August 2023 Newsletter

Welcome and Thank You!

Hello dancers and families of St. Vitus Catholic School of Dance! I hope you are having a fun and safe Summer, and are enjoying the warm weather. We have received an exciting amount of registrations and volunteer interest! I am extremely excited to be preparing our class material, choreography and costume design for the upcoming dance season, and I am both blessed and thankful to have so much community support in this endeavour.

Class Schedule 2023/2024

The class schedule for the 2023/2024 dance season is now posted. If you already registered, you have received an email with the specific days and times of the classes your dancers have been registered for. Registration confirmations going forward will include your personalized schedule in your initial registration confirmation email. Our kinder dance programs will be held on Saturday mornings and afternoons for our younger dancers, and our more senior dancers will dance on Monday evenings while our amazing and talented choir practices in the choir loft. All classes will be held in the basement of St. Mary’s church in Linwood.

Bulletin Board Setup Social

Sunday, August 20, 2023 after mass, the dance school will be taking down one of the existing bulletin board’s material in the basement of St. Mary’s Church in Linwood, and setting up a new bulletin board with information about our school including the schedule, our mission statement and more! Anyone who is interested in helping us take down the old board, or assisting with designing and putting up the new bulletin board is formally invited to participate. Materials will be provided by the school and any dancers, parents, seamstresses, volunteers and parishioners are encouraged to join us for a fun and social event setting up our new bulletin board.

I would like to extend a very big and special thank you to Fr. McGrath for supporting us and for his suggestion that we use the bulletin board to share news and information about our school. I, and the whole school, are extremely grateful for your ongoing support and advice. We are blessed to have you in our wings.

Registrations

Registrations for our 2023/2024 dance season are still open and underway.

There are no fees for submitting a registration, and no penalties for withdrawing. Additionally, congregation members of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Linwood and dancers from volunteer families are invited to attend any group classes free of charge for the whole year.

Registrations will remain open until Sunday, October 8, If you have any questions or concerns, please email stvitusdanceschool@gmail.com, or you can reach out to me directly by calling 519-400-1689.

Sign up to join the St. Vitus dance community today!

Open Trial September Classes

For the month of September, and until registrations formally close after the first week of October, anyone interested in dancing who is unsure of whether or not they want to continue for the year, or who would like to try their feet at a new style of dance, are invited to come out to any of our classes. During this time, we will have more relaxed class dress requirements. If you are interested in tap dance you are invited to borrow a pair of tap shoes from our borrow bin to attend classes without purchasing shoes of your own. Ballet and jazz shoes can be used interchangeably for ballet, jazz and musical theatre classes, or clean indoor running shoes can be worn to classes for students who are attending to try before making a registration decision. Students may attend in non-baggy athletic clothing until registration is closed.

We do, however, have some important restrictions. Students who have not submitted a registration form with emergency contact information are asked to attend class while their parents remain on the church premises. Dancing without shoes in socks or tights will not be permitted for any classes, as this presents a slip risk that is likely to lead to dancer injury. Dancing in bare feet will, likewise, not be permitted for any classes, as this presents a risk to dancers’ toes getting pulled, blistered, or otherwise injured. For these reasons, dancers who arrive to class with no form of safe footwear will be asked to watch class rather than participate in it.

During this time, students will begin to learn their choreographed warms ups, stretches as well as fundamental technique for their age and experience level. Students will begin learning the dance routine the class will perform on stage near the end of September or the beginning of October, depending on class progression. We request that students who intend to continue participating in dance classes for the year purchase appropriate class attire as soon as possible, and at a minimum by the formal closing of registrations. We recommend students have the required footwear for the classes they intend to participate in for the year as soon as possible for optimal practice experience, but are required to have the shoes they will wear on stage by January of 2024 at the absolute latest. Attire and footwear requirements for each dance discipline can be found on the class requirements page of our website.

If you are not sure yet about attending classes, join us during our first month to try our classes to see if you would like to stay and dance with us for the year!

Backstage Dancer Portal

I am excited to announce our backstage portal for registered dancers and their families as well as our seamstress volunteers. The backstage portal will feature a page for each class we teach where students can find links to the music used in their classes if they wish to practice at home, material about the exercises and techniques we practice and information about their year end performance dance routine. The backstage portal will also be where we post tentative, and later final, designs for costumes, class-specific information about our year end performance, volunteering information and information related to seamstress events throughout the year. Photos taken during our events will be shared exclusively through the backstage portal, and not on the public facing website.

Everyone participating in the school, whether dancer, parent, seamstress, or volunteer is invited to register for a backstage account in order to gain access to information related to the school which will not be made available on the public site. We ask that you register with the same email for your backstage account as was provided on your registration so that any account found to not be related to one of our school families may be rejected and/or promptly deactivated. If you are a dancer or seamstress who wishes to have their own account, please inform the school of the email that you wish to use to register for a backstage account as this space is exclusively for St. Vitus dance school members.

Seamstresses

I am humbled and blessed by the number of seamstresses who have volunteered to help make our year end performance special and cost-effective for our dance families this season. Thank you very much to everyone who has already expressed an interest or signed up formally to assist! This group of talented ladies will make up our formal costume review committee to provide, receive and review feedback on costumes, participate together in fabric field trips to select fabric and sewing patterns for our dance classes, pin and cut fabric pieces and, of course, sew costumes.

Anyone of any level of sewing experience is welcome to join our group - we have jobs for every level of skill, and all hands are appreciated! If you would like to learn how to sew, we can also help you learn during our group sewing events. If you are, or someone you know is interested in participating as a seamstress, please reach out to the school by phone or email, or speak to Gwendolyn after mass on Sunday.

Transportation for ladies who are interested in sewing but who are unable to drive themselves can be arranged. Currently we have three carpool seats remaining for seamstresses who would like to participate and who require assistance in traveling to fabric stores and/or the church for our community sewing events. If you will require transportation for sewing events and have not already requested it, please reach out as soon as possible so we can arrange your seating. If you are a seamstress who is able to provide additional seats, please also reach out with your driving and seating limits.

Mailing List

Interested in receiving newsletters like these as soon as they are posted or sent home with dancers? Want to know about our upcoming events? Sign up for our mailing list and we will keep you up to date on all the latest with St. Vitus Catholic School of Dance. Registration for the mailing list can be found at the bottom of any page on our site, or you can email stvitusdanceschool@gmail.com to sign up.

Newsletters will include details on important events such as open houses, picture day, and the end of year performance, as well as information about costumes, classes, and holidays. Important dates will be included in each newsletter as well to remind you of what we have going on here at the dance school. If you are a dancer, have a family member who dances with us, are not sure about registration just yet, or perhaps have a young dancer-to-be in your circle, signing up for our mailing list is a great way to stay up to date with everything St. Vitus has to offer.

If you do not want to receive further communications from us, simply reply to any of our emails or send a message to stvitusdanceschool@gmail.com requesting to be removed from the list and you will stop receiving our mail.

Sign up to receive the latest news from the St. Vitus dance community today!

Volunteers

Are you a parent or guardian who would like to help out with your child’s dance school? Are you a teenaged dancer looking to get more involved? If you are interested in volunteering or getting involved with the dance school, we have plenty of opportunities! If you are interested in helping us with specific events, sewing costumes, weekly school needs, or even just have some ideas to share, please reach out to your instructor or send us an email at stvitusdanceschool@gmail.com. If you are already a family member of the school, you are invited to see our volunteer page in the backstage area of the website where specific volunteer opportunities are posted. Monthly newsletters will also contain information about specific volunteer needs we are looking for as the season progresses, so keep an eye out if you are interested in participating.

We are a community-based school and are always happy to hear from you!

Important Dates at St. Vitus Catholic School of Dance

August 1: Class Schedule Released

August 13: Bulletin Board Setup Social

September 9: First Saturday of Dance Classes

September 11: First Monday of Dance Classes

October 8: Registration Concludes

October 7-9: No Classes for Thanksgiving Weekend

Have a safe and happy Summer vacation, I look forward to dancing with all of you in the upcoming 2023/2024 season!

God Bless,
Gwendolyn Witecki