Hi Dancers!

Stuck in traffic, couldn’t find your dance bag, your sibling’s basketball game went into overtime (is overtime the right word for basketball?  Go Sports!) . We’ve all been late for reasons out of our control, and while some studios won’t let dancers into class late, we understand that it happens!  We joke in our house that we run on Watson time, which is consistently like 20 minutes late-this drives me crazy because Roessel time is consistently 20 minutes early 🙂 But there’s a difference between quietly and respectfully entering class to minimize distractions, and running in spilling your Starbucks every where, throwing your tap shoes around and yelling “oh my gosh I’m so late!!”  News flash-we know!  Being on time for every single class isn’t always possible, so here are some things your teachers would like you to know for those times when you arrive to the studio after class has started.

Do-

• Get yourself completely ready for class in the lobby before entering the studio.  Take your coat off, put your dance shoes on, finish your bun or ponytail, etc before you come into class.  That way when you enter the studio you can jump right in and minimize the distraction caused to the other dancers.
• Apologize to your teacher at the appropriate moment.  In the interest of minimizing the distraction to your classmates, the second you enter the door is not always that moment.  But in between exercises, or at the end of class might be a good time, and believe me, your teacher really appreciates an “I’m sorry I was late today!”
• If the class is running choreography when you arrive, please wait until the end of the dance to enter!  We know you want to jump in right away and practice.  But if everyone is in the zone concentrating on their recital routine and you run in throwing your stuff down as you hop to your spot with one shoe on, it can really throw everyone else off their game.  Wait until the teacher turns of the music and then enter ready to dance!

Don’t

• Please don’t expect your teacher to stop what they’re doing the second you walk in to catch you up to speed.  If we’re reviewing choreography, or dancers are doing an exercise at the barre that you missed the explanation of, we’re not always in a position to stop everything to catch you up.  Do your best to jump right in as soon as possible.
• Following up on the above-don’t stand in front or at the head of the barre if the class is in the middle of an exercise that you missed the explanation of!  Find a spot behind another dancer that knows what they are doing so you can follow along!
• Don’t try to jump into leaps and battements across the floor if you’ve just run in from the subzero temperatures outside.  Again, we know you are just raring to go!  But we’d rather you do a few jumping jacks, stretches, etc quietly on the side rather than hurt yourself trying to do leaps when you aren’t warmed up.  If it’s a ballet class, it might be appropriate to stand at one of the moveable barres on the side of the room and do some pliés and tendus before you join in with what the class is doing.  If you aren’t sure what you should do, quietly ask the teacher what they’d prefer.

At the end of the day, we are just happy that you made it to class!  But we also want to make sure that class isn’t being disrupted for the other dancers.  If there is a reason that you’re going to be consistently late to a class, please let us know!  If you have any questions, please talk to your teachers and they’d be more than happy to share their preferences!

Happy Dancing!