Words from our readers

I have just read the vocabulary list by Diane Gudat [“Dance Studio Lingo,” October 2009]—how funny. We label our crazy parents as family members—the crazier they are, the closer members they are. For example, the craziest are labeled a certain teacher’s sister or mother. The lesser of the crazy moms are called aunts and cousins. Thanks for the good laugh!
Cathy Finne
Artistic Director, Studio 1014
Jacksonville, FL

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Thanks for providing an outlet for dance teachers and studio owners. I find your material therapeutic, inspiring, and very useful. Thanks for helping me do my job better and giving me strength to be true to my vision and integrity when at times I can feel the pressure to please the parents. You are making a positive difference!
Danelle Watson
Alexander Academy of Performing Arts
Maui, Hawaii

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This has to be the funniest thing a parent has ever done! It certainly cheered me up this week. Not only have I been dealing with a former employee who opened her own studio and asked her employees to steal my summer camp info, a new ballroom studio in my shopping center that wants its sign to read just like mine, a parent I wanted to get rid of who’s staying (and I think I made a new friend), an employee who filed for unemployment because she had a baby (but was never fired), and the gym that offers free lessons across the street from me that tried to get my hip-hop teacher to leave me and teach there. Oh, the life of a dance studio owner! 

This note is to give you permission to auto-charge anything I am supposed to pay in regard to costumes, competition fees, company fees, damages to property, reimbursement to the snack center, and possible charges for excessive chatting and preening. Due to my total and utter lack of organization, if you don’t charge me I will most assuredly be late and may possibly pay in loose change from my car that could have bits of food and lint stuck to it, so really I’m doing you the favor here. If this doesn’t work, I’ll start putting the change in an old soda can to keep it all together.

Thank goodness for some parents!
Darlene Giordano Cummings
American Dance Academy
Hockessin, DE