In a ballet studio near Downtown Orlando, they’re giving new meaning to the term “modern dance.”
The techniques are ones you’d expect, but the students are not.
Because not all of them are in the room.
The class put on by the Interactive Academy of Performing Arts—or IAPA—uses modern technology to allow some of the students to learn online.
"I'm in Tampa. I'm actually in my dining room. I moved the table aside," Francesca Perrone-Britt tells FOX 35 via web cam.
Instructors like Ellie Potts Barrett guide students from miles away.
"You really see them. And it's outrageous to be able to say that's the way you do it," Barrett said.
Barrett regularly directs her attention to a monitor with multiple windows, which allow her to see multiple students.
She can talk to them and they can talk back.
IAPA was founded in November.
The mission: give people of all ages a chance to study performing arts no matter where they are in the world.
“Start dancing, start acting, start singing, start playing an instrument. There's no excuse now!” said Ricardo Canchola.
Canchola said he and his co-founders saw an opportunity in a combination of new technologies that allow online interaction like never before.
"We can be broadcasting a class to a hundred thousand people...and some of these people can be on camera interacting with the teacher," Canchola said.
Christina Goussyra—a student in modern dance class—is also a teacher at an Orange County high school.
Online classes could help kids who don’t have a chance to study privately, she said.
"A lot of them don't have transportation, they might not have financial means to take a class."
In the past few months IAPA has added instructors and free classes. They’re gearing up to bring classes in music, dance, and to the masses for about $15 a month.
"It's just going to make the art form accessible to so many people. The world! It's boundless!" Barrett predicted.