The founder of acrobatic arts Mandy Yip interviews certified teacher Kelly Peterson. Kelly shares her struggles as well as her successes with teaching acro online. Learn how she survived teaching during the first lockdown and actually increased her class sizes!
Kelly Peterson is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of guiDANCE experience. guiDANCE is the only YPAD certified dance competition in the world. It is more than a competition it is an educational experience. She is an Acrobatic Arts Module One certified teacher, and certified to teach Rhythm Works Integrative Dance. Recently she received her Module One certification from Alixa Flexibilty. Kelly is an office manager, Wingman for Dance mentor, and fundraiser coordinator for Dancer's Studio in Clarion, PA. She is YPAD (Youth Protection Advocates of Dance) certified, is a mandated reporter, healthcare CPR and first aid certified and has all clearances. Safety is one of Kelly's top priorities with students. Kelly has worked in tabulation and the administrative side of many dance competitions over the years. One of her many goals is to give dancers the opportunity regardless of financial situation and to educate dancers about compassion, kindness, resilience, internet & social media safety, and confidence. Kelly helps with many nonprofit organizations in her community. She is continuing her education to help ensure the physical safety and psychological and emotional health of each dancer.
During 2020 my goal was not only to bring in revenue but to keep our kids happy, healthy and safe. Not just physically but mentally as well. I took my business background and my nursing degree along with the tools that acrobatic arts provides to create “Acro punch cards” and “4 Week Online Acro Training”
4-Week online Acro training required each student to purchase their level of my Acro app and four 30 minute zoom private lessons.
Acro punch cards started when one on one instruction was permitted.
From June till December we sold over 500 one hour private sessions.
If you charged $20 and hour thats $10,000
$30X500=$15,000
$40x500=$20,000
I can't express how much the acrobatic arts app is an essential tool for instructors and students.
Dancer's Studio is owned by A-Jo Gallagher, also an acrobatic arts certified teacher. Because of the Acro punch cards we have increased our Acro class enrolment to 65% of all our students. We added another Acro class this past fall and they are now all completely full. Acro Island has been implemented in some of the classes as needed.
In addition to these punch cards I did a special Black Friday card for younger students or students that never have taken Acro classes. These sold out in 5 minutes.
All of my punch cards were created using Adobe Spark.