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You're listening to In the Club Presents at

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the Club , a Class for Kids podcast

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with me , brian Davidson . Hi

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guys , and welcome back to another episode of In the Club

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Presents at the Club . If you haven't done so

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, please do consider liking this video , subscribing

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to the page and digging that bell for notifications

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. At the Club is the podcast where

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I try and talk to as many industry professionals

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related to kids activity providers

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as I possibly can . At the Club is

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, of course , brought to you by Class for Kids .

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Class for Kids is an industry leading booking

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and management software designed for

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kids activity clubs . We work with 250,000

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them save time and admin and organise

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their business .

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If you'd like to learn more , click on the link in

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the description below . So in this episode

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I'm speaking to Caitlin Todd , the studio

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manager for Dance Inc Studios across at Busby

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, Bovville and Bearsden . I talked

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to Caitlin a little bit about how she structures

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her classes and what impact social media

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plays in the structure of those classes

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. Can you give us a little bit of a

1:01

history on yourself , your background , your professional

1:03

journey so far and what has led you to be where you

1:05

are today ?

1:06

Yeah , so I'm Caitlin . I work

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for Dance Inc Studios . The

1:10

school has three locations and

1:12

I started with Dance Inc when I was

1:14

14 years old so quite a while ago

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now and I danced for Louise

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who runs it , and it just was

1:21

kind of a very natural progression from there

1:23

. I started being a class assistant going

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on with the young ones and then as soon as I

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turned 16 , I went and got my teachers

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and got all my qualifications through

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that , Started helping and teaching

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more and then went to Dance College

1:35

, did my three years there and then

1:38

as soon as I left there I was basically like right

1:40

, Louise , Annie B , full time

1:42

, get me in there . And then it just

1:44

kind of progressed into behind the scenes

1:46

work , admin , planning for shows and

1:49

it just became basically more and more and more as

1:51

the school grew to the three locations and it

1:53

just became a much bigger thing . Then

1:56

my role just grew with that and now

1:58

I manage the team , I manage the three

2:00

locations and yeah , it's really exciting

2:02

, it's a lot and it's a lot picture they fill

2:05

on . But yeah , I love it .

2:07

Yeah , nice , that's tremendous

2:09

. So is this side of where you

2:11

were sort of in the dance teaching

2:13

spaces that way you originally wanted to be ? Is that

2:15

where you can have felt your passions lighter ? Did you

2:18

have aspirations of being a dancer ? What

2:20

kind of ? What side of the coin did you flip on that ? Because we

2:22

speak to a lot of people who are both sides , people

2:24

who , yeah , I want to be a dance teacher and that's what

2:26

I do , I want to have my school . Then there's other people who

2:28

say , oh , no , I want to be a dancer . But they found the

2:31

turn , as they're going through their

2:33

careers , to think hang on a minute . Actually

2:35

, no , I do prefer the other side of it . So where

2:37

do you kind of sit on that spectrum ?

2:39

I think when I was younger I was definitely very

2:41

much I want to be a dancer . What we on the stage

2:43

? I want to do all that . But as soon as I started helping

2:45

out with classes and I saw that other side

2:47

of it and even just like the planning

2:50

, the lessons and the shows and the events , like

2:52

I just love all that side thing . So it's definitely

2:55

not where . If you'd asked me 10 years ago

2:57

if I thought this is where I would be , I would have said no

2:59

. But now like

3:01

I can't imagine being on the stage now

3:03

and doing the other side of it .

3:05

That's nice . So you run all

3:08

three locations for Dancing Inc . Where

3:11

about us ? Are they ? I've been to you in

3:13

one location , but where are your other ones ?

3:15

So we have Busby , bodwell and Bearsden

3:18

and actually in Busby just now , top

3:20

preschool this morning , then we've got classes in tonight . So

3:22

this is like our home base

3:24

, if you like . It's where it all started in Busby

3:26

.

3:26

Yeah , so you run classes during the day

3:29

as well . It's not just an after school sort of thing .

3:31

Yeah , majority of our classes are after school

3:34

, just in line with the school times , obviously , but

3:36

we do have like our preschool classes and

3:39

then we have like yoga classes and things like that

3:41

. That happened during the day , so it is very

3:43

busy yeah .

3:44

Nice , I didn't know that . That's that's , that's cool , that's

3:47

this . I mean , it's a . If you've got the space

3:49

, like in minutes , it's

3:51

it . You don't have classes on . Just one

3:53

of those things . Think , what else can we do with a space

3:55

?

3:55

and I Think especially

3:58

for us , like our preschool classes are not

4:00

like they are so so , so busy with waiting

4:02

list , so it just made sense for us to put on these extra

4:05

ones , like a Wednesday morning , and if it lines

4:07

up with people's nursery signs and things like that , then

4:09

that can quite often work for them over

4:11

a Saturday morning , for example .

4:13

So do yous have the same same

4:15

timetable year round or do you go with like

4:17

school holidays you run , say

4:19

, like camps and more classes during that week ? Are they

4:22

stay their rigid sort of schedule ?

4:24

So we run 42 weeks of the year . So

4:26

we take off some time at summer Christmas

4:28

, we take a week off at the Easter

4:30

holidays and then we take the October break . But during

4:32

those times we'll put on like summer camps

4:35

and maybe extra parties and stuff like

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that , and we don't tend to do it over Christmas

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because a lot of people just like to just chill

4:41

over Christmas , don't they ? But we do still do like Christmas

4:43

Eve parties in that and but

4:45

we do . Apart from that , the

4:48

timetable just runs as is for 42

4:50

weeks .

4:50

It's nice to set up sort of not

4:53

even for like Parents

4:55

and teachers and sort of thing , but they have , like kids

4:58

have that sort of regimented schedule . From such a

5:00

young age it stills like something in them

5:02

.

5:02

Yeah , definitely

5:05

, because I think for people like they just know it , on

5:07

a Monday night , for example , they go to dancing and that's

5:09

just the routine , and we've had parents

5:11

status , like if we miss it , it

5:13

just totally throws us off . And

5:16

I would be the same if my schedule changed one week

5:18

and it was like you're not going to teach that class today , hold

5:20

on .

5:23

Definitely , definitely so . You

5:26

. Do you structure all of the classes

5:28

For other teachers

5:30

as well , or do the teacher

5:33

structure their own classes ?

5:34

teacher structure their own classes . We quite like

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it that we have . We have 12

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team members now , so there's

5:41

quite obviously a few different vibes

5:43

and personalities and teaching ways , which

5:45

we really like , because then , when it comes to classes

5:47

, everything's different and it's exciting

5:49

and as much as we all Maybe follow like a basic

5:52

, you know , you do a warm-up , you do call , you do

5:54

technique , you do a cool down , like there's that obviously

5:56

very basic structure , but everyone

5:58

has their own kind of ways of doing things , which is really

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nice , I think , for the kids as well , to be exposed

6:03

to different people and getting to know different

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people and things like that . So no

6:07

, I would just structure my own classes .

6:10

Nice , that's good . So you like to hear

6:12

that and then it becomes less sort

6:14

of formulaic , as you were saying . So everybody

6:16

puts a kind of label that will be personality into

6:18

that individual classes . I so

6:21

, when you're structuring your classes , how

6:24

much ? I mean it seems like a big bad thing

6:26

out there , but do

6:28

you get any sort of pressure from like TikTok

6:31

dances or like trends

6:34

to incorporate them into getting a request

6:36

from kids to do that ? How do you manage the

6:38

expectation of social media and

6:40

like sort of working with teaching them the

6:42

discipline ?

6:43

I mean , tiktok's a massive thing , isn't it

6:45

Like ? It's so , so huge . So I

6:47

would say more so are maybe like primary

6:50

47 age group

6:52

. They are like and they'll come in and

6:54

go we need to play this song for a warm-up , we need

6:56

to do this , speak to this , and I think it's just

6:58

kind of coming and going with them , because for us

7:00

, our classes are 45 minutes at a time

7:02

. So if I try and make TikToks

7:04

, we could be there for the full 45 minutes and then we're

7:06

not doing anything else , but at the

7:08

same time , the kids love it . So we'll always take

7:10

a wee time to kind of introduce that . Even

7:12

if it is a case of right , we'll play that song for

7:14

a warm-up or we'll do that , and

7:17

we're quite big on our Instagram rules and things

7:19

as well . So we always make time for content

7:21

. But , to be honest , because the classes

7:23

are only 45 minutes , what we tend to do is have

7:25

content days , like when yourself

7:28

come in and we'll have that specific

7:30

for that . So we'll have kids come in , out

7:32

with class time to make TikToks and

7:34

rules and all the social content that we

7:36

need , because it's massive , such

7:38

a massive thing now .

7:40

That is definitely , and I think you've kind of , like it

7:42

seems , familiar , saying you've got to get a good like

7:46

of when to do it , because you can't , you can't

7:48

just be subject to

7:50

there's a new trend , there's a new dance , let's do that , because it

7:52

just throws your whole , your whole regiment and your whole

7:54

schedule and your whole plan .

7:56

Exactly , and it's constant as well

7:58

, like there's a new trend pretty much every single

8:00

day now , so it's so

8:03

hard to keep up with . The kids are actually better

8:05

than me , to be honest .

8:06

How do you think dance helps develop soft kids , soft

8:09

skills in younger people ?

8:11

I think it's so amazing for doing things

8:13

like that . I think you know , we've

8:16

had so many children come into us and they're

8:18

crying and they're shy and they don't want to leave

8:20

the parents . And it's that journey

8:22

from getting them to maybe where they are now , where

8:24

they're bound into class and they're smiling

8:26

and they've got wee pals and things like that Like

8:29

, even like it blows my mind that are

8:31

we two , three year olds all come in and they run straight

8:33

in and shout their pals name and it's

8:35

just really nice . And I think dance does

8:37

have a big part to play in that because it brings out

8:39

their confidence and you know they

8:42

come in and they know it's a safe space for them

8:44

, they're going to have fun and they have these people that are

8:46

there every week that are , you know , the

8:48

same as them , they're doing the same thing and

8:50

we just have we have so many parents that come

8:52

and say to us I cannot believe how

8:54

much their confidence has grown . It's wild

8:56

and I think coming to dance and just play such

8:59

a big part and I think our

9:01

I mean our team as well we're all just a bit daft

9:03

. I think you need to be as a dance teacher to just like jump

9:05

about it and be crazy and like try and bring

9:08

that out and kids , so people can kind

9:10

of like bounce off each other as well . For

9:13

things like communication . I think it's really nice .

9:15

That must be a huge compliment to like yourself

9:18

and the rest of the teachers to say I paint

9:20

and come up and say , oh , I've seen the personality in the

9:22

earth Can change so drastically just to come into

9:24

dance . It's just like it's a testament to the work you

9:26

guys are doing as well , to well that kid to

9:28

be able to like to see a change in somebody

9:31

so young and you're kind of like developing them as you come along

9:33

and just I , I think that's probably

9:36

my favorite thing that parents say like I

9:39

know , when I dance school and we want kids to point their

9:41

toes and jump high and do all that sort of thing

9:43

, like that's amazing , but for us

9:45

, like that , we are non-competitive .

9:47

service is all about confidence and , you

9:49

know , having fun and building those relationships

9:52

. So I think that , for me , is the best thing that

9:54

somebody can say to us .

9:55

So if you can go back 10 years and

9:57

give yourself , 10 years ago , one piece of advice

9:59

, what do you think it would be ?

10:02

I think , probably to just not

10:04

care so much what people

10:06

think . I think the dance industry

10:09

is a lot different now than it was 10 years

10:11

ago . But I think sometimes

10:13

in that kind of world it can be very much based on

10:15

how you look and how high

10:17

you can jump , Whereas I think

10:19

it's more about how

10:22

you feel and what you want to do . So

10:24

I think I would just tell myself don't care about

10:26

that , do it for you and

10:28

go the path that you want to go .

10:30

As part of your classes . Just to kind of dive

10:33

back on that , because I meant to ask you earlier what kind

10:35

of classes , but it's just a couple of classes that you guys run

10:37

across your locations . What do you do ?

10:39

Well , we have a bit of everything . We

10:42

have the more kind of classical styles , like

10:44

your tap and ballet . We have

10:46

actual classes , musical theater

10:48

classes . The ones that are really really popular

10:50

just now are the hip hop commercial classes

10:53

. That's what you see in like all the music

10:55

videos and stuff . Like the kids come in and they want

10:57

to be like little mix and everything , so they

10:59

come , all of those styles . But yeah , we've got

11:01

quite a very timetable . We've also

11:04

got boys only hip hop on a

11:06

Saturday , which is just it's

11:08

jumping . I teach those classes

11:10

. It's also one of my favorite of the week because it is

11:12

wild , but it's so , so much

11:14

fun , like they're amazing . And then

11:16

our preschool classes , which said earlier , like they're

11:18

jumping . So there's a lot going

11:20

on . It's quite very timetable .

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And if anybody was to try and sort of like

11:25

find you guys , look you guys out , where about ? As ? Could

11:27

they find you either online , or you've said

11:29

your location , but online , where can they contact you ?

11:31

So if you're looking to contact us , you can email

11:34

us , or a lot of people contact

11:36

us through Instagram and Facebook now , which

11:38

is just dancing studios , it's super easy to find

11:41

or our timetables all on

11:43

our website just dancing studiosuk , and

11:45

it's split into the location , so it's nice and

11:47

easy to figure out what suits for people .

11:49

Some really insightful stuff . If you haven't

11:52

done so , please subscribe to the page , leave a like on the

11:54

video , ding that bell for notifications and I'll

11:56

see you in the next episode .