I was a dance parent at DP for many years and knew families that still had students there as of two years ago. I was kind of curious to see if things have changed and they still appear to be the same. There still appears to be management issues with controlling their competition director/teacher even though they have changed staff. Teachers put the ""stars"" in numerous competition dances and they are always in front. If you talk to competition judges, they will tell you they try to look at the back row to see if the studio is ""hiding"" a inferior dancer. DP needs to understand that they need to showcase everyone a bit more and not the same 4-5 dancers .Checking the reviews, the ""cons"" also seem to be with management. \r
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My advice to parents is to determine what you want out of a dance studio for your child. If they are in it for just fun and exercise, this studio is fine but so are most studios in Charlotte. They key is if your child gets to the competion level. This is when you will see the difference in money, time and the staff attitude. DP is very good in teaching your child stage presence and ""tricks"" (leaps, turns etc) of a dance routine. They will not teach your child how to perform. There is more to dance then just tricks. If your child wants to pursue dance in college, take them to a non-competition studio by the time they are a sophmore in HS . DP is not going to help them with a college dance audition. I will let you know that colleges want to see a dancer perform in a ""modern"" class and I don't believe you will see this at DP. Parents should check the staff biographies of DP and non-competion studio. You will see that non-competion studio teachers usually have a college BFA degree and some teaching background. Teachers with this type of background know how to prepare yopur child for a college dance audition. DP has teachers who came up thru the ranks as students and their experience is basically limited to the competition world. There are few DP teachers with a college degree in the arts.\r
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On the positive side. DP studio is in a nice building and has safe floors. They will not put your child in any dance number that is not appropiate for their age. DP does well in competitions because they have good competition quality choreography and they will prepare your child with plenty of practice of their dance numbers.The recitals are always a nice event and usually have a theme which is different than most competition studio's who just do one number after another.\r
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DP tries to present a ""family"" image but in my experience it is a hoax. If you are not paying them the big dollars, they really don't care about you. After leaving the studio (in good graces), my daughters were forgotten when it came time for a DP reunion dance at the 20 yr recital. Management knew how to contact my family but never did it because they were not one of the ""favorites"" even though we paid the bills like anybody else IMO. My daughters were in solo and small group dances so it is not like they were just in group competition numbers. I found out months later about this from another family. I mentioned this because my daughter was honored in her senior year in HS as a outastanding dance student who was going on to study dance in college. She was recognized at a ballet performance at the Bluementhal Performing Arts Center and had her biography in the performance program. She had the class to mention she got her start at DP in her biography, too bad DP management forgot about her when it came time to have a reunion.\r
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Finally, DP is a decent studio which needs to get with the times. Dance studios should have level for recreational, competion and college prep if it truly wants to be a superior studio in Charlotte. Currently, DP is better than some but there are others just as good for a compettion studio. One final piece of advice, check your financial statements like a hawk. Don't be afraid to question every dime in your statement.
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