Mirror Image Dance Academy

My daughter went to Mirror Image Academy for a few years. Then after one of the most talented dance teachers moved Marni Duin. Marni now owns a studio of her own. Studio M School of Dance! My daughter LOVES it. Leaving Mirror Image was the best thing we could do for her. After watching all of the poor Mirror Image families getting screwed over by the staff! Studio M is amazing! Marni treats her students like family! more

My daughter has been dancing at MIDA since she was 3. She loves it. She never wants to leave! She has made a ton of friends. She is now 9 and her group started going to competitions 2 years ago and this year nearly swept every category. MIDA even took ""top studio"" honors. When we were first looking for a studio we wondered what performances were available. All have a recital but MIDA has more. They have a ton of opportunities for the kids to perform at including the recital (they always work to keep them under 2 hours running time!), The Nutcracker Ballet, performing company and competition teams. You can tell the teachers there really love their jobs and their students. It is an awesome facility where kids get a great dance education and have a blast doing it! I highly recommend it! more

There are 4 full-time teachers at Mirror Image Dance Academy of Appleton. All have had numerous years of dance experience and teaching. NONE of our teachers have self-taught themselves anything. The fact is that our studio competes in numerous competitions every year and our students have always taken top awards at each and every one. In fact, we took ""Top Studio"" at one of them this past competition season. I will never speak poorly of any other studio simply because we all have our own ways of running a business and teaching. It?s an art-form after all. However, I will say that I believe we have the best studio in the area. In my 25 years of dancing and 10 years of teaching I have seen a lot of studios, dancers, teachers and choreographers. Our teachers not only offer the best classes but we care deeply about our students. We believe in each and every one of them regardless of their age or level?in competition or not. more

I took my child to mirror image for lessons, and while there I heard constant arguing between the instructors, saw highly qualified people belittled by the owner (when and if she was there) and saw many great teachers come and go. The parents that have left are not overly negative people, they just saw through the lies, procrastination, and disorganization. As far as dancers that have left over the past years, and calling them ""not typically very talented"" please realize, that these dancers have left for other studios, and have made it into some pretty impressive dance programs. It says a lot about a business when turnover on employees is high, and not just teachers, also office staff. They are what most people refer to as a ""dance factory"" and care more about how much money they can make, than the well being of the child. As far as certification goes, Their two main teachers for the younger groups have little experience in teaching. One of them became a student at mirror image in high school, and has had maybe 3 years of classes, the other, ""self taught"" herself tap. Recital time is always hectic and crazy at all dance studios, but this one takes the cake. Not only is it disorganized and never on time (starting..or finishing) but during dress rehearsal when all things are supposed to be ready to go, one of the owners makes her yearly appearance and seems to change things last minute. EVERYTHING is done this way. They also do an annual nutcracker performance where it seems that the teachers seem to have all the parts. While I understand that no dance studio is perfect, there are far better places that seem to care about the students and have quality instruction. Pros: You can always find a parking spot more

I would not send my young daughters to any other school in the Valley. Their rates are reasonable and the teachers that my girls have treat my kids great. My kids might not ever be Clara because they don't take 6 hours of dance classes a week but they are not that old or dedicated to dance yet. My kids are having fun learning with teachers that make it fun for them. When my kids get a little older and want to go into competition dance I already know I have them at the right studio because they seem to sweep all the awards at the competitions. For now my kids will have fun learning different styles of dance and have the teachers that make it easy and fun for them. more

My daughters have been dancing at Mirror Image for the last 6 years. They are still young and I see that this studio is evolving into something great. The formation of competition classes at MIDA has drastically improved the level of dancing at the studio over the past two years!!!! YOu cannot find more dedicated teachers than at MIDA, and the competition teams have beat out other studios in the Fox Valley area (at the junior and younger level). This is a fairly new studio and the current group of dancers (about age 11 and under) have so much talent. The dancers who have left over the past years are typically not very talented and their parents are very negative people. It is good to get rid of the negative energy!! Yes, some teachers have left over the years, but this happens in every studio as teachers decide to want to have their own business. The only downside to this studio is procrastination that goes into planning for recitals etc. This, however is improving little by little as well. Overall, I have shopped around many studios, and I believe that MIDA is the best dance studio that offers multiple styles of dance in the Fox Valley more

I must make an argument here to the testament that the teachers here are not certified. I for one am a teacher at Mirror Image Dance Academy and I have a bachelor?s degree in Arts Administration and Dance. As far as certifications go...I guess it depends on what kind you're talking about. There are a million out there...in my 24 years of dancing I have ran into a ton of horrible ""certified"" teachers simply because that's all they did...get their certificate...they didn't actually go out and expand on their dance education. It's a shame that your experience was not a good one but you should ask those questions before assuming that teachers are not certified and ask what their educational background is. I for one absolutely LOVE teaching here and couldn't love a job more. My colleagues are amazing and very talented. more

The right hand never seemed to know what the left hand was doing here - terribly disorganized. Teacher turn-over rate is high - the good teachers that were here have left to start their own studios, and the ones that remain are not certified to teach. Pros: large facility with numerous classes offered Cons: high turn-over rate of teachers, high prices, disorganized more