The boards are coming down from the windows and our downtown is beginning to carefully reopen during the ongoing health crisis. Neither the health crisis nor the BLM movement is going away. If you notice a change in our messaging, it is not because we are flipping a switch and everything is going back to the way it was. Nope. We are just a small niche business that plans to continue to use our tiny platform for good, but also needs to survive so that our tiny voice can continue.
Today, I’ll address how The Station will do our part to support change and racial inclusiveness:
Business survival: First, we are going to have to stabilize the business. The past few months have been a rough road for the dance industry. Please allow us some time to recover financially and take on some of the easier ideas first. We can’t help change move forward if we aren’t here.
Staff training: We will investigate retail best practices to make sure that our customer service standards are inclusive.
Ballet Slippers and Tights: We will be a part of breaking the attrition cycle of: dance retailer does not stock tights and ballet slippers in skin-tone colors because there is not enough demand à Girls of color cannot find skin-tone tights and ballet slippers à Adds to the perception that ballet is not for girls that look like me à Attrition for girls of color in ballet continues à dance retailer does not stock tights and ballet slippers in skin-tone colors because there is not enough demand….. There is a risk to our business that this inventory will sit longer than is financially responsible, but we will take on this initiative in the next three months.
Pointe Shoes: More brands than ever are offering pointe shoes in skin-tone options. We will make sure we are knowledgeable about the options for special order. However, at this time, we are not able to stock all of the pointe shoe possibilities in skin-tone colors (see #1 on the list). We will, however, continue to stock satin ribbon and elastic in skin-tone colors. We will also continue to stock pointe shoe paint in skin-tone colors and offer one bottle, free with pointe shoe purchase, so that dancers of color can have shoes that match their skin immediately, while we wait for special order colors to arrive.
We will communicate with our dancewear brands when we see potential areas for more inclusivity. Shoe and tight color names that are more inclusive. Dolls with dark skin. Silence is no longer an option. In case we miss something, we ask you to tell us if you see something that needs to change at the production level so we can pass the suggestion along.
We will communicate with our local dance studios to make sure they know the products that are available in stock and support them if they would like to make changes to their dress code that promote more inclusivity.
We will work with local dance studios and dance organizations that have inclusivity programs to find out how our business can help them in their initiatives.
We will be open to conversations. We are listening.