Turn Summer Doldrums Into $ummer Dollar$
Dance studios are a seasonal business. That's OK if you want the summer time off and can target your annual budget to cover the usual slow summer months. BUT...many studio owners do not have the annual income thus the luxury to make that decision. Their gross studio income from September through June is not sufficient to meet expenses for the long hot summer too.
When my own children were young I chose to be closed during the months of June, July and August. I worked long late hours from September through the Recital in the 2nd week in June, so I wanted some quality time to spend with my children as they were growing up. The only way for me to meet my personal need was to close the studio doors for the summer. I have no regrets ...but it was not financially easy.
For the first 20 years of owning a studio, I forced myself, regardless of personal wants or studio needs, to allocate money into a savings account each month. I had to be prepared to meet the summer expenses of just partial rent and full utilities. I was blessed to have not only an understanding and supportive husband but an understanding landlord as well. I look back all those many years ago, and realize how lucky I was to have a landlord who would work with me, and not against me. I only had to pay him a ? months rent for July and August and made up the balance due by the end of October. But that was then. If you can still do that now...great! But to my knowledge, the days of kind individuals as landlords are over and gone. The large realty management companies of today will not entertain that sort of a financial arrangement. So we all learned how to forge a plan to get us through.
I was fortunate that when my daughter Kimberly graduated from college she came into the studio to teach for me. She was happy with her new profession and salary, but kept asking me "Mother, what can we do so I can earn money in the summer?" After we tossed a few ideas around, the Dance Unlimited Summer Camp program was conceived. It was small the first year, did not pay the rent, but it paid the electric bill and gave my daughter the income she desired. Over the past 15 years we have tweaked and fine tuned the program to meet the demands of an increasing summer enrollment. In 2006 we had an average of 83 campers per week for 6 weeks of summer dance camp. Things have definitely improved.
If you are a studio owner who needs income during the doldrums, put your creativity to use. If you are a dance teacher who wants and needs additional income in the summer, approach the studio owner with some ideas to help yourself and the studio create cash flow. If you decide to do a Summer Program...regardless of what program you chose ... this is the time to promote it. Parents start to plan their children's summer recess now...so don't miss the opportunity to offer them something at the studio to fill their needs...and yours too! Let's check out some options.
The most obvious plan would be to Carry Through Your Fall Schedule of classes for the summer months. If this does or could work for you, it takes little or no time to plan as you already have "the plan" in action. Think it over to see if and how it could work for you. Personally, I tried this once and it was not successful for me. Too many vacations and assorted summer happenings for students and faculty, create too few attendees to make the classes cost effective not to mention the lack of continuity and learning responsiveness.
Plan a Reduced Schedule of Classes. Combine some levels and condense your classes into 3 to 4 hours for a few days a week. Investigate some teachers in your area that might be able to offer a course in a discipline that you do not currently have on your curriculum. Encourage your students to try out a new class to expand their dance knowledge and horizon.
Offer an assortment of Open Classes scheduled a few days a week in the late afternoons and early evenings. Be specific with the age range and ability level for each class. A ballet class for 9 - 12 yr olds in the Adv Beg thru Int levels would work. An "open ballet class" for all ages and levels would obviously not be appropriate. In some dance techniques such as Acrobatics and Hip Hop a class for 6 to 9yr olds and another class for 10yr olds thru Teens usually would work OK. You know your students best...so set the classes to encompass as many of their needs and wants as you can.
Plan a few sessions of Master Classes. Having a guest teacher would be ideal, but if that does not fit the budget, then it is you! You become a Master Teacher when you concentrate on technique advancement with positive reinforcement and corrections and avoid "learning routines". Stress the importance of these classes, regardless of the discipline, to enable the student to become a better overall dancer.
Propose a Specific Dance Camp such as a Ballet Camp or a Jazz Camp. Allocate 3 to 5 days or more to work on the chosen type of dance. Offer some interesting sessions amongst your standard classes such as the history of the dance or how that discipline becomes a building block for them as a dance student now and in the future. Teach musicality and how to choreograph in that phase and then provide the students with an opportunity to set a "group choreography" and perform the piece for their parents at the end of the session. Plan for several of these specific camp sessions each offering a different style of dance.
Last but not least and my overall favorite is a Summer Dance Camp. Yes, it takes planning and organizing but in the end if you give it a try I think you will like it. You can have a Mini Camp from 9am - 1pm for students of all ages or only ages 4 - 6yrs. You can have a Full Day Camp from 9am - 5pm for ages 7 thru Teens. You can do either or both...we do both the Mini for the younger dancers and the Full Day for the older students and they both work fine!
At our camp, all phases of dance are offered for all ages. The students get to try new elements of dance and theatre and they love it. Of course the campers do not and cannot dance all day. Their classes are scheduled along with breaks, arts & crafts, creative games, raffles, videos and even indoor skating. The students are divided into groups of age and ability and they each get to choose their own group name for the week. We have a theme every week and it is played out to the hilt! There is dress up day every Tuesday and "Bring a Friend Day" every Thursday, when space permits. One important factor for us, as well as the parents is ...All activities are on site. No outside trips are planned...all the fun is had at the studio. The farthest (or is it furthest? Or ?) the campers venture, accompanied by counselors, is to the bakery or ice cream shop, both located in our center, once a week on Snack Trip Day. You can run a camp for as few as 2 weeks or as many as 8 weeks...we offer 6 weeks. This gives us one week off after the recital and 3 to 4 weeks off after camp to prepare for the Fall session which for us starts in August now. Students can register for as few as 2 weeks or all 6 weeks. Fees are discounted as the weeks increase and we also offer a "Bring A Buddy Rate"...which is a good savings for 2 campers who register a the same time and for the same weeks of camp and a real favorite with our parents.
Regardless of what, if any, route you choose to follow in the summer, allow for some down time before and after. I strongly feel everyone needs some time off. There needs to be a break in the action. We all need time to changes gears and hats and revitalize our mind and body.
I also feel that what ever dance program you offer during summer, it should have some fun activities involved. Let the spirits fly and become rejuvenated...yours and your students too. Use some different music; after the initial warm up, teach a class plan that starts from the end and goes to the beginning; teach your students how to perform and not merely dance; explore the possibilities of how to use pas de bouree in many ways in one combination; encourage your dancers to use their own creativity and set a routine; let them know that dance is fun ...and fun is a wonderful part of our daily lives.
So now is the time to act....think positive and decide which suites you the best. There is no problem with starting small and testing the water. Send out a flyer / survey as to what your parents would like to have happen and what would work best for them. Don't have them write in the answers...make it multiple choice...either a-b or c. If you get positive in house feedback and decide to proceed, then start to advertise to get outside campers and hopefully prospective students for the Fall. Once you make your decision...the roads are open to you...you just need to enjoy the journey down them.
It's been fun doin' some summer dreamin' with you! Do you have some of your own dreams that you would like to share with others? Please do so and in the Spring I will pass all your ideas along on any topic we have chatted about in our "Readers Forum" column. If you would like a copy of our DU Summer Camp Flyer contact me at ... danceun@aol.com and I will get one off to you. It's been great chatting! Until next time...Smiles!