This has been an interesting time to be alive, for sure. So much has changed; some of us are working more, some of us are not working at all. Most of us have all of these new things to consider, new operating procedures, just for navigating “normal life”. There are limits in grocery stores, there were weeks when finding toilet paper was almost impossible. People are wearing masks and gloves in public and sanitizing everything. In short, our lives have changed drastically. Much of it changing significantly from one day to the next. It has been mind boggling to watch, let alone keep up with.
The changes at the studio have been incredible too. We transitioned from an in person, full contact facility to an online fitness and social BEAST, basically overnight. If I have counted correctly, from the day everything closed down, March 17th, to May 2nd, the studio and instructors have managed to host 30 different social activities ranging from Origami to Mixology; from Virtual Partnered Dance Lessons to Random Instructor Fact Trivia Nights. They have had daily opportunities for inspiring/uplifting thoughts and even a nightly Mindfulness Minute. Every day there has been an opportunity for a Flash Workout to break up our days. AND this is all in addition to the actual class and workout options that they have carved out, rethinking how we help our students move their bodies and find their strength.
The daily class offerings have leveled out to around 10 classes per day.
LADIES!!! 10 CLASSES PER DAY!
Saturdays and Sundays are a little lighter, but still have been around 3-5 classes. And, I forgot to mention the FB Live option!! This has been an option every single day since before the full physical closure as we were testing it out as everything was changing so quickly. Let me reiterate that, EVERY SINGLE DAY from March 17th to today, in addition to everything else I have already mentioned. We have had classes available in a live format via Facebook and they have stayed available to be done–on demand–at whatever time is good for you, our students. We have also started on the journey of creating higher quality studio videos to be included in our PSM Class Videos tab–but more on that later.
So, with all of these rapid changes happening at our studio, I started wondering what other studios in our general area were doing. I began with a search for pole/aerial studios in Wisconsin and picked five. One of these studios has 3 different physical locations (Kenosha, Brookfield and Madison), the others are located in Milwaukee, West Allis, Beloit and EauClaire. I mention the city locations because some of these are pretty big cities.
Now, of those five studios one has just completely closed according to their last facebook post on March 17th. Their website has no updated information and is just generally confusing. The other four studios are offering anywhere from 2-13 classes PER WEEK. I also want to mention that most of this information took quite a bit of effort on my part to find. One studio I had to call because all I could find was that they were offering classes but no specifics on frequency or content. (If you haven’t recently taken a peek at our studio’s website, like a new student might, I highly recommend you check it out: https://aerialdancepoleexercise.com)
Ok, so again looking at the numbers here the average population of those five different studios, with seven total locations is 164,824. Their average class offerings PER WEEK are 6.8. Aerial Dance has two locations (Aerial Dance Green Bay is in De Pere, so I took the populations of DePere and Appleton, as those are the physical locations), and our average population is 67,950. Our average class offerings PER WEEK are 58 classes, and that does not include our Flash Workouts or Facebook Lives! That number comes only from our Zoom options! And as my earlier paragraph clearly stated, we have even more stuff going on in our little Sisterhood!
Take your time, re-read that paragraph again, I’ll wait right here for you . . . 58 CLASSES PER WEEK!!!! Mind blown, right?!
So then, I thought well, how do we stack up against some of the big wigs?
I don’t want to name names here, I’m not interested in slamming anyone or throwing people or studios under the proverbial bus in any way. What I will say is that there are some studios that have some clout with some of their instructors and performers, so I looked specifically at two that are on my own personal radar. Both are located in California, in cities with populations like 435,224 and 204,765.
Now, one of these is rooted deeply in the Aerial Arts. Teaching aerial classes remotely is risky and the potential for things to go wrong is so high ranging from issues with rigging, to proper wrapping, and no one is there on site to watch and spot you physically (which is why we haven’t taught anything aerial in our online classes), so in a way I understand, but they just CLOSED!
The other studio is offering classes and when I looked at their schedule offerings for one week, they had 14 Zoom classes, they also have pre-recorded classes available on Crowdcast – 30 options are mentioned. (I was just looking deeper at their online class options and happened to notice that when I clicked on the link it took me to a studio with another similar name but indicating another city – obviously these two studios are somehow linked, but the kicker is that this city has a population of 896,047!!)
So, in summary, I knew we were killing it, but DAMN! From what I see, none of these studios are even hanging in the neighborhood of what we are doing. I am blown away and even more thankful for everything that Paula, each and every one of our Instructors (yes, some have been more behind the scenes than others but we are ALL still working), and all of our Members/Students/Sisters have made possible.
It has been hard for all of us making these adjustments but new things are being learned and out of that we are making an even better studio and community for all of us. Keep checking in, keep coming to class, I love getting to see all of your beautiful faces and can’t wait to touch you again!!!
Instructor Kelli