Wow did I observe much here. First of all, a very snooty owner. You need to bring on a facade of "better than the rest" and high pedigree for her to even take you seriously. Maintains very rigid, outdated ideas on how ballet should be taught, and even holds young students back if they have been wearing split sole ballet flats. ?? There is no proof that this hinders their foot development, and in fact it does make the muscles in the foot stronger when using split sole. SMH. As I said, this is the owner's way of thinking. Therefore a lot of students progress at a very slow level. They are not exposed to classical modern dance at all. If you mention modern dance, the owner seems to shrug it off and stop listening to you...making an uncomfortable facial expression. It's as if she feels it to be beneath her for some reason, just because she personally prefers ballet, AND in her own method of teaching it. One of the more advanced ballet students informed me she was always discouraged from taking modern dance. I was appalled at this, since you MUST be able to have experience and dance a variety of genres in order to succeed at all in the competitive world of dance these days. I saw many students who were quite eager to learn REAL modern dance, but the attitude of the owner I feel is really holding them back in their development to be well-rounded dancers. While the studio rooms are more than spacious and hold in lots of nice natural lighting, the floors are wood, and terribly old. The owner does not believe in using marley flooring either, I suppose, even though it is very widely used and preferred for dancers. The studio mostly emphasizes on ballet (and strictly RAD method), and the students take jazz class which I've seen many of them do very well in. A lot of them also take tap, which is nearly a lost art, but it's very good regardless because it simply adds to their training. Etudes also offers hip hop as many studios do since it's very popular with the younger crowd. Now if you have what I'll simply call a traditional respect for the art of dance, hip hop is much regarded as a "fun" class, not nearly like a technique class. Meaning that it's not very critical to the development of a professional dancer. But classical modern dance is a rare find, and very complementary to ballet in fact. It incorporates different movement styles and engages other muscles that ballet does not, and that is just one way it is complementary to ballet training (and vice versa, of course). The owner chooses to turn a blind eye to this style. In addition, Etudes de Ballet also focuses heavily on competition dancing. If this owner prefers to hold onto long-standing traditions, she really should take the time to actually WATCH how a classical modern dance class is taught, (and ENCOURAGE it) instead of keeping such a tight closed mind and not even showing a pinch of curiosity.That is a shameful attitude, and IMHO it is one of arrogance. Contemporary dance -which they do incorporate some of it into their jazz class mostly for competition- is NOT the same as modern dance. One simply can't argue that what you see on SYTYCD is the same as Horton or Graham technique. The difference is night and day. Many of these young girls have much potential but sadly, many of them are going to be very lost in an audition that requires anything other than ballet and jazz. A lot of what professional dance companies, college dance programs and conservatories are doing in auditions IS outside the realm of those 2 genres. For what it's worth, the students are well-groomed and well-mannered. You can tell the majority are serious about dance. Many of them do have a lot of talent and potential. But they absolutely need more versatility to succeed in the dance world. Ballet and Jazz does not cut it. read more
