February 21, 2012

• "dance mom's" rant.

  

   

  So, last night my husband was exhausted and went to bed early. I ended up watching "Castle" then I stumbled onto this marathon on Lifetime(Yes, I know) called "Dance Moms" seeing as how I spent most of my childhood and teen years in a dance studio I figured I'd watch to see what it was all about. Mind you, I was watching last night and the entire time I kept thinking 'this is staged..It HAS to be staged'. The owner of the studio Abbey Lane is called a 'Dance coach'...She's about 300 pounds and she basically watches over the girls while they work with a choreographer who actually comes up with the dances and teaches them the dances while the owner kinda just sits in the back of the studio and yells. In all the years I spent in a studio this never happened...The owner was always, always dancing herself teaching and choreographing herself and not hiring on 'help' to do the manual labor of the dancing. Also, the owner..Abbey was always dressed up and looking nice and manning the front. In one episode the owner goes to a compeition wearing a fur coat..SERIOUSLY! Again, in all my years dancing the owner of the studio would never dress fancy because well, they are more concerned with their girls and actually dancing themselves so of course, they don't dress fancy or try to look 'nice' with expensive jewlery 24/7.

   

  Now, the show mostly focuses around the Mothers of these young girls..aka the stage mom's. I was shaking my head at these mom's behavor especially around their kids. Mind you, these girls are in the junior division of dancing which is about roughly 6 to 12 years old..I knew the compeitions were real because well, some of the stuff they were going to I was actually familiar with and knew they were for real dance compeitions. Anyways, in one episode the owner says that all the moms are in charge of the costumes for 'this weeks numbers' which well, every girl got a solo. The lesson the teacher was trying to teach was that you don't have to be in a fancy outfit to be on stage. Most of these moms sucked it up and took the assigment..well, after some complaining and whining. This one mom didn't follow directions then she all pissy when the owner told her that her daughter couldn't wear that on the floor to perform..So yeah, the mom throws a fit complete with swearing infront of the kids and everything..storms off then tells her daughter that she can't perform because of the costume issue..Urgh! I mean serioulsy..half of these moms are unbelievable in general. They want to pay off the owner so that their daughters can be better solo's and whanot..which yeah, seriously..why not let your daughters talent speak for itself? You can't fake dancing talent and mind you, these girls are really talented for their age. Anyways, the other thing I found as odd was that the owner had them work up this chart in order to get their solo's for the week. It never worked that way in any studio I was in! Let alone the fact that they were changing up routines once a week too..Again, that never happened in any studio I was in..In short, there was a lot about the show that left me thinking 'this has to be stage but the compeitions for sure are real'. It was just strange that they interviewed the parents who are complaining abou the other parents and the other girls getting more attention and yadda, yadda, yadda, insert vain problems here and then they cut to the little girls who are so innocent and just want to dance and have fun getting along with each other(the kids of the parents). Again..leading me to think it had to be staged and scripted.

   

  Oh well, I eventually had to turn off this train wreck even though I didn't want to. I was enjoying watching the dancing and hearing the young girls discuss their love of dance and desire to dance but I was turned off by the stage mom's..Anyways, I woke up this morning and started doing some digging and I found out that the studio is infact..REAL! The owner Abby is REAL and was infact, once a dancer herself. I even found the studio website complete with class list and how to apply to get into the company. I then dug deeper and found out if there was anything online to where it was staged and scripted...It had to be after all. Well, I was disgusted to learn that from what I found online there was no scripting and these are real people and a real studio. I also found out that this show is a hot topic among dance teachers and parents of dancers..obviously! The owner/coach is very, very harsh on the kids which again, never happened in any studio I was in. Her training methods are under fire by the dance community which it should be. Young kids should not be treated and taught that way..Yes, certain parts they showed were really real about the dance world..Its not just about how you move and dance its also about how you look, carry yourself and your mannerisms...the way these girls parents were acting would well..cost these young girls jobs. In one episode one girl does lose a position at another studio because of her mothers mouth. Yes, the dance world is compeitive but at the leve these young girls are at they shouldn't be having the 'tough love' of the industry just yet..they are still young and not even in high school. I would never send my daughter to a school that worked under such a negitive manner of teacher. You can learn discipline without having someone yelling at you and being told 'if you mess this up then you owe me!'. One article I read this morning was interesting because it was basically stating that no one ever follows around the 'good' stage parent because well, they are boring after all and kind of sit quietly while their child is in classes..

   

  All in all after watching this show I am just thankful that I did get sent to good dance schools where it was a great enviroment to learn..Yes, for a while I did want to be a dance teacher but seriously, I wouldn't have been one of these dance teachers that is hard on their students and constantly coming down onto them..Even over last summer when I was trying to teach my oldest ballet I was in no way like the owner of this studio..People who can't teach children with patience shouldn't be teachers..I'm sure I may get sucked into this show again but for now thats my two cents..

   

  • 4:28 pm
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