‘Future is Bright’ for Local Dance School

Melrose, MA — Falling in love with the art of dance at the age of two, Amanda Bruno Thompson has dedicated her life to pursuing that love. In 2013, Thompson, after getting certifications from places like CLI Studios and The Dance Teacher’s Club of Boston, and after working for several local dance studious, had a chance to buy one of her own. She has been the owner and artistic director of Melrose Dance Academy ever since.

“I just knew this was the right path for me to take,” Thompson said. “It ended up working out.”

When the first COVID-19 lockdowns began, both Thompson and her team thought the lockdowns would not last much longer than those initial two weeks.

“I would send out fun little activities to parents’ emails of things to keep the kids busy, again thinking it would only be two weeks,” Thompson said. “When it was very clear the shut down was going longer than two weeks, I had to start making some decisions on how we were going to handle it.”

In April, Thompson began running free Zoom classes.

“I didn’t feel right charging my clients for a service that wasn’t up to Melrose Dance Academy standards,” Thompson said. “Once May came and we still couldn’t open, I did have to start charging a small fee for Zoom classes so I could pay the studio bills.”

And though Zoom offered a platform for connection, Thompson found that, in a world that necessitated ceaseless virtual connection for her students, Zoom was just not satisfactory.

“I found the kids were not excited about virtual dance classes. They spent all day on the computer or their iPads for school, and the last thing they wanted or needed was a dance class, also on the computer,” Thompson said. “Mostly my plan was to return to in-person classes as soon as possible. Once things started to open up a bit, we started holding dance classes outside, which was really fun and different.”

For the studio’s past season, safety in the face of COVID was Thompson’s top priority.

“This past season, we wanted to make the studio the safest we possibly could for our dancers and staff. This meant re-working how our classes ran, from the number of dancers allowed to how we taught and the material we taught,” Thompson said. “Everyone had to wear masks — including our two-year-old dancers — and hands were sanitized heading in and out of the studio.”

The studio also heavily amped up their cleaning procedures, sanitizing the studios thoroughly between every class and cleaning bathrooms between every use. Thompson also kept the studio’s waiting room closed and reworked their choreography to ensure that everyone could perform within safe social distancing guidelines.

“In the studio, each dancer was assigned a six-foot square, which was their dance space for the class. Instead of using these squares to confine dancers to a small space, we took the opportunity to use them as a teaching tool,” Thompson said. “We used colored tape to make the squares, and each side of the square was a different color. The dancers ended up really liking their squares and felt comfortable. The teachers would use the different colors to work on dance steps and create obstacle courses, which replaced our “across the floor” work, which is normally where we would work on traveling dance steps.”

At the conclusion of that season, the Academy was able to host its annual recital by renting an outdoor stage and hosting several smaller, shorter shows throughout the day.
Though some guidelines were relaxed during the summer, Thompson is ready to reinstate them at a moment’s notice.

“For our upcoming season, my plan is to just play it by ear before taking a step forward or backward,” she said. “My number one priority is keeping everyone safe and healthy, and I’m willing to do anything I need. After last season, myself and my staff have a pretty good understanding on how to run the studio, so if we need to return to all our guidelines we put into place last season, we will be able to easily.”

Throughout this period of turbulence and uncertainty, Melrose Dance Academy’s focus was to keep things going for its students and to keep its dancers engaged.

“I wanted the studio to be a place where our dancers felt safe and stable. I wanted our dancers to know how much they mattered to us, and that no matter what the studio would be there for them, and I wouldn't give up on trying to give them the experiences they were supposed to have with us,” Thompson said.

“I think because of all that hard work, the future for us is bright, as our registration for the upcoming season is crazier than ever. I think I was able to show parents how much their dancers meant to the studio by not giving up throughout the pandemic and the response has really been positive. I do feel hopeful moving forward, and it is all thanks to the families that stuck out 2020 with us and put their trust in us.”