The Dance Project

My daughter loves it here. The staff is great, very professional. Classes for all skill levels.

I am big fan of the Dance Project. My daughter has been there since she was 3, she is 4 ½ now, she has never cried nor have I seen any tears in my entire year and a half there. The owner has been my daughter’s teacher the whole time and we absolutely love her! She is great with the kids and has a way of teaching them gradually so they learn without getting bored. Our three year old class was so good they actually got to perform at Glendale Glitters with the big girls, that is not typical. The girls do such a good job at Glendale glitters as well as their recitals. Someone actually came up to me at last years’s recital and said «that’s the best we have ever seen a young group do». The teachers are loving and sweet, there is no type of pressure or stress, it’s all about fun and learning. As far as catering to different levels, we recently had a new three year old join our class a month ago (mind you our girls have worked on their dance since February) and that little girl caught right up with our 4 ½ yr old girls and will be performing with us next month! I would recommend this studio to anyone and everyone. My daughter, her classmates and all of us moms love it and are already looking forward to next season after summer break! I would find a bad experience here shocking.

No such thing as zero stars, eh?
By the way, they have moved to a new location.
If you want to make your kid cry, go ahead and sign them up! This was my daughter’s first experience with a true dance class after taking «dance» classes where the kid’s more or less just had fun to music. She was so excited to have her pink leotard, her little ballet skirt and a tap and ballet shoes. The first day of class I discovered that some of the girls in the class had already taken the same class several times, one for at least a year… but they weren’t progressed to another class, the classes were designated by age, not by level. So, the teacher went through the movements and expected the girls to follow along. She did not stop to help them and showed frustration at then for not immediately following along. Did I mention this is a class for THREE YEAR OLDS and it’s the FIRST DAY OF CLASS? Managing your expectations was definitely not part of the training here! I thought about complaining, but then realized the instructor (who did not introduce herself) was actually one of the owners. I decided to take her to a class on a different day, with a different instructor, hoping she would be less intense with such young children just starting out. I was wrong. This class was with the other owner, who opted to make multiple children cry. Keeping in mind that this is a class of three year olds and it was only the second class, the instructor yelled at the girls for fidgeting while they were waiting for the other girls to take their turns. My daughter came running out of the room and said she was told she would not be allowed to dance if she couldn’t stand still until it was her turn. Why anyone would think this was the way to treat such a young child is beyond me comprehension.
I left two voicemail messages, sent an email, and a letter informing the Dance Project that we would not be continuing classes and to cancel all future enrollments after two classes. They have an «automatic renewal» policy so I wanted to be sure that we were not automatically renewed. No one returned my calls, my emails, or my letter. Four weeks later, I received a call requesting my next payment. Not only did they not return my calls, they either didn’t notice, or didn’t care that my daughter had not been in the class for four weeks, but they wanted more money.
As a teacher, I want to ensure that my children develop a love of learning. It is crucial that early teachers and learning experiences by positive so that children will want to continue to learn. Fortunately, my daughter loves dancing, so she was willing to try another class (at another school of course) and she has been taking classes there for weeks now — not only does she love it, she is thriving and learning quickly.