Step In Time Dance Director Melanie Fowler with her children Alivia and Ethan (Image: Step In Time Dance)
Dance classes and end-of-year recitals have been cut short due to COVID-19, but a New Brunswick dance studio found a way to keep their dance community connected.
Step in Time Dance operates out of Sussex and Hampton, having opened in 2003 and 2005 respectively, and teaches dance to children ages three to 19.
“We offer classes to kids of all ages really in a variety of styles,” said studio director Melanie Fowler. “We’d normally run a regular season from September until May and then what we have is what we call a Year-End Showcase where they showcase their routines that they’ve worked on, and obviously with the pandemic that sort of put the kibosh to the whole Year-End Showcase.”
The studio brainstormed ways how the kids could stay engaged and excited and one of the Dance Moms came up with the travelling tutus challenge.
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- Recreational dancer Lennon Gahan (Image: Step In Time Dance)
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- Competitive dancer Hannah Morton (Image: Step In Time Dance)
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- Competitive dancer Sophie Scott poses with her dad Kevin Scott (Image: Step In Time Dance)
“We actually have two sets circulating, so each sign has two tutus with it one that’s for an adult size and one that’s a kid’s size,” said Fowler. “We circulated one in Sussex and one in Hampton just because we figured it would take a while to make it back and forth to each community so we’ve got two of them would be better than one.”
The tutus come with instructions to take a photo in the tutus and share it on social media with the hashtag #SITFAMILY and then deliver the tutus to another dancer. The tutus have made their way to an estimated 25 to 30 families since May.
Tutus staked out in the 1st drop off house (Image: Step In Time Dance)
“A couple of kids are really excited to wake up and see it on their lawn or have it delivered by an older dancer that they admire and look up to,” she said. The tutu’d recipients have also sent the tutus along to younger students, family members or their friends. “There’s been all kinds of different connections that is kind of neat to see.”
The tutu’d, from dancers to parents to dogs, have resulted in a variety of pictures from goofy shots to graceful dancing poses.
“I like how you have to think about who you want to deliver it to. When I was dropping the first two off it was weird sneaking into people’s lawns and putting it there, hoping they wouldn’t notice because I wanted them to find it and be surprised and not catch me in delivery,” she said.
Fowler said the nicest thing about the challenge is that it can keep going for as long as they want it to, putting it on pause in bad weather and restarting it in the spring. “If we can find a way to smile through all of this, that’s the ultimate goal,” she said.
