Family policies

We ask your written permission before we share any photo of your child, on this site, in newsletters or on social media, and you can change your answer at any time. We never put a child's name with a photo, and the photos on this site are examples until we replace them with our own.

A grown-up waits in the family room for ages 3 to 5, and the room has a window onto Studio A. Every session has a watch week, when families sit along the wall and watch class. On other days the door stays closed so dancers can hear their teacher. Recital seating is open, and your own photos and video at the recital follow the rule printed on the program.

Ages 3 to 5 wear a leotard or a plain top with leggings or a skirt, and ballet slippers or bare feet. For ballet, a leotard and tights; for jazz and hip hop, a fitted top with leggings or shorts, and clean sneakers that stay in the studio. Company dancers wear black practice clothes. Hair is up and off the neck, and jewelry stays home apart from stud earrings. Socks are fine for the first weeks. We take costume sizes in person, in the winter.

Please keep your dancer home with a fever, vomiting or diarrhea, and until they have been well for a full day. If something hurts, tell the teacher before class, and we will change what the dancer does that day.

A grown-up brings and collects every dancer in ages 3 to 5, and the teacher hands each child to the person who came with them. For older dancers, the door opens ten minutes before class, and we ask you to tell us who is collecting. We ask for ID from anyone we haven't met, and we wait with a dancer until their grown-up arrives.

Message the studio when a dancer will miss a class, and we will tell you how to make it up in another class of the same stage. Company dancers tell their teacher before an event weekend if they cannot travel.

We close for Thanksgiving week, for the winter holidays and for one week in spring that follows the area schools. When the area schools close for snow, we close, and we text every family that morning. A class lost to weather is made up with an extra class later in the session.

Phones stay in bags during class. A teacher may record a short routine so that dancers can practice at home, and we share it only with that class's families. Please don't film other people's dancers in the studio. At the recital, the rule on the program applies.