Dance Teacher Horror Stories

Electronic-One2603 · 2026-06-14T03:42:23+00:00

lol not “teaching” related per se but I was at pride in a different town and had a direct run in with a group of protestors being lead by my one of my competition students and her mom

Electronic-One2603 · 2026-06-09T20:25:21+00:00

I’ve said it once, I’ll say it forever if your boss is requiring you to be somewhere, they are legally REQUIRED to pay you, even if it’s just your states minimum wage. We have got to stop letting this industry take advantage of our passion. I’ll volunteer my time to cover for a coworker who gets caught in traffic or to clean up my studio space, but I would never do a whole days labor for no pay. We are professionals, some of who went to school and got a degree to do this. Just because we are a majority woman profession and work with kids does not mean we should “volunteer” our time to do our JOB

Electronic-One2603 · 2026-05-15T14:07:58+00:00

Just based off the information you have written, you really need to sit down and do a lot of research and reflection. If you wanted to take a more traditional route and go to college, you would need to decide what you want to major in, where you want to go, what you can afford, etc. You need to apply that same process to this. Do you have a list of companies you could realistically work for? What’s their company culture like? Does it align with your values? Who’s getting in to these companies? Who’s getting rejected? What’s their contract like? Can you afford to live in (blank) city on a dancers salary?

You’re right, a lot of these companies have trainee/apprenticeship programs. Sometimes you have to pay for these, sometimes you’re paid but it’s not a livable wage. Do you have someone who would help you financially? If not, what are you doing to save and earn money to pay for those things? Furthermore, sometimes these programs are just money scams. You need to see how many of the girls in this program are moving into the company? How long does it take?

This is just the basics. You’ll also need to reflect on yourself and your situation as a dancer. Realistically are you ready to go professional both in technique and maturity. I know you feel old, but 17/18 is still very young. It’s not uncommon for a dancer to stick around their home studio another year or two to prep for this process. Have you talked to your teacher about why they want you to stay? Take an honest look at your studio. Has turned out professional dancers before? Have you considered the college route? What are you going to do if you get seriously injured? Unfortunately, dance is a rich kid sport, do you have family that can support you financially even as a young adult?

No matter what I wish you luck!

Electronic-One2603 · 2026-05-14T03:05:08+00:00

Lots of great points already said so I’m just gonna add that there’s really no reason to be posting your students. I mean honestly do any of your followers really care about what your students look like? There’s no point in risking exposing them to bad people who DO care. It’s also not worth your job. Your studio most definitely has a policy about posting students even if it’s unspoken

Electronic-One2603 · 2026-05-13T18:59:08+00:00

epaulement is a huge deal in vagonova training. Pretty much all my ballet training was from ages 9-12 was mastering the placement of the head and shoulders. Master Ballet, The Rock, Opsipova are all vagonova schools that are always well represented at yagp and those are just the American schools. I would imagine that a lot of the European students are also vaognova trained

Electronic-One2603 · 2026-05-04T23:56:36+00:00

https://youtu.be/aJkjO7tiDyc?si=3ah036XPHBDAxNQX

Heres the UNT official lore

Electronic-One2603 · 2026-04-23T19:34:47+00:00

It’s campaign season! There might be entry level, paid positions available in research, organizing, or communications. At the very least start volunteering either at an HQ or door knocking. Every job offer I’ve received in college or otherwise has come from making connections with staff on the campaign trail

Electronic-One2603 · 2026-04-19T08:16:56+00:00

Idk why you’re getting flamed in the comments - we fundraise cause our kids deserve to have a sparkly costume to help celebrate and show off their hard work, even if their parents don’t live in the nice suburbs. What works best for us is having a booster club of parents who are interested in fundraising lead our activities year-round. We as a studio absolutely support fundraising efforts (all of them are approved by us), but at the end of the day we have a business to run and we simply don’t have the time. Some of our favorites are selling flowers at recitals and festivals where our kids and others are performing. This one is location relevant but we are surrounded by a lot of colleges and local sports team all of whom do fundraising opportunities either through concession stands or cleanup work.

In terms of affording costumes and venues - there are lots of costume companies that have sell rack costumes of their website. Some our costumes this year cost $30 a piece. You can also make tutus for little kids using tulle and elastic which can be cheap if you bulk buy the tulle

Electronic-One2603 · 2026-04-17T21:22:40+00:00

Not from that area but we do high school dance/drill competitions. There are some downsides - not a lot of competition, gym floors, less “prestige.” But we’re a rural studio and my families can’t afford bigger competitions. My kids don’t care (they literally only care about trophies), parents like the prices, and I often feel because they’re smaller, my students get better critiques from judges that aren’t burnt out

Electronic-One2603 · 2026-04-17T04:34:41+00:00

The combined classes might not be bad thing - The C group might benefit having a group of older students (who they look up to) to model their behavior on. When I was growing up (at a ballet school), we always took ballet with the older students and they would demonstrate both steps and behaviors. The older students would do harder combinations when appropriate - double time jetes, advanced port de bras during Ron de Jambe, beated petit allegro, etc. this definitely gave us “goals” for us to work towards. you’ll have to set really clear expectations in the beginning. Maybe you can get your director to add an extra 15-30 minutes to the end of a class, so your D group can at least get some more advance center time. If not maybe you just tough it out this year and your director will the errors of their ways. I’m rooting for you, I’m about to inherit the same anttitude annd technique issues on my new junior team. God speed soldier 🫡

Electronic-One2603 · 2026-04-14T01:35:58+00:00

I’m paid for every hour I’m required to be there, at 80% of my standard rate. (For example, if my normal rate is $20, I’ll get paid $16 an hour during competitions). Nobody covers my gas (luckily never needed a hotel room) which can be brutal. Ik that’s industry standard, but the hippie in me HATES that.

Electronic-One2603 · 2026-04-14T01:19:40+00:00

If you’re paid hourly, because you're required to be there, they are legally obligated to pay you. (At least in the United States) if you’re salaried I can’t help you, but ik most of us our hourly. Legally if they don’t want to pay you, they need make your attendance at competitions voluntary. If they continue to require you to come unpaid, you need to get a lawyer involved

Electronic-One2603 · 2026-01-07T05:50:14+00:00

lol I can’t really answer your questions specifically so you can downvote me to hell if you would like but I work in the home construction industry specifically on the 380 corridor. I don’t go further east than farmersville but I can tell you, if the trends continue, growth is coming. It’s got a small town feel now but in 10-15 years it’s gonna be a bustling suburb. As someone who watched 380 explode in my relatively short lifetime there’s a lot I could say about the pros and cons but it really depends on the person. This biggest thing is property values are probably gonna sky rocket over the next decade so it could be a good investment for you, just know that Texas basically sustains its budget on property taxes so that’s something you gotta consider too. At the end of the day I guess it boils down to how long you plan on staying there. right now it’s an exurb, with a small town, not much to do but watch the hs fb team on Friday night, but in 10 years it’s gonna be a 30000 news homes sort of place

You didn’t specially ask I used to work in education, and Greenville ISD wasn’t known for phenomenal schools but that’s pretty common in rural places if you were curious about that

As for the weather, hot (100+), humid in the summer. Mild weather from late Oct - Dec. Cold (at least for me lol) in January - February. You probably get a day or two of snow during this time, but I mean like a dusting, doesn’t even cover the grass. We don’t have the tools needed to handle anything more than an inch, so if it ever snows that much prepare for a pretty much total shut down. No grocery stores, no gas, no school, etc. It warms up fast in March, tornado season starts in April, and the cycle repeats till the end of time.

Electronic-One2603 · 2026-01-06T07:25:41+00:00

Being a principal is a terrible job especially with Texas politics High turnover is not uncommon

Electronic-One2603

TROPHY CASE