Saving Viva

Give our Viva Family a fighting chance to retain our dance home!  Rental fees and operating expenses continued to accrue while the dance center was closed per the CDC mandates/Governor’s Orders.  Our goal is to reach $6000 by the end of July to pay off the outstanding bills and allow us to remain operational.

July 2020 is officially designated as Fundraising Month at Viva! Our collaborative dance companies have combined efforts to bring you the most eventful month VIVA has ever seen! We will be offering a variety of special workshops and events to help raise funds for our dance school in addition to the normal class schedule.

Please read below to learn about our story and see why your contributions mean more than just keeping another "dance studio" open. This is about keeping a SAFE haven and community resource alive in our area. 

The Viva Dance & Fitness Center for the Arts (VD&FC) is by design, structured to be a safe space for the community. We are a noncompetitive community center for the arts that is home to dance companies like: The Middle Eastern Dance Academy of CT, MegaHurtz Entertainment, Zumba By Sujeily, Ballroom Experience, and The Dance Studio by Nora. 

United we are a group of collaborating artists who utilize different art forms to enhance self-esteem, build self-confidence, foster positive socialization, and promote physical fitness. Our focus has centered around promoting emotional, spiritual, and creative wellness by providing a place where community members can escape life stressors through a creative outlet. 

Since opening its doors in 2015, the VD&FC has spearheaded many "giveback" initiatives. Projects include, but are not limited to, the following: 

* Funding TWO Hurricane Maria relief deployments with volunteers who went into the island of Puerto Rico to personally hand out first aid supplies to residents. Plus sending two large UHaul trucks of supplies by boat into the island. 

* Hosting Young Girls Empowerment Summer Dance Camps for 8 consecutive years. Staff members and students have fundraised to hire music therapists and bring internationally acclaimed artists to instruct in these camps.  Staff members volunteered their time and dance resources to allow inner-city kids to be able to attend the program. Many kids were given hardship discounts or full dance scholarships due to those fundraising efforts. 

* Dance Sponsorship programs: Our administration has a policy that NO CHILD is ever declined access to classes due to financial hardships. If a parent expresses interest in enrolling their child into our program but is unable to afford the rate, they can qualify for a hardship discount tailored to the budget of the family's household income. If the family cannot afford to pay at all, we have a Dance Sponsorship program that allows donors to adopt a dancer. If unable to find a sponsor or if a sponsor negates, the child continue to be allowed to take classes, and other fundraising ideas are explored. 

* Spearheading Canned Food Drives to benefit the CT Food Bank: During these seasonal initiatives. , a reduction in class rates or even FREE participation was offered in exchange for donations to the food bank.

*Offering a "Free Community Dance Day" on a monthly basis for city residents. For years the VD&FC hosted a monthly FREE event where inner city residents could participate in different dance classes for day at no cost or obligation to join. 

* Collaborating with outside organizations.  Throughout the years our dancers and instructors have donated dance performances to help drive the fundraising efforts of other organizations such as Lupus Foundation, JDRF, American Heart Association, Senior Living Centers, Yale's Hips Against Hunger, and many more. 

Every single one of these projects was funded and carried out by our dance center and its members. We were never awarded grants or nor did we receive any outside financial contributions.

Sadly, all of these efforts came to a dramatic halt as the 2020 global pandemic struck. The last day we were able to offer an in-person class within our dance center was March 22, 2020. Since then, we have shifted to online classes, offering discounted rates across all programs while continuing to honor dance scholarships for anyone experiencing financial difficulties.

In an effort to provide families with an artistic outlet that would help strengthen family connections while quarantined, we launched a FREE weekly "My Parent and Me" hip hop dance class. Artists from MegaHurtz entertainment sacrificed their time, talents, and efforts to make these sessions possible for anyone wishing to participate. They succeeded in reuniting families across state lines with the magic of dance! 

During this time, we also hosted specialty Oriental Dance workshops online allowing anyone who was unable to financially contribute to still be able to participate. These efforts by the Middle Eastern Dance Academy of CT not only united dancers from CA, MA, RI, WI, and CT, but also from overseas as we were able to offer free dance classes to artists struggling in Lebanon and Morrocco. 

As we face the challenging summer season (normally our time of lowest enrollment), we are in need of some help! It is our desire to continue to be able to offer dance classes and community support to all despite any financial hardships. The VD&FC is a dance home to a wide variety of people and interests. Our students range from age 4-70 and come from many different kinds of backgrounds.  Being able to meet our $6000 goal would not only allow us to get back on track with keeping our dance home afloat during these difficult times, but also to continue serving the community we deeply love.

We thank you for your consideration and contribution.
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