Christy Wade

Review of Miller Street Dance Academy

Mommy, why didn t my teachers think I was good eno...

Mommy, why didn t my teachers think I was good enough to dance on the big stage tonight? No mother should ever have to hear her child ask that question. But that s exactly what my daughter kept repeating as she uncontrollably cried herself to sleep last night. She was beyond excited to put on her costume and finally show her parents and extended family her tap and ballet routines that she had worked so hard on all year. But that excitement was quickly shattered when upon arrival at her recital she was told that she would not be allowed to perform. Her recital had been pushed out by two months, and she had not been able to attend the additional classes that were added to continue preparing for the event. These practices were never on the original schedule, and I had been assured that this will not affect her doing recital when I initially raised that she would be unable to participate over the summer. But yet there she was, bawling her little eyes out in the middle of the lobby as she watched her team on the big screen performing on the stage without her. Meanwhile, the teachers and staff whom she had looked up to for the last 3 years, just stood by and watched, not saying a word to console her. So we left with her spirit crushed and a new skepticism now about how the adults she thought she could count on could so easily let her down. I could understand if she were a teenager competing and needed the extra practice to be able to perform well. But she s 5! Young girls that age deserve coaches and instructors that will build up their self-esteem and encourage their desire to be a part of a team not bench them simply because they couldn t attend a couple weeks of practice that weren t even initially planned. No little girl should have to experience the kind of embarrassment and shame that my daughter did. Unfortunately she was nothing more than another number on their dance floor and a check in their bank account each month.