This week Dennis Sansome has agreed to share his Line Dancing through Lockdown experience with us.   Dennis has been dancing for 15 years and been a B.W.D.A accredited fully qualified instructor for the last 12, over this time he has run classes in Rushden, Wellingborough, Irthlingborough and Irchester.  As can often be the case in the line dance world, Dennis was asked to take over an established class in Kettering, as the current instructor was moving out of the area.  Dennis says he knew from when he first stepped his foot through the door, he had found a great class.  However, this did mean he was now running two classes on consecutive days and finding this a bit too much, he handed his other class to another instructor to concentrate on the new one.  Dennis renamed this class 'Double-Dee'  the name he had always used for his classes, however, the class had other ideas and quickly adopted their own name of 'Dens' Dollies'!  Dennis says he's extremely lucky to have the help of Amy who attends the class and has gained her own teaching qualifications whilst doing so, and the 'wind beneath his wings' his wife, Janet.

Den's Dollies runs for 2 hours on a Wednesday morning, they are a friendly and fun group, who are always happy and willing to welcome new members.  As this is a weekday morning class, it tends to attract the demographic which makes up the highest percentage of our current industry (according to ELD research) those who are retired.  Dennis also has a few dancers with additional needs who attend with their carers.  Endeavouring to create a real social atmosphere in each class Dennis operates a 'don't dance, don't pay' policy enabling his dancer's partners to attend to enjoy the music.  He supplies tea, coffee and biscuits during a short break for an optional donation and has, over the last 6 years, raised over £1,500 for local charities.  His class is always available for demonstrations at local charity events and they go away for a line dance weekend once a year too.

As with many line dance teachers, Dennis struggled with the decision to close his class, but as ever the duty of care towards his dancers won and he closed his class, for the first time in 6 years.  He took the time to call each of his dancers to ensure they knew that the class was closed, and why, posted a message on their website and also went to the hall for the first closed class lesson in case anyone did turn up.  A very important step that Dennis took next, was to talk to the hall he used to explain why he had to close his class, and in doing so was able to ensure that the same slot he regularly used would be held for when classes were able to resume.

Dennis wasn't a complete stranger to technology, having built the website for his and other local line dance classes.  For Den's Dollies, the website is their main source of information, primarily because the use of social media and more modern technology is a big new step for the majority of Dennis' class.  He had already patiently talked them through how to use his website, taking his laptop into classes with him (pre-lockdown) to demonstrate what to do and providing them with written help sheets.  Obviously, this would be very difficult to achieve in our current situation to assist the class with accessing new platforms.  Despite his technical know-how Dennis was more used to posting links to pre-recorded videos than creating his own to upload.  Currently Dennis produces a 'virtual teach' each week, which contains a link to the demo video, the step sheet, his adapted version of his step sheet and a link to the music.  Alongside this, he has created a 'virtual class' where he posts the list of what he would teach in a 'real' class along with the links mentioned above so that his dancers can still take part in their normal weekly class at a time to suit them.  Dennis has also started posting a weekly quiz on his website to help keep the social aspect of his classes alive.

Dennis has decided, that for him and his class, live teaches are not the way forward, mainly because he doesn't feel that his main audience, his class, will be able to access them.  However, he is now recording his own demo videos, using his Go-Pro in his garden - I mean we've got to make use of this glorious weather we've been having!  And is posting the links to them on his website.  Dennis' top tip, is to post the link to the video on a website, rather than the video itself, as this means that he is not using up more of the data on his website provision than he needs to.  For Dennis and Den's Dollies at Double-Dee more modern methods of communication won't work, he is using the methods that he knows his dancers are able to access and will continue to be able to do so throughout the lock-down period.  He keeps his website up to date, interesting, colourful and amusing and is always encouraging them to reach out and keep in touch.  He does this too by phoning, emailing or Skyping each of his class personally, at least once a fortnight.  He acknowledges, that this approach won't work for significantly larger groups, but for him and his class it is perfect.

This really does go to show, that there is no one-size fits all approach to keeping in contact with your dancers, use the methods that you know will gather the biggest reach for you.  If you want any help taking that next step into the world of virtual teaching, please do look at the tutorial videos on Everything Line Dance and the Line Dance Support Group.