Family Member: Beverly Dance Studio Owner Faked Illness Before

BEVERLY, MA -- A Beverly dance studio owner who came under fire this month for setting up a GoFundMe page that solicited donations to help pay for medical treatments has lied in the past to family members about other illnesses, including a miscarriage, a stomach tumor and shingles, according to one of her family members. The family member, who agreed to speak on the condition that her name not be used for publication, suspects that Dennis may have been lying last year when she told clients and employees at Revive Dance Xchange in Beverly that she needed help paying for treatments for cerebellar degeneration that were not covered by her insurance carrier.

"Candy had a problem where others get attention -- she has to get it too," the family member said. "She got away with this for so long that her siblings don’t speak to her, so now she got her clients and friends to believe her."

In an email to Patch Monday morning, Dennis declined to address the accusations of feigning illness that her family member alleged. But she did say she was in the process of selling, saying she has been unhappy for several years and has been wanting to move on from the business since her mother died in September. She said a series of articles on Turtle Boy Sports, which first raised questions about her fundraiser and her business, had left her family in "shambles."

"Honestly, this issue and deformation (sic) of my character has been taken too far," Dennis said in her email. "All my family wants now is to move on from this horrible heartbreaking experience. Everything said in these past articles have (sic) been twisted and falsely accused. I would never do something like this to any other person as what is happening to our family."

The family member believes this is the first time Dennis has tried to raise money for one of her illnesses. The GoFundMe she and her husband set up last year raised about $1,200, Dennis told Patch last week.

According to the family member, hen Dennis's sister-law had a baby die after child birth, Dennis began telling people she had had a miscarriage. When Dennis's mother had shingles, Dennis began telling people she had shingles. When her nephew was born with a heart murmur, the family member said, Dennis began telling people that her daughter had a heart murmur. Dennis also tells people that, like her sister, brother and father, she suffers from back pain.

"But if she had all these issues she couldn’t do the stuff she does," the family member said. "Sorry, no way am I doing ballet with herniated disks."

The most inflammatory portions of the Turtle Boy Sports posts were screenshots taken from Dennis's social media accounts showing photos of everything from a family trip to Florida to presents under her family's Christmas tree. In online comments left on a story Patch published last week, Dennis said a trip to Florida was paid for by her father to visit family after her mother died. A trip to New York City was business-related, Dennis said.

The series of blog posts by Turtle Boy Sports also question the dance studio's business practices. Turtle Boy Sports accuses Dennis of not awarding scholarships she claims to have awarded in marketing materials and of underpaying her instructors. Last month Turtle Boy Sports ran a similar series of article questioning the business tactics of Beverly resident Greg Bates and his North Shore Eats Facebook group.

Last week Dennis asked Patch to remove articles about her business, saying she had "proof" that the allegations raised in a series of posts by Turtle Boy Sports were false. "I am a good and honest person," she wrote.

She has not responded to a Patch request to furnish that proof.

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Photo by Filip Fuxa vis Shutterstock.

Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).