A dance studio website that runs on the school year
A dance school lives by the term calendar: enrolment opens, classes run, exams and the summer show arrive, and then it starts again. Families choosing a school look for the styles their child can start at their age, the timetable, the fees and what the show involves. A dance studio website should be organised around that rhythm, with enrolment as a form rather than a booking.
Styles by age: the page parents start on
A grid of class photos tells a parent very little. A short page per style tells them what they need: ballet, tap, jazz, contemporary, street or commercial, musical theatre, acro. For each, say the youngest starting age, what a first-term class looks like, what to wear, and whether it leads to graded exams with a named exam board. Adult classes deserve their own section with their own tone; an adult returning to ballet after twenty years doesn't want to scroll past toddler classes.
Term dates and the timetable
Term dates drive every family's planning. Put the current and next term on one page: start and end dates, half-term breaks, exam weeks, show week and rehearsal days. Then the timetable, grouped by age band and room. Families with siblings will be trying to fit two children into one evening, so a day-by-day view helps as much as a by-style one.
In Anticode, keep classes in a CMS collection with fields for style, age band, level, day, time, teacher and room. The list page becomes the timetable, each class has a page, and a teacher's schedule change is one edit in the dashboard rather than a new PDF.
Enrolment is a form, not a booking
Dance classes run as a group for a whole term, so slot-by-slot booking doesn't fit. Treat enrolment as an application the school confirms. The standard contact form asks only for a name, email and message, which is enough for "Is there space in Grade 2 ballet?". A proper enrolment form needs more fields: dancer's name and date of birth, class wanted, parent's name, phone and email, previous experience, photo consent and an emergency contact. That form can be a custom form tied to a site function (up to 30 text fields) or an app build; its submissions arrive in your Anticode inbox, sealed at rest, and can go on to a Google Sheet or Airtable base through a form connector so you can build class lists.
If a class is full, say so on the timetable and invite people to join a waiting list with the same form. Ask for medical or additional needs only in the detail you actually need, and explain who sees it.
Anticode's booking calendar can still help for one-off sessions, such as a free taster class or a private lesson: one booking per service per day and time, with the service, day, time, name, phone and email.
Fees, uniform and payments
Publish a fee table per term or per month for each class length, sibling discounts, exam entry fees, uniform and show costume costs. Families resent costs that appear in March. For payment, the site has one payment link per account, from Stripe, PayPal or another provider, which every buy button opens: point it at a subscription for monthly fees, or at a page at your provider listing each class length per term. Payments aren't tied to the enrolment automatically; you reconcile them against your class lists.
Shows, exams and news
The annual show is a big reason families stay, and it's what grandparents search for. Keep a news collection for show announcements, exam results, rehearsal schedules and photos from performances (with consent for any child shown). For show tickets with seating and capacity, link out to a ticketing service; Anticode doesn't sell numbered seats. Posts appear as pages and on a list, but there's no comments, RSS or scheduled publishing.
Why the fit is partial
A school with a handful of classes can run on Anticode plus a spreadsheet. A larger one usually needs a class management system: registers, automatic invoices, direct debits, parent accounts and costume orders. Anticode doesn't provide any of that, and published sites have no parent logins. The sensible split is a public site from Anticode, which carries the styles, timetable, term dates, show news and an enrolment route, with the "Enrol" button pointing at your class management system's sign-up page once you've outgrown the form.
Building it with Anticode
Describe the school in a sentence: "a dance school in Norwich teaching ballet, tap and street from age three, with exams and a summer show". Playful (Fredoka) works for a school focused on young children; Editorial (Geist) for a more performance-led studio. Pink or black action colours both suit, depending on the brand. Since the enrolment form collects personal details, Anticode requires two-factor sign-in for the account owner and the person publishing before the site goes live. Compare with martial arts schools and music teachers.
Limits
- No class registers, capacity tracking or parent portal.
- No automatic invoicing; payment links only.
- No seated ticketing for shows.
- No file uploads on forms, so exam certificates or medical letters come another way.
Questions people ask
Can parents enrol online on a dance school website?
Yes, through an enrolment form with the fields you need, built as a custom form or an app. You confirm places yourself.
Can I take term fees online?
Through the account's payment link from your own provider, pointed at a subscription or a list of fees. Payments aren't matched to enrolments automatically.
Can I sell tickets to our show?
For seated shows, link to a ticketing service. Anticode doesn't handle seat plans or capacity.