All the Right Moves: How Palomar Ballroom Dance Studio Went Virtual with WellnessLiving

When COVID-19 first hit, dance studios everywhere were scrambling to stay afloat. After all, dancing is a social activity with contact. If you can’t dance with a partner, what’s the solution? Palomar Ballroom took advantage of WellnessLiving’s online tools and adapted their business to an online model. Now they teach online dance classes and one-to-one instruction remotely.

Jeremy Pilling is trained in Salsa, Dance Theater, American Rhythm, Nightclub Dance, International Latin, and Ballroom. He had been teaching and performing ballroom for over 20 years. When the owner of Palomar Ballroom retired, Jeremy took over the dance studio, and now runs the locations in Santa Cruz and Scotts Valley, California.

When Palomar Ballroom was forced to close, they were lucky to have WellnessLiving’s all-in-one software as a dance partner. Our Zoom integration made it possible to deliver virtual classes to clients of both Palomar Ballroom locations:

“There is so much to love about the software. WellnessLiving makes running multiple locations simple!” says Jeremy.

Read on to hear more about Palomar Ballroom and their experience going virtual, reopening their locations, and more.

Palomar Ballroom’s experience going virtual

Palomar Ballroom offers an assortment of beginner, advanced, social, and competitive dance classes, including Waltz, Tango, Cha Cha, Rumba, Foxtrot, Bachata, East Coast Swing, West Coast Swing, Salsa, Samba, Burlesque, and Nightclub Two-Step.

When the pandemic first hit, Palomar Ballroom had been greatly affected. Ballroom dancing is a social activity, and so it was a big change switching from partner classes to solo classes. Jeremy and six other dance instructors on the roster pivoted to a virtual dance studio by offering six to 10 Zoom classes per week on the schedule from home.

“My living room became my dance studio,” explained Jeremy. “I got an HD camera, wireless mic, neck speaker, and other equipment so I could provide real classes to my community.”

How has our Zoom integration benefited your business?

While it was great the Palomar Ballroom community still had dance, Jeremy spent hours setting up each Zoom class and emailing links to clients.

Everything changed for Palomar Ballroom once they added WellnessLiving’s Zoom integration. In a few easy steps, Jeremy’s work was cut in half. All he had to do was:

• Connect the Zoom account with his WellnessLiving account.
• Set up the virtual ballroom dance classes.
• Also, clients could join using the Client Web App or Achieve Client App.
• The dance instructor just had to start the class, and everything else was all set.
• It was also super simple for Jeremy to send off class reminders via text or push notifications, check attendance, and track payments.

“I was so grateful I had WellnessLiving’s Zoom integration,” says Jeremy. “Now I have the time to focus on growing my business.”

What was it like reopening your dance studio?

In 2020, Palomar Ballroom’s physical locations were closed for about six months. Then, in the fall they pivoted back to a hybrid dance studio and offered a few in-studio classes, along with their virtual classes. Even though they reopened, everything looked a lot different. Here’s what changed in-studio for Palomar Dance.

• They upgraded their health and safety protocols, which included sanitization stations, contactless temperature taking, and mandatory masks.
• When it came to social distancing, they followed specific guidelines, such as spacing chairs six feet apart, managing a smaller capacity of students, and allowing 15 minutes between classes to avoid crowding.
• Jeremy also added an automatic COVID waiver that clients are prompted to fill out through their WellnessLiving profile, so they understand the risks of joining an in-studio dance class.

How else has WellnessLiving helped your dance studio throughout the pandemic?

Palomar Ballroom switched to WellnessLiving over three years ago and Jeremy couldn’t be happier using all the tools WellnessLiving has to offer.

With two franchises, he needed a software that allowed him to easily manage multiple locations. WellnessLiving’s mobile apps made that process simple.

• The Achieve Client App lets clients book or check in to class, check the schedule, and update their profile info.
• The Elevate Staff App then makes it easy for the staff to stay on top of their clients and manage their schedules. Jeremy can also keep an eye on both his locations right from his phone.

Jeremy has also taken advantage of WellnessLiving’s automated marketing suite. This feature allows him to:

• Send automatic reminders before class and custom follow-up emails to clients to promote their upcoming classes.
• Use text and push notifications to let clients know about changes or class cancellations instantly.
• Access client history to get to know them better and keep track of their spending habits.
• Gain insight on the performance of marketing campaigns.

What are your favorite WellnessLiving features?

The more Jeremy discovers about WellnessLiving, the more he loves it as a dance studio owner. Here are two features that Jeremy can’t stop talking about:

• The dashboard gives him everything at a glance. He can check the attendance lists or revenues for multiple locations instantly.
• Palomar Ballroom often has clients signing up other people. The software makes it easy to connect to a spouse or friend’s account so, it’s simple for clients to sign up or pay in pairs.

Perhaps most importantly though, Jeremy loves WellnessLiving’s Customer Support Team:

“I love how WellnessLiving is always listening to clients and making the software better. It’s so easy to talk to a real-person on the phone—I love that!”

The future is bright for Palomar Ballroom

While many other dance studios remain closed, Jeremy knows he couldn’t have gone online and stayed open without WellnessLiving’s all-in-one solution. Even whenever they need to close their dance studios’ physical locations, Palomar Ballroom is always set up for success with their online classes.

With software tools like the Zoom integration, mobile apps, and automated marketing, Palomar Ballroom has been able to keep the business open and serve their loyal community. How else can WellnessLiving help pivot your dance studio into a hybrid model and better manage your business? Book a free, no-commitment demo to learn more today!