Studio One Dance & Acro Centre

I had my 4 year old daughter in the yelm location for 8 weeks. When i initially signed her up, the owner told me to start her in her age ballet because the ‘creative’ dance class was more for ‘children that were learning to follow directions n etc. More of a baby class“‘. So i did. Withing 10 minutes the teachers physically escorted my daughter to the creative dance class because of her lack of knowledge and because she was also shy (yet she was attempting to participate with the seemingly experienced kids… she just had no idea what was being asked of her) so we toughed it out in the ‘creative dance class”. 8 weeks in, and i decided im pulling her out and checking out the gymnastics place instead. Why its called creative dance is beyond me, as i have seen absolutely no creativity in this class what so ever! I see 10 minutes of 2 – 4 yr olds attempting to stretch, (which is comical and cute, but again, the entire class is clueless about what is being asked of them) and another 15 minutes running around the gym jumping over cds that are placed on the floor. (Lol…seriously… no direction on how or y they are supposed to jump… just ‘ok.jump over the cds’…) idk. When another parent attempted to talk to the teacher about possibly adding something different to the class routine… she responded negatively saying that the girls couldnt even jump correctly. (Which i personally got annoyed with… as her job is to direct the girls on how to correctly jump over a cd. lol) when we ask my 4yr old what shes learned in dance, she stretches and she jumps. There is no ‘dance’ implied in her demonstration. The class has dropped 3 kids (that im aware of) because we all feel that if we r gonna pay for a dance class, then after 8 weeks our kids should at least be attempting to dance. Maybe this school is good for some, but i definately wouldnt recommend to any child on a beginning level.

My daughter attended the ballet classes at the Yelm studio for two years. This company is inconsiderate to parents and dancers, ignorant to safety concerns, and overall unreachable. Last year my family had to wait six months for the copy of the Recital DVD that we had paid for six months before the recital even happened. This year my daughter was invited to join a performance team. When I asked for more information, I was told I would receive an email the following week. It has now been two weeks since I was told that and I have not been contacted in any way. In fact, their website is completely down and their Facebook page has not been updated since the night of the recital. While at the recital both years, dancers and parents were not given adequate facilities to stay out of the heat (thus ruining the makeup and hair that had been so perfectly done as required nine hours before the recital). Only competition teams were allowed to enter the Performing Arts Center before the recital start time, creating undue discrimination. And, the children were not watched carefully. We were instructed to leave our 6 year old in the «black box» with all of the other dancers. After the recital the entire center was a sea of people. My daughter was left to claw her way through the crowd and attempt to find me. DO NOT go to this studio. It is not worth the extreme cost ($ 45 for one class per week taught by older students plus $ 35 for a recital DVD and $ 60 for a recital costume).