Ocotillo Dance Center

The level of professionalism at this school is an absolute joke. First of all, the teachers show up in sweats. That right there shows that there is no respect for the students or parents. Why must the children dress up in leotards if the teachers are just going to where whatever casual clothes they want? Also, Allison texts during class. How disrespectful. I find it disgusting. Lastly, my daughter’s costume did not arrive in time for the recital pics, so Allison promised me that they will photo shop my daugher into the group pic. I believed her. So, I went to pick up the photos and of course, my daugher was not in the pic. I contacted her regarding this and she promised to get this corrected. It is now January and I still never received corrected pics or a refund. She’s been ignoring my emails. This place is a disgrace.

I don’t understand all the negativity directed toward this dance studio on Unilocal.
Dancing at Ocotillo Dance has been nothing but a positive experience for my daughter.
The owner Allison is very nice and helpful, the other teachers were nice too, and the recent recital was great. We look forward to next year.

This dance school is a nightmare. The first major issue was the discrimination. I don’t know what factors Allison discriminates on, but she does pick favorites and does treat children badly. My daughter was routinely ignored, from the moment she entered those doors to the moment she exited. Of course, it wasn’t obvious until the recital costs were paid. She would not say hello or goodbye to my daughter and would not correct her. I actually took several videos of this discriminatory practice, starting from the moment we open the door to the moment we left! This was my daughters second year of dance and she managed to regress. She knows less than she did when she started the school year because of the lack of education! Allison was great at showing, but not teaching. Obviously, since it was acceptable for the teacher to ostracize my daughter, her peers caught on and treated her poorly as well, with no correction from Allison. They would routinely make fun of her, in front of Allison, who would ignore it and continue texting. She ruined dance for my daughter.
Aside from the discriminatory practices, the school boasts affordability, and mentions 2 tickets, a tshirt, and a gift as part of the recital fee on their website. That is a flat out lie. 2 tickets are included, but I have yet to see a gift for the dancer or a tshirt. Of course, we had the option to PURCHASE one, for an additional cost! Tuition is about par with other schools, in some cases more expensive. For the quality, it is not worth the price tag.
An additional treat was the «entertainment tax» that this business owner of 3 years «didn’t know about». I received a general email telling me that this tax was to be paid and all cards on file had ALREADY been charged, with NO knowledge or consent, in the range of roughly $ 8-​$ 40! No, that $ 8 didn’t break the bank, but I was NOT informed prior to the charge that my card WOULD be charged. Only after the fact. Any decent business owner knows it is illegal to charge credit cards for fees outside of what is authorized. The best part is, next year all dancers will be REQUIRED to have a credit card on file! Knowing that she charges credit cards for any absurd fee she can come up with, I wouldn’t trust her holding onto MY info! Her business practices reek of fraud…
At the end of the year, this left my daughter with lowered self esteem and a distaste for dance, a hobby that she DID enjoy. I would only recommend this school if you are looking for a creative form of child abuse. Otherwise, look elsewhere for a quality school that will actually TEACH your child and respect them.

Is it possible to rate this school less than 1 star? Having read the previous 2 reviews, I can say with assurity that the authors were NOT exaggerating! I would like to start by saying that I never expected my child to become a prima ballerina in 1 year. But I certainly didn’t expect this!
My child was routinely ignored, not just upon entering the school, but also during class. The owner, Miss Allison was also my child’s *teacher*, a title I use loosely, as she did not actually teach. She demonstrated steps, but never actually showed/​corrected my daughter on how to execute these steps. My daughter was also in the younger class and if left to herself, would just stand still. Simply calling her name would have helped her to pay attention, but even this was to much for Miss Allison to do. So my daughter spent most of the class time just standing on her ‘X’.and Miss. Allison didn’t seem to care. Please note that when I pointed this out to the owner/​teacher, she became very defensive immediately saying that she was sick of parents saying that to her. (If other parents approached her to discuss the same issue, shouldn’t that have been a clue?)
I finally thought that she’d just given up on my daughter and asked if that was the case. Yeah, I knew that would make her go on the defensive, but I couldn’t think of any other way to force her to teach or at the very least acknowledge my kid. When I asked her, she left the building and went to her car, leaving my child and me alone in the building! I would have pulled my daughter from the school after that but I’d already paid up front for tuition, costumes, recital fees, etc. I should also mention that the teacher spent a lot of time checking and typing on her cell phone, especially during the gymnastics portion of class.
Let me address costs. The school website advertizes that they are more affordable and keep costs down as compared to other schools. First, their tuition is about the same as most, but a little more than some. They also say the recital fee includes 2 tickets and a souvenir t-​shirt. Yes, the tickets are included but they are for the nosebleed seats. The t-​shirt is NOT included as advertised. Also, midway through the year, I received an email informing me that the owner didn’t realize that her school was subject to Chandlers entertainment tax, so she took it upon herself to retroactively charge all credit cards on file for this additional fee. While my child was only taking 1 class a week, the fee was small. What concerned me is
1: after being in business for 3 years, shouldn’t she have known about that tax?
2: As previously mentioned, I paid all the fees in advance. She not only kept my card on file although there was no need, but then took it upon herself to make this additional charge first and tell us about it later.
3: Although I was never impacted by this, mid year she changed her late payment fee from $ 10 to $ 25, almost half the cost of tuition itself! Another violation of the contract we signed.
There’s much more I could add, but I’ll summarize by saying if you’re looking for a facilitator not teacher who will only recognize you and your child when you’re handing over your credit card (unless you’re her ‘pet’ and she does have pets!), then this is the school for you! However, if you’re expecting to have your child actually learn something. .anything. .I suggest you run, tap or plié’ (ple ay) somewhere else!

This studio is FANTASTIC!!! I can’t say enough wonderful things about the owner and all of the staff there. My daughter has been dancing there since July and her technique and personal growth as a dancer has improved dramatically. It is because of my daughter’s growth, that I can say that I have all the confidence in the judgement of the owner of the studio, Allison, with regards placement of students in each class. I feel that she places students in classes according to their abilities as a dancer. Allison wants to ensure that each dancer will be able to improve upon their skills. I know that if my daughter was placed in a class that was too advanced for her she would get discouraged/​frustrated and would not want to dance. Allison wants all of her students to have a passion/​love for dance. ALL of the instructors at this studio constantly give each of their students POSITIVE reinforcement in their classes. If they notice a student with incorrect form/​position, they take the time to show the student how to correct it. There is one last thing I would like to say, if you are looking for a studio with staff that really has the best interest of each student at heart, please don’t let one visitors’ perception, keep you from visiting this studio.

Ugh, what a pretentious snob the owner of this studio is. Let me preface by saying that my daugther has a special need that affects her physical appearance, but not her physical ability or learning ability. She is a typical 5 year old girl. We were invited to try out the studio by one of my daughter’s friends for «Bring a Friend to Dance Week». When we trialed the class, my daughter loved it. So we signed her up. After signing up, the class size got too big. The owner, Allison, said she was going to split the class into two groups according to ability. The following week, we arrived to dance class to see that Allison had moved my daughter into a class with 2 and 3 year olds. My daughter was so crestfallen, she started crying right there in her leotard in the middle of the class. The teacher should have called me in advanced before she did this, so I could have known what we were walking into. We could have then countered with «we didn’t sign up to be with toddlers, she enjoys being with her friend, etc.» But she just put her in the toddler class. So I said I wanted her to be moved up, but Allison claimed that all of the 5 year olds were experienced dancers and she wouldn’t fit in. (Are we talking about 5 year olds? How experienced could they possibly be at the ripe old age of 5?) So I insisted she try two classes in the 5 year old class as a trial. The first class she did perfectly and fit right in. Nonetheless, they told us she would have to try again next week before they would know if she would be a good fit. At this point, I told my daughter that I hated the studio and would like to take her somewhere else. She said she still wanted to try, so I said, «Well you have to do everything perfectly because for some reason they are picking you apart.» I made her practice at home, I told her to do her best and try her hardest. When we went the second time, the teacher didn’t even acknowledge her arrival, and I think coupled with the obvious pressure she felt, she froze up and said she wanted to go home. So we did. To subject disabled 5 year olds to embarrasment and unfair standards is the lowest of the low. I would not recommend this studio to anyone. They are a disgrace to Arizona. There are laws against discrimination.