I don’t typically like to put my complaints in writing. I’m always afraid they’ll morph into something more real if they’re written down in some permanent way. But in complaining about this particular phone call yesterday, a larger issue was brought to mind. I have long been warned by Mr Ohman of fast food dancing schools. He’s told us, long before any of us were teaching, that we have to educate the parents on classical ballet and what it really takes to build a foundation for any kind of dance. If a child wants to dance recreationally, that’s fine, but the parents must be educated on exactly the kind of education for which they are paying. It is not fair to mislead them into thinking they are exposing their children to real dance, when they are so very far from it. 

A mother called me after having been referred by a dancer at our school. She had previously attended another school of which I’m familiar, and rather dismayed to even call a ‘school’.  I generally like to give these programs the benefit of the doubt assuming that surely they can’t be that harmful – if anything, they are neutral, glorified babysitting services that give mom a chance for a mani/pedi or grocery shopping. Of the 18 or 19 students I’ve had over the last 2-3 years from this particular school, I have yet to meet one that has even been taught the most fundamental skills, the most basic terminology, the proper alignment, or even the correct etiquette to have during ballet class. Working with these students, especially the older ones, has taken tremendous energy on their teacher’s part, and has taken our time away from those that have had proper training all along and are ready to progress. Integral’s extra efforts eventually pay off, in fact, some of our strongest dancers originally came from there and other community schools. However, finding out a seven or eight year old child doesn’t know how to properly tendu or hold their port de bras is never an aspect of this profession that I enjoy. It is completely disheartening.  

To think that one of these studio owners actually sent me a letter when I first opened wishing me ‘bon chance’ and telling me that the spelling of my French terminology was wrong (it wasn’t wrong, she apparently wasn’t familiar with the future infinitive tense that I used for the verbs).
The letter was signed anonymous but frankly, it could have been any one of these fast food dancing schools. And I really can’t withhold my complaints any further. It is unethical and that’s all there is to it. Don’t these parents want to know what their children are learning?  That they’re at least learning something? Don’t they realize that dance education is a completely unregulated
field and they need to be the ones asking the questions?  

I let the mother know that the environment at Integral was different than she was used to– we have dress codes, we learn classical terminology, we have class minimum requirements, we do assessments, we have a syllabus, it is after all, a ballet school. AKA we devote as much of our attention to recreational dancers as we do to professional-track dancers. She assured me that her daughter was ready for more serious study. She asked me for pricing. And then she could barely hold back her frustration when I told her how much a semester costs here.  She had the nerve to tell me that it was ‘significantly higher than she is paying now and that would likely prevent them from signing up’ – Ok, um, excuse me, but didn’t you just tell me your daughter was ready for more serious study?

Perhaps you might consider the nominally higher fee if you realized that the floor she’s dancing on currently is likely to give her arthritis in her knees and lower back pain by the time she’s 15 because the owner never put in a sprung sub floor. 

Perhaps you might consider a nominally higher fee if you realized that the alignment and posture she could be learning at a legitimate school is actually attributed to preventing back pain, digestive issues AND obesity.

Perhaps you might consider a nominally higher fee if you realized the discipline she’d learn through proper ballet etiquette would help her excel in her academic studies.

Perhaps you might consider a nominally higher fee if you realized that heaven-forbid the child actually grows to love dance, she will be not only be behind in the number of years she’s missed out on proper classes– she actually grows further from her goal every semester she’s taking a poorly taught class. In fact, she’d be better off staying home. 
 
Perhaps you might consider a nominally higher fee if you realized that the cultural appreciation she’ll develop by experiencing the arts thoroughly, with classical music, with exposure to professional dance and with exposure to educated guidance will enhance her life forevermore. 
 
Perhaps you might consider a nominally higher fee if you realized they children have more fun in
structured environments where their progress and development is readily visible, where they learn to do things that impress mommy and daddy and they aren’t just applauded for being ‘cute’. 

Perhaps you might consider a nominally higher fee if you realized that classical dance involves a great deal of complexity, often compared to a language, and if not given the proper training at an early age, one never develops the ‘fluency’ necessary for good technique. You can easily blow your child’s chances of obtaining good training by age 8 or 9. Thanks mom. 
 
Perhaps you might consider a nominally higher fee if you realized that dance is not ‘gravy’ but rather the very foundation of human existence. Perhaps.

And actually… Integral happens to cost about a third of any other ballet school on Long Island with the express purpose of making ballet accessible to anyone that has a genuine interest in classical study.  I would nonetheless refer any dancer to  any of the Ohman Schools, Seiskayas, Eglevskys, Lumieres or Karen Lynch schools, OR the playground, before suggesting someone waste their time and money on complete garbage.

 Honestly ladies and gents, in most cases, you get what you pay for. 

Trust me, we love new students at Integral, we’d love to have many more. But if you want a foo foo nonsense class with a foo foo costume and you want to leave there without having learned anything that you can take with you into your real life, this is not the school for you.