Dear Familia of The Latin Ballet of Virginia,
Due to the delicate situation we are all living in now, I decided to meet with the board on whether we should go live in person this Fall. We considered a number of factors, including what you told us in a survey, what the governor's office recommends, and what area schools are doing.
Parent survey: According to the survey I recently sent to students and parents, only 10% of the students would be allowed to go in person for classes. Most parents feel more comfortable by continuing with the classes online. We do want to open and offer in person classes, but we have to be sure our teachers and families are confident their loved ones are safe when participating in our activities.
Government and schools: We also considered the state guidelines on COVID-19 prevention and the decisions of schools in Henrico County and Richmond City to not physically open this Fall.
For these reasons, the board has decided to postpone opening live in-person classes and will reassess in January 2021. Until we can return to in-person classes, we will continue to offer virtual learning programs from home.
We ask you to encourage your children to keep learning and exercising with us from home. It is a great way to foster discipline, perseverance and commitment. Even for our youngest dancers, once they start, they will want to continue. This summer, I have been teaching pre-kindergarten and kindergarten-age students from Richmond City schools virtually with great success, and Marisol and I have plans to make participation fun using toys and games.
Please make sure you have a good internet connection, which is becoming essential for life during this pandemic. As for tuition, we are charging only $100 per month for unlimited classes during this first semester, or you can attend individual classes at only $10 per class. From experience, we know that 40 minutes of virtual class time for children ages 3-6 is like an hour-long class live in a studio.
Please see the classes we are offering this fall. We would love to hear from you. And feel free to suggest other classes of your choice.
VIRTUAL PERFORMANCE Opportunities, “MISTICA":
We plan to dedicate this semester to learning about Hispanic legends and myths and represent them in dance. At the end of this semester, we will offer a virtual performance by class participants. Our project will be called MISTICA. We will also work with videos of our students dancing the MISTICA dances at home for creating a storybook as special edition on our website highlighting them in social media. This approach will allow our student dancers to share a larger portion of the spotlight than probably would have been possible on stage. This educational and cultural initiative will endure and might even reach a wider audience and families. In addition to our amazing dance faculty, we will invite important writers and professors To share with our students and enrich our curriculum.
Additionally we will continue our cultural exchange with dancers from around the world. If you haven’t seeing them yet, please visit our Dancing with My Soul series: https://www.latinballet.com/dancing-with-my-soul
Wishing you to stay safe and healthy. Warmest regards,
Ana Ines King and The Latin Ballet of Virginia Board of Directors
