My daughter and I had the unfortunate experience of meeting Ellis Roderick, the owner of this dance studio. We were looking for a choreographer to do my daughters solo and we found him on Thumbtack. Upon visiting him, we found that his ideas were not quite what she had in mind. We paid him for his time and went on to find a different choreographer. Six months later, my daughter attended a regional competition and Ellis happened to be there too. When it came time for her to perform here solo, Ellis followed her backstage and began making loud, insulting comments about her to his student. His student, following his actions, joined in. The two of them acted like a couple of middle school children. He continued harrassng my daughter from backstage while she performed. I was absolutely disgusted by this mans behavior. He was using his student as a pawn. When awards were given out, my daughter won first place overall ,platinum,and she placed in the top five. She was also invited to attend their Nationals. Unfortunately, this man's unprofessionalism didn't end there.....When it came time for the National competition, I had already spoken to the people running the venue and reported his behavior. They gave her a different time slot along with a chaperone for backstage. When it came time for her to go backstage, he was waiting there. There wasn't any reason for him to be back there at that time. None of his dancers were performing. My daughter stayed with the stage manager the whole time before she went on. The stage manager witnessed Ellis's behavior. It was clear that he was stalking her. All I can think is that this man is seriously unstable and should obviously not be working with children. I immediately called the police and they advised me of what I needed to do t keep this creep away hom my daughter. I would not have given him even one star but I did it to warn others.
I will say that I'm very proud of my daughter. Even after all this , she placed first in her division!! read more