Our safety efforts go beyond the studio. The health and safety of our staff, students, guests, and communities has always been our highest priority; a commitment that has only been heightened at this time in history. We are a “Safer Studio” following the guidelines provided by More than Just Great Dancing. This accreditation is supported by using local and national guidelines to inform best practices for service continuity and re-opening in-person services.
Below are our current safety measures for our 2020-21 School Year season. These are subject to change and will be updated accordingly, as new guidance becomes available or local mandates are put into place. Please check back often for new policies and updates.
Before leaving your home, we ask our families to complete a self-wellness check. People with any of these symptoms should stay home:
Platinum Dance will also be checking your dancer’s temperature upon entering the classroom. Any temperatures above 100.4 will be re-checked within 10 minutes of entering the classroom. Anyone with temps above 100.4 (after allowing time for the dancer to settle indoors), will be addressed to call their parent or we will call a parent to have the dancer sent home.
On top of the self-wellness checks and the in-studio temperature checks of each dancer, we ask that before entering the building, no one in your household has been recently diagnosed with or has come in close contact (less than 6 ft for more than 15 min) with a positive case of COVID-19 in the past 2 weeks.
Should your dancer or anyone in your household test positive for COVID-19, we ask for a prompt notification. Your dancer should discontinue participation until cleared by a doctor to resume or if your dancer meets the current CDC guidelines for being around people after a COVID-19 diagnosis/direct exposure.
If a child has tested positive and we are notified, we will also notify their class via email. Our faculty is also following strict guidelines/precautions on when to call in to work and get a sub for a short period of time. Therefore, you may notice a different teacher in your dancer’s classroom at times.
Due to MN Executive Order 80-21, Minnesotans should wear a face covering while in indoor businesses. Anyone ages 6+ entering the building should wear a mask at all times while in the building, unless you have an exception.
Let’s give our best effort to be supporters of this change! Most of us can mask up and it’s no biggie. Most of our teachers have been masked up and teaching their hearts out for the past couple months already.
Let’s also give our best grace to the kiddo who can’t wear the mask! A small number of our peers and students cannot mask up for a variety of reasons, and the mask mandate supports this, therefore, these dancers may remove their mask while properly distanced and exerting in class. Please note the mandate also allows for our teachers to drop their masks to give instructions from an appropriate distance of 6 feet or greater, which greatly increases classroom comprehension and we will continue to do so.
Our studios are marked with floor spots (6 ft apart) for our older dancers and large boxes for our younger dancers, so everyone stays in their own space. We have organized systems for across the floor that create a safe flow of traffic, and when moving around the room, we will always move in a clockwise direction. Class max sizes are between 9-14 dancers depending on the size of the room.
Within our lobby, there are designated spots on the ground where the chairs should remain, so they all stay distanced from one another. On benches, there are X’s specifying where you should sit.
If you are in the store/front desk area, please use the 6 ft apart floor markers to wait. If you are entering/exiting the building, please keep your distance from other families doing the same.
During the school year season (until further notice), our lobby will be open to ONE parent per dancer for Toddler, Preschool and Kinder class parents only. This means that any dancer ages 7+ should be dropped off and picked up at the designated entrances/exits and parents should not enter the building.
For dancers ages 6 & under, only one parent per dancer can be in the lobby. To keep our lobby safe and at it’s capacity, we ask that there are no siblings (over an age that can be held/sit on a lap) in the lobby.
There are seats staggered throughout the entire building. We ask that each parent finds a seat, regardless if it is near your dancer’s studio or not, so that everyone stays properly distanced.
Some areas of our building are out of use this School Year (until further notice).
Please do not use the dressing room stalls and cubbies. Have your dancer arrive fully ready for class and bring their dance bag with any change of shoes into the studio with them. The study room is also closed.The drinking fountain is open for filling water bottles only. Please bring a water bottle to dance.
The front desk will have a friendly Platinum face there during the studio’s front desk hours. View our studio front desk hours here. Please wait on a spot in the front desk area. Other than snack/water purchases and questions, the store area is open by appointment only. If you need to purchase items, such as shoes or dance attire, we ask that you set-up an appointment by emailing Annie (annie@platinumdance.com) or calling the studio.
Please respect our parking lot flow and drop-off lane. Since most parents will be dropping off their dancer from their car, we ask that you drop them off in the drop-off lane closest to their entrance. Please do not park/wait in the drop-off lane for any period of time or use this lane to pick your dancer up.
Parents who are dropping off their dancer (all parents with dancers ages 7+), should find a parking spot and wait in the car , OR you are more than welcome to leave and come back for pick-up.
For pick-up, please leave your car parked and meet your dancer at their exit door (east side of the building) – this ensures all dancers are walking in the parking lot to their car with a parent.
As always, follow the one-way flow of our parking lot and drive slow and cautiously, as there are young children walking in and out of the lot at all times of the day/night.
Our entrances and exits have changed for the 2020-21 School Year season for our Edina location only. All Recreational & Performance Team dancers will enter the main front entrance, but exit our East side (handicapped) door, which is located past the bathrooms. Watch for signs!
All Competition dancers will enter and exit through the Studio 4/Kitchenette door on the East side of our building.
Any parents entering the building should use the same entrances/exits at all times.
West families will all enter and exit through the front main entrance as usual.
We understand, in most buildings and in most situations, filters may be considerably less effective than other infection control measures including social distancing, isolation of known cases, and hand-washing.
However, we are working with our contractor and building maintenance company to ensure our filters are properly installed and maintained and that we have a well performing HVAC system that introduces clean air and removes contaminated air from enclosed spaces.
We understand cracking doors open can have a significant impact on air exchanges. We are propping doors for outdoor air circulation and optimizing building ventilation.
We encourage all dancers and anyone entering the building to wash hands frequently. Upon entering and exiting the classroom each time, we will sanitize each dancer’s hands. There are many hand sanitizers throughout the studio and new touch less hand sanitizer stations as well.
Platinum Dance uses a commercial cleaning company to professionally clean their facilities. We have worked together to ensure that we are efficiently disinfecting, especially door handles, hand rails and all surfaces. Our cleaning company is up-to-date on new cleaning requirements.
Our teaching staff is trained on how to prepare each studio for class with our cleaning stations in each classroom. Our office staff is trained on how to keep all other areas of the studio (including bathrooms & lobby) clean and sanitized many times a day. Platinum has also implemented curriculum and schedule changes to help eliminate the spread of germs.
Our local MDH is a resource that Platinum uses to stay up to date with local restrictions and guidelines within our community. As we navigate through this time, we have daily decisions that need to be made to always ensure the safety of our students, families and staff. We will continue to update families with changes via this webpage and through email.
As a Safer Studio, Platinum wants to do their part in Stay Safe MN. We are in constant communication what our local health commissioner, as well as public school colleagues. On top of staying up to date with how schools are maneuvering this school year, we are also following the guidelines for local youth sports, as they are updated, as well as their initial document that outlines practical prevention strategies: Prevention Guidance for Youth Programs. As a place for children’s activities we have followed MDH Sports Guidance .
Platinum Dance follows the CDC guidelines to make sure we are current with our procedures and the safety measures we are taking each day.
We follow the CDC recommendations regarding cleaning and disinfecting our facilities, youth sports guidelines, and other suggestions for youth programs and camps.
We took a phased approach to re-opening this summer and moving into fall we will follow the CDC trends and adjust our programming/precautions as needed. The CDC’s guidelines and data will always be considered, but our local government restrictions, area schools decisions, and other childcare facilities/children activities will be our guide in our preparedness for health and safety as well.
Click here to read more about the MTJGD Safer Studio Guidelines.