COVID-19 Updates

CPDW is ready to return to all in-person classes. See our updated policies and safety measures below.

The safety of students and faculty is our primary concern. We are monitoring guidelines from both the state and federal governments and will be continuing to adjust as the situation changes.

CPDW's Updated COVID Protocols updated 08/25/21

Beginning with Fall Semester 2021, CPDW will adopt Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and PA Department of Health (DOH) guidelines, and those of the State College Area School District (SCASD) . Should there be further updates from the CDC, DOH, or SCASD, CPDW take them into account.

ALL CPDW FACULTY ARE FULLY VACCINATED.

Masks:

Masks are required for all students, regardless of vaccination status.

Masking policy subject to change depending on the current situation.

Dancer/Parent Responsibilities:

Dancers enter through the front door and will wait in the stairwell (socially distanced) until the previous class has exited the studio.
Dancers should arrive at studio already dressed in their dance clothing, if possible.
Upon entering, dancers should proceed to the furthest chair with all of their belongings.
After class dancers will quickly over-dress, gather their belongings, and exit through the rear door.
Parents are asked to remain outside the studio at all times. Drop off at the front door and pick up at the rear door.
Dancers are asked to stay home if they feel ill.
Dancers will use hand sanitizer regularly, including when they arrive, after floor or barre work, and when they exit.
Dancers will contact CPDW as soon as possible if they or any family member or other close contact has received a positive COVID-19 diagnosis.

CPDW will maintain many of our current protocols, including:

Prop open front and back doors and run fans to maintain airflow.
Run HVAC system and room air purifiers for constant ventilation and air circulation.
Regularly sanitize all barres and shared surfaces.
Maintain social distance markers in the stairwell and studio
Allow 5 minute transition time between classes to minimize student cross-contact.
Paper towels in all restrooms.
No shared water fountain. Dancers should bring a personal water bottle.
Run UV light nightly to disinfect the studio space.

CPDW's Updated COVID Protocols

07/10/21

ALL CPDW FACULTY ARE FULLY VACCINATED.

Masks:

Masks are optional for individuals who are fully vaccinated (exception, see below).*
Masks are recommended for students ages 12 and over who are not vaccinated.
Masks are mandatory for all students below 12 years of age.
*Masks are mandatory for all students in classes with students who are ineligible for the vaccine.

Dancer/Parent Responsibilities:

Dancers enter through the front door and will wait in the stairwell (socially distanced) until he previous class has exited the studio.
Dancers should arrive at studio already dressed in their dance clothing, if possible.
Upon entering, dancers should proceed to the furthest chair with all of their belongings.
After class dancers will quickly over-dress, gather their belongings, and exit through the rear door.
Parents are asked to remain outside the studio at all times. Drop off at the front door and pick up at the rear door.
Dancers are asked to wear a mask or, preferably, stay home if they feel ill.
Dancers will use hand sanitizer regularly, including when they arrive, after floor or barre work, and when they exit.

CPDW will maintain many of our current protocols, including:

Prop open front and back doors and run fans to maintain airflow.
Run HVAC system and room air purifiers for constant ventilation and air circulation.
Regularly sanitize all barres and shared surfaces.
Maintain social distance markers in the stairwell and studio
Allow 5 minute transition time between classes to minimize student cross-contact.
Paper towels in all restrooms.
No shared water fountain. Dancers should bring a personal water bottle.
Run UV light nightly to disinfect the studio space.

Dancer/Parent Responsibilities for Safe Dancing

Fall 2020

Zoom students – please be on time and ready to go, in the waiting room, before the start of class.
All students – live and Zoom are expected to adhere to the dress code (this summer we were more relaxed, but with our current hybrid model we need for everyone to be subject to the same standards).
Dancers should arrive at the studio already dressed in their dance clothes (excepting dance shoes, of course); no one should be changing in the dressing room or bathrooms.
Everyone MUST wear a mask at all times when in the building.
Dancers enter through the front door. Please wait in the stairwell (socially distanced) until the previous class has exited the studio.
Dancers will receive a temperature check at the studio door. If a student's temperature is higher than 100.4, they will not be permitted to participate, and parents will be called for immediate pick up.
Dancers will stay home if they are ill, join us on Zoom if they are able, and will contact CPDW as soon as possible if they or any family member or other close contact has received a positive COVID-19 diagnosis.
After the temperature check, dancers will proceed to the furthest chair as directed, with all of their belongings, including street shoes (please continue to take street shoes off in the stairwell and carry them in with you to place under your chair). Phones should be on silent and secured in pocket or bag. Please bring a personal water bottle.
Dancers will use hand sanitizer when the arrive, before and after using the ballet barres and any other shared surface, and when exiting.
Dancers will maintain social distancing AT ALL TIMES, not just in the studio, but in the stairwells, hallway, etc.
After class, dancers should quickly over-dress, gather their belongings, and exit through the rear door, remaining socially distanced at all times. Rear door can be accessed from Calder Way, and the same parking lot as the State Theatre stage door.
Parents are asked to remain outside the studio at all times. Drop off at the front door and pick up at the rear door.

This seems like a lot of new rules, and it is, but we want to keep our CPDW family safe and healthy!

Thanksgiving Travel, Testing, & Quarantine/Update 11/24/20

To Our CPDW Dancers & Families:

We hope you have a fantastic Thanksgiving, in the safest way possible.

As you know, CPDW takes the health of our faculty, dancers, and their families with the utmost seriousness, and we do everything possible to keep us all safe. As we all share in the responsibility of keeping our families, our dance family, and our community healthy, we want to ensure everyone is familiar with the latest requirements from the PA Department of Health. There are new rules about travel across state lines relative to COVID-19. With few exceptions, anyone entering or re-entering PA must have proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours prior to their return, or quarantine for 14 days. You can read about it here.

Additionally, we'd like to encourage anyone who will travel within the state but outside the State College area, or celebrate outside your immediate household or have out-of-town guests, to consider a self-quarantine prior to returning to the studio for classes as per CDC recommendations. All our classes are available on Zoom, and while not the same as in studio, it is the safest for your fellow dancers and instructors.

At CPDW we care about our dance community as well as the greater community. We're very proud of how our dancers have been taking our mitigation procedures seriously, and hope you will take the rising numbers, and likelihood of increased spread with increased exposure over the holiday, just as seriously.

We'd like to continue to operate under a hybrid model and ask for your help to do so. Please choose Zoom for the short term, if applicable, so that we may all dance together for the long term.

Have a safe & happy holiday.

Update June 29, 2020

From Director, Jill A. Brighton

In anticipation of returning to in-person classes, CPDW will do everything possible to comply with State, Federal, and CDC recommendations to make our studio safe for dancing. Measures being take will include but are not limited to:

Multiple UV lights run nightly to disinfect the studio space

UV HEPA air purifier run during classes
Run HVAC fan for constant ventilation and air circulation
Hand sanitizer will be used upon entry, at the start of class, any time during class dancers have contact with shared surfaces, at the end of class, and exiting
Disinfectant wipes will be used to clean shared surfaces regularly
Demarcated spaces at the barre and on the floor to maintain proper social distancing
10 minutes between classes to minimize dancer interaction and to allow time for additional sanitizing, including wiping down shared surfaces and swiffering the floor
Dancers enter via front door/exit through the back door
Dancers come to the studio pre-dressed/no congregating in the dressing room
Masks worn by everyone in the building at all times
Paper towels in all bathrooms for hand washing
Bathrooms used as bathrooms only, not changing rooms
No water fountain use/bring personal water bottle
Limited class size; cut-off will be at less than 34% of capacity including instructor and teaching assistant (“green phase maximum is 50%). This would be 15 students per class, and we rarely attain that size in normal times.
Require students to stay home if they feel ill; possible temperature check upon entry
Live stream or record classes for those not in attendance

Update May 18, 2020

From the Director, Jill A. Brighton

To Our CPDW Dancers and Families:

Thank you all for your support these past few weeks! Your resilience has been amazing, and the faculty report being impressed with the diligence and enthusiasm you have shown as we made the transition to Zoom. We also want to give a particular shout out to the students who submitted video footage to CDPW's Spring Fling 2020 and to faculty member Caitlin Osborne who did the editing. The final product was distributed to participants on May 8.

Now that Centre County has entered the "Yellow" phase of closure, we hope that we may soon be back in the studio. However, dance studios fall into the category of businesses that must remain closed until the "Green" phase. We continue to monitor the situation, and we encourage you to continue the types of behavior that protect our whole community.

Intersession will end on June 6. It is not too late to join class! Registration can be found here.

To gauge interest in summer classes, we ask that you participate in a short survey. This will allow us to determine which classes have sufficient enrollment to go forward. Please complete the survey even if you do not plan to participate. Every response helps. Some details about the proposed summer schedule:

Classes will be offered by pre-registration only
Classes must have three registered students to be viable
Start times will remain as posted, duration may be shortened depending on technical capabilities
Single classes $12, 6-week series $55 once weekly classes, $110 twice weekly classes, or $140 unlimited pass

We need your input no later than Sunday, May 24.

Thank you for your help. We miss you all and look forward to our days of dance together.

Jill

Update March 30, 2020

From the Director, Jill A. Brighton

To Our CPDW Dancers and Families:

We hope you all are healthy and adjusting well to the ongoing changes in your lives. Fortunately, your CPDW faculty is here to keep you dancing, in your living room, kitchen, and anywhere you can find a spot big enough to turn around! At noon today, we will launch Virtual CPDW Studio, a series of on-line videos created by your teachers. There are over 30 to choose from in a variety of levels and styles, and we will be updating and adding throughout the weeks to come. Please take advantage of all that the site has to offer. With it, you can keep current with your training and try new styles every day.

To access the Virtual Studio, you will need a password. Please check with your individual teacher or with the director.

Look for additional emails from your individual instructors to help guide your choices, and please contact us with questions, suggestions, and requests.

Students may video themselves (5 minutes or less) doing an exercise or combination, and send it to their instructor for feedback. We'd like to limit this to one video per student for each class in which you are registered.

On a sadder note, we have made the tough call to cancel our annual spring school performance. This is a disappointment to us all, but we know that we can look forward to many performances to come. We encourage you all to continue practicing your school performance dances, as they will help you grow in so many ways - retention of material, sequencing, musicality, skill, and technique.

We miss you all, and will take comfort knowing you are staying safe, but dancing. WE thank you for all of your patience and understanding. Now it is time to get up and DANCE!

Jill

Update March 30, 2020

From the Director, Jill A. Brighton

To Our CPDW Dancers and Families:

To access the Virtual Studio, you will need a password. Please check with your individual teacher or with the director.

Look for additional emails from your individual instructors to help guide your choices, and please contact us with questions, suggestions, and requests.

We miss you all, and will take comfort knowing you are staying safe, but dancing. WE thank you for all of your patience and understanding. Now it is time to get up and DANCE!

Jill

Update March 25, 2020

From the Director, Jill A. Brighton

To Our CPDW Dancers and Families:

I hope this message finds all of you well, and adjusting to the new normal. The situation continues to change and develop, and we all must do so as well.

In compliance with the governor’s order, and with everyone's safety in mind, we are suspending our live and in person classes until further notice. While this saddens us, we are committed to keeping students moving and learning, so that even if we can't be together, we can still dance. To this end, all instruction is moving online. On Monday, we will open Virtual CPDW Studio, a collection of videos created by our faculty, covering all levels and styles, with open access to our whole CPDW family.

While we know this won't replace the synergy we get when we come together to dance, it will allow us to keep dance in our bodies, and in our hearts and souls.

Please look for another email in the next few days or so, with instructions on how you can access the videos, and dance!

We miss you all so much and can't wait to see you all in the studio again. Please take care of yourselves and each other, and stay healthy!

Jill

Update March 17, 2020

From the Director, Jill A. Brighton

CPDW Dancers and Families:

In light of the Governor's shutdown, and to keep you all safe and healthy, CPDW's classes will be canceled through Saturday, March 28th. Hopefully, with all the precautions in place, and everyone taking them seriously and behaving sensibly, we'll all be able to resume our regular schedules soon.

In the meantime, take the opportunity to practice your dances for School Performance. Thinking ahead with positivity and optimism, I'd like us to be as prepared for our performance as we can be. The situation is not at all ideal, but your teachers have provided you with tools to practice at home, and we hope you will do so. Of course this doesn't give us the same sense of togetherness as class and rehearsal do, but if everyone does their part, when we are able to come together again we can assemble the individual pieces and make a whole.

We are working to get all the school performance memos that we had planned to distribute this week on our website www.cpdw.org, along with the Intersession and summer semester schedules, so go take a look. If you need an art project, make a poster for the poster contest, and check out the rehearsal schedule with the show order (we're always eager for that one).

Our small CPDW community, as well as our global community, is facing challenges we've never experienced before. It can be easy to become overwhelmed and despondent, so get up, get those endorphins flowing, and dance.

Please be smart, and stay safe and healthy. We're looking forward to seeing all of you again soon!

Jill

Update March 14, 2020

From the Director, Jill A. Brighton

To Our CPDW Dancers and Families:

The health and safety of our dancers, families, and faculty is of the utmost importance at this time of unprecedented challenges connected to the COVID-19 pandemic. To that end we are canceling our classes and other activities through next week. Our intention is to resume classes as scheduled on Sunday, March 22nd.

To date there have not been any confirmed cases in our area. We are doing everything we can to make sure it stays that way, however this is a very fluid situation. While we are remaining calm, we are taking every action.

Here is what WE are doing at CPDW to avoid contracting or spreading COVID-19:

1. All door knobs, handles, the hallway banister, light switches, and ballet barres are being disinfected multiple times a day.

2. We are using hand sanitizer before and after we go to the barre. We have replaced cloth towels with paper towels in all the bathrooms, and have anti-bacterial soap at all sinks.

3. We will not rehearse any choreography that includes contact of any kind to eliminate direct touching at this time.

4. We will work to eliminate the use of props in our dances for the present.

Here are some suggestions of what YOU can do to help based on these CDC guidelines https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/community-mitigation-strategy.pdf:

1. Please stay home if you or a family member are experiencing cold or flu-like symptoms.

2. Cover your sneezes or coughs with a tissue, or into your elbow.

3. Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth.

4. Avoid contact with other people (handshakes, hugging).

5. And, of course, wash your hands for at least 20 seconds.

As of now, the Student Choreographers' Showcase scheduled for Saturday, 03/21, is canceled. We hope to be able to reschedule at some later date. We plan to resume all classes on Sunday, March 22nd, and to proceed with our end of semester performance at this time.

Our classes are small (all less than 20 students, and most less than 10), so potential exposure will be minimal. We hope you will be able to join us on the 22nd when we plan to resume classes, but please use your best judgement, and do what feels right for you..

In the meantime, we ask that our dancers continue to practice their dances at home. For my students, I have previously sent the music for the performance dances, along with videos taken during rehearsals. The other faculty either already have methods in place for you to practice (dropbox, etc.), or will be making them available soon. Now more than ever, it is important that our students take the initiative to practice outside of class so that we can shine as usual in our school performance.

While we hope it doesn't come to any further measures, we will continue to monitor the situation, and will address the situation as needed.

Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns.

We're all in this together (yes, I'm quoting High School Musical), but with the proper precautions, we can get through it.

Jill