Sarasota Dance Academy

"Support Local. Love our studio. #SDAstrong"

"I am owner of Altered stitches, alteration shop. I have customers kids and parents. You have to see different emotions in faces before and after alteration. Kids face can't fake .... Have fun..... I always hap6to help you with costumes.."

"I've been taking my grand daughter there for almost two years and my second for just over one we started in mommy and me and are now phasing up. What I received is support. And great friends and what they received is top notch instruction from patient and kind instructors. And good friends..but the costumes and skill they've obtained is the icing on the cake. They're professional.. informative and yes you bet ya worth every penny. They know each student by name and go the distance to give them your money worth. I've checked other places and I'm so glad God led me there 2 years ago because they love it and wait all week just to show their teachers and their friends and I love it because I know they're learning a beautiful art that's healthy exercise and social stability ....thanks SDA for adding that extravagant sparkle to my grand princesses lives....."

"Rebecca Bryan is the co-owner of this establishment. I contacted her to see if my daughter could take some ballet classes there (she had been dancing ballet since she was 18mos old but recently took a few months off and wanted to get back into shape to dance again). Rebecca said this time of year, they use practically the entire class time to rehearse for their year end performance (which I think is not fair to pay tuition for technique and ballet instruction but not learn anything and instead just use this time to rehearse) so for my daughter to join in on the regular classes would be fruitless. But she was willing to do semi-private lessons (where she could earn extra money as well) with my daughter and another ballet friend of my daughter. However she said one of her existing students at her school would also be in the semi-private lessons with the 2 girls for a total of 3 girls but she wanted just the 2 of us to pay for the lessons! She said her existing student was already paying thru her "tuition" so she would not be paying additional for the semi-private lessons. So although all 3 girls would be getting semi-private instruction (dividing her time among 3 girls), my daughter and my daughter's friend would have to pay for the lessons in their entirety so that her existing student would benefit from the class at no charge! After I indicated that we didn't think that was at all fair, she changed her tune and said for 1 student a private lesson was $60/hr, for 2 students a semi-private lesson was $40/hr per student, and for 3 students a semi-private lesson was $30/hr per student, claiming that the effort she would have to put forth for 3 students was triple than for 1 student in a private lesson setting. I wonder how much she expects to get for 5 or 10 students - does the rate multiply each time a student is added??? I have never heard of this type of manipulation of an hourly rate . While $60/hr is not cheap, assuming the instruction is top-notch, I don't feel that is out of line but to pad the rate each time a student is added to the semi-private lesson is absurd and surely not commonly accepted practice in any field. So I wonder how much she expects to get per hour for a class full of students? Typically when a private lesson changes to a semi-private lesson, the hourly rate is divided among the participants but according to Rebecca, she just charges more per participant - this is so not cool. My feeling is that she changed her tune when she caught on to the fact that I realized my daughter and my daughter's friend would be footing the entire bill for the semi-private lessons while her existing student would be benefiting at no charge! At this rate (no pun intended), I wouldn't be surprised if this establishment is not around much longer as this is very poor business sense. Additionally, she didn't even seem interested in meeting my daughter to evaluate her dance skills but was more interested in the financial aspects of the arrangement. Regardless of the caliber of instruction of this place which I cannot attest to since my daughter was not even given a chance for a trial class/lesson, just the notion of being ripped off says to me "run the other way". If I could give this a zero star, I would!"

"Sarasota Dance Academy ( SDA) is magnificent"