This review is a advisory about jazz teacher Ed Phelan. My daughters danced at studio Ed worked for 8 years. One of my daughters was a soloist and the other was just in group dances. My daughter that had a solo was pretty good but not the best soloist in the age group. Due to this, Ed ignored her quite often after her solo's at competitions. To this day, she never forgot how Ed snubbed her after she did her solo at a competition to ask her how another dancer was feeling and not congratulating my daughter on her performance. My other daughter was basically ignored by Ed because she was not one of the ""stars"". IMO - all dancers should be given time and attention not just the studio stars. After leaving the studio, my daughter who was not a soloist blossomed with a different teacher who cared about her and thought she had some talent.\r
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Ed could be very hard on the dancers and quite often would yell at them if they were not doing things ""properly"". There were several times where I witnessed him bring a dancer to tears at competitions including Nationals..There were several dancers who left the studio because of this treatment. I hope as time has passed that he has changed but think it is helpful to inform people of these facts.\r
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Ed was quite creative with his choreography for many years but we were unaware of certain things. My wife and I were pretty happy with our daughter's solo's until we were informed by another parent that it was the exact same solo (dance and music) that he ""created"" for their daughter several years ago.. It is one thing to use a solo again but to charge a parent full amount for a choreography fee for something old is not right. I will say that Ed does have a talent at costume design, the costumes we saw him design were always very pretty and age appropiate.\r
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While most parents at the studio agreed that Ed had talent for choreography and costume design, we did not think he was a good teacher. His idea of teaching was through ""fear"". The parents would have liked it better if Ed did the choreography but left the teaching to somebody else. A example of his lack of teaching expertise was they he informed parents of his top soloists that they should get ballet/technique from another studio.\r
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Finally, this review is not from someboy holding a grudge, it is the honest truth. I hope Ed Phelan has changed his ways but parents should be aware of his past actions and hopefully they do not occur at this studio.
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