We’re making some changes to the Intermediate Skill Level group class program to reflect the reality of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on dancing in general. The Level 1 program will remain unchanged.
Although classes have returned largely to normal, with the exception of common-sense rules such as use of masks and physical distancing, the number of participants is a lot smaller. Class sizes have dropped from as many as 50 people in a class down to just a handful. This is not unexpected, though it is sad to see that dance skill is not being developed by so many students. We have limited Level 1 class sizes to just 18 people and the Intermediate classes to 12 to allow proper physical spacing (the Intermediate dances move more so we needed to allow more space by restricting the number of participants).
One of our teaching facilities, Kinvillage Community Centre in Tsawwassen, is likely to remain closed until sometime in 2021 so the three weekly group classes scheduled there will not take place for quite some time.
Fortunately, interest in private lessons continues to be strong, so we are making a change to help make things more comfortable for all participants and squeeze in more opportunities for those wanting private lesson training.
Previously, we had divided the Saturday Intermediate skill level program into two different classes, with Latin at 11:30 and Ballroom/Smooth at 12:45. This allowed us to cover the entire genre in less than a year so students didn’t have to wait too long to take a dance over again that they wanted to focus on. But with the small class sizes, this approach no longer makes sense. Thus, we are combining both Latin and Ballroom into the same time slot, alternating between those genres. It will take much longer to cycle through all the different dances, of course, but by having more people in one class instead of having two tiny classes we will have a more energetic class. This Intermediate level class will run from 11:30-12:30 on Saturdays. We’ll follow this with private lessons starting much earlier, along with practice opportunities for those who are interested in using the hall for practice.
The Level 1 program will remain in the current format, running from 10:00am to 11:20am every Saturday (except for special long weekend breaks).
