I hesitated about writing this review because this was my children's dance home for four years, but every time we drive past I am reminded of what they lost and I am saddened and angered all over again.
We had recommended this school to friends, many who joined, and they have all since quit. One mom tried to talk to her daughter's teacher about why her daughter was so upset, after months of classes, and halfway through the conversation the teacher, who is one of the owners of the school, admitted that she had no idea who her daughter was and showed no interest in finding out. They quit the following week.
This school doesn't allow much room for growth as it only goes up to level 3 and levels go according to age. My daughter, who has been dancing since she was 3 years old, was still in level 1 at the age of 9. She was doing the exact same steps and routines that she had been doing for years and she was bored out of her mind, as were the other students her age. Classes that she used to look forward to she started to drag herself to because she wasn't having fun or being challenged.
This is the second location of a dance school based in Westchester and that is obviously where the main focus of this business is. The owners are only in this location once a week, and one of them often shows up late. There was a group, which included my daughter, that was promised last year that they would be a part of a junior competition team, which they were very excited about. All year their rehearsals kept getting canceled, usually at the last minute, as we were told that there was "no time" to teach them a routine for competition, yet there was a Westchester "mini competition team" formed with much younger girls and, to add insult to injury, they were given a dance to take to competition which used to belong to my daughter's group the previous year.
The performance team, which members audition for at the end of each year, is required to take three classes plus performance team rehearsals every week, plus buy merchandise covered with the name of the school so that the school is advertised at performances. My daughter was taking an extra class in addition to this. The team members pay full price for all of this, even though their are discounts given on merchandise once a year but never when the team knows what they will need. Once the day before the annual Christmas sale a bunch of us wanted to take advantage of the sale price to buy our kids gifts while they were rehearsing for their performance the next day. We were told by the owner that, even though we would all be there the next day for the performance anyway, we couldn't buy anything a day early unless we were paying full price. This is one of many examples of them showing us that money means more to them than the families who help them stay in business.
Last year performance team rehearsals were canceled almost as often as they weren't, and the team went six months in a row, more than half the performance year, without any opportunities to perform at all. Of course, we were given no discount on our team fees even though the team barely existed.
In December my daughter decided that she wanted to quit hip hop, which used to be her favorite class, because the teacher (one of the owners) hardly showed up and when she did she didn't do much teaching. When I went to remove her from the class I was asked if she wanted to finish the month since we had already paid for it. I said that my daughter, a 9 year old who LOVES to dance, had become so fed up with that class that she actually told us that she would pay for the month just to not have to take the class anymore. The person I was speaking with, another owner of the school, responded by saying that next year hip hop might be required for the team. At no time did she show any interest in my kid or what was bothering her at all.
My son had also been dancing here for four years, and he was the only boy left as all of the other bays have already quit. They do not know how to treat or teach boys at that school. My son loves to dance but here, while loved by the other students, he was treated mainly as a nuisance by the owners and blamed for things, like broken crayons, that he had nothing to do with. He was given songs like Jenny From The Block to dance to, and constantly referred to as one of the girls.
After finally having her heart broken too many times my daughter finally decided to take trial classes at some other schools. As soon as she tried Ballet Arts in Beacon she was hooked. The difference was like night and day. The students are challenged each year and obviously cared about. They stay with the school until they graduate and many of them come back on their vacations from college. The recitals are well thought out and amazing. The owner is at the school every day and knows what's going on in each class. My son is thrilled because there are other boys and they all love it. read more
