Scripps Performing Arts Academy

I am very unhappy with Scripps Performing Academy. I was it surprised to find another reviewer’s similar comments. So, their poor quality is a pattern.
I signed my daughter up this year for jazz and ballet. After changing their policy again this past year, they explained that we have to pay for 1^st and last month at the same time, but that if we gave them 30 days advance notice, then they would count that towards our last month. As a family we had to move out of San Diego in March and so I gave them notice in January, but they said that the last month of June is non refundable. This is not how they described it to me earlier and I specifically asked about this because I wasn’t sure we would stay the whole year. They had assured me earlier that giving them 30 days notice would be sufficient. After spending near 6 years with Scripps, I’ve let many things go, but this last bit of not presenting truth in advertising is really unprofessional, poor form, and just not right. The customer service has really gone down hill and the studio makes me feel they just want to take my money and the mgmt does not seem to be focusing on my daughter’s growth as a dancer. Extremely, extremely disappointed! You are better off heading to other studios for your child.

They have terrible terrible aweful customer service. All they want is your money but fail to deliver the service that comes with it. They not only charge you over $ 300 for a show, they ask parents to «volunteer» to help backstage, sell cookies, flowers during the show and sell tickets. All the money goes to the owner’s pocket. Don’t let them fool you into thinking they care about you or your kids. All they care is making money, which they call fund raising!
When I made a complain, instead of apologising, they considered that as our «resignation». But they still charge me for the month and no refund for my deposit. How ridiculous!

My daughter has been doing ballet for 8 years. She has been with this studio for the last 6+ years. She just completed her first Summer Intensive. She was nervous about it as she wasn’t sure she was good enough to actually be there. Miss Miah went out of her way to personally reassure her of her abilities and give her the confidence to try. We were amazed at how well organized the program was! The days were structured into alternating classes. This allowed for her to explore areas she would not have had access to, while keeping her fully engaged the entire day! I was amazed at how excited she was to go everyday! I needed to pick her up 30 minutes early one day and she begged me not to!!! It would have been during the Pilates session and she was devastated to miss any part of it. This summer session has exceeded our expectations and reinvigorated her interest in continuing not only ballet but, adding other aspects of dance she was exposed to in this program. Thank you Ms. Angela and Miss Miah for all you do!!! My child cherishes you !!!

I have 2 daughters who dance at this fantastic studio. All the staff are incredibly caring and truly want to see my daughters succeed at their goals. Both Miss Miah the ballet mistress and Miss Angela the director care a great deal about the environment of the studio. Students are encouraged to be supportive and kind to each other. Classes are age appropriate and yet the technique level is very high. There is a strong sense of family and a fun and happy show time environment during productions, (not something we have experienced most places).
Very thankful to have found such a great place for my girls to grow!

Signed kids up for musical theatre camp. Both kids bored to tears. Friday «showcase» was held between Daphne’s and Brueggers. The performance is supposed to be a reflection of the weeklong camp and it was embarrassingly awful. Poor kids. Sign up for Junior Theatre, CYC or CYT if your kid has any real desire to learn musical theatre. This is babysitting at best.

I signed my daughter up for what I thought was ballet camp this summer. Without telling me they switched it to musical theater camp. I got zero documentation from them about dates, receipts, what to wear, what food to bring, hours, etc. Once I figured out that she was not doing ballet camp I tried to get out of a second week of camp, but «they do not give refunds.»
The school is amazingly cavalier about who can pick her up from camp, requiring no documentation or signing out. They have no organized before or after care, but you can pay them to essentially hire a babysitter for you — who knows where they find the babysitter.
Finally, the musical theater camp was completely developmentally inappropriate. They had four-​year olds memorizing lines about Broadway! I was looking for a small introduction to organized dance — do this and then that, don’t just run around; not having to say complicated lines in front of an audience!

BEWARE OF SUMMER CAMP PROGRAM HERE: May be OK for toddlers, but not at all geared toward anyone over 8 years old or with more than very minimal performance experience. BEWARE EVEN MORE — terrible customer service.
We were completely misled about the nature of their summer camp program. I signed my 9 and 10 year old girls up for their «Best of Broadway» camp after being told by the staff that it would have lots of kids their age with similar abilities. I explained in detail that my daughters had been in many youth theatre productions and that one is currently acting in a professional musical in San Diego, and that I wanted to be sure they would learn something and be challenged by the staff and other dancers/​actors in the camp. I was assured this would be perfect for them. What we walked into was a camp of little kids with little or no acting or dance experience. The advertised age range of the camp was Kindergarten through 7^th grade, but my 10 year old was the oldest in the class. After an hour, there were only my 2 girls and 2 other children who appeared to be 7 – 8 years old. I was told more would be coming, but no one over 10 years old. There was no separation by kids based on age or ability and I was told by the instructor that it was taught on the «Montessori method» so each child worked at their own pace. That was the first I’d heard of this from them and didn’t even know this method was for anything except preschool, which I was realizing this was more like than a real «acting» camp. I was spoken to in a very demeaning tone by the instructor who was at least 20 years my junior and told that I should leave my children for the day to try it out, as I needed to teach them to follow through with their commitments. Then when I emailed the owner of the program, Angela, at the end of the first day of camp to tell her that the camp was not at all what we had expected or was told by her staff it would be prior to signing up, she responded with an email even more condescending than the tone her instructor took with me. At the end of the day, my kids were miserably bored by the camp, and Angela refused to refund even a prorated portion of the $ 475 tuition I had paid. She was right, I was wrong, my daughters’ and my disappointment and dislike for the camp was irrelevant to her. From the 3 unreturned voicemails I left inquiring about the summer camp in May right through to the owner’s email to me, the customer service ranged from poor to horrible. For a local businesswoman trying to make a name for herself and her business new to the Carmel Valley community, the decision to not even attempt to make this right with us is baffling.

My daughter has taken introductory ballet classes at the new Scripps Performing Arts Academy, located in the old Pick Up Stix space at Torrey Hills Center (anchored by VONS at Ocean Air & Carmel Mountain). We also recently had a birthday party for my daughter there as well. Both experiences have been great. My daughter loves her classes, and the party was fun. The structure of the party was a bit unusual but it worked great — all the kids were inside learning and rehearsing for a mini-​performance while all the parents were outside mingling. Then we had cake, and after that the kids performed the number they had learned. We much prefer Scripps Performing Arts Academy to another local dance academy where my daughter first took classes a couple years ago. Everyone has been really nice, the instructors seem to love working with kids and my daughter looks forward to her time there.