Dcaz is the most toxic environment in Scottsdale for young girls. I have been dancing here for 10+ years, and I never knew how toxic the environment really was until I quit. Teachers pick favorites randomly or based on social status amongst the girls outside life and nothing is based solely on skill. They will not help you improve your technique if you are not one of the favorites, but they will publicly humiliate you amongst your teammates, which promotes them to exclude you throughout team activities and they will not like you as a person, simply because of what a dance teacher said during practice. They refuse to put you on an actual team unless you have been there for years and will not even take your skill set or commitment into consideration. The lower-level teams would get bullied by the more advanced ones, and they would get no opportunities to improve, because they would get the new teachers that have barely even been trained. The older teams that were not advanced would get extremely embarrassing choreography and costumes that were immature and laughable. Favoritism is never acceptable when the entire team should be improving, not just specific people. This entire studio is a toxic environment and takes the joy out of dancing. It is common to mess up sometimes when rehearsing dances, but it is UNACCEPTABLE for teammates to yell at each other DURING THE DANCE for a tiny mistake. It is the teacher's job to fix corrections in a proper manner, but the teachers would also yell at students, and allow teammates to degrade each other, which can really alter a teenage girl's mental health. Dance is supposed to be something I am supposed to enjoy and do in my free time, not something I am supposed to be perfect at and get yelled at for making a small mistake. One of the teachers that taught the toddlers, and the intermediate teenagers, was not fit to teach either because of her abusive teaching style. Britni Lamken would constantly give useless exercises and did not care about students' injuries. Her choreography is cute for toddlers, but not teenagers. She should not have been teaching anyone above eight because she did not know how. She would gossip about teammates when they were not there saying absurd things that were not true, and she would even leak personal business, that other team members should not have heard. Senior company is the most advanced team at the studio, that all lower teams strive to be on, but lately, they have gone downhill, due to the toxicity within the team. The token boy of the team, Cameron, has been there since he was a baby, so he thinks he is entitled to make fun of everyone at the studio, including his own teammates. He would make rude comments about his teammate's technique, personalities, and would even yell at them for messing up during practice. Cameron would get away with all this behavior, because he is adored by all the teachers (specifically Lisa) and has never been given consequences for his years' worth of abuse towards other dancers at the studio, since he is the token boy. He is a strong dancer, but he is not good enough to act the way he has been acting. The favoritism amongst dance connection was so severe, it is difficult to deconstruct completely, but I know it severely altered my mental health. The ballet training was extremely poor for most of the teams, and they make you wear pink tights and black leotard combo until you make it senior company, then you can just wear all black. I can recall having Teisha when I was younger, and she gave me severe body dysmorphia. She yelled a lot but was a bad teacher. Kanako would call certain dancers bigger than the other and would refer to them as "the bigger one." Dance Connection will never give you credit for your commitment, if you are not a favorite, and will immediately discredit you. They were strict with attendance, but only with certain people. If you had to miss for a pom event at your school, that would be okay, but if I were to miss for a family emergency, I would get flamed. The teachers need to learn how to foster a healthy environment, and help students improve, instead of whatever is going on now. Dance Connection only cares about money, because I have stayed loyal for years, and the minute I quit, they cut off all ties. The owners and teachers at this studio clearly peaked in high school, ran out of peers to bully, so they decide to bully kids who just want to dance. Overall, Dance Connection is unprofessional, toxic, unethical, etc. I would not recommend this studio to anyone. If you want your kid to love dance, send them somewhere else, or they will grow to hate it. Growing up here slowly sucked the love and joy I had for dance right out of me. read more
