11 COOL Summer Tips to Keep You From a Meltdown! (Part 2)

by on May 20 '19

We recently shared the first SIX COOL Summer Tips in Part 1 of our blog post. Now we’re back this week with FIVE more to round off our 11 COOL Summer Tips to keep you from a meltdown!

To recap, here were our first six tips:

  1. Announce Your Dates ASAP
  2. Host a Summer Launch Party!
  3. Offer a Camp Based on Your Year-End Show Theme
  4. Create an Invitation-Only Program with a Summer Camp Requirement! 
  5. Implement Mandatory Performing Company Intensives
  6. Bring Camp Confetti into your Life!

And now, for our remaining 5 tips! 7

7. Open Classes/Drop-In Classes – These are perfect for your Company dancers or kids who may not have the time to commit to a full camp. At our studio, we created a Summer “DIE HARD DANCER” class card as an incentive for dancers to take lots of our summer open classes! We required 20 of the 30 open classes offered to be designated as a DIE HARD DANCER! These dancers are rewarded with a free T-shirt! It is definitely a motivator! Especially for the younger dancers who may not be able to attend the more advanced Summer Intensives that are out of town!

8. Summer Mini Sessions – Offer a 3-4 week session for those dancers who want more consistency during the summer! Our Twirl Preschool program could work great for this!

9. Intro to Dance Classes – Offer a 45-minute class three days in a row, limited to 10 dancers for your tiniest tots. This is just enough for these 2-year-olds to dip their toe into the classroom setting and for the teachers to determine if the dancer can handle a full class for the upcoming season. There’s generally a lot of crying in these classes, but it’s fun to see how much they can change and adapt to the environment in just three days.  The best part for the parents is there is no big commitment, plus it’s a great adventure for their babies over the summer!

10. Dance & Play Parties – Another summer program option is what we call Dance & Play Parties. These are two-hour, themed dance parties that are just drop in! You can register in advance for a better deal, or show up the same day and pay a little more. These sessions include ballet, tap and creative movement, all centered around a specific theme. They also make a fun craft and are invited to bring a small snack as well! These are really popular for the Mom or Dad who needs a couple hours to run errands and such, and also it is a super fun playdate for a group of kids! Through our Twirl to Go downloads, we offer fun themes complete with dance activities and decor ideas that will easily set you up for a great Dance & Play party at your studio!

11. Free Trial Classes – There are so many dancers who have no idea what they want to take, but know they want to take dance. Many may be reluctant to sign up for classes like contemporary or tap because they don’t really know what it is, so offering short, free trial classes is the perfect opportunity for them to try a little of everything. We offer this twice throughout the summer. Each time, we offer as many short, 30-minute, free classes as we can squeeze into the schedule. We schedule the ages back-to-back so it’s convenient for the kids to stay and take all styles! At the beginning of every class, we make sure that the teachers give a short description of that style and walk them through what that class would be like during the year. Speaking of teachers, we pay our teachers their full teaching rate to teach these classes. It’s well worth it to us, and we look at it as part of our marketing budget. We also offer an incentive during the free classes, usually a free registration fee. There are so many options, but the idea is to just get them in the studio. And, offering a bunch of FREE classes will do just that!

Whew! That’s a LOT of COOL SUMMER tips to keep you from having a summer meltdown at your studio! We hope these ideas help you create an amazing summer at your studio!


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