Newsletter - Free Flight Dance

Office hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 3.30 pm to 6.15 pm, Saturdays 11 am to 3 pm. The office is located upstairs from the studio, room 204 and the entrance to the upstairs is the door to the right of the studio A door

Newsletter Jan 2012

We wish you all a very Happy New Year. I would like to remind parents and students to keep looking on the website under “Newsletters” for all current news and under “Calendar of Events” for closing dates etc. The newsletter is usually updated on the first week of each month, with all competition and exam news being under its own link, “Competition” and “Exam” respectively.

The Master Classes with Justin Meissner of Dance Tours International and Laura Morera , Prima Ballerina at the Royal Ballet Company, London, England were a HUGE success, thank you to those who attended and to the parents for your support and all the wonderful feedback you have sent me. Both Justin and Laura commented on what a great time they had and hope to be able to come back one day to Free Flight. I will be gather info regarding the signed t-shirts and bags. Thanks to the parents who have already emailed orders or interest to me, very helpful to have a feel for how many are interested. As soon as I have the info I will forward it to you, just send an email letting me know you want to view the order form and prices, no obligation. Anyone wanting copies of any of the photo’s I took please feel free to email me and I can email them to you - Julie.

Tax receipts : To those of you who have sent in envelopes for your receipts to have them mailed to you, thank you, they are on their way. For those still needing tax receipts, let me explain how to get them : Please send in a self addressed STAMPED envelope (with your child’s name on it too) and Mark will the put the receipt in the mail to you OR send us an email to accounts@freeflightdance.com requesting it, we will email the receipt to you, much easier of course. We will NOT be handing them out during classes, as we already have costume fittings and measuring that takes away from class time. Please note that the receipt is only valid for students 16 and under during the tax year 2011. Any envelopes handed in after March 31^st will not be attended to until summer as we get extremely busy with exams, competition AND recital.

Competition fees - as we complete forms and input the information into the computer, invoices will be issued to you. The payments are due NO LATER than Feb 1 as we have just sent out competition fees to the tune of over $15 000,00, plus whatever we send before Christmas. PLEASE pay by that date as there will be a late payment fee of $10 added after that due date and one month later another $10 will be added and so on. This past year we were still trying to collect overdue fees in JUNE. The admin of competition fees is complimentary, we do not charge competitive classes extra for this service, please try to help keep this admin to a minimum.

If you read this letter on the website and have not received the newsletter in an email by Tuesday, Jan 10th, please send in your email address to Mark, we have so many incorrect or changed emails, though we do our best to read them on the registration forms, some are not clear and email addressed are a very exact thing.

ALL COMPETITION INFO WILL BE ON THE WEBSITE, DATES NOT YET CONFIRMED ARE PLACED ON THE WEBSITE AS WE GET THEM. It’s out of our control, they send us the info once all their organizing is done and usually only about three weeks before the competition

Graded Ballet exams will be (tentatively) 4^th and 5^th of March , with mock exams for the graded exams on Feb 26^th. Mid February to spring break for the vocational exams (I.F and above), all details will be posted on the website as they become available. . ALL EXAM INFO IS ON THE WEBSITE OR ON THE NOTICE BOARD as it becomes available.

Please remember that if there is an issue in a class, or your child is going through difficulties at school, or socially, or being bullied, or there is a divorce or illness in the family, the ONLY way we can help the child, or even know that there are issues within a class, is if the parent talks to the teacher, though preferably NOT between classes when we are having to rush into the next class! Sometimes there can be issues where all bullying is done in the change room before the class starts or at school, so the teacher may not be aware of it. There will also be a number of students suffering the “Winter Blues” (and parents too) so there may be days that you need to talk your child into coming to class. This is normal and does not mean that there is anything wrong with the class or group. We work hard to try to make Jan and Feb as smooth as we can but your child may need more parental support though this time than the rest of the year.

The Recital is June 1^st and 2^nd, with tech rehearsal on May 24^th at the Bell Theatre in Surrey, very beautiful, easy to get to and loads of parking. All dancers are expected to be at BOTH shows and at the tech rehearsal, except any groups that have competed will probably be told that they will not need a stage rehearsal. This is the only opportunity to correct stage placement and do the lighting etc.

Photo shoot will be the weekend of June 9^th and 10^th , the weekend after the show, due to the early dates this year (really late last year, but as we have to book 5 years in advance, these were the only two years so far that I could not get mid June, but all the way up to 2016 we have great dates between the second and third week in June!)

PARKING ETIQUETTE AND CHILD SAFETY – I have had several parents complaining about how many people just pull straight into the parking lot, even if there is space to park, and just wait in the middle for their child to come out, effectively blocking all other cars from leaving or entering. Firstly, there is a huge car park right beside the studio, better than most dance studio’s I have seen, please park in there and come in to fetch your child. The other concern is that children are walking behind cars exiting the lot, but in fall, winter and spring it's in the dark and they cannot always be seen. Please ask your children to ONLY exit using the sidewalk that is either side of the studio.. Free Flight is NOT responsible or liable for children not collected on time and who chose to leave the building without a parent. We are all busy teaching the next class and cannot possibly keep an eye on children in the change room area, picking up on time is the parent's responsibility. Please remember NOT to park at Speed’s Pub, he’s a man who likes to make trouble for us, despite his clients parking at Free Flight.

**Please remember that if you want to talk to myself or other teachers it is easier for us with our schedules to communicate via email, but we are here for you should you need us for anything and of course we will happily meet with you should that be deemed necessary. Go to “Contact Us” to contact myself or any staff member: info@freeflightdance.com . All accounts enquiries (ONLY accounts enquiries) go to accounts@freeflightdance.com.