EMPOWER DANCE STUDIO

My granddaughter Serenity is truly flourishing at Empower School of Movement. After two years of classes here, I have seen incredible positive growth in her. While the dance instruction itself is excellent, what makes this studio truly special is its deep emphasis on personal growth and character development.The owner, Mrs. Nicole, is an outstanding educator. She truly sees her dancers as individuals, holds them accountable to high standards, and wraps everything she does in pure love. Because of this, my granddaughter holds Mrs. Nicole in the highest esteem and is constantly motivated to do her very best. As a grandparent, this is exactly the kind of uplifting environment I want my children and grandchildren to be in. I cannot recommend Empower School of Movement highly enough!

the “black tax” is a real thing. the fee for people of color who want their daughter surrounded by dancers who look like her, who have the same aspirations as her and won't bat an eye at the costs. i noticed that
empower charges nearly 50-80% more than other local (durham/raleigh area) black dance studios.For
example, if you were to take 2-3 classes at empower
you would typically have to pay 600 bucks a month, whereas for walltown lets say, for 2-3 classes you’d only have to pay $110-$160 a month. Now you would
expect that with your costs, things would be significantly better than other studios. You would
stand out in a good way. But ive found that to not be
the case for not only me, but other families that have left the studio.

Having people purchase attire directly through you guys when we all know that there are comparable items that can be found on amazon or other cheaper
places for 30-50% less than what you all are charging made no sense to me. How is it that people pay all this money and things havent changed. The only thing that
changed was the name of the studio.

My daughter went to this studio expecting to have the time of her life. When I got her from her dance class, she came out crying. She was saying how nobody talked to her and nobody was helping her learn the moves! (Not even the instructors either!) What a disgrace! I immediately took her out of the class and I will not be coming back. Also, not to mention that the classes are way too expensive. It was almost $600 just to take 2 - 3 classes. That’s an insane amount of money. This studio is a waste of time and I do not recommend.

We really wanted to love this school, but so many factors made it hard.

We did 2 seasons at other local studios before enrolling in Empower. We - like many of you thinking of enrolling - were dead set on finding a school focused on developing Black dancers. (This was my wife's mission, as she is a formally trained dancer and felt underrepresented as a child/adolescent navigating her way through dance).

Empower seemed to be the beacon of hope, exactly what we were looking for for our daughter. We had experience at other studios (no issues, just was looking for a studio with more of "us"). Thankfully, that experience worked to our benefit.

The biggest reasons why we will not be re-enrolling:.

- Communication - Spotty and disorganized, at least compared to what we were used to from other studios.

-Cost. We were swept away by the "Fame" vibe as you walk in - dedicated studios with live piano accompanying classes. Locker rooms, costume room, etc. But after comparing, the costs are nearly 50-80% more than other local schools.

Classes - We are taking an hour long ballet/tap and a supplemental 1 hour class at another studio (with 4.9 stars on google vs Empowers 4.3 at the time of this review) for nearly the same price as one 30 minute class at Empower.

The recital fees? Were over 4x as much as other studios. (Despite cost, better production and organization at the competitor vs at Empower)

Attire for classes MUST be purchased through them, although the same/comparable items can be found on Amazon or at other retailers for 30-50% less.

The costume fees? Again, more expensive.

Want to walk in the Christmas parade? Be prepared to pay more than the norm again.

Recital Tickets? 3-4x more expensive.

We know this, because we started questioning these increasing costs and my wife posted about this in a popular local Facebook moms group. She received dozens of replies from dance Moms at other Durham/Raleigh studios comparing their costs. Empower was more expensive than them all, in all categories, by ALOT. Same location being used for recitals in some instances, but paying less than half in recital fees and costuming. The consensus was that Empower families are being taken advantage of.

We CAN pay these fees, but we were left asking "WHY is this school so much more expensive?" too often and never saw a real reason, besides what we started calling Empower's "Black Tax" - the fee for people like us, who want their daughter surrounded by dancers who look like her and won't bat an eye at the costs.

Teachers were great, but my daughter had great teachers at other studios too.

The marketed focus on "our community" was cool, but her classes were diverse, just like they are at other schools. (Aka - the student population leans POC, but as the local population grows and more people outside of the "community" learn about this school, its becoming more diverse. She is in diverse classes elsewhere, with quality teachers at half the cost.)

She's in company at another studio. Has travel and performance opportunities (within the US and international). Has community engagement. Has a group of friends, who may not ALL look like her, but the love and support they have for each other makes that point moot.

Essentially, we get more at other studios and are paying less. We WOULD have paid the "Black Tax" if there was an explanation, but anytime a parent asked why the costs were so much, we got vague answers. Im praying more Black parents look elsewhere and aren't reeled in by the optics like we were. There are other local schools who NEED our presence, they want and welcome the diversity. We don't need to pay out of our behinds to insulate ourselves to find community.

Our family LOVES Empower! It is such a special place for kids to learn about dance and about life. The owner/director Nicole knows each and every one of the studio dancers personally, and has an unbelievable ability to zero in on their unique skills, personalities, and challenges/opportunities -- and build on each in the most supportive way. Studio/office leads Jamie and Kyra are also extraordinary and have shown our family so much kindness. As long as our gal is dancing, we'll be a part of Empower. 10/10 would recommend!