My child took dance here for several years. We had heard about the strict environment before we enrolled her in class. I have no problem with kids being asked to live up to high standards. I believe in pushing my kids to do their best but the techniques used by several of the teachers here are demeaning and in my opinion abusuve. \r
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Children are humiliated in front of their peers for making mistakes. There is no room to learn by trying and making a few mistakes along the way. Children are basically terrified in to a submissive state and then made to feel less worthy of the teachers attention because they have disappointed her.\r
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After seeing several of the shows that their performing company CAROLIINA YOUTH BALLET but on I was very impressed with the quality of the shows. But seeing behind the scenes as to how they get that level of performance out of the dancers was an eye opener. It is shocking that parents pay to let their kids be treated this way.\r
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My child is younger but I have seen the older dancers leave the dance room in tears repeatedly after being told things like you are nothing, a zero, not worth my time, I should have chosen ""susie"" for this role because you are a lazy person. The kids are basicaly brainwashed into believng that every other place that teaches dance is horrible and the only way you can learn proper technique.is by being pounded over and over by abusive words and demeaning remarks. \r
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Whole classes of kids are bad mouthed by a teacher to other classes of kids. ""Don't be lazy like them"" or ""they are all to slow and fat to learn how to dance."" I know a parent who spoke to the owner and afterward her child was humiliated in class by the teacher that the complaint was against. She was told to tell her mommy she was a lazy arrogant child and the teacher passed by her at the bar and told her to get her mother to give her dance corrections since she was to week to take the teachers. When the child started to cry she was told to fix her face and stop being a baby. She was 9 or 10. Other children see this and don't complain because they are afraid they will be humilited next..\r
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We stayed for a few years because I really thought the girls were exgaerating or ""being gossips"". I realized these girls were not just hormoanal teenagers but victims of 2 abusive adults. I began to see this place is a very bad environment for children. All the things you hear about what a teacher says or does to kids here are probally based in truth. Some may be embellished but they have a basis from truth. THIS IS NOT A HEALTHY PLACE FOR KIDS!!
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