Hi, my name is Lisa, and I want to help my really good friend Miss Jo raise funds so that she can kit out her new dance studios with mirrors.

As you know Zog, my daughter has been dancing with Miss Jo since she was 2 years old. The dance company has always been based in various secondary schools, a private dance studio and various churches, but nothing that could be called a permanent home. Just before Covid, it looked like the dance school was going to finally have its own premises, but with Covid shutting everything down, it became financially unviable. The dance school continued to run in local secondary schools, but these just weren’t suitable to accommodate the growing number of classes that Ohana was providing.

In December last year, Miss Jo surprised the dance school parents and children alike with the best Christmas present ever, a new site for the dance school, that was warm, clean and dry with toilets that weren’t shared with the footballers, and had locks that actually worked properly. A number of parents and children spent the Christmas break decorating the new studios to get them ready for the new term. The studios are beautiful, but still need a few things such as new flooring and mirrors, but the funds that she currently has available didn’t stretch to the mirrors.

Dancers, use mirrors all the time in their day to day dancing as they give immediate visual feedback, allowing them to correct posture, alignment, and technique in real-time. Mirrors help dancers see how their movements appear to an audience, ensuring precise lines and consistent, synchronized, and safe movement. They are also used to monitor positioning during group formations and for practicing technical skills like spotting.

We have so far raised funds through a bake sale, and Miss Jo’s mum, Sharon has donated 2 days of her time doing face painting for the children. Funds are coming in slowly, and another parent suggested some crowd funding where people that haven’t been able to access the bake sale/face painting etc could donate money towards the mirrors, and also in an anonymous way if wanted.

I am awaiting costing on the mirrors to purchase and install, and will update the go fund me page as soon as I have the details from Miss Jo. In the meantime, I thought we could start the ball rolling towards the total needed.