Dance Connection 2

I absolutely disagree with the negative comments! My daughter has danced at DC2 for 3 years. We moved from another state and researched studios intensively. Upon arrival, we were given a tour by the owner. She was extremely helpful! They do not push the company on anybody. You have to EARN your spot on any of the dance teams with hard work, good behavior, and dedication. The parents who whine constantly are the ones who have kids who don’t behave, don’t know how to follow directions, and constantly goof around in class. If anything, you have parents who want their kids on company, and therefore push them too far. They are great and know where the students belong. My daughter was very nervous. It is not easy to move to a new state, new school, and dance studio. The staff was extremely sweet and kind to her. They were patient and now she loves it!!! Unlike other studios, they will not place kids in situations in which they will fail. I ABSOLUTELY do not believe that the front desk staff told a parent to just deal with it. I honestly don’t know how the staff deals with the crazy parents who want to run the studio sometimes. My daughter has improved immensely and she wants to be at the studio ²⁴⁄₇. The recitals are organized, and the kids look amazing on stage! There are dress rehearsals to work out all the kinks. I agree with that at the end of the year, the kids have been working on their recital dances. A new child will not benefit at all with joining the class at this time. The kids work hard! It would not be fair to the new child or the kids to throw in a new kid in class. If you walk into a studio, and they let you join a class a few months before recital, walk away. They just want your money, and they don’t care about your kid, or the any other student. You get what you pay for I guess? We are blessed to be a part of such an amazing dance family!

I disagree with both of the negative reviews posted here. My four year old has been dancing here for a year and I love this place! Our first time coming in the owner helped us and she was so sweet, she explained the different combo classes and helped us pick which one would be best for my princess (DCTutu’s — a performance group for smaller children). From day 1 this studio has been more organized than a lot of other studios and we have experience as I danced as a child/​teen and my daughter did one year at another studio that really was AWFUL. The first reviewer says that the receptionist repeatedly told her it is the end of the semester and she did that because at the end the kids are not learning anything new they are simply prepping dances they have worked on for 6 months for the June recital, so it would be really pointless to throw a random kid in that room and have them learn nothing and mess with the dynamic right before recital would be not good for all the other students. My daughters teacher was amazing with small children and we will be so sad to move out of her class next year. We love it here and plan I make it our dance home :)

My 7 year old kiddo and 2 of her friends were signed up for one week of Dance Jam Camp [1 hour of jazz, 1 hour of gymnastics, 1 hour of Hip Hop] this summer at Dance Connection 2. For all of us, it was our first experience with this studio & none of our girls had ANY formal dance experience. On the first day of camp, we walked into chaos in the lobby: people [who we later found out were the instructors] talking to each other but paying no attention to the kids there or the wandering parents [us]; receptionist tied up on the phone; NO signage or ANYTHING giving first-​timers any direction about where to go. We finally end up in a dance room with about 10 kids in it, no adult. When a girl finally comes in [I’d gauge her age at 20-​ish] carrying a little girl on her hip, we received no greeting, no introduction of who she was, no direction of any sort. We asked her if we were in the right place as there were these kids here with no adult supervision & she tells us that she «had just been gone a minute to take another girl to her classroom.» But no apology about leaving these kids unattended, no introduction of who she was, nothing. [We later found out she was the Jazz instructor. Additionally, after spending the first hour of each of the 4 days with her, none of our 3 girls could tell us her name… she never introduced herself to them!]
At the end of that first day, all 3 girls claimed that this same particular instructor was ‘mean’ & that she had them do some «hard things.» I’m the first to call out the drama my kiddos may play so I probed & asked if the instructor was just focused or was she really mean. The girls retracted their comments a bit but obviously after the morning, I was keeping my eyes & ears open.
The 2^nd day was similar: morning chaos in the lobby, the instructors not supporting the front desk staff by offering welcomes or direction & similar sour disposition from the Jazz instructor. In fact, she wouldn’t look at us & she pretty much closed her studio door in our faces. Additionally, the girls said she didn’t smile much but that she seemed to go a little easier on the exercises [I had called the front desk after the 1^st day experience so I wondered if something was said to her???]
By the 3^rd day, all of us parents had just chalked up the week to experience & decided to just finish out the camp. Overall, the girls didn’t love the camp. The gymnastics portion was ‘ok’ according to the girls, they didn’t really feel like they learned anything new there. At first, they really liked Hip Hop & the instructor the first day but evidently he was going on vacation the very next day & they had a new one instructor [this camp was only 4 days long] the rest of the week.
Obviously, this studio caters to the folks that want to PAY to make dance their life, which is fine. However, we were looking for a great opportunity to introduce our kids to beginning dance & this did NOT cut it. I had even called & asked to speak to the owner but was informed she was ‘out of the country’ & the next person in charge was the person who answered the phone at the front desk. One of the Mom’s in our little crowd is an administrator in the Chandler School District & she was FLOORED at the lack of attention, the disorganization & the general feeling of disinterest demonstrated here, a business that exists for KIDS.
Definitely won’t be back & definitely won’t recommend this studio.