I dealt with LaRae for two years, and the one piece of advice I will give to any potential parents of dancers there is that if you love your child, and want them to develop a love and appreciation for the arts, do not, under any circumstances, put them in LaRae's. Is LaRae talented? In spades. Is she rigorous on technique? Absolutely. Are her rates fair? Mostly. But she's a complete nightmare to deal with, and this is coming from a patient, professional person. LaRae causes children anxiety, meltdowns, and depression. She is cruel without remorse, and she does target kids in a startlingly bullying manner in class.
She demands perfection, and she is not a people person at all. You can't talk to her on an adult level, because she's not empathetic or understanding. She treats children like robots, and she's very unsympathetic to any kind of situation which might make a person miss class. My daughter had to miss one class (the only time in two years she missed anything) because she had a singing recital the same night which conflicted with her lesson, and LaRae told her the next week that if she ever did that again she'd be out of the class, that she wasn't allowed to have any extracurricular activities outside of dance. My daughter also got upset during the next class from LaRae targeting her, and she rushed into the studio bathroom and threw up because of it. LaRae proceeded to viciously yell at my daughter when she came out from the bathroom, while I wasn't there. I will not attempt to express my complete disgust. My daughter is only ten years old.
This woman may be exceptionally talented and have years of ballet and Irish dancing under her belt, but that doesn't make her equipped to deal with loving families who are interested in having their children pursue dance. I'm frankly surprised she's still open as a business. She's rude to parents, demeaning, and judgmental. While she might mean well in teaching students to dance, she is haphazard about it and immature. She targets and picks fights with children she doesn't like, and is utterly unapologetic about how she treats people. She lacks the communication skills necessary to develop healthy parent-instructor relationships, nor does she want to. I'm pretty sure she has borderline personality disorder.
If you want your child to be an unfeeling dancing machine and have incredible technique, and you don't mind dealing with a sourpuss, Scrooge-esque person for eight straight years, LaRae's your woman. If you care about your child and want them to be empathetic, have a genuine love in their hearts for the humanities and dance, and a smile on their faces when they leave their lessons, take a leaf out of my book and seek another studio. It's not worth the drama, or the negative psychological footprint it leaves on the girls. LaRae is abusive. There are other professional studios out there with much warmer, kinder teachers. read more
