We’ve got a story for you.
And you are such an important part of this story, as are so many throughout our community who have become a part of a very unexpected narrative.
We need to give a lot of thanks so please read along
In March, COVID sent the world home and just three days into our second Spring session, we were poised to lose an unthinkable amount of tuition on top of lost revenue from all of our canceled performances. Without hesitation, families and adult students deferred credits, donated tuition, and let us know they were in it with us. We sprung into action with a fundraising campaign, asking everyone to help us when everywhere you turned, someone was asking for help. Our community pitched in and kept us afloat while our doors were shut and the world stayed at home.
We are grateful.
Still unable to perform or teach, we had no revenue, so we reached out to our landlord, Westland-Development Services. Our rent for the 2 facilities we lease was coming due and we still couldn’t open our doors. Peter Aweida, the owner of Westland sat 6 feet away, masked and ready to help. He has been in partnership with us all along to help ensure we could slowly, cautiously reopen.
We’re so grateful.
We hooked up with Social Venture Partners and the wonderful Jennifer Kronenberg who networked, along with Deb Malden, to help us find pro bono legal help from Jeff Blattner in the Attorney General’s office, Allie Clark at Sage Law Group, and HR legal help from Heidi Wilbur at Fox Rothschild; strategy sessions with Jim Tanner of Just Good Advice, guidance from Matt Chasansky at Boulder Office of Arts & Culture and John Tayer at the Boulder Chamber; Teri Marx and Naomi Deaver at ArtSpace Consulting regarding facilities and leases; and guidance from David Wright at ANB Bank in getting the PPP loan. We wrote many grants and received COVID relief funding.
We’re so grateful.
We pivoted to online classes in June, while we dug into the exhaustive work of making our studios safe: 9’ squares for each student with their own dedicated apparatus, sterilized bins for their personal effects, new waivers and a COVID questionnaire for each time someone enters the building, taking temperatures and blood oxygen level; and, so many clorox wipes, lysol, DMX, and masks! We added a COVID coordinator, developing and implementing every detail before finally having an ionizing system put into the HVAC system so the (masked!) air we breathe could be safe. Our doors slightly reopened in July while we tested our protocols.
Next, we pivoted to a virtual Aerial Dance Festival in August, our 22nd! Who could have predicted this turn of events? We had 252 students filling 754 class slots. It was wonderful! It allowed us to engage students and faculty from all around the globe and increase involvement by BIPOC artists.
We’re so grateful.
Our board and staff are spending time listening and learning toward increasing our understanding of racism and how we can be an ally in this important work. There is much to be done and we look forward to being out of survival mode so we can properly and strategically plan.
We’re so grateful.
On August 23, we performed outdoors in the parking lot owned by Westland-Development and welcomed back our fans. On 9/10 we collaborated with the Longmont Museum for another stellar show. Audiences were thrilled to see live performance.
We’re so grateful.
On August 24, we opened our Fall 2020 class session with only 8-person classes, welcoming back our student company, Intensive Program, and a new Professional Training Program cohort.
We’re so grateful.
As I’m writing this, we’ve just entered into a 2-week stay-at-home order for 18-22 year olds in the City of Boulder. This affects some of our students and we are reminded that this is a marathon and that COVID is not done with us yet. We are hopeful that we’ll get back to “normal” for the rest of the Fall after this.
We have hope and we’re looking ahead to the next 32 years. We thank you all from the bottom of our hearts to the tips of our wings. We wouldn’t be open right now if you and the rest of this stellar community had not decided that we are worth saving.
You have made this possible.
We’re so grateful.
Thank you to our sponsors
