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Review content:
We quit dance this year after many painful years on the competition team at Dance Productions. I strongly believe that the positive reviews written below are either written by the staff or by the parents of a few of the""favorites"". In fact, we were instructed to post positive reviews on this site in order to get the studio rating up. But our experience at DP has been far from positive.
I do feel that Lori and the teachers work hard and are good people. However, I believe that because of the way they run the studio and choreograph their numbers, they destroyed my daughter's love of dance and harmed her self esteem. And they're in total denial about it. My daughter used to have a spark and wanted so much to be a part of a strong group of dancers. After hoping against hope, I now believe it's not their goal at all to have a strong group. Tracy and Brittany have choreographed some great numbers, but they are so entirely focused on a handful of dancers who are their family and friends, that they've proved time and again, they could care less about the rest of the group. Yes, the ""favorites"" are talented, as they are repeatedly told how fabulous they are and get excellent choreography and stage time in which to constantly improve their abilities. Just look at any of their numbers and it's the same dancers, front and center, in every. single. number. Same dancers. Every number. It's clear who they spend all their time and energy on. While the rest of the students are merely there for back up or to push enormous props around. I can only imagine how good all of the dancers would be if they were all taught properly and choreographed like they were all an important part of the group. Any studio can have a few exceptional dancers. When you teach them all to be exceptional, then you have a truly exceptional studio. In a meeting with Tracy, she told me that it's not her job to teach a love of dance. She said she will work with the kids who show a strong talent, but feels it's not her job to teach them to strive to be the best they can be. This is why Dance Productions may win at competitions, but they will never be an exceptional studio. This year we had several students all drop out, and they didn't go to other studios, they all stopped dancing entirely.
For years, I begged and begged, and then begged some more, for technique classes. There is no technique being taught at dance productions. Let me repeat. There is no technique other than ballet. I've never understood how a dance studio could forgo such an important part of dance. Their class time is spent learning their routines. The girls who get good choreography improve every time they practice the routine, and the girls who stand off stage or push props around don't. And I've heard them get yelled at for their lack of technique. Their best dancers can't even turn cleanly and in unison.Why the teachers don't properly and consistently teach all the dancers how to leap and turn with proper technique, defies logic. Either they can't be bothered, don't know how to teach them, or maybe because they have over a hundred numbers to rehearse and there simply isn't time. Don't come to Dance Productions expecting to get technique because you will be greatly disappointed.
I felt the need to write about our experience, because I wish I had known all of this before we joined Dance Productions. I feel that I've wasted thousands of dollars, hundreds of hours, and most importantly, I feel I've wasted my daughter's childhood.
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