Parents, Former Employees Respond To Beverly Dance Studio Owner

BEVERLY, MA -- Parents who pulled their kids from classes at Revive Dance Xchange in Beverly took exception to public comments by the owner that their kids were kicked out of the dance studio for behavior programs. The owner, Candy Dennis, said Tuesday that the parents had orchestrated a smear campaign against her and her business by leaving negative reviews on online sites like Yelp and by feeding misinformation to Turtle Boy Sports, a gossip blog that focuses on Massachusetts.

"My daughter was NOT kicked out, we left on our own accord and have the e-mail to prove this," Renee Melendez, one of the parents who said she left negative reviews on Yelp, said in an email to Patch. Melendez's email included screen shots of her exchange with Dennis that shows she left the program voluntarily. Melendez, three other parents and two former employees contacted Patch Tuesday after Dennis made her allegations in a Patch story.

A former employee who asked that her name not be used for publication says Dennis did remove one parent from the program in February. That parent questioned Dennis about registration fees she had been charged for her daughter to compete in competitions after finding out that the competition had not charged a registration fee. The employee also said Dennis contacted other dance studios on the North Shore saying she had kicked kids out of her program for behavior problems if she suspected they were behind the negative publicity.

Dennis did not name the parents when she emailed Patch Tuesday morning. She also 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.

Dennis and her husband live in Gloucester and raised about $1,200 in the GoFundMe campaign that was set up last year for treatments for cerebellar degeneration that were not covered by her insurance carrier. Turtle Boy Sports claims to have interviewed former clients and employees who claim she showed no symptoms of the rare disease, which include a wide-legged, unsteady, lurching walk, tremors and slowed and slurred speech.

Dennis told Patch that money was used to purchase supplements that her doctor had recommended.

"The group of parents who launched the investigation into her business practices and GoFundMe/trips were absolutely NOT asked to leave the studio," another former employee said in an email to Patch. "They left on their own after realizing (some for many years) that Candy is less than ethical and treats her clientele poorly."

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 Monday, 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.

"She took five trips, not two," a former employee said. "But she shouldn't have gone on any trips."

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.

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