Are all dance schools completely disorganized?

[SparklyUnicorn]

My kid is in a hip hop class. This is the second year.  So he is in a class tonight with boys and girls and it's a hip hop class.  So I get an e-mail that tonight's boy/girl hip hop class has been cancelled.  This is the second time in less than a month.  So I e-mailed cuz I'm kinda irked.  She said oh is he in the competition class?  I said no is there another boy/girl hip hop class tonight that is for kids in competitions?  Yes so my class isn't cancelled tonight.  Ok.  I mean had she said the boy/girl hip hop competition class was cancelled I would have figured that was not his class.  But she didn't say that.  So I asked what is the title of the class he is in so I don't get confused.  So she wrote back that she doesn't know what song they are doing, but he is in the recreation class.  Huh?  Maybe she is doing too many thing at once. 

 

Wowsers. 

[Rebel Yell]

Creative artistic people are some of my favorite people in the entire world.

 

(STEREOTYPE WARNING: yes, I know they aren't all like this... I don't feel the need to point out the "good" ones in this reply...)

 

But I have found, over many years and in many creative/performing schools, that business skills are often lacking. We have very carefully chosen where to spend our limited resources, so generally "very good" schools, but not necessarily pre-professional companies or Olympic level training, KWIM? So although the teaching was excellent, almost always what drove us (and others) either away or crazy was business or communication.

 

Disorganization, policies that make sense for preschool classes but not high school levels, last-minute info if you're lucky enough to even GET info, I could go on... that is why Diamond got her business degree before her dance education degree. One friend of hers doubled majored dance/business and she has outgrown her studio three times in four years. Another I know of struggles to retain students, even though the teachers are excellent and very highly qualified.

 

I've also been in the reverse situation, where a very successful businessman bought a franchise salon and tried to run it like an 80s powerful corporation, and most of the stylists were miserable trying to do creative work in a corporate environment.

Edited October 3, 2017 by Rebel Yell

[DragonFaerie]

It does seem like, generally speaking, business acumen is somewhat lacking in creative environments. My daughter is in a local youth symphony. This organization is actually run very well thanks to a board of directors who manage the business side of things. At the start of the term, the president of the symphony held a parents' meeting, and in this meeting, he told us to make sure we give our checks to him and not to the director because the director "is a musician."  :lol:

[SparklyUnicorn]

Last year there was zero communication.  This year I'm getting tons of e-mails, but I'm confused because I never know if it applies to my kid or not.  They assume I know what they are talking about, but I don't. 

 

 

[SparklyUnicorn]

Now the choir and drama are run superbly.  I mean...really...tight ship.  I love that. 

[bettyandbob]

My dd did classical ballet for years. Some things were definitely disorganized ( costumes: fitting, repairing, organizing; planning shows -- matching dates and venues and school calendars; other stuff). 

 

I will say class schedules were always clear. Cancelation were for weather only and the weather policy was clear. If a teacher was out someone else was brought in to do the class. 

[Wheres Toto]

My daughter danced for 14 years before college and we never had a cancellation for anything other than weather.  Any new information or changes (needing to bring something, etc) were communicated well.

 

One studio she was at, the owner was a business person not a creative person.  She did not teach classes, only handled the business side.  The other studio the owner was also a dancer/instructor but she hired a business manager to handle that part of things.