I have been attending class at Patel Conservatory for one year and it is safe to say that Svetlana, one of the ballet instructors, is the reason why I return.
Pro:
-Svetlana is an experienced dancer and a wonderful teacher with great control over her class. Not only does she correct and praise appropriately, Svetlana also choreographs beautifully.
Cons:
-The first six months I came here, the security staff in charge of validating parking consistently did it incorrectly and whenever I exited the garage I would always get grief from the parking attendant. When I would explain the predicament to the security staff, they were rude and did not do anything to resolve the problem as I still had trouble exiting the garage.
-Some of the ladies in the library/registrar are not very friendly or knowledgable about the dance program. If you need information, ask the Dance Department Manager directly.
-Management is not very good at notifying students of class changes ahead of time. There has been an occasion where class was moved to an earlier time and students showed up at the regular time and therefore missed the rescheduled class. The opposite has also happened where class was postponed, so students had to come back or wait around until the rescheduled class started.
-As a previous reviewer stated, the assistants, directors, and producers could be nicer, especially to amateur dancers/open dance program students. These students are not accustomed to performing (professionally) and are doing it for fun. I also don't appreciate being scolded for doing something incorrectly when we weren't told how to do something in the first place.
I have received an email from the management stating that the Open Dance Program is currently being revamped, so I hope to see changes for the better. If the changes warrant it, I will update my review accordingly.
Also, purchasing a dance card for 10 classes for $120 (averaging out to be $12 per class) is much cheaper than paying the monthly tuition of $86 (averaging out to be $21.50 per class) AND you can try out different genres of dance in opposed to just the one class that you pay tuition for. read more