The Dance Element

Lori Hopkins _{on Google}

Dec 11th, 2023

Stick with me on this. The dance studio and teachers are great. Its very professional and clean. Ive just been encouraged to leave my perspective in case our experience could help anyone else.
My daughter struggled with the strictness of ballet, but thats what she wanted to do. She had tried several of the classes throughout the summer program (wonderful, by the way!), but loved ballet the most. Halfway through the year, she wanted to quit, but I encouraged her to stick it out through the end of year performance. I didnt want her to regret not trying harder.
She felt like the teacher didnt like her; I knew I wasnt getting the whole story and was told she didnt focus and was a distraction. In December I asked to meet with her teacher so we could all sit down and talk about what was going on in class. When we met with the teacher, her body language (the teachers) was not open or understanding. She stood with arms crossed. My daughter may not have understood the message that was conveyed, but I did. She agreed to keep trying. By the way, my daughter was eight yrs old at the time.
A few weeks later, they began learning routines for the end of year performance. This was February through May. At no point was I told she was still a problem until days before the final performance. Teachers reported that she had refused to participate during the final few rehearsals. My daughter said when they were supposed to join hands and dance in a circle, she wasnt able to reach her partner before that girl started moving away. She got upset and probably threw a small fit. My guess is that no one asked her why she stopped dancing or why she was upset. She doesnt like to make mistakes and she was trying. She was kicked out of class.
Idk what happened exactly, but I know I didnt get the whole story from either side. My daughter did not deal with the stress and pressure well. She left classes upset and in tears many times.
My biggest problem is that at no point did anyone approach me and tell me that maybe ballet wasnt the best fit for her. She could have switched to a different class before final routines were begun. She had enjoyed some of the others as well. Being told she couldnt be in the final show four days before the performance made me feel like we had just been a bank account. During those final rehearsals, I saw other little girls being silly and giggly like little girls are but they werent kicked out of class. It made me feel like the teacher had labeled her a problem child, and hadnt given her a fair shot since our talk months prior.