Dance Mode Studio

My nearly 6yr old son loves the hip hop. The class is popular, not empty like some places. Which makes it all the more fun!
Most importantly the kids are really nice. He feels comfortable being himself. There is no exclusion. My son is on a happy high each time he leaves the studio.
The owner is lovely. Very down to earth. Good value also!

This dance company was expensive and very unorganized. We spent a ton of money and when it came to the show our girls were in (1) 2 minute show. There was no communication about the costumes and what the cost was until the week before. Then they charged a ridiculous amount of money for costumes that looked like they were bought a dollar store… rip off… I know my girls enjoyed there teachers, but shame on this school for not caring about letting the parents know what to expect. We won’t be back.

My daughter has been here for a few months and they just had their first show, thoroughly disorganized, been with heartbeat academy before and boy what an eye opening experience. We were not informed about rehearsals or costumes. Spent all this money on show tickets and my daughters name wasn’t even on the program. Terribly run.

I would warn anyone about signing up for classes here.
I couldn’t be more disappointed about what transpired when I signed my girls up for a class. Not only would the teacher not show up, they never called up to tell us what happened! I called several times and no one answers the phone or calls back.
My girls were so confused! Sad sad service to say the least.
We are headed to the many other dance studios that show up!
P. S. They never gave us our money back for the no show.

Whoever owns or runs this place is doing a lousy job. E-​mails or phone calls are never returned. On a Saturday morning 10 AM class, the owner forgot to get out of bed to go open the building so we all waited outside until someone finally showed up with a key. Good thing I didn’t leave to go run errands while my kid got her 1 hr class because she came out after 35 minutes! What a rip-​off!
This type of schools (dance, gymnastics, karate, swimming, etc) don’t allow students to go without classes for too long during holidays or breaks. Dance Mode takes all holidays as local public schools and sometimes even longer. Rip-​off!
They love to take your money and they love to NOT have to work for it.
Don’t waste your money and time coming here and save yourself the grief!

As a longtime tap dancer, I was looking forward to taking a tap class in a new studio (recently moved to CA). I was extremely dismayed at the confusion of the front desk, but hoped for the best in class. I was *shocked* and insulted that I could not wear my tap shoes in class. The instructor said I had to «earn» my taps, and that meant that I had to learn the dance they were doing which, oh by the way, even though this was the first class of the semester, they had already worked on it and I was coming in on the end of it. To «earn» the right to wear taps in class meant I had to learn the new dance and perform it in front of the class. I have never heard of such an astoundingly ridiculous rule in a tap class!!! The only way a person knows if they’re doing the step correctly is to HEAR IT. The pacing of the class was weird too, she dragged through rudimentary warm ups which took ¾ of the class time, and then rushed like mad to get the steps of the week out, to (gasp) the music of the 80’s band «Wham.» Really. With all the great jazz music that is just made to embrace tap, she chose a hideous 80’s joke pop song. I never went back and would NOT recommend this place.

Hey, we’re a dance loving family, with 9+ experience with area dance studios including Heartbeat Academy, Ayako School of Ballet, Kirkpatricks, Professional Ballet School of Belmont and Dance Mode Studio. My boys have taken classes at Dance Mode for the last 3 years. Dance Mode has an outstanding Urban Dance program, including classes in Hip Hop, Break Dancing, House, Popping, Crump, Hip Hop with Acrobatics /​Groundwork. Their Tap and Jazz instructors are also phenomenal with impressive professional CVs and the ability to connect to and inspire kids. Seriously fun! About 40% of the kids at Dance Mode are boys, which makes it a uniquely Safe and Cool place for boys to explore dance. Over the last year+, the owners have really buttressed front office «connectivity» with effective on-​line registration/​billing systems, have made it a point to be responsive to questions, and to get clear information out early about things like the end of year show, optional pictures, etc. Is it perfect? No, but we LOVE IT!!!

The front office on this place is a disaster. I sent email and left a voice mail and no one ever got back to me. So, I signed my kids up at Community Street Jams in Redwood City. And this isn’t new. My child took lessons here last winter. The same lame business practices were evident then. I guess they don’t need my money.

My daughter enjoys the class and they put on a fun recital once per year, but I can honestly say that this is one of the most poorly run businesses that I have experienced. They are extremely disorganized:
— they never return phone calls or emails
— there is never anyone in the office
— my daughter’s class has had substitutes 25%+ of the time. This hurts continuity
— their website contains inaccurate information
— they require you to purchase pictures before even seeing them (every other child photographer these days allows you to view photos online prior to laying out cash)
— they require you to purchase a video instead of allowing you to bring a video camera to the performance. Last year, the videographer made a unilateral decision that they didn’t have enough orders to make money and never produced tapes. Furthermore, they never informed those that had paid for the tapes, despite having kept their money for several months.
— you will need to sit around for 90 minutes waiting for pictures on photo day
— I ordered a costume from them. The costume had a design flaw (buttons sewed on wrong side). They made me pay their seamstress to fix the flaw.
I haven’t had the time to look for another studio but would leave in a heartbeat.

My 6 year old daughter began classes this past September and really enjoys the class and her teacher, Ms Martin. Her class is tap/​ballet combo. I expect she will continue classes here for a long time as I see many older kids attending.