Dance school

We were at Eleve last year and ours was a terrible experience. The competition instructor (and only instructor for teens) spent most of class time on her cell phone, was seldom prepared for class nor did she follow any kind of curriculum. My teens started there because they wanted to try competitions. We were too late to audition for any of the other competition schools in the area but Eleve was still putting their "team" together so it was our only option. A year I wish we could take back. The instructor could not have appeared less engaged or invested. Another parent and I often had to run our girls' pieces before stage time because the instructor was nowhere to be found, she was on her phone, or dealing with her own unknown issues. The only student she appeared to be invested in was the oldest, with whom she has a long history. In my observations, she was more present and attentive with this older student than any others. Sadly, this gross favoritism became shockingly clear as the year progressed. In my opinion, this teacher misled us regarding her dance education and her past dance experience. She has no professional experience that we could find, and she did not have a degree in dance education or performance. She often alluded to all her "years of dance experience" and her "connections.” She and the older student made fun of the dancers and teachers from their old church dance team. This became awkward for the other dancers in class. She struggled to use correct terminology and often asked the students, then laughed at her inability to recall basic terms. I observed class where she was on her phone for 11 minutes. I later learned she had been "looking for music." This is wasted time, in my mind.12 years and my kids have never experienced a teacher consistently waste so much class time. There were, in my opinion, extremely inappropriate conversations in class with her oldest student about student's family/parents in front of the other, younger dancers. This includes a class where she and the older girl spoke disparagingly about the girl's parents. There is, in my opinion, never an occasion where a teacher should declare that a student's parents "suck". Private conversations should not take place in the classroom with other students. If there is a distressful situation, the responsible thing would be to refer this girl to counseling or someone experienced in these things, not to join in bad mouthing the parents. Far too many serious concerns to discuss here. This was a mistake that took a year from my dancer's education. There are many schools in the front range area with educated, experienced, professional instructors. Eleve, in my opinion, is run extremely unprofessionally and does not demonstrate concern for solid training or well-being of their students. I write this review, after many weeks processing, because I wish someone could have warned us about what we were walking into.I would thank them! It is a responsibility of parents to share thoughts and experiences when others might also be blindsided with something that isn't what it claims to be. I wish families that had gone through similar experiences with the adults at this school (at a different location)could have warned us. Unfortunately, we didn't get those warnings. As a result, my dancers experienced things they never should have had to endure. We lost a year of appropriate dance training. As parents, when we take our kids to sports, dance, gymnastics, we hope to entrust them to responsible, knowledgeable adults who are skilled in their profession. Professionalism doesn't end with simply the skill. Teaching, running a business or whatever, involves many things, especially when it is dealing with children and families. (The owner and the instructor were both spoken with at different times by the other regularly involved parent, and myself about these and other serious issues. It is my opinion that the friendship/ relationship between owner and lead teacher did not allow for any of these issues to be addressed in a professional or serious manner)