On this newsletter:

• A quick story….

• The honest reason our classes are changing

• Why 45 minutes is not less - it is better

• What your class actually looks like now, minute by minute

• How the full Flying Connection Method holds it all together

• A BOGO Sale to jump in at the best possible price

• What's coming next across all locations

Hi everyone,

I hope your week has started off well.

Today, I would like to introduce you to Mr. D, he is a very cool dude with very many funny stories, from growing up in the country with 5 sisters, to how they all made him dance with them from being the only dude in the family. Yes, he looked good dancing at all his sisters’ wedding day, but he had no idea what he was doing (the ladies all back-lead). Now in his fifties, he decided it’s about time he actually learned what he was doing on the dance floor.

And the best part about Mr D? He is not afraid of making mistakes. And in my opinion, it’s the only way we truly learn. Mess up, it’s all good here at Flying Dance. Laugh it out, and just keep dancing! As I said, a very inspiring dude.

The redesign behind our new 45-minute Lessons.

After many years of teaching dance, I’ve noticed a common hurdle that almost every student faces: the struggle to remember a long list of new moves from one week to the next.

For a long time, the industry standard has been to pack classes with new patterns and combinations to make them feel "productive." But over the years—especially as I developed our instructor training programs—I realized that "more material" isn't what makes a great dancer.

The secret is in the simplification.

I’ve spent the last few years refining our courses to focus purely on core technique. By stripping away the noise and repeating the foundational movements that actually matter, something incredible happens: the technique becomes "set" in your body.

When your foundation is solid, you don't have to mentally track every hand position or foot placement. You stop thinking about the moves and start feeling the dance.

The new material we add later isn't a "new thing" to memorize; it’s simply a layer on top of what you already know. For a student with strong technique, those extra layers happen naturally. You aren't learning more moves, you’re just executing your foundation with more fluidity and flair.

This realization, that focused repetition beats high-volume memorization, is one of the main reasons why I am redesigning our class structure.

Plus, on a personal note, I would love to continue teaching dance until I am 90+ years old. Building a program that is sustainable, high-energy, and effective for both our students and our staff is how we make that possible.

A New Way to Move: Our 45-Minute Class Format

Starting this season (Spring/Summer ‘26), Flying Dance Community is moving from 60-minute group classes to a 45-minute group class format.

This is a significant update for our community, and it is a change I have been working on for quite some time. I want to walk you through exactly how this works and why I believe this is a cool, thoughtful evolution we have made to our group classes.

Why 45 minutes — the honest version

There were a few things happening at once, and I think you deserve to hear all of them.

First: the economy is real. Everything costs more right now. For a lot of people in our community, price is the thing standing between them and showing up. I had two options: raise prices to match inflation, or redesign the program to try and hold the line. I chose to redesign. The 45-minute format allows us to keep our pricing stable while actually offering more to our students. That felt like the right call.

Second: more class options in one evening. Running between 6:00 and 9:00 pm, we can now offer up to four classes in a single evening | more dance styles, more levels, more places for you to land depending on where you are in your journey. That has never been possible before. Students who are ready to advance now have somewhere to go - in the same evening, without adding another night to their week.

Third, and most importantly: repetition is the actual teacher. I have been watching students learn for over two decades. And the ones who progress fastest are not the ones who learned the most advanced dance moves, no. The ones who progress the fastest are the ones who repeated the same foundation until it stopped feeling like counting and started feeling like conversation. Because in the end, dance is in fact a conversation between two individuals flowing with the music.

A 45-minute class, done well, gives you focused repetition, one clean new piece, and time to actually use it before the class ends. That is more valuable than an hour packed with material that doesn't have time to settle.

What your class looks like, minute by minute

Here is how every 45-minute class is structured:

00:00 – 00:03 | Welcome and focus of the class
00:03 – 00:12 | Warm-up review - foundation steps from last week
00:12 – 00:15 | Warm-up with music - connect your body to the rhythm
00:15 – 00:27 | Review last class material - build confidence before we add anything new
00:27 – 00:29 | Practice review with music
00:29 – 00:30 | Water and reset
00:30 – 00:39 | New dance material - one clear, focused building dance step
00:39 – 00:44 | Practice new material with music
00:44 – 00:45 | Closing ritual - acknowledge what you practiced together

You will notice the warm-up is substantial. That is not an accident.

In a progressive class, you need to feel solid in what you already know before we add anything new. This is where we "set" the technique I mentioned earlier. If we keep adding while the foundation is still shaky, the class starts feeling stressful instead of exciting. The warm-up is where we prevent that. It is not filler. It is the method.

Introducing: The 30-Second Closing Ritual

Going forward, every class will end the same way: with a brief moment of reflection before the clock runs out.

I’ll be honest with you—this is a new addition to our structure, and the idea actually came from observing one of my student-instructors. They were employing this in their sessions, and I saw immediately how powerful it was. I knew I had to amplify it across the rest of our community, including my own classes.

It’s a pause. A chance to turn to the person you've been dancing with and acknowledge them and what’s shifted: what felt better at the end of the lesson than it did when you walked in. It sounds small, but it changes the feeling of the entire class. The experience doesn't just end, we hope it lands!

The 45-minute class is only one part of the picture

The weekly class is not designed to do everything. It is designed to be your weekly learning and repetition container | the place where foundations are built, reinforced, and made comfortable.

The rest of the Flying Connection Method holds what the class cannot:

• The Next Step Social, built directly into your 8-week and 16-week program, is where you practice with real people to real music in a no-pressure space

• Weekend 90-minute advanced workshops are where we go deep — technique, styling, advanced patterns, the work that needs more room to breathe (coming soon!)

• Instructor training runs beneath all of it, making sure the experience is consistent no matter which city you're in or which instructor is in the room (in progress).

The 45-minute class was never meant to carry everything. It was meant to carry one thing, and carry it well.

A birthday gift from us: the BOGO Pre-Sale 🎂

What's coming next

Over the next few weeks I will be sharing more about our Spring/Summer schedule across all locations, including the new evening structures, upcoming Open Houses, Social dances, and more.

If you have questions about where to start, which level is right for you, or how the new schedule works, reply to this email. I read every single one.

Warmly, Nico & the Flying Dance Community Team

P.S. Just joining us? Catch up on the last three newsletters — they tell the full story of what we're building: 
→ Introducing The Flying Connection Method 
→ The Dance Floor Is Waiting 
→ 22 Years. One Big Thank You. And a Birthday Gift for You.

Sign Up: SPRING / SUMMER Dance Schedule

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