Take Five Dance Academy

I am a military wife with a 5 year old daughter that attended take five dance academy in Avondale. My husband was gone with the Army and missed our daughter’s first dance recital a few weeks ago. When the recital started they made a few announcements, one of them being they did not want any video recording during the program. Well, there was no way I was not going to take a short clip of our daughter dancing for her daddy to see. When she came on stage I began recording. A man promptly came up to me and said «there is no recording!» I said «there is when her dad is gone with the military and missing her first recital.» The man said again «there is no recording allowed! You’ll have to talk to Maryanne about it later.» He then put his hand on mine and on my phone. I stopped recording and put my phone down. He continued to stand there and asked me if I wanted him to go get the sheriff, I said «yes, please do!» as I wanted to file a complaint about him touching me and my property.
I sat there totally upset but trying to watch the remaining one minute of my daughter’s performance. (The program was 2 hours long and my daughter had a 2 minute dance out of the whole thing.) When her dance ended I went out to find him in the lobby talking to another man (who I realized was the co-​owner, Steve) about me. I asked the man where Maryanne was so I can talk to her, like he said. He told me she was back stage and that I couldn’t talk with her. Steve jumped in and said «There is absolutely no recording allowed!» I explained to him that my daughter’s father is in the military and missing her first performance and that is why I was trying to record. His response «I DON’T CARE.» I will admit that at this point I lost it. I said «you don’t care??» he said «No. You can purchase a DVD just like everyone else.» I let him know that I could not afford to purchase a DVD (they were $ 45!) because we had spent $ 120 on tickets for our family to go watch the recital, $ 85 on the costume and alterations, not to mention the lessons every month. Steve’s response again was «I DON’T CARE.» I went off on how he should be ashamed of himself and that he needed to find out every family that had a service member missing the recital and give us all a copy of the DVD if we cannot record it ourselves. I am ashamed to say that I ended the conversation with some inappropriate language and storming off crying.
I stood in the back of the auditorium for the remainder of the recital, as I could not stop crying. As I was standing there I saw people recording on their tablet! The initial guy that told me I couldn’t record walked right by them and didn’t say a word. My poor daughter saw how upset I was afterwards and it totally affected her memory of that special night for her. That is the absolute worst part of the whole ordeal for me.
The next day I called the office and asked to speak to Steve or Maryanne, the girl said they were unavailable and suggested that I send them an email. So, I did. I asked to meet with them so I could apologize for my behavior and discuss some concerns I had from the experience. Four days later I got a call from Steve. He said «You wanted me to call you?» I explained how the whole night was ruined for my family and that I missed my daughter’s part in her first recital and how I would never be able to get that back. But first, I apologized a couple of times for acting inappropriately and I asked if he could accept my apology, his response «ok…, anything else?» I said yes and I explained to him about the man putting his hand on me and my property and that they can’t do that. He said «that is something we will address with future recitals». After seeing that he was completely unapologetic for Take Five’s part in ruining our night, I let him know that I had contacted the police over the incident and they informed me that it is my right to record my daughter in public and I let him know that I researched copy right laws as well and that there is a «fair use» agreement that allows for instances like this to be recorded for personal use. He wasn’t very happy about this and had his own rude response to my information.
Needless to say we have left Take Five and are researching other dance studios before we will commit to one this time. I suggest doing business with a place that CARES about you and your family, especially if you are a military family!

We have encountered more horrible experiences with this company than better. My daughter was register for classes in December of 2013 for classes after she turned 3, despite their supposed rule of a child needed to be a certain age by September 1^st. After being bullied by her teacher Ms. Pam my daughter was not promoted to the next level. It was explained to me, it was not a lack of her abilities but her immaturity, and that no student who wasn’t 4 by September 2014 was not to be promoted. Although this was not what I ended up finding out. After talking to various parents I found out their children would not be 4 by September 1^st but were still being promoted to the next level. Despite this, I said nothing and continued classes giving the teacher the benefit of the doubt. After attempting to converse with my daughters teacher about her progress after each class, I finally withdrew my daughter from Take5 after the teacher made a horrible face to describe my daughter and had no faith in her progress. When writing the director a letter about all my concerns, she made no effort to resolve the situation. After some time, my daughter asked to return to Take5 but just wanted a different teacher. After going through enrollment, which turned out to be a hassle, my daughter was enrolled with her favorite teacher Ms. Shannon and was thrilled. Upon seeing EMMA enter her class, Ms. Shannon showed nothing but complete excitement, and hugged my daughter welcoming Her to class. My daughters first class was wonderful, her costume was paid for, and she was excited. Then a couple of days later we received a call from the office of Take5 explaining their was a mistake, my daughter was not welcome at the facility and we were being un-​enrolled because of an email that I wrote earlier in the year. After asking to speak with the director, which I was not permitted to, I was very angry and unfortunately did not represent myself the way I would have wanted to. Needlessly to say after several calls to Take5, the director never made an attempt to speak with my husband and I, and my daughter was exited from the program. The victim here is my daughter and no one at Take5 took the time to think of her. At this time, she is completely devastated and doesn’t understand why the facility does not want her. Regardless if they didn’t like me, they could have talked to me and not done this to my daughter.

Take Five is the best, this is a five-​star establishment all the way!
We had our daughter in classes here several years ago, then took an extended break, and now she’s back in jazz dance and loving it so far. The new location is really nice, the dance rooms are spacious and fairly sound-​proof, they all have viewing windows with benches for seating right outside them. Staff is really friendly and nice, it’s a very relaxed environment. The teachers my daughter has had have all been suuuuper sweet, and the one she’s got now (Ms. Nicole, probably the sweetest person I’ve ever met) even remembered her from such a long time ago when she had my daughter in her class before. It’s nice that the teachers are so encouraging and foster a love of dance instead of being harsh or critical. They’re also fairly young, highly skilled, up on the new choreography styles, and most have been there many years… no high turnover rate for instructors.
One thing I like is that you have some flexibility when it comes to making up missed classes… the student can take the same type or try a new class for the make up session. Payment is on a month-​to-​month basis, so I was told that as long as they receive advance warning, you can withdraw your student at any time, if need be. Note that they only accept credit card or automatic payment, no personal checks or cash. There’s also an annual registration fee.
Nothing bad to say about Take Five Dance, I’m really glad we have this studio available to us, love it, this is as good as it gets!

My daughter has taken a variety of classes here for the past 2 years and has loved them all. Her favorite class is tap… The teacher Stacy J is one of the best tap teachers I have seen and has really pushed my daughter. If you have a child interested in dance, acro, hip hop or even musical theater this is a great place to go.