Finding the Right Dance Studio

Why “Best” Really Means “Best Fit”Back-to-school season means new shoes, new schedules, new routines and, for many families, deciding where their dancer will train for the year.
If you have a serious dancer, that decision can get complicated quickly. How many ballet classes should they take? Is there enough performance experience? What about competition? PBT? Who teaches the advanced classes? Can we somehow make all of this happen without permanently living in the car?
All good questions.
But there is another question families sometimes forget to ask:

Do we actually believe in the way this school trains dancers?
Because the “best” dance studio isn’t necessarily the one with the most classes, biggest competition team, fanciest facility or teacher with the longest résumé.
It’s the one whose philosophy, expectations and culture are the best fit for your dancer and your family.

Different Doesn’t Mean Wrong
When families come to us from another school, we often hear, “At our old studio, we did it this way.” That’s helpful. It tells us what your dancer is accustomed to. But it doesn’t necessarily mean we are going to do it that way.
Not all Dance schools are franchises. There is no single schedule or curriculum every reputable school follows. One may emphasize competition. Another may emphasize performance. One may require more weekly ballet classes. Another may structure conditioning differently.
Qualified professionals can make different choices for very good reasons.
PBT is a perfect example. One of our faculty members is certified in Progressing Ballet Technique, and she prefers PBT after ballet technique. Her dancers are already thoroughly warm, allowing her to take advantage of that preparation for conditioning and a more significant stretch.
Another qualified instructor may prefer PBT first.
Neither automatically makes the other wrong.
Sometimes there is actually a reason behind that schedule you are staring at.

Sometimes the Empty Space Is There on Purpose
Parents naturally look at a schedule through the lens of their own child.
We have to look at it through the lens of an entire organization.
We consider enrollment, curriculum, studio availability, faculty schedules, rehearsals, private coaching, productions and performances.
We also consider something surprisingly easy to forget:

Teachers are human beings.
If faculty members are teaching and rehearsing Friday, Saturday and Sunday, a blank space somewhere else in the week may not be an oversight waiting to be fixed.
It may be their day off.
We want exceptional faculty. We would also like them to rest.
More is not automatically better.

Our Schedule Changes. Just Not for One Person.
Our Academy schedule absolutely changes.
If enrollment grows and we see a need, we may add a class. If one student enrolls in a class, we may combine or shorten it. As our students grow, our curriculum has to grow with them.

But there is a difference between responding to the needs of the program and creating a customized school schedule for one dancer.

We absolutely want families to tell us:
“My dancer wants more ballet.”
“She wants to compete.”
“He needs more performance opportunities.”
“We’re preparing for college auditions.”
That information matters.

Tell us what your dancer needs. Let us determine how our program can best meet that need. Sometimes the answer may be that we can’t. And that’s okay.

Placement Is Not a judgment
This is especially important for dancers transferring from another school. “Ballet 4” does not mean the same thing everywhere. That’s why we evaluate dancers before placing them into our intermediate and advanced curriculum. We need to know where a dancer fits within our progression. Placement is not a judgment of talent or potential.

Putting a dancer into a level before they have the foundation to succeed doesn’t do them a favor. It creates gaps that become much harder to correct later.
Ballet has an irritating habit of eventually finding those gaps.

More Classes Don’t Automatically Mean Better Training
Technique matters. So do rehearsals, coaching, conditioning, performance experience and recovery.

A Variations class, for example, doesn’t mean dancers walk in cold and immediately start launching themselves into difficult choreography. A properly structured Variations class includes the warm-up necessary to prepare dancers for the work ahead.
And rehearsing isn't time “away from training.”

At some point, dancers have to take everything they learn at the barre and figure out how to use it onstage.

That’s how we develop artists, not just really good class-takers.

Choose the Program, Not Just the Teacher.

A wonderful teacher can absolutely lead you to a school. The relationship between a dancer and teacher can be incredibly important.
But if you are considering changing studios because of one instructor, ask yourself:
Would we still believe in this program if that teacher weren’t here?
Teachers move. They perform. They take new opportunities. Life happens.
A healthy school cannot be built around one person.
Choose teachers you trust.
But also choose an organization you trust.

Advocacy Is Important. So Is Trust.
Parents should advocate for their children. You know your child in ways we never will. Tell us what they need, what they're struggling with and what they're hoping to accomplish.
We need that information.
But once you've chosen professionals you trust, give them room to do their jobs.
There is a difference between saying:
“This is what my dancer needs. Can your program provide it?”
and
“This is what my dancer needs. Please change your program to provide it.”
Those are very different conversations.

Sometimes We Aren’t the Right Studio.

Alamo City Arts Academy is not the right school for every dancer.
No dance school is. If another program offers exactly the schedule, philosophy, competition emphasis or environment your family wants, choosing that program may be the smartest decision you can make.
We would much rather have that conversation before you uproot a dancer from a place where they are already established than discover three months later that you expected our program to be something it isn't.

We don't want families to choose ACA because we convinced them we're “better.”

We want families to understand who we are and say:
“Yes. That's how I want my child to learn.”

Because ultimately, we're not just trying to move dancers to the next level, variation, competition or role.

We're trying to develop artists and healthy human beings who work hard, accept correction, treat people well, celebrate someone else's success and learn how to handle disappointment.

Sometimes responsible training means adding another class.
Sometimes it means strengthening the foundation.
Sometimes it means performing.
Sometimes it means resting.

And sometimes a wonderful dancer and a wonderful dance school simply aren't the right fit for each other.

That's okay.

​Choosing a dance studio shouldn't be about finding the school willing to promise you the most.
It should be about finding the people whose judgment you trust when the answer isn't what you expected.
And if another studio offers ballet seven days a week, PBT before breakfast, Variations at lunch and leaps and turns under the full moon, wonderful. That may be exactly what your dancer needs. We just haven't added Moonlight Leaps and Turns to the schedule. Yet. 😏