equitable pricing programs for 2024/2025
Hi Luminesque community, Vanessa and Emily here! We’re the proud co-owners of Luminesque Dance, and we’re bringing you behind the scenes of our latest update regarding next year.
Alongside our exciting announcement of the 2024/2025 program schedules and show themes for the upcoming year, we’ve also released information about our updated financial accessibility programs and overall pricing structures.
We’re here to provide some context about the “why” behind these shifts, and offer transparency into our decision making for those who desire to know our reasoning.
As part of our commitment to equity and sustainability for our community, we’ve made the following adjustments:
Implemented Sliding Scale pricing tiers for the Progress program
Implemented a Weekly Payment Plan option for Progress and Company programs
Transitioned “free classes” to By Donation classes, supporting charity + scholarships
Extended our standard Monthly Payment Plans into more, smaller instalments
Removed the requirement for Company Alumni to pay a one-time sign-up fee to secure their spot in Company
Implemented the “LumiLifer” annual pass that provides more equal opportunity to access discounts
Replaced incentives for paying large sums up front with incentives for sustainable, long-term commitment to dance
Implemented an Ambassador Program to create (limited) work trade opportunities for our most dedicated students
Updated our Refund Policies to include more human-first Exceptional Accommodations and general terms
Implemented necessary, but modest pricing increases for the following programs:
12% increase for Returning Progress courses (Previous price: $888)
16% increase for New to Lumi Progress courses (Previous price: $599)
16% increase for Drop-In Classes
20% increase for standard Workshops
20% increase for Private Lessons
Notable accessibility initiatives that are NOT changing:
Our Scholarship program remains, providing fully subsidized tuition for marginalized groups within our community
We hope to be able to offer more scholarships, now that fundraising is built into our By Donation “sneak peek weeks” for new students
Company Alumni pricing remained essentially the same (decreased by $10 per year)
Monthly payment plans are still available (monthly amount split into more payments, lowering the monthly cost)
The above is an overview of the changes we’ve made for this upcoming season, and below lists all the details for those who wish to know more!
SLIDING SCALE
We’ve seen time and time again, that our community is passionate about supporting each other. While we at HQ do our best to recruit sponsors and personally donate to scholarships, we have heard that students with funds to give desire simpler, easier ways to “pay it forward” to another student. We also hear that students often don’t require a full scholarship, but just need a little help affording the long term program we offer.
Our new Sliding Scale pricing for the Progress program is our answer to these calls to action. Here’s how it works:
We offer 3 pricing tiers for our Returning and New to Lumi courses:
Support Tier (Subsidized, reduced price)
Standard Tier (Regular, sustainable price)
Sponsor Tier (Higher price, funds the Support tier)
Support tiers are limited, based on the number of Sponsor tiers that were selected in the previous term
For this first term, Vanessa and Emily are personally sponsoring the Fall 2024/2025 Support tiers
Support tiers are self-assessed, first-come-first-served, and based on an honour system. No application is required.
Participating in the presale does increase a student’s chances of accessing the Support tier
Students who participate in the Sponsor tier receive an invite to our dedicated “Support for Supporters” virtual workshop by Vanessa + Emily
Once Support tiers have all been claimed, those still requiring support can apply for Scholarships
We believe this new sliding scale system will provide more financial assistance to those who need it. Removing the selection/application process also reduces emotional labour for students seeking support, mitigates implicit bias, and overall presents more equitable opportunity for aid. Lastly, it allows the community as a whole to support each other, beyond our existing scholarship program.
PAYMENT PLAN ADJUSTMENTS
Our program is high value and long term, thus making the whole price overwhelming for some when it’s required up front. Historically, we’ve been significantly impacted by many students stopping paying their payment plans partway through (while still partaking in the program), and so have been hesitant to offer longer payment plans to avoid putting our business at risk of not being able to sustainably run.
However, we have weighed the benefit of making our program more accessible for the larger community against this risk, and have decided to implement longer plans that put less pressure on individuals to outlay larger amounts of funds in less instalments. This shift is also supported by updated refund policies and class attendance policies, that consider humans first but also make sure we can continue to sustain our community.
We’ve made the following adjustments to our payment plans:
Implemented Weekly Payment Plan options for Company, New to Lumi Progress courses and Returning Progress courses
Monthly plans for New to Lumi courses are now 4 payments (versus 3)
Monthly plans for Returning courses are now 5 payments (versus 4)
We removed the one-time sign-up fee for Company Alumni, so it only requires a payment plan
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY INCENTIVES
In the past, we have incentivized paying large sums up front in exchange for a significant discount. This means that only folks with the financial freedom to take on a significant cost all at once had access to our discounts at best, and at worst, it encouraged students taking on credit card debt.
We have decided to remove incentives for up front payment, and make payment plans the default payment method. Folks who wish to pay up front are able to do so by request, but they pay the same as anyone on a Weekly or Monthly Payment Plan, under this new structure.
We’re now offering a sustainable, accessible, equitable option so anyone who desires to dance with us for a year can access a discount. We believe this rewards long-term commitment to community and students’ dedication to dance, which is much more in alignment with our values.
The new “Lumi Lifer” annual pass allows anyone to:
Receive a $100 discount on both Progress terms within a year ($200 discount total), when they commit to dancing for the year
Receive first pick of Spring courses, even before Presale participants, so they are more likely to get into the courses they desire
Pay in smaller monthly or weekly instalments all year, which spreads the cost of the program out more sustainably
Be supported by a humans-first cancellation policy, which considers if they need to unexpectedly drop out of Spring term
AMBASSADOR PROGRAM
Many long term members of our community already give a lot of their time, energy, and skills towards helping Luminesque thrive. We’ve created a new program that rewards them for doing so, by allowing them to earn points towards their Progress registration fees by contributing to the community. This by limited, application initiative replaces any previous work trade arrangements, and provides more equitable opportunity to join.
Our new Ambassador Program allows students to:
Apply to be part of the program, and be selected based on:
Their responses to application questions and work-trade skills
How long they’ve danced and/or worked with Luminesque for
Previous contributions (work or otherwise) to the Luminesque community
NOTE: Any student from ANY level is eligible to participate, however there are limited spots available
Earn points throughout their term by participating in different support initiatives (i.e. volunteering, posting about Luminesque, etc)
Points are applied against their Progress registration cost, thus either completely covering or subsidizing the cost of registration
Company students pay a significantly reduced monthly payment plan, and may subsidize the rest of the cost of Company by earning points
We hope this program will rewards those longstanding members of our community for all their efforts to spread the glow!
Apply now to join (deadline to apply is August 8) here: luminesquedance.com/ambassadors
HUMANS-FIRST POLICY UPDATE
Following consultation with our decolonization coach, we have majorly overhauled our refund and cancelation policies. The new policies ensure the sustainability of our community, while also being humans-first and equitable to folks experiencing personal challenges. We encourage everyone registering for our programs to read the refund policy in full, but we’ll specifically mention that we implemented special accommodations for:
Pregnancy
Mental health
Illness/injury (including chronic)
Bereavement or caring for a family member with a terminal illness
Sudden job loss
Sudden relocation
We understand that life happens sometimes in a 5-month term, and so we are hopeful that our new policies will feel more fair for everyone, and thus allow people to be more comfortable with committing to their long term dance journey with Luminesque.
PRICING INCREASES
Alongside our new support initiatives, we are increasing our prices for most programs by 10-20%. We prioritized limiting price increase for our core programs like Company, Progress, and Express wherever we could, and reserved higher increases to more one-off, high-value offerings.
These modest increases in pricing allow us to:
Reduce maximum class size capacity, to create a more personalized and intimate experience for all of our students
Increase wages for our teaching staff, to support the ever-rising cost of living in Vancouver, Squamish, and Victoria
Keep up with skyrocketing costs: venue rentals, studio rent, utilities, supplies, and more - that in some cases increased by 500% since 2020
Sustain our current Scholarship program, and provide more Scholarships for marginalized folks in our community
Sustainably support our community and our business, so Luminesque can continue to operate for years to come
We know that this adjustment in pricing may mean some students would now struggle to afford the program cost at once, up front. That is why we hope that the many new and updated accessibility programs we offer can mean that they are still able to participate.
GOT QUESTIONS?
As always, we (Vanessa and Emily) would love to hear any thoughts, questions, or concerns you have about our new initiatives. Please contact us via glow@luminesquedance.com if you’d like to chat, or fill out the anonymous feedback form on the Student Portal, if you wish to remain anonymous.
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for supporting this community and our dream of creating spaces where everyone can shine.
Cheers to a wonderful year of dance!
xo
Emily + Vanessa
