Outdoors

The outdoors is an excellent place to start when it comes to managing stress. According to The American Institute of Stress, spending time outdoors can help improve mental health. Their research shows that nature excursions can help alleviate feelings of time pressure and mental stress. Since COVID-19 began, many of us have been asked to self-quarantine and stay in our homes. As a result, mental health has gone down. A great way to combat that is to get yourself outside and move! The outdoors can improve your mood, recharge you, help you see the bigger picture, and feel productive!

Exercise

Exercise is another excellent way to manage your stress. A great option for exercising and managing stress is dancing. Dancing requires your full attention, so you don't have time to worry about anything else. It is an excellent way to release some endorphins while staying fit at the same time. Endorphins are the happy chemicals in your brain that help to relieve stress and pain. Also, exercise and endorphins help lower the symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress! So don't waste any time, get up and get moving!

Human Interaction

Other great ways to manage stress include human interaction and a positive mindset. After months of being self-quarantined, it’s great to be around others again. All of these things help boost our immune systems and keep up healthy for whatever we face next. An excellent way to reap these stress-busting benefits is to combine them all! At Valeo Dance Studio, we offer outdoor group dance fitness that keep you feeling good, strong, and healthy.

We know the tough effects of stress, which is why we reopened with new outdoor workouts. By coming to one of our classes, you will experience the outdoors, friends, exercise, and endorphins. In addition, you will experience all of these things in a healthy and safe environment that follows the CDC guidelines. For more information on our classes, visit us online here! If you can't make it to one of our classes, that's okay! We also post online tutorials for those at home to follow along. For the online tutorials, please click here! Don't wait any longer and get your body moving at Valeo Dance Studio!

Over the years, with your help, we have done an incredible job creating a virtual dance family via our YouTube channel (currently more than 320,000 subscribers all over the world and more than 150 FREE dance fitness workouts). While the most natural route would have been to transition everything online to virtual dance fitness, we decided to take a very different path for our reopening phase. We are moving our classes outdoors!

Why Outdoors?

At Valeo, we have always been a family, and that remains a priority, along with safety. Moving classes outdoors allows for safe human interaction in line with the CDC's guidelines. An overwhelming number of studies show that spending time outside is good for our mental and physical health, and might be particularly useful for our well-being in these uncertain times of increased stress and anxiety. Also, the less time we spend moving our bodies, the more likely it is to gain weight. By heading outside for movements, we are decreasing the chance of weight gain and increasing the opportunity for endorphins! As a result, we decided to combine our universal need for human interaction and necessity for being outside with new Outdoor Valeo Dance Fitness classes starting Wednesday, May 27th, at 6:30 PM!

How It'll Work

As stated before, safety is one of our top priorities, and we will do everything to keep ourselves and you safe. The location of outdoor group dance fitness classes is the same as our studio. We will be outside in a beautiful courtyard with stunning views just to the right of the main entrance (if you are looking at the entrance from the parking lot). The times of the classes are the same as always! Please visit the Valeo Dance Fitness Schedule to sign up for classes! If it's a rainstorm, of course, the class will be rescheduled.

Since most people are currently working remotely or unfortunately not working at all due to lay-offs, the good news is most people are coming from home. So dress to dance! There is no place (at the moment) to change and also no bathroom since the building remains closed (only for a short amount of time), so please plan accordingly! While the classes are in the evenings and Saturday mornings, please be sure you have enough water. Bring your own water bottle and a sparkling personality!

Preventative Measures

Being outside will grant us plenty of space and fresh air that will help us stay safe. We can easily maintain the six-foot social distancing guidelines currently in place by CDC and the local GA government. We also ask that you bring your own set of free weights. If you don't have them, bring two water bottles, and they will do just fine. We also will utilize plenty of outdoor space for activities, so you can wear workout gloves that help protect your hands. As we are navigating our way through the reopening phase, we will be making adjustments as needed.

For all existing and new members, we will require an electronically signed COVID-19 liability waiver form. Existing members, please be sure to do this from the regular website version of MindBody (not MindBody app). When you log in to sign up for classes over the next few days, you will be prompted to check a box acknowledging you have read the information.

If you are sick, have a fever or not feeling well, please stay home to protect yourself and others. If you have traveled over the last few days, please be sure to check the CDC website, whether the city/country you came from requires you to self-quarantine for a period of time. Lastly, this is a new phase for all of us, so let's help each other stay positive while getting back to life responsibly!

Other Studio Updates

We are also doing our private lessons outdoors beginning Tuesday, May 26th. Click here to schedule an appointment! We will continue all Intro First Dance Consultations virtually via Zoom, Skype, or FaceTime to ensure everyone/s safety and to make it more time-efficient for couples and their families!

If you have any further questions about our new schedule, guidelines, preventative measures, and more, visit us online here. We have missed you so much and look forward to seeing your smiling faces soon, six-feet apart, of course!