in general, looks like at Not Just Dance.

We will be offering both live and virtual classes. What that looks like will depend on the type of class. Also, you don’t need to commit to either live or virtual at the start of the year. You can start virtually and change to live further down the line. Or, you can start live and switch back and forth throughout the year. If we need to close the studio again because of the pandemic, all classes will go to virtual within 1 week of the closure.

Because we will be offering virtual classes, our policies will be updated to include information on expectations for attending Virtual classes. At this point, we plan to continue to use Zoom as our platform for virtual classes. We have learned a lot over the past few months and are incorporated what we have learned in how we use the technology and how we update our policies in terms of student expectations.

For private coaching which includes private voice lessons, all of our teachers are offering virtual classes. For live classes, we have made the entire studio available to our voice students. In person live classes can be held in the theatre, on the dance floor or in our music room (in the front). All options provide over 10 feet of separation between the teacher and student. If you would prefer a live lesson, we do have at least one teacher available for live lessons. Also, if you would prefer lessons in the theatre (where lots of feet of separation can be offered), simply let us know. Our default room is the theatre for all live voice lessons.

For dance classes, we will offer live instruction, with the option for students to attend dance classes virtually. If we know that all students will attend live, then we won’t initiate the Zoom meeting room. However, if a student would like to attend a particular class virtually, we just need to know and will make sure the student has the appropriate information to attend virtually from home. This option will be available throughout the year. And, in fact, when you look at the dance class dates and information on the website, you’ll see that there are virtual classes already on the schedule.

For all theatre classes, students will get the most by attending live. However, we will allow students to attend these classes virtually as well. That way students can still learn music and choreography remotely. We ask all parents that would like to start theatre classes virtually to have a conversation with me so I can understand your concerns and what your thought process is for when you might be comfortable returning to live classes. Obviously, at some point, we will need to have students attending live. However, that date will change depending on the class and the date of performances. All performances will be live. Since there is no way to predict what will happen with future closures, for now, we are assuming all performances will happen as advertised on the website.

For Tech Theatre classes, we are still discussing what virtual might look like. At this point, we are planning for Tech Theatre classes to be live classes.

All of the information about the classes, the dates, tuition, auditions etc are on our website. For those that have already registered, please double check the start dates.

Thank you again for all of your support. We look forward to serving you in the new year as we all work together to safely return to classes.

Dawne LeKang

Owner, Not Just Dance

Not Just Dance announces On-Line classes and more!

March 21, 2020; 5:00 pm

Dear Not Just Dance Community,

What a crazy ride we have been on for the past week! I want to start by thanking the community for all of your support. All of your e-mails, phone calls, text messages, facebook messages of support mean the world to us. Thank you!

We know that this is a very difficult time for you as you all deal with the stresses in your homes. At Not Just Dance we are committed to providing all members of the community with some consistency. We are pleased to announce that we will begin on-line classes tomorrow and will continue to provide additional resources for all of our families.

Specifically:

  • On-line, one on one voice lessons begin tomorrow. All of our voice teachers are available for this service. Contact us if you would like to add voice lessons.
  • We have provided all of our families with links to pre-recorded supplemental materials for rehearsing and practicing at home.
  • We have provided all of our families with a few other fun activities to keep the FUN alive within our Not Just Dance community. Be sure to check our facebook page for updates.
  • On-line dance classes will begin this week. We will send out specifics to our currently enrolled dance students.
  • On-line theatre and tech theatre classes are being worked on and will be available soon. Specifics will be sent to those families.

We hope that we will all be able to return to our studio soon! We will continue to provide on-line resources for all of our families. We remain committed to provided all of you with exceptional service, albeit in a different format!

For those of you with tickets to an upcoming performance, we ask for your continued patience. Because of the uncertainty, we are not able to make “going forward” plans at this time. But, once we are able to make plans, we will be in touch with options. Thank you for your patience.

Again, I can’t emphasize enough the gratitude we feel for your continued support. As a small business, we rely on the financial commitments of our Not Just Dance families and the community, as we navigate these unchartered waters. I am also thankful to our amazing staff for their support and their willingness to quickly learn this new world of on-line learning. We know we will come out of this together. This too shall pass!

Thanks!

Ms. Dawne

PS – Current families are encouraged to watch the video that was e-mailed on March 22, 2020 for future information.

Not Just Dance will be CLOSED

March 15, 2020; 5:47 pm

It breaks our hearts that the events of the world disrupt the activities here at Not Just Dance. We are forced to make some hard decisions. The health and safety of the Not Just Dance community must be our primary concern in the rapidly evolving COVID-19 coronavirus situation. To that end, we have decided to close Not Just Dance and to postpone our performance of A Chorus Line. For everyone that has tickets to the performance, please hang tight and we will provide details about exchanges and refunds.

Not Just Dance will be closed from March 15 – March 29, 2020. We will re-assess by March 27th and send any further updates at that time.

Thanks,

Dawne LeKang

Update – Friday, March 13, 2020

At Not Just Dance, we have been carefully watching the events and educating ourselves on the best practices given the rapidly evolving COVID-19 coronavirus situation. The health and safety of our Not Just Dance community, our students, their families and our patrons, remain our primary concern. At this time, there are no known cases of COVID-19 at Not Just Dance and Virginia (along with Fairfax County) continues to be designated as low risk. Based on that information, Not Just Dance plans to be OPEN and will immediately implement the following policy changes:

For classes (dance, voice, theatre):

  • If your student has a fever or are experiences any flu or cold like symptoms, please do not come to class. (Parents, please follow the procedures for reporting absences.)
  • If a parent has a fever or is experiencing any flu or cold like symptoms, do not enter the premises.
  • All students must bring a labeled water bottle from home. Students will not be permitted to use the water fountain.
  • All students are asked to wash their hands or use hand sanitizer: upon entering the building, whenever they wipe their noses and when they use the bathroom. We highly recommend that you use hand sanitizer in the car on the way home and/or wash hands as soon as you get home. Please review proper hand washing techniques with your students. We have put the lyrics to some songs in the bathrooms that they can sing while washing their hands.
  • No food will be permitted in the studio.
  • Not Just Dance will wipe down commonly used surfaces (door knobs, bathrooms, etc) frequently per the guidance of the CDC.
  • Not Just Dance uses a cleaning service that follows the guidelines of the CDC for cleaning. These cleaning sessions will continue every week.
  • Please review with the students that they should cover their faces when coughing or sneezing. If they cough or sneeze into their hands, they should immediately wash their hands. We have placed tissues in all rooms of the studio.
  • No hugs or handshakes please.

For A Chorus Line:

At this time, our plan is to move forward with all performances of A Chorus Line, with the following changes to our performance procedures:

  • Please see all of the guidelines above.
  • We will limit the number of tickets sold to each show to ensure that there are no more than 100 patrons at each show.
  • We ask that any patron who is sick or experience cold or flu like symptoms not attend the performance. (Note: We recognize that it is allergy season. If you know that your stuffy nose is a result of allergies, you are welcome to attend the performances.)
  • Anyone who is sick or has a weakened immune system and is therefore uncomfortable attending the performance, who has purchased tickets, will be eligible for a full refund. If patrons choose to donate back the cost of the tickets to Not Just Dance, we would be most appreciative. However, we will waive our “no refund” policy for this performance. To receive a refund, please e-mail contact_us@NotJustDance.net or call 571-392-3209.
  • Concessions and Star Grams will ONLY have pre-wrapped goodies. No baked goods.
  • We are doing what we can to secure extra hand sanitizer and disinfecting wipes to have at the studio which will be made available to all patrons. (Note: If anyone in the community has these products and are willing to make a donation to Not Just Dance, we will gladly accept your donation as these products are hard to come by.)

We will continue to monitor this situation and if things change, we will use this website as a way to communicate any changes to these procedures/processes.

Sincerely,

Dawne LeKang

CDC Link:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/prevention.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Fabout%2Fprevention-treatment.html

Fairfax County Coronavirus Information:

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/health/novel-coronavirus