On a foggy Saturday morning earlier this month, hundreds of people and I gathered on the lawn of the Seattle Center and danced like no one was watching.
The event marked one of the first face-to-face meetings since the pandemic began Dance church, A fitness dance class in Seattle, has attracted a large number of followers since it was launched more than ten years ago. This concept makes fitness fun through loud pop music and dance.
However, dancing, sweating, and touching each other can make people frown on the days when COVID-19 is keeping a distance from society. When the pandemic hit, Dance Church began broadcasting its exercises — and in the process discovered a whole new business.
Now, as Dance Church shifts to offering face-to-face courses, it is still providing and expanding its “dancing together at home” platform, which was created with the help of Pioneer Square Labs, a startup in Seattle The studio expanded and invested in Dance Church earlier this year, the Dance Church Go online streaming service.
“In my opinion, the dance church is eternal,” said the founder of the dance church Kate Wallich“Whether it’s on the Internet, face-to-face, on a boat, or in a park. This is something that can transcend different places, and I think when we launched it on the Internet, this was indeed proven.”
Dance Church Go is part of the home exercise trend Growing in popularity during the pandemic. Apple also launched its own fitness subscription service Called Apple Fitness Plus, And Peloton Have seen membership growth.
Dance Church Go subscribers can choose exercises from a library of on-demand courses. The monthly subscription fee is US$19, or the annual subscription fee is US$199.
Unlike the face-to-face version, the Dance Church Go course shows a group of instructors to guide you through routine procedures. As a person who was not a dancer by nature, I was a little lost in face-to-face exercises and it was difficult to hear the coach’s guidance. For the on-demand version, this is not a problem.
But the face-to-face version is exciting just because of being with so many people. It is more about that common feeling than about the right steps. Through the face-to-face version, participants can not only watch the coach’s prompts, but also watch the entire group of dancers around them.
The broad appeal of the dance church comes from sharing dance and fitness with other participants. Community participation contributes to the success of the dance church.
“Dance Church has always been committed to making your body feel free and in a space where you can do whatever you want, whether you have a bad day or a good day,” Wallich said. “Everyone entered from a different place, we all gathered together, including the teacher, and we released 90 minutes of sweat catharsis together. This is very special and very rare.”
Now, the company is trying to replicate this participation online with the help of Clara SiegelWith the development of the on-demand platform, he was recently hired as CEO. Siegel has a technical background and has served as a product manager for Facebook and a senior product manager for Tableau and Amazon.
Wallich and Siegel both knew that the attraction of Dance Church was the community that formed around it. In order to simulate this feeling in the virtual world, Dance Church offers paid optional virtual lessons at 10 am every Sunday, so participants can dance with their loved ones at the same time.
Dance Church Go does not provide collaboration features, but Siegel said the team is studying how to let people dance together online.
Wallich said that Dance Church aims to create more opportunities for people to participate, and online communities make this easier.
“In many ways, there are not many barriers to entry, and it’s not to improve your body. It’s not to get good exercise,” Volich said. “This may apply to some people, but there are many other entry points. This is about being happy, about having fun. This is about being with other people. And I think there is something in this mixture that makes people like it. “