How Our Departments Are Set Up

Wow!  It has been a long time since I updated this blog.  A lot has happened in our fall 2021 semester - Hurricane Ida, Covid measures, shipping issues, and changing some of our staff.  In the midst of all that, we had our highest enrollment with approximately 280 enrollments.  There has been no extra time to write.

Currently, we are receiving lots of phone calls regarding registration and how our classes work.  So I decided to write a blog to detail how our departments are organized.  

Summer Session -  During the summer, we offer a 5 week session in all departments. This is the perfect time to "try it out" and see if it is something your student enjoys without a big commitment. For dance, you will have to invest in the correct attire and shoes though. In music, you will have to also purchase music curriculum.  For art, materials are covered in the summer tuition.  Summer classes run from the last week of June through July. 
 
Dance - Our dance program runs the length of a school year (mid-August to the end of May).  We have two divisions of our dance department.  The first is recreational.  Students do not need previous experience.  This is for the students who want to learn the fundamentals of dance, but like a more laid back approach.  The second is our competitive division.  Students are able to audition on June 18th for our competiion team, hip hop crew, or both.  Students must be ages 5-18 at auditions to be eligible for our competition team.  They must be ages 8-18 for our hip hop crews.  This is for dancers that already know the basics and are looking for a more serious approach to dance.  

A common question I get asked regarding our dance program is why I won't take new students in the middle of the year?  Well, for the first 10 weeks of the dance year, we focus on technique and dance education.  By October, we are picking recital music, ordering costumes, and working on recital choreography.  If I would take students after October, we would be scrambling to try to get their costumes in and they would have missed learning the steps being taught slowly.  The teacher would also have to redo their formations.  

Tumbling - Tumbling is our only department that is a month to month commitment.  You can join this at anytime as long as we have space available.  You only need to give us two weeks notice to stop the classes.  Tumbling students just work on skills.  They do not perform in our recitals.  

Music - Our music department has two semesters - fall and spring.  Fall runs from mid-August to mid-December.  Spring runs from January through May.  For music, families choose their 30 minute time slot when registering.  The student comes for that same time each week.  For the first 8 weeks of the semester, the student is learning music theory and technique.  Then, they pick with the help of their teacher a music piece to play for their end of semester recital.  We always say our music department is "pace-based."  This means we move at the pace of the student.  This allows us to base the speed in which concepts are taught by how the student is learning the information.

Art - Our art department is set up similar to our music program with two semesters.  A theme is picked each semester that the students' projects are based around.  For example, one semester we did a Louisiana theme.  The students learned to paint a pelican in front of a sunset.  They also worked on sketching a pier in the bayou.  We always focus on an artist during the semester too.  In the semester just mentioned, the students learned about John Audubon.  Students work with a variety of materials from Prisma colors, charcoals, pastels, acryllic paints, and much more.

The goal is for our summer and fall 2022 schedule to be announced at the beginning of April.  We will set up indiviudal 20 minute appointments for families to register.  It takes a week and a half to get our returning students registered first.  We will open up new student enrollment in May.  During the registration appointment, our staff will be able to focus on the family they are meeting with to make sure class requirements are understood.  Please note that classes fill up fast.  It is not always possible to give you your first choice in class times.  If you choose to wait until when fall classes begin in August to register, many times classes are at capacity.  

I hope this post helps explain how Soar's departments and classes are organized.  We are thankful to have a good reputation in our community and we look forward to continuting to teach students to use their gifts to glorify God in the future.