LAKEWOOD RANCH – When Dancing on the Suncoast co-owner Cyntia Johnson closed the studio during Florida’s Stay At Home orders,
“I was panicking at first,” Johnson said.
She hoped things would be back to normal soon.
“I thought by beginning of April, mid-April, we’d be open.”
She returned to the studio to tidy up, adding sashes to the chairs and doing little things to let everyone know they were here and that they’d open again.
Around a month and a half later once ballroom studios could open, many of her students wanted to come back but needed to feel safe.
So in the studio, COVID guidelines are posted.
Students’ temperatures are checked. They’re asked to wear a mask and also wash their hands before dancing. Students are spaced at least six feet apart from others. Chairs you can’t use are turned around to put space between people. Hand sanitizer should be used after finishing a lesson.
Now here’s where the precautions hit the business: prior to the pandemic, more students could take lessons at one time, around five to six at a time.
Now it’s down to one to two at a time. And instead of 45 minute slots, it’s an hour, with 15 minutes to allow one student to leave and another to arrive.
So fewer lessons of course mean less revenue. And the gigantic stimulus bill signed in March only helped for when the studio was closed. They’re not earning as much money right now.
“So that doesn’t help us at all,” Johnson says.
She is concerned about the rise in COVID cases. And with no guarantee people will feel safe a week from now, Johnson hopes for more federal stimulus money.
“So we need help going now… before we get all the customers in.”
Disclosure: Marco runs Dancing on the Suncoast’s social media accounts. He also contacted Dynasty Dance Clubs in Sarasota and Lakewood Ranch to see what they were doing. Dynasty also implemented numerous and very similar guidelines.
