Whats Happened to Brent Street

I went to Brent Street about 6 years ago after attending there for 4 years. Those 4 years scared me. I had been going to a small acedemy in Bexley North which was on the way up and now is fab ( Nadines Acedemy )and left there as I wanted to be pushed further and haveing seen the standard of brent street at eistedfords I had to go there. My time there was horrific, for 4 years I was branded " the new girl". I did not fit in there, I didnt bitch, I didnt have lots of money, I didnt join a clicky group, I didnt have quite open mass orgies with the boys in the corridors at the camperdown studio, or the Waterloo, and I didnt find talking about getting with guys and sleeping around fun, so ultimately, the girls didnt like me and the guys ignored me. Someone that did notice me was Jackie Howard and Cameron Mitchell however, due to brent streets failure to recognise new talent openly ment that no one pushed me, in fear that parents of the kids who had been there since they were 3 would not be upset to see their babies in the second or third row, so i slogged it out in the back for 3 years. I was training at Newtown High School of the performing arts where I had developed advanced technique and stamina and on countless accassions I was asked to demonstrate things thats required technique as none of those girls had any technique, in fact that entire studio just fudged all their technique things, but still no recognition. For 3 years I was the only kid in Pre SEnior Jazz not in show class why?? My mum rang up and jackie said " Look , I know there are kids in show class that shouldn't be there, but they have been with us since they were little so I have to put them in?' what a load of ****!! Finally in my fourth year I was 'allowed' in show class but didnt do it as I was committed to another company in those hours. IN 12 months we did one dance? only one?? at my last studio we did up to 10 dances and I asnt allowed to do the ballet dance as I didnt do my exams? at the studio I am at now we have done 4 already. My family had to sit for 3 hours at star city to watch me in one dance which was number 34 our of 35 dances. In my eyes, the place was a joke, and I got out just before things went bad, as I heard plenty cos alot of my friends went there and some have this year and have since left. The dancing was GREAT! i loved it, my coming home every sat night in tears because I was so unhappy being there was not great. Its easy to say ignore it, but being there from 10 am to 5 pm all saturday with no friends, sucked. I stuck it out because I wanted to dance and be trained by professionals. at the time I was trained by the fabulous Cameron Mitchell ( who has sicne left) and Matt Lee ( whom was an excellent dancer, but a prick of a human being ). People didnt like me because I guess I was a threat. In my last year there I was in the front for everything. No one spoke to me, or even smiled - a very fake environment. A breeding ground for bitchy, horrible, spoilt little girls, and that wasnt me. You hav to deal with that in this industry, and its not like I did one term and said " they are so mean, I want o leave' - i tested the waters for 4 years - and nothing changed. To the point when some people came to my school who were in my class at dancing loved me at school, but at dancing would not even bat an eye lid at me. Horrible girls. Im a teacher now at another excellent studio which is moving on up and in my eyes, if you can not walk down your studio hall and not be able to say the name and hello to every child who walks past you... then you are too big. Brent street made me stronger in the sense that I can put up with alot more stuff, and if anything made me funkier iin my dancing style. thats all - the teachers taught me very little and the environment was not warm. as a teacher now, I have vowed never to treat kids the way the teachers treated me when I was at brent street.