| STAFF | POLICIES | NEWSLETTER |
Here at The Dance Method, we are passionate about quality learning. We spend a significant amount of time researching best teaching practices, creating engaging lesson plans, and nurturing each student that walks through our doors. Our staff is committed to constantly bettering themselves through continuing education—in dance and teaching, as well as in first aid and injury prevention (All staff members have passed background checks and are CPR/First Aid Certified). This is all part of our “method”!
We believe that kids should stay kids as long as they can! Parents and guardians will find comfort in knowing that our studio is careful about what we expose children to. We strive to uphold high standards when it comes to our dress code and costuming, music, and choreography. Classes are tailored to each age group’s learning capacity—from the skills they learn to the length of the classes themselves.
The Dance Method is dedicated to giving your child the best experience possible. We hope to be your/your child’s home away from home. Our goal is to send every student home with a smile on their face! We are thrilled to have you join us. Welcome to the family!
STAFF
Mrs. Lauren
Owner/Director/Instructor
Mrs. Lauren is the founder, owner and director of The Dance Method.
Mrs. Lauren began taking dance classes at the age of 4. Ever since then, she has dreamed of opening her very own dance studio. It fills her eyes with tears of joy that that dream has finally come true.
Lauren grew up a little bit all over the map (including Alabama, where she took those first dance classes) but claims Texas as home. There, she cheered for her junior high and high schools, as well as joined the drill team, where she had the opportunity to serve as Senior Lieutenant her senior year. She also participated in several musical theater productions including Cinderella, West Side Story, Grease, and Fame! Throughout her junior high and high school years, Mrs. Lauren was invited to perform at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, the Rose Bowl, and even got a chance to shine on the big screen at AT&T Stadium!
After high school, Mrs. Lauren attended college at Utah Valley University where she studied Dance Education and Business Management. She also was blessed enough to land her first teaching job and fell head-over-heels in love with it. She has always had an intense love for performing, but the first time she witnessed her own students dancing on stage, performing took a back seat. She continued teaching at different studios between Texas and Utah over the next 10 years and learned priceless lessons from each owner/director she worked under. She is grateful for each and every one of them.
Outside of dance, Mrs. Lauren enjoys board games, funny movies, good music, cooking & baking, exploring and traveling. At one point, she and her husband sold all they owned, bought and remodeled an RV and traveled the country. It was so much fun and she hopes to be able to do it again! Her favorite holiday is Easter, her favorite treat is brownies, and she doesn't have a favorite color! She aspires to one day be able to play an instrument like all of her siblings can. Mrs. Lauren is the queen of to-do lists and all things organization. She loves animals and hopes to one day live on a homestead, complete with a large flock of chickens! Mrs. Lauren has auditioned for SYTYCD--the competition was fierce and she didn't make it very far, but she loved the experience so much that she went back a couple of years later and did it again! Mrs. Lauren's favorite genres of dance are Jazz and Hip Hop. She loves attending dance teacher conventions and investing in herself. She is not a big reader, but wishes she were. However, when it comes to a book about dance and/or teaching/child development, she can't put it down! She is very passionate about her students--past, present, and future.
A note from Mrs. Lauren: "I have Dance to thank for almost everything in my life. It has opened more doors for me than anything else. I am grateful to my parents for putting me in dance classes at such a young age, and for all of the sacrifices they made for me to continue my dance education. I thank my husband as well for supporting me in this new journey. I am SO excited to be a part of your own dance journey! Thank you for being here! Let's get to work!"
Mr. Hayden
Vice President/Resident Comedian
Bio coming soon!
Ms. Jada
Instructor
Ms. Jada started dancing at 5 years old. From then on her devotion to dance made her grow to love teaching and choreographing!
Jada grew up in Miami and moved to Palm Coast when she was still pretty young. She knew from a very young age that she wanted to be a dancer, but it took a lot of convincing to finally be enrolled. She attended and graduated from Flagler Palm Coast high school where she also danced and choreographed. Throughout her years she has performed in many local charity events as well as many different intensives and competitions.
She has performed in the 2013 nutcracker with Dance Alive National Ballet at the Flagler auditorium. She has had the pleasure of growing up assisting with special needs dancers along with assisting Pre/Jr & high school ballet, tap, contemporary and jazz classes!
Ms. Jada has always been drawn to teaching and choreographing ever since she can remember!! During her years of dance she started really leaning towards contemporary and since then it has been her favorite style of dance!! She fully believes that a passionate dance instructor will lead to passionate students and that is her biggest goal with being an instructor!!
Outside of the dance life, Ms. Jada loves going to the beach, painting/drawing, reading a good book, learning piano & being in nature! Her favorite color is green, she loves fall weather & her favorite sweet treat is chocolate covered strawberries! She hopes one day she will be able to travel to Italy!! She enjoys going to dance conventions and she hopes to be able to attend them more often! Along side of everything, Ms. Jada has struggled with auto immune issues her whole life, but with that it has helped her become very educated on the benefits of natural health and healing!!
Ms. Jada is soo excited to be able to help fuel young dancers passions and create a whole new generation of eager and talented dancers!!
Instructor
Ms. Sydney was born and raised in Palm Coast, Florida. She has been dancing since she was 5 and is working towards her purpose in life. She started dancing with dance professional Lisa Smith as her instructor when she was 8 years old. Ms. Sydney would sit through private lessons as Lisa would teach, and paid attention to every detail. Then, through Lisa's teaching in dance ministry, Ms. Sydney was revealed to dance like she had never experienced before. She felt the most fulfilled when she was in the studio, or on stage performing for those around her. Shortly after, she began taking Advanced Lyrical and Contemporary classes at Flagler School of Dance taught by Jeanna Reiter. She enjoyed the challenge and Lyrical quickly became one of her favorite styles of dance. Performing shows, and recitals were some of her favorite memories. She began dancing at FREED Performing Arts that next year and came to know the other dancers and staff as family. They performed in Port Orange Family Days and even competed in a Fine Arts Dance Competition. She bounced back and forth from Flagler School of Dance and FREED for a while, truly loving each studio and the opportunities she was given. It wasn’t until Spring 2023 that she started subbing here and there at different studios and she knew that was where she was meant to be. As her journey began teaching at FREED, she realized that she wanted to reach farther and truly do more with teaching. She started teaching at Flagler School of Dance shortly after teaching Beginner levels of ballet and subbing advanced classes. She then found out about The Dance Method and what the studio stands for and immediately knew where she wanted to be. She wants to be able to teach dance but also mold and help other students find who they are and the purpose each of them hold. She wants to be able to show them that dancing is so much more than just a hobby or a sport. Dancing has changed everything for her and her life and she hopes to be able to reflect that to others!
Instructor
Ms. Madi was born in Ormond Beach, Florida and quickly moved to Palm Coast. She started dancing at the age of 3 and instantly fell in love with the art form. Since then she has pursued many areas of dance. Dance, teaching, and choreographing have been and continue to be her passion and dream profession.
Madi first started dancing at a small studio in Ormond and then continued with two studios located in Palm Coast. She spent a total of 9 years dancing recreationally between studios like 3’n motion and Miabella. She had always been a part of the dance community however, at the age of 12 she began to participate more and more. Throughout all of middle school and high school, she performed and danced competitively at conventions and competitions. (A total of 6 years!!) She also danced with and continuously works/choreographs for the Flagler Palm Coast High School's Dance Company.
After graduating from Flagler Palm Coast High School she attended the University of Florida. Madi studied Educational Sciences and a minor in dance while at UF. She has had the pleasure of working with many industry professionals and performing with other artists. She has also been lucky enough to study dance styles such as, ballroom, jazz, ballet, musical theater, african-brazilian diaspora, contemporary, hip hop and tap. In her last semester at UF she choreographed 2 pieces and performed in the dance BFA spring showcase.
Ms. Madi would love to work with dance studios and with dance programs in the public school system. Using her degree in educational science she also hopes to be an advocate for public school dance programs. She has always believed in the power of art and dance education and would love to see programs such as the ones she had, be made available for any student who is interested.
Some more personal facts about Ms. Madi is that she loves music of every genre and decade, loves reading and spending quality time with friends and family. She dreams of one day traveling the world and experiencing dance classes across cultures. She loves the color purple and butterfly anything. Madi is also working on achieving her dance teaching and Florida teaching certificate.
Lastly Ms. Madi is very excited to work with the wonderful staff, students and parents of The Dance Method and cannot wait to make an impact on her students' lives.
Mrs. Victoria
Victoria began dancing as a small child and never looked back. She loved the stage from day one! She grew up to be pre-professionally trained by the ABT curriculum under Lori Ladwig, Meghan Chapman, and Luis Abella. She also has trained under Ballet Magnificat!, Ad Deum Dance Company, Ponte Vedra Ballet, and St Augustine Ballet. Victoria has been in many ballets such as Peter and the Wolf, Les Corsaire, Paquita, and many roles in The Nutcracker. Upon graduation, she attended Florida School of the Arts where she majored in Acting and studied dance/choreography. Then she was off to the University of West Florida where she earned her bachelor’s degrees in Theatre: Directing and Arts Administration. During her time at UWF, she directed two mainstage season productions and served as assistant director on five more. She also self-produced and directed two one act plays for the Northwest Florida Theatre Festival. After graduation, she worked for a professional theatre company, PenArts, as stage manager and marketing manager.
Mrs. Katie
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Administrative Assistant
Bio coming soon!
Receptionist
Bio coming soon!
POLICIES
Class & Registration
- Each student/participant is required to fill out and submit a TDM Liability Waiver and Release prior to attending their first class/event (if you registered your child via DSP, these documents have already been taken care of; however caregivers in "Baby Steps" and "Me & My Grown Up" will need to fill these out as well). Participation in any TDM activity is not allowed without these important documents.
- Please refer to our dress code and conduct and send your dancer in the proper attire and be sure they understand our expectations for their behavior in class.
- Your child is not considered fully registered for class (and their spot is not claimed) until we receive your registration payment (to be made through the DSP portal). Should you prefer to make this payment with cash, please contact us to make arrangements to do so.
-Typically, a minimum of 5 students is needed for a class to take. Should this minimum not be met, or fall below the requirement at some point in the season, that class will be cancelled.
- Should class have a low attendance for a day, the teacher will indicate that class will be shorter for that day (for example: if there are typically 5 students in an hour-long class, but only 2 show up one day, class will only run for 30-40 minutes.) Your child is still getting the same amount of attention seeing as it isn't being spread over multiple students, so there will be no refunds for shortening class.
Payments
- Your tuition payment holds your dancer's spot in their class. There are no refunds or discounts for absences. Please contact us if you would like to schedule a make up class!
- Classes are priced by season, not by individual class, or number of weeks in a month.
- Payments can be made upfront, in full, or made in payments throughout the season.
- Installment payments are due on the 15th of each month. There is no grace period. Payments can be made through the DSP portal (Auto-Pay is available!) or with cash. If tuition is not paid at the due time, an initial fee of $20 will be added to your account, per dancer. An additional $5 will be added (per dancer) for each week that payment continues to be late.
- Any dancers whose balance goes unpaid for 2 months automatically forfeits their spot in class and cannot re-enroll until their balance is paid. Their spot is not guaranteed seeing as many of our classes have waitlists.
Punctuality & Attendance
- Your child's tuition payment guarantees their spot in class. However, should your dancer have 3 consecutive absences without any word from their parent/guardian (referred as a "no call/no show"), that student's spot is forfeited and there will be no refunds. Any balance accrued (including late fees) at the time of the 3rd no-call, no-show will stay on the account and dancers cannot re-enroll until this balance is paid. Please understand that your child being enrolled in class holds their place and prevents other students from being able to participate.
-Dancers are expected to arrive to class on time and fully ready to dance! Each class begins with a warm up which is vital to their safety and well-being. Should your dancer miss their warm-up, or not be in the proper attire, they may be asked to observe class that day in order to prevent injury.
- If your child is injured, please consider sending them to class anyway. Have them bring a notebook and pencil so they can sit and take notes on what is being taught that day.
- If your child is sick, please DO NOT send them to class!!! Likewise, if your child has been around anyone with symptoms, please keep them home. Consider all who may be affected by their germs. With all due respect, please keep your germs to yourself, and we will do the same. ❤
- If your dancer is to be late or absent for the day, please be courteous and report the absence in your parent portal. If possible, we ask that you notify us at least 24 hours before class starts. This way teachers can make adjustments to lesson plans if needed.
Make Up Classes
Refunds are not issued due to absences, however, you may schedule a make up class within ONE MONTH of the absence. Your dancer is eligible to attend any class in their age range/skill level. Please see our class schedule & descriptions for details. You must contact us during business hours or stop by the front desk in order to schedule a make up class. Make up classes must be scheduled 24 hours in advance. You may not show up to a class without prior approval.
With the exception of our session-based classes, no makeup classes can be scheduled after the last observation week of the season (in April).
Bad Weather
In the case of bad weather, please check your emails and social media for updates on class cancellations. No refunds or prorations are offered in this circumstance, but you may still schedule a makeup class if you wish (see above).
Closed Class Policy
- Although many parents and loved ones desire to observe their child's dance class, we have found that students learn best when there are no spectators. This keeps children focused and comfortable. As a compromise, we offer a few classes throughout the season as an opportunity for you to watch and see how much your child has learned and developed (see our calendar for "Observation Days"). Each dancer is allotted one visitor on this day. Please respect this rule, as we have limited studio space. We also do our best to document class with pictures and videos that are shared to our social media pages, so be sure to follow us--you may see your favorite dancer there!
- For your convenience, we also have a live-stream video in our lobby.
Client/Staff Relationship
- The Dance Method strives to uphold the highest standards of professionalism. This means that the relationship between staff members and clients (dancers, their parents/guardians, and other affiliates) is to remain strictly professional. Staff members are not to accept social media friend/follow requests from clients, nor should they communicate through personal channels. Should a client need to get in touch with a staff member, they can do so through the measures listed here. The only exception to this rule is if the relationship was established prior to the client's interest/enrollment in TDM classes.
Drop Off/Pick Up
- Children under the age of 10 are not to be left alone in the lobby. Parents/guardians are to remain with the child until they are invited into the studio by their instructor, and should be picked up promptly when class ends. Our lobby staff have many items to attend to and cannot be responsible for watching over children.
- Some classes begin as soon as one ends, and the teacher's attention will need to shift to instructing the dancers whose class it is. Please be respectful of this aspect and be on-time to pick up your child. Additionally, please refrain from taking up the instructor's time as they transition from one class to another. They have short breaks and may need to eat a snack, run to the restroom, or set up for another class. Refer to the front desk or email us if you have questions! Thank you for respecting our teachers' time!
- Students should not be dropped off more than 5 minutes prior to the start of their class, and they should be picked up as soon as their class ends. Offenders of this policy are subject to child care charges.
Add/Drop Policy & Trial Classes
Registration is open year-round at the Dance Method! If your desired class is full, please add yourself to the waitlist; if we have enough interest for an additional class, we always consider starting one, no matter the time of year! We want everyone to have the chance to dance!
By enrolling in a class at The Dance Method, it is assumed that the student will be with us for the remainder of the dance season (aside from our session-based classes; a typical dance season runs from August-May). Should you wish to have your child try out a class before making this commitment, you can schedule a trial class for them here. A trial class is $10 and is non-refundable. The student may only have one trial session per class.
We never want to see any dancer leave TDM! We kindly request that if your dancer is experiencing any trouble in class, that you reach out to us so that we can try to resolve the issue. Should you still wish to pull your dancer from a class, we require 2 weeks written notice prior to not attending class (this policy is agreed to upon registration in any class). Please fill out a Withdrawal Request Form to request a withdrawal. Please note -- certain tuition payments are refundable based on when withdrawal notice was given. Should a student stop attending class without communication, they will still owe what is due at the time of the third no-call, no show.
Those wishing to switch classes must fill out a Class Change Request Form.
Spring Showcase
Our end-of-year showcase is the highlight of our season! Participation is optional, but all that are eligible are highly encouraged to participate. Dance is a performing art, after all! Students are bound to have a positive and enriching experience.
There are extra fees involved with participating in our end-of-season show. This is completely separate from your tuition payment(s). Please see the "Investment" section for more information on show fees.
We typically have 2 shows: an all-preschool show and a "main" show. We will strive to keep the shows to an appropriate length so that all family members and loved ones will be able to attend the duration of the show. Audience members are encouraged and expected to stay for the full length of the show--a lot of work goes into these shows and we want to share it all with you!
Most students at TDM are eligible to perform in our annual Spring Show. You can see your dancer's eligibility by checking their class description.
Participation is optional, but must be indicated no later than January 1, 2025. No exceptions.
Should your dancer change their mind about participation after indicating they will be in the show, there will be no refunds, and other fees may be charged to your account. There is a lot of work that goes into a performance, such as scheduling a venue; organizing show order; choosing and editing music; choosing, ordering, exchanging, and altering costumes; hours of choreography creation and teaching said choreography. For some of these items to be redone/retaught causes disruption and more work for those involved. Please be courteous and consider this before making the commitment to perform.
By choosing to participate in this show, your child is committing to attend not only the show itself, but the dress rehearsal and any other rehearsals/practices that may be associated with it. We strive to keep these rehearsals to a minimum, but the dress rehearsal is essential so that dancers know the order of dances, where to go backstage, who to ask for help, and how to change their costumes. Should your dancer be absent from dress rehearsal, they may be subject to removal from the show.
Pictures will be scheduled roughly 6 weeks prior to the show, and ALL dancers (in regular season classes), regardless of show participation, are invited to attend. We especially want group photos of each class to include in our show program! Pictures are an additional charge (you are not required to purchase).
Other Notable Policies:
- No food or drink other than water is allowed in the studio (including the lobby)
- Water must be in a spill-proof container (no cups or mugs)
- Animals are prohibited from the studio
- No tap shoes on the tile!
- Seeing as dance is a physical activity, your dancer's instructor may need to gently adjust their form or place in the space. Instructors will always ask your child permission and keep this interaction brief. Rest assured that all instructors have undergone and passed background checks and are trained on how to interact with children in this scenario.
- Please ensure your child has used the restroom before class. Especially with younger dancers, as potty breaks seem to be contagious!
-We don't require toddlers to be potty-trained, but do ask that they wear a diaper/pull-up if they aren't. Additionally, if your child needs assistance in the restroom, we ask that you remain on the premises in the case they may need your help. TDM staff are not allowed to accompany a child inside the restroom.
- For caregiver & child classes: Due to the nature of these classes, we ask that each child enrolled attend with only one adult. Additionally, please make arrangements for other children to be left at home or be otherwise occupied; baby-wearing young infants is acceptable, but please take out if they get fussy. This is to be respectful of the learning environment of such small children. Disregarding this request may result in additional charges. We thank you for your cooperation and understanding. Please contact us if you need childcare during class time as we may have it available (YOU MUST NOTIFY US AT LEAST 48 HOURS IN ADVANCE).
