Courtesy Lovely Leaps
After the birth of her daughter in 2018, engineer Lisa McCabe had reservations about returning to the workforce full-time. And while she wanted to stay home with the new baby, she wasn't ready to stop contributing financially to her family (after all, she'd had a successful career designing cables for government drones). So, when she got a call that September from an area preschool to lead its dance program, she saw an opportunity.
The invitation to teach wasn't completely out of the blue. McCabe had grown up dancing in Southern California and had a great reputation from serving as her church's dance teacher and team coach the previous three years (stopping only to take a break as a new mother). She agreed to teach ballet and jazz at the preschool on Fridays and from there created an age-appropriate class based on her own training in the Cecchetti and RAD methods. It was a success: In three months, class enrollment went from six to 24 students, and just one year later, McCabe's blossoming Lovely Leaps brand had contracts with eight preschools and three additional teachers.
<p>In April 2019, McCabe and her husband, Ricky, rented space to open a small brick-and-mortar operation in San Marcos, California, for Mommy (and Daddy) and Me weekend classes, though Lovely Leaps remained primarily focused on the in-school model. "The studio started as a labor of love, really," says Lisa. "It was a way for me to connect with other moms, and a way for my daughter to take part too. There weren't other classes in the area for 12-month-olds, so I just created it."</p><p>That can-do-will-do, enterprising spirit is a cornerstone of McCabe's business success, along with her knack for identifying and filling holes in the market. Because when COVID-19 hit and the pandemic forced studios—and preschools—nationwide to shutter, McCabe not only figured out a way to keep her small venture going virtually, she transformed it into a brand with national appeal and reach. Lovely Leaps' database now has 400 active students, and 3,500 additional students ages 0 to 10 have participated in the brand's virtual classes by signing up through third-party platforms like KidPass and Outschool. In the month of August 2020 alone, Lovely Leaps' revenue from virtual classes was $32,000—10 times the income from the previous August.</p>
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<p>When preschools and their studio closed in March, Lisa and Ricky—a CRM systems specialist by day who manages the tech side of Lovely Leaps—followed the virtual trend, completing all of their students' remaining sessions (for preschool and studio kids alike) over Zoom. "In that process, I started learning what communicates well through screens," says Lisa, who notes that keeping little ones' attention was the biggest challenge. She also rethought performances: Instead of a showcase for parents, Lisa invited a "princess" to watch students dance and chat with them afterwards. "The kids loved it," she recalls. "After that first session ended, I realized we had something. And since <em>everyone</em> was stuck at home, I said, 'Let's continue this.'"</p><p>As contracts with area schools had been her primary model and the schools were not operating, McCabe looked for other partnerships in her area to gain exposure. She knew about fitness-focused and mom-centered meetup groups, like Fit4Mom and Pop-Up Playdate, and decided to offer free virtual classes to those groups several times a week in addition to Lovely Leaps' ongoing Zoom classes. "I really just wanted to keep my name out there, so that Lovely Leaps didn't disappear in the pandemic," she says. But free classes also proved to be a workaround in marketing across Facebook mom groups that prohibited advertising. "When moms would sign up for a free virtual class, we'd get their names and contact info so that when my studio could reopen, I could talk to them again," she says.</p><p>Of course, in-person classes didn't start back up, and there was no end in sight to virtual learning and staying at home. The McCabes added Lovely Leaps to two third-party platforms: Outschool and KidPass—through which teachers advertise small-group virtual workshops for kids in topics that range from math and science to songwriting and animation. That's also when Lisa took a leap: She hired a PR professional. "I'm a female African-American business owner, who went from engineering to dance," she says. "It was the perfect storm for media coverage." Popular mom-blogs like Motherly and Red Tricycle included Lovely Leaps on their lists of Black-owned businesses, and Good Morning America even picked up her story in late June (in a roundup of businesses that had pivoted in the pandemic). Business boomed: Lovely Leaps' initial virtual student base of roughly 65 expanded to more than 3,500.</p>
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<p>To accommodate the growing clientele, the McCabes hired three additional teachers (for a total of six plus Lisa) and added classes to their formerly once- or twice-a-day schedule. They now offer 10 virtual classes daily, Monday through Friday, and each class has an average of seven to 14 students (the maximum they allow so they can see all students on one screen). For students who sign up directly on the Lovely Leaps website(as opposed to booking a class through Outschool, say), there are four payment options: per class, which is suggested for students under 5, or set membership fees to access one class, two classes or five classes each week. They continue to offer two free classes each Thursday (ages 10 months to 3 years and ages 3 to 6).</p><p>While operating costs remain low for virtual classes (teachers' fees, uniforms, and the cost of website hosting and maintenance), third-party platforms take a sizeable cut of sales to advertise the classes on their sites. Outschool, for instance, takes a 30 percent service fee from the bookings made through its site. Still, it's a valuable partnership, says Lisa, as the platform markets the classes and brings in customers, so she and her husband are okay with students repeatedly booking through Outschool instead of on Lovely Leaps' website.</p><p>Whether a student books through Outschool or directly through Lovely Leaps, repeat business is key. Enter Ricky's expertise in customer-relations management. All new participants are encouraged to take a survey after class (sent via Zoom chat or email), with questions including preferred times for classes as well as what kinds of classes they are most interested in. (Many classes have themes—i.e., <em>Trolls</em>, superheroes, or Disney princesses—and while technique does factor into each session, Lovely Leaps' classes aim to instill a general love of movement in a fun and age-appropriate environment.) "I put all answers into a dashboard to generate leads, and I can look at what classes we should create," he continues. Once a participant completes the survey (which asks for contact info at the end), they receive an email with current classes that fit their profile and a discount code to sign up.</p><p>Lisa knows that about 70 percent of Lovely Leaps' student database is made up of San Diego locals, but the third-party platforms cast a much wider net, with 70 percent of those consumers tuning in from outside the area—including about 30 percent from the Northeast and another 10 percent overseas. To track their own students, the McCabes have relied on Jackrabbit, but they are transitioning to WellnessLiving, a cloud-based management software like Mindbody, but one that also allows constituents to be lumped into households—perfect for dance siblings. (The McCabes also use inbound marketing software HubSpot for their contracts with preschools, Mailchimp for all mass email marketing, and Typeform to link the surveys and the emails.)</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDU5OTY3Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0OTI2MTQ1OH0.lLk5ednTaXmbIxricmoDpjs_VZ4GlAH2T5eE8lvJV3I/img.jpg?width=980" id="e5f3d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c160bb3c75b87bdfbce461adc850bf5a" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Lisa McCabe, who is masked, demonstrates a tendu as six young students dance behind her" />
Courtesy Lovely Leaps
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<p>Lovely Leaps reopened its real-life studio on October 12 with three in-person classes (and has since added one more). Twenty students attended the first week—including two students from Lisa's early partnership with Pop-Up Playdate. And while they're not back in schools yet, 14 preschools have expressed interest in welcoming Lovely Leaps into physical classrooms in 2021. Still, the McCabes aren't shutting down virtual operations—at all. "I look at brands like Beachbody, or Peloton," says Ricky, citing their existence pre-pandemic, ability to scale during it, and plan to thrive going forward. "There were all these membership-based, virtual physical-activity programs for adults, but not so much for children. We've looked to those brands to help us scale." Adds Lisa: "There will always be a reason kids can't go outside—maybe the weather is bad, or their parents have to take a work meeting. I want to be the premier online studio that parents can utilize in those times, too, pandemic or not." </p>
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Courtesy Shake the Ground
Dance competitions were among the first events to be shut down when the COVID-19 pandemic exploded in the U.S. in mid-March, and they've been among the last able to restart.
So much of the traditional structure of the competition—large groups of dancers and parents from dozens of different studios; a new city every week—simply won't work in our new pandemic world.
How, then, have competitions been getting by, and what does the future look like?
When the Pandemic Hit
<p>In mid-March, when competitions first began seeing cancellations, charting a path forward felt like taking shots in the dark.</p><p>"What made this thing so frustrating and scary was that we didn't know what we were dealing with," says Shari Tomasiello, CEO of Headliners. "We didn't know if it was going to be for a week, two weeks, a month. We didn't know if we would be able to reschedule events, or when we would be able to reschedule events."</p><p>While Tomasiello completely canceled some events, about 90 percent of her studios said that they wanted to move forward with competing, so she rescheduled as many as she could. Many of these eventually had to be canceled too—Headliners ended up holding just 12 of its 34 planned competitions. One of those canceled events was Headliners' Nationals, which accounts for 10 to 15 percent of the company's annual revenue.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDU1MTI1MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwODMwMjg1MH0.Gfmd_rGy2lYCrK7Q1NITL2mFLM87ayX-c7Ulo5kkukg/img.jpg?width=980" id="fb1de" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="10c54432c413d1f2e13366450ed0c26c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="A young masked dancer standing against a Headliners backdrop holds a certificate that says "Headliners Judge's Award"" />
A recent Headliners competition.
Photo courtesy Headliners
<p>With only two venue refunds in hand, plus losses from airline tickets and trophies that will become outdated, issuing $400,000 in refunds for the studios who requested them was a big financial hit for Headliners—a major portion of its operating budget. (Though the company did, thankfully, receive a PPP loan.) But for Tomasiello, working with each studio to come up with a solution was essential to maintaining Headliners' reputation. This meant a combination of partial refunds to cover graduating seniors, partial refunds combined with credit towards a 2021 event, and full refunds.</p><p>Rhonda Marchant, president and founding director of Encore Dance Competition for the Stars, took a similar approach, offering her studios four options: receive a 120 percent credit for a future event; receive a 40 percent refund, 60 percent in credit and an extra 10 percent bonus credit; receive a 75 percent refund, 25 percent in credit and an extra 5 percent in bonus credit; or receive a full refund.</p><p>While the full refund was the most popular option at first (Marchant ended up doling out $250,000), as the panic died down, more studios saw the benefit of receiving credit for future events. Marchant, too, is grateful for her $90,000 PPP loan, and the fact that most of her venues gave her refunds or credits—but she also spent $50,000 on awards that would become outdated.</p>
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<p>Not all competitions could afford to give refunds, creating a trickle-down effect that put studios in a difficult position. "I want to be compassionate to those competitions who weren't able to offer refunds," says Marchant. "But you have to look at the other side: What about those dance families and studios? A lot of these dance studios had to close for months, and they aren't getting any income, either."<br></p><p>Though Marchant had to cancel 15 competitions—including many of her Regionals—she was able to hold a version of her Nationals in Charleston, SC in July. "It wasn't the grand finale we had planned for," she says, and Encore DCS ended up losing money on the event due to a flurry of last-minute cancellations and studios using credits from canceled Regionals. 2020 ended up being Encore DCS's slowest season in over six years, forcing Marchant to lay off all part-time staff, and to file for unemployment herself.</p>
The Reality of Pandemic Competitions
<p>The few competitions that have gone on as planned since March have looked quite different from the norm.</p><p>Some—like Youth America Grand Prix, New York City Dance Alliance, Starbound and Break the Floor—have happened virtually. Tomasiello emphasizes that they aren't moneymakers, just opportunities to keep studios and dancers engaged.</p><p>Rather than holding a virtual competition, Lissette Salgado-Lucas and David Lucas, founders of Shake the Ground, launched a free online workshop series for their studios, and got to work formulating a plan for a potential in-person event.</p><p>In mid-June, Shake the Ground was able to host its first competition since March, in Jacksonville, Florida, with a whole new structure: studio blocks. Each studio had its own time slot in the venue, where the dancers performed all their routines in succession with a limited audience of one family member per child. Shake the Ground also livestreamed the events, as well as the awards ceremony, and trophies were mailed to the studios after the fact. (This was a popular setup for studio owners and parents, who only had to be present for a few hours instead of an entire weekend.) Shake the Ground was able to hold four rescheduled events in this format, including its Nationals, and several other competitions have implemented similar procedures.</p><div class="htl-ad"
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A recent Shake the Ground competition.
Photo courtesy Shake the Ground
<p>The extra effort Shake the Ground put into safety measures—including temperature checks, mandatory masks and hour-and-a-half cleanings between studio blocks—was noticed and appreciated by studios. But it wasn't cheap: While the industrial fogging machine, thermometers and endless bottles of disinfectant were a significant investment, the bigger cost has been the revenue lost from being able to accommodate approximately half of the studios Shake the Ground could with a regular competition; just enough to break even. (The company's revenue for the year is about 50 percent down, plus it issued $80,000 in refunds.)</p><p>But Salgado-Lucas and Lucas are confident they've landed on a model that works, at least for now. They have a full 2021 schedule planned with strong registration so far, and are lining up backup venues (like outdoor spaces and hotels) in case theaters have to close again.</p><p>Lucas says that surviving 2020 has prepared Shake the Ground for whatever eventuality 2021 brings. "We understand the environment now," he says, "and know that we'll be able to quickly adjust to it."</p>
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Despite worldwide theater closures, the Universal Ballet Competition is keeping The Nutcracker tradition alive in 2020 with an online international competition. The event culminates in a streamed, full-length video of The Virtual Nutcracker consisting of winning entries on December 19. The competition is calling on studios, as well as dancers of all ages and levels, to submit videos by November 29 to be considered.
"Nutcracker is a tradition that is ingrained in our hearts," says UBC co-founder Lissette Salgado-Lucas, a former dancer with Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Joffrey Ballet. "We danced it for so long as professionals, we can't wait to pass it along to dancers through this competition."
How It Works
<p>UBC has divided various scenes and divertissements that make up <em>The Nutcracker</em> into categories. (Think Party Scene, Battle Scene, Snow Pas de Deux, etc.) Studios and conservatories, along with individual dancers, are asked to submit footage of these scenes from previous performances or in-studio recordings (though costuming and makeup is encouraged) to UBC through the company's<a href="http://universalballetcompetition.com" target="_blank"> website</a>. The entry fee for each submission is $45, with multiple-entry pricing available.</p><p>The competition will be <a href="https://www.universalballetcompetition.com/virtual-competition-schedule/" target="_blank">livestreamed</a> on December 12, featuring all submissions that make up Act I, and on December 13, featuring all submissions that make up Act II. "We thought it would be cool for parents and directors to see, say, 20 different versions of Mother Ginger for future inspiration," says UBC co-founder David Lucas. "It's a fun way to promote the different studios who are all facing challenges, embrace the season, and learn from one another."</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDU2ODk4OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNDMyNTM2Mn0.svuEGNVqisVMYpKWf_cS-uzxskqEOaRTRJPfLhz7F_Q/img.jpg?width=980" id="a22e7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="496d09a5fd9610786f98b53cfed4dd5c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="Blurred ballerinas in long white tutus dance on a wooden floor and are viewed from backstage." />
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<p>The jurors for the competition include: Pennsylvania Ballet assistant artistic director Samantha Dunster, Kansas City Ballet School director Grace Maduell Holmes, Royal Winnipeg Ballet associate director Tara Birtwhistle, Orlando Ballet School principal teacher Charmaine Hunter and international master teacher Duncan Cooper.</p><p>An online awards ceremony announcing each scene's top three submissions (and their subsequent cast members) will be held on December 14. The first-place clips will then be strung together to create a final cohesive recording of <em>The Virtual Nutcracker</em>, which audiences can stream for free on UBC's website on December 19.</p><p>"At this time, the arts have to show we are stronger than COVID-19," Lucas says. "United as a community, we still go on. Dancers, studios and companies cannot survive without performances—let's continue the <em>Nutcracker</em> tradition in a safe environment."</p>
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