Edit: just wanted to add in after April's unhinged response.
I typed out a whole thing responding to what she said but then decided not to post it.
This defensive response is so telling and so was the attempt to paint me as an "angry mom" and attack my parenting to discredit my concerns instead of reflecting. Personally not something I want when choosing a ballet school.
I'll just keep it as this: every single thing I mentioned was a concern shared by multiple parents. And that I did not yell or "rage quit". My conversation and leaving were previously discussed with my daughter, who wanted to leave. And I would have talked to April after the rehearsal but it was already well past the scheduled end time and there was no communication regarding when that would be.
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TLDR; Try another ballet school for your small child.
Signed my 4 year old up for the fairytale class (youngest group), and paid the $85 extra for her to participate in the nutcracker performance.
- Teacher was unfriendly. The instructor (owner's daughter) didn't properly introduce herself to the kids or parents. After 3 months, we have no idea what her name is. She also is a very serious person, and there were few smiles, humor, or really any kind of joy in class. Not a good fit for 3-4 year olds. My daughter liked ballet but did not enjoy class.
- Teaching was incredibly lazy. The 45 min class started late and ended early every single week. Additionally, the last ~5 minutes of class consisted of the kids "free dancing" around to Frozen music. With all this, plus the several minute water breaks, it was less than 30 minutes of ballet per week.
- The class went over a few moves every class, but never learned any type of routine for the "big show". There was very little effort put into teaching these children.
Now for the actual show:
- The littles were on stage for a total of 1 minute + the bow at the end. They had no ballet routine, and just stood up there copying some arm/head moves from the owner back stage. On top of that, they were positioned in 2 rows. So I could not see my child at all because she happed to be in the second row.
- When I asked the owner about this, she said "there was tape on the stage, it's not my fault they weren't standing on the tape". Then why weren't they in a single row so everyone could be seen? Makes no sense.
- When the owner was asked why they were on there for so little time, we were told this is all this age group can handle. Other ballet schools in Livermore have 3 year olds participate in the Bankhead Nutcracker with full routines, so this just comes back to lazy teaching and lack of effort put into the younger classes.
- They were largely unsupervised in the LHS hallway for the rest of the time back there aside from a couple parent volunteers. The parents don't really know each other, so when a child was crying so hard that she ended up puking, the parent was not informed.
- You may wonder where their teacher was during this time. Well, she was starring the show. The show was just a showcase of the owner's adult daughter and her advanced class. They had many elaborate costume changes, and were onstage about 80% of the performance. Every single audience member was there to see their child. Unfortunately, unless your child was in the advanced adult class, you didn't see much of them.
- The $85 rental costume was a single leotard + skirt combo. But someone had to subsidize the advance class' many costume changes.
If you're considering ballet classes for your preschool or elementary school child, skip this one. Try Valley Dance Theater instead. It's about the same price for lessons, and they actually seem to invest and put effort into their younger classes. read more
