March 27 Message to Clients
Hello lovely BeMoved community - I miss you so very much and hope that you and yours are all staying well during this unusual time. I can't begin to tell you how often I think about you and miss dancing with you. This email is, above all, a wellness check.
As some of you know, we are unable to provide BeMoved classes online because of music rights. I know that many people teaching virtual classes online right now are disregarding music rights requirements, or stating that they "don't own the rights to the music they are using", but BeMoved wishes to follow the letter of the law. Simply put, we can't legally use the wonderful playlists (online or in videos) that make BeMoved so magical without paying royalties to each artist (performers and composers) of every song, which is obviously cost-prohibitive.
The good news is that Sherry has been working tirelessly to find royalty-free music that works well enough to allow instructors to deliver virtual BeMoved classes to you online during the quarantine. Hooray!! And in case you missed it - here's a link to a 6 minute "Breathe & Stretch" sequence she created for all of us. I've been doing it every morning and night, it’s luscious.
As some of you know, I'm on the board of Lucky Plush Productions, a local dance-theater company, and as luck would have it, they're hosting a Virtual Dance Lab in partnership with the University of Chicago. The VDL is offering all kinds of dance and movement classes taught by Lucky Plush artists via Zoom to keep people moving and connected. So...(drum roll) I will begin teaching BeMoved classes in the Virtual Dance Lab on Tuesdays at 5:00pm starting 3/31 and Sundays at 11:00am (our normal LCDS time slot) starting 4/5. I'm also teaching a Jazz class and Creative Movement class for kids (please invite your grandchildren to dance with me). Here's my weekly line up:
Mondays 6:00pm Beginner Jazz starting 3/30 - you can all do this class
Tuesdays 5:00pm BeMoved starting 3/31
Saturdays 3:00pm Creative Movement Fun (ages ~3-7 years + parents, siblings, grandparents) starting tomorrow 3/28
Sundays 11:00am BeMoved starting 4/5 NEXT Sunday
Click here to register for classes. You must pre-register for each class to receive a link to the Zoom meeting (download the Zoom app on your device of choice and allow it access to your camera in Settings, so we can all see each other).
Virtual Dance Lab classes are offered for a suggested donation of $5-10/class. Class donations allow Lucky Plush to pay their ensemble members during this extremely difficult period. Lucky Plush dancers, like all performing artists, are very suddenly out of work for an undetermined period of time. Dance companies and artists are facing unprecedented uncertainty after working their entire lives to hone their skill/art (which I personally highly value). I'm teaching these classes, not only because I miss dancing with you and want to be sure we all keep moving, but to help Lucky Plush. 100% of my class donations will directly benefit the company and the artists.
Feel free to invite your friends to join in the fun. For those who may have feared trying BeMoved, have been meaning to try it or who live far away, they can now try it in the privacy of their own quarantine bubble (everyone has the option to turn video off). It won't be the same as being together and dancing to our amazing playlists, but it still feels great to BeMoved!
I hope to see your smiling face in my living room for a virtual class soon. Please remember to reply and let me know that you are ok, I am truly concerned and interested in your well being.
Big (socially distant) Hugs,