Honestly, a half-star would be too kind. And, after a decade with three girls there, our family couldn't be MORE qualified to assert and validate just such.
There are enumerable dance studios within the Birmingham metro area. Based upon our time at ADA and canvassing other dance families, Alabama Ballet, Briarwood Ballet, CDF, Grebel & BDT, to name a few, would be a better expenditure of resources, time, and money.
The owner of ADA is an egomaniac. She has her followers drinking from the Kool-Aid that only she and her facility can properly train your child in the art of ballet/dance. Hogwash! And, upon listening in on a parent meeting about dance becoming a career, she wants her students to follow her path. If hired by a company, parents would be responsible for $20k in living expenses whilst the company would likely only pay for shoes. There's a parent we know of, whose child made a company in the South; and, this child is living with family and they send her $1k a month. Lucrative dance careers are a minute percentage in this country/world. Do you really want your child in a facility that encourages such reliance? Do you want your child putting off college possibly indefinitely?
If you're not into derrière kissing, and the trappings that define it (I.E. CONSTANT adoration/servitude towards the owner; children enrolled in AS MANY POSSIBLE of the studio's various Fee'd companies; and, the Summer Dance Intensive Workshops..,money, money, MORE money), your child WILL NOT advance; WILL NOT be anything other than the check you write; and, he/she/your volunteering efforts and acts of kindness and generosity, will mean ABSOLUTELY nothing! Other than Tammy Carr, the cadre at Alabama Dance appears soulless. And, art, regardless of type, HAS and SHOULD HAVE soul!
Now, as inferred, there are those that experience a totally different experience because of how they devalue themselves to "attempt" to fit in/be someone in this city. But, how they sleep at night, is beyond mere, let alone inferior understanding. If mediocrity and senseless injuries to a child is your thing (like Munchausen by proxy syndrome...MBPS); well, ADA is your studio and God Bless!
Do your research. Children are late at times to practices, regardless of activity. Children DO get injured in sports. However, when children are late to ADA, they are like Cinderella with the wicked Stepmother. They likely are berated through fear and intimidation. When senseless, equally harmful injuries, are student incurred due to STAFF negligence, they are MOSTLY ignored and overlooked. And, there is NO empathy or remorse for such accident/hurt...even with a child that has been with ADA for nearly a decade since the ripe old age of 3. This studio is lucky we didn't do as directed by our family's attorney. After all, children at ADA are mere cattle. Make NO mistake...they are nothing more than a money making machine for the owner. read more
