Checking In: Update Progress Report 2-12-24

Hi everyone,

We wanted to check in and let you know about the progress happening on Where to Dance. We understand that if you're reading this, you're excited about the project and want to know when all the really cool features you envision for the platform will be available. We are thrilled that you're excited, but please note that creating these features takes time. We have taken on a very complicated problem, and solving these issues requires patience. One day, all the systems will be in place, and we can enjoy the fruits of our labor. For now, we are hard at work solving the big problems that need to be addressed in order to bring the quality of the platform to the level required for a product that is not only beneficial to the end-user but also to the contributing members of the dance community.

Let's get into it.

This week, there is a lot happening on Where to Dance. I want to confirm that yes, we are directly working on the dance teacher listings, which is a key product designed to help dance teachers and users connect on the platform. We are not in the same boat as organizations that have millions of dollars in funding with huge staff. Instead, we are a small team of passionate individuals working hard to solve big problems because we care about the dance community as a whole. Our rate of progress is moving at the pace of passion and problem-solving. Our team is able to innovate and solve problems, but please keep in mind that this is a passion project, and we are doing this to benefit the dance community. Generally, this area is like art and does not have the same financial motivation as other industries. Not everybody in the world is interested in dancing, but the people who are into dance have an extremely high level of passion.

Finally, we want to talk about how exciting it is that we have made progress towards and are in the midst of developing the dance teacher listings. We know all the dance teachers who are aware of the upcoming dance teacher listings are excited to join our platform. Let's look at the enormous task it has taken to even get here. While we have not created a lot of content lately, we have been hard at work behind the scenes. Little by little, we have been solving problem after problem to get ourselves to the point where we can even begin this project. Now, we finally get to start working on the core aspect of our platform. It's been a long journey, and we are a little over 1 year into the project, to give you an idea of how far along we have come.

Let's look at some of the problems we have solved:

• Developing a CMS from scratch
• Compiling all the categories and dance styles that we initially launched with
• Creating a publishing platform
• Live video channels
• Opening both the live video channels and contributor program to all users

These are our major highlights, and while it may seem like this might not be much, we could dive into how these are all working together with many details. However, we won't do that here. Just know that because of our effort, we do not have to rely on anyone else's code or worry about whether they decide to change things at any time, which could break our ecosystem or complicate things. We are independent, and the CMS alone has many features that would take a long time to cover all the aspects of.

Let's take a look at some of the core systems we still need to develop:

• Listings for dance teachers, dance studios, organizers, organizations, and educational institutions
• Event type listings, including dance events, group classes, workshops, performances, and competitions
• Profiles for end-users, which serve as a hub where they can easily get all their dance information and not only socialize with dance leaders but also among themselves
• Porting all these features to a mobile app for seamless integration

This gives everyone an idea of where we are at in the development process.

The great news is that we have made progress on the core features of our platform. It's very encouraging that this is where we are currently at in the development of our platform.

We are in week 2 of the dance teacher listings. Keep in mind that it is being designed to support local dance teacher listings no matter where you are in the world, which is much more complicated than, say, a platform like Nashville, where you simply have the listing for a single market. Our platform has to support local languages, international characters, and work for everyone no matter where they are in the world. We have to use geolocation, which makes things much more complex.

Please note that because of limited resources, we can either focus on creating content or developing the platform. If you're seeing that there isn't a lot of new content lately, that's because all the work is happening underneath the surface. We have to decide when and how we allocate resources. We will try to provide both when we can, but content can be read and consumed rather quickly, while progress on the platform continues to work for us and the dance community.

Once the dance teacher listings are in a stable state, we will be opening our dance teacher beta program, where we will allow a limited user base to sign up and use it for the first time. Participants will receive free lifetime memberships, so stay tuned for this update when we launch the beta program. We are only allowing 200 users access, and it will be on a first-come, first-served basis. If you're interested in joining the beta program, we will email users on our mailing list first before announcing it on our social channels. Be sure to sign up for our mailing list if you want a chance to participate in the beta program.

Thank you, and with that, we will get back to work on the dance listings. We appreciate everyone's interest and support. Stay tuned to our news blog for all the latest updates and progress on Where to Dance. If you want to support us, be sure to subscribe to our social channels.

Thank you, The Where to Dance Team

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