Dear OBT School family,
A little sunshine was a welcome visitor this week, and while we remain in safety mode, I hope the sun took an opportunity to shine on you.
Our OBTS CONNECTS! Zoom classes are going very well in spite of occasional technical difficulties. Excellent attendance, focus, and hard work have been frequently used words to describe OBT School students by our teaching staff. They have expressed to me how much they miss their students as each teacher adjusts to distance teaching and new circumstances – “we see our students and delight in what we see!”
Each week we will incorporate more offerings to the Google Classroom platform of learning through curriculum content and enrichment items. We will also add elements to our Zoom online class schedule as we are able. Last week the new Boys’ Intensive class roared back into action. The week of April 20 there will be additional offerings in pointe technique for Levels 3 and up, plus a new upper level class on Saturdays. We are listening to your feedback with a sincere desire to implement requests wherever possible and to expand the mosaic nature of distance learning.
We plan to grant access to enrolled OBT School students to attend a lower level Zoom class schedule, as many of them have often taken extra classes below their current level.
We are attending Zoom conference calls with Dance/USA, our member organization. It is a cohort of other professional ballet schools around the nation, brainstorming best practices and innovation. The challenges are very similar across the board, but there is much transparency and sharing of novel ideas.
Your OBT School staff is hard at work refining this dance adventure on a daily basis.
Yours sincerely,
Marion Tonner
School Director
