My 7 year old kiddo and 2 of her friends were signed up for one week of Dance Jam Camp [1 hour of jazz, 1 hour of gymnastics, 1 hour of Hip Hop] this summer at Dance Connection 2. For all of us, it was our first experience with this studio & none of our girls had ANY formal dance experience. On the first day of camp, we walked into chaos in the lobby: people [who we later found out were the instructors] talking to each other but paying no attention to the kids there or the wandering parents [us]; receptionist tied up on the phone; NO signage or ANYTHING giving first-timers any direction about where to go. We finally end up in a dance room with about 10 kids in it, no adult. When a girl finally comes in [I'd gauge her age at 20-ish] carrying a little girl on her hip, we received no greeting, no introduction of who she was, no direction of any sort. We asked her if we were in the right place as there were these kids here with no adult supervision & she tells us that she "had just been gone a minute to take another girl to her classroom." But no apology about leaving these kids unattended, no introduction of who she was, nothing. [We later found out she was the Jazz instructor. Additionally, after spending the first hour of each of the 4 days with her, none of our 3 girls could tell us her name...she never introduced herself to them!]
At the end of that first day, all 3 girls claimed that this same particular instructor was 'mean' & that she had them do some "hard things." I'm the first to call out the drama my kiddos may play so I probed & asked if the instructor was just focused or was she really mean. The girls retracted their comments a bit but obviously after the morning, I was keeping my eyes & ears open.
The 2nd day was similar: morning chaos in the lobby, the instructors not supporting the front desk staff by offering welcomes or direction & similar sour disposition from the Jazz instructor. In fact, she wouldn't look at us & she pretty much closed her studio door in our faces. Additionally, the girls said she didn't smile much but that she seemed to go a little easier on the exercises [I had called the front desk after the 1st day experience so I wondered if something was said to her...?]
By the 3rd day, all of us parents had just chalked up the week to experience & decided to just finish out the camp. Overall, the girls didn't love the camp. The gymnastics portion was 'ok' according to the girls, they didn't really feel like they learned anything new there. At first, they really liked Hip Hop & the instructor the first day but evidently he was going on vacation the very next day & they had a new one instructor [this camp was only 4 days long] the rest of the week.
Obviously, this studio caters to the folks that want to PAY to make dance their life, which is fine. However, we were looking for a great opportunity to introduce our kids to beginning dance & this did NOT cut it. I had even called & asked to speak to the owner but was informed she was 'out of the country' & the next person in charge was the person who answered the phone at the front desk. One of the Mom's in our little crowd is an administrator in the Chandler School District & she was FLOORED at the lack of attention, the disorganization & the general feeling of disinterest demonstrated here, a business that exists for KIDS.
Definitely won't be back & definitely won't recommend this studio. read more