Well, Mr. K is gone for good. Too many parents complained because of the way he was physically hurting his students. My daughter was always crying because he had a nasty habit of pushing her in the small of her back with his Danskin heavy-duty dance sneakers (or the weird tuxedo shoes he also wore). I heard the last straws were when a classmate of D was picked up off the floor by her neck and then later when the daughter of a cop had marks all over her back. Papa Cop apparently filed charges. But the bad thing is that they waited a month before explaining to the parents that he was not coming back and we were in limbo, because his missus didn't have the common courtesy to let us know what was going on.
The substitute (MB) that taught the class during that time was a godsend, though, because he managed to get a room full of depressed and scared girls back on track and happy to dance again. Towards the end with JK, the girls were drooping and dreading each and every class. They were actually saying they hated ballet and wanted to quit. Now, instead of keeping the sub that made the girls want to be there, they are replacing him with the mother of one of the girls in the class (and a company principal). Most of us have already tossed any notion of impartiality out the window as well as any chance of our girls even being recommended for the scholarship auditions.
On top of that, on the professional side of the house, the artistic director (BS) has left under somewhat cloudy circumstances. No one is talking about specifics, but all his choreography was pulled from this weekend's show and replaced. You can read between the lines in this article to see that it wasn't all champagne and roses at his departure. Oh, and he was actually gone BEFORE "Nutcracker" (right after Thanksgiving, I was told), but they kept it hush-hush because they didn't want any bad publicity.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/jan/14/were-going-miss-him/
Of course that brings up the question about "Nutcracker" for this year. BS owns the choreography for the version NBT performs and the rumor mill is going full force about what is going to happen. The company needs the revenue from Hell Month (December) to fund the rest of the year and they are going to have to either pay BS through the nose for his work or come up with something else in a big damn hurry.
Sadly, that likely means that tuition will go up to ridiculous levels (although things like Summer Intensive have gone up big time). And I can't wait to see what "fee" they come up with for the Youth Company next year.
Fern Adair is looking like a plan at this point. I think Ms. D will be taking a class with them this summer--just in case...
Oh, and D still has a mark on her face from the incident at "The Nutcracker" in December. Big ol' red spot on her jaw that you can't miss! And, no--VS-K never asked about her injury or checked on her at all. So much for all that phony "spirit" she tries to sell to those of us who know better. Sheesh!
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