O'Shea-Chaplin Academy of Irish Dance

First, ID classes are taught by levels, not ages, & there may well be teens mixed with younger kids in the very beginner classes. This won't stay the same forever as they quickly sort themselves out. Second, it is common practice to keep parents separate from kids & you are not allowed to "peek." There are plenty of parents (especially Moms) who will stick their heads into the room to signal their kid & distract the entire class. MYOB, you are paying the teacher to teach the kids; let her do her job. Third, as to "yelling," ID is taught with loud accordion & fiddle music playing on a CD or other gear, & if the teacher does not shout over it, the kids can't hear her. And once in a while, it's good for them to hear "Ye look like cows jumping over the gate! Yer wasting yer mothers' money!" (My fave, and addressed to teenagers) ...The whole waiting room outside the studio collapsed in laughter (This was at a different ID school). Rita O'Shea is one of the nicest ladies I have ever met. Don't hesitate to send your child here. more

We enrolled our 5 year old at O'Shea-Chaplin because she had seen Riverdance on television and wanted to try Irish Dance. I wish we had done our homework before going forward. Classes at O'Shea-Chaplin meet at several locations throughout Massachusetts. At the location nearest to us,classes are offered several times on Tuesday afternoons. However, we were unhappy with the fact that all ages and abilities were mixed together. In a class of approximately 20 students, there were 5 year olds and 17 year olds and everything in between. With one teacher, this meant that my daughter spent most of her hour-long class sitting on a chair watching the older girls. I would be that she didn't receive more than 15 minutes of "floor time". However, I wouldn't really know, because parents are not allowed to observe the class, even from the hall. I was caught peeking once, and the teacher yelled at me in front of my daughter, which upset her terribly. She told me that she was getting ready for competition, and they had spotted me, and now "she'd lost them." This is very, very competitive dance. Girls wear wigs, glue their socks to their calves so that they don't fall down during competition, and wear outfits that can cost more than $500 (used). To me, an outsider, it appeared to be more what i think of as a 'beauty pageant' than a dance class. We withdrew after the "yelling" incident. I was not paying $80 (cash only) per month to be yelled at, and my daughter was not having fun. more