Dominique's Dance Creations

THURSDAY at DDC is on🔥! Let's welcome DDC Alumi ! You don't want to miss this 💪🏽

This week at DDC !!! Let's start with some musical theater 🎭 with Wednesday 8/14/24 6:00pm-7:30pm see you there

DDC Pop Up Class Series!!!!! This line up is 🔥 you don't want to miss this opportunity. Come out and dance with these talented artists! All are welcome!

Come check out what DDC is all about! Registration now open🖤🧡

OPEN HOUSE & OPEN REGISTRATION!!!!! SEE YOU THERE

KIDS SUMMER CAMP DDC STYLE! Enjoy crafts and learn some new dance moves to your favorite songs🎶 FUN,FUN,FUN all summer long ☀️Registration now open!!!!! Space is limited..

Who's House is this? DDC's House! Tickets on sale Now! You don't want to miss this show! Come witness the DDC movement 6/15/24! See you there

Tickets Available Now! Tickets will also be available at the door! See you there!
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/905048021997?aff=oddtdtcreator

Last call to register for DDC Spring Semester!!!! Join the movement today! Never miss a chance to dance🧡🖤

We are just 2 weeks away from the event you don't want to miss !!!! An elegant night of food, drinks, entertainment, networking and so much more!!!! Get your VIP tickets for the full experience!!! 1920s themed red carpet event 🎩
All tickets available online. VIP tickets also available at Food 🥘 being catered by

Tickets now available for our Annual Holiday Showcase!!! You don't want to miss this one🎄💀 Come spice your holiday up with DDC🧡🖤

Introducing DDC The Company Dancers 2023-2024🧡🖤Season 15 #2023 #2024

Registration open until 10/19/23 for our Fall Semester! Don't miss your chance to dance. Classes are more than half way full. Contact us to see what classes are still available!!!

Fall registration is now open !!!! Dance classes for ages 2-17! Open and performance classes year round. Swipe left to see what we have to offer!!!! Stay tuned for adult class announcements! Join the DDC movement today🖤🧡

This week at DDC!!!! See you on the dance floor. Please take not to our schedule update !🧡🖤

Fall Registration now open!!!!! Classes will fill up! Sign up today!!!

This week at DDC! All are welcome! Register now or just walk in! ❤️ Take your training to the next level with

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Time to speak up !!!!!!

PSA: Let's talk about.... long story but listen up!!! This is a must read for all dancers, studio owners, dance competition owners etc... I debated even making this post, but after long thought , I came to the conclusion that it was very important for others to know what went on. Myself and my team are still very traumatized from the events that occurred.

Y'all know I never post but....... I cannot remain silent!

Now let me start by saying in over 30 years of attending and being part of numerous dance competitions. I have NEVER experienced what myself and my team of dancers and parents experienced 2 weekends ago on May 12th-14th at Imagine Dance Challenge. This event was held at The Stanley Theatre In Utica Ny. Anyone who is familiar with a Stanley in Theatre knows they have a very strict policy as far as bringing food into the venue and having security check bags at the door. No Big deal right? Super harmless! All my dancers staff members, parents and myself. We're all checked upon arrival every time we enter the Stanley theater. We agreed to those terms before even choosing to attend this event. Now what we did not sign up for was to be continuously harassed, threaten to be kicked out, taunted, degraded, and racially targeted by Utica Fire Department own Fire Marshall Gerald Foster. Your probably asking yourself how and why? I myself am still asking these same questions , because the events that took place happen with no reasonable cause. Let's start with the timeline.....
On Friday May 12th is when the events began......
Dancers entered theater and all were thoroughly checked, etc. My male dancer and his dad were harassed by both Fire Marshall Gerald Foster and The Stanley Theatre security team in regards to a men's dressing room situation. My dancers were told the men's dressing room was in one area by Imagine Dance Challenge staff and them told by the Fire Marshall Mr. Foster he must move and that parents would not be let in to help change dancers. This nights occurrences were very mild, but unnecessary. It was in the way fire marshal, Mr. Foster spoke and addressed my young dancers, and their families that initially set the tone .Seemed to not make any sense but we let it go and moved on. That brings us to day 2....

On Saturday May 13th. Myself , my dancers, their parents all entered the competition very early morning, preparing for a very long day.Everyones bags were thoroughly checked, and we went straight to the dressing room to prepare for the kids for the stage. Everything was going fine until..... we got a random knock on our dressing room door, this knock followed with an opening of the door before anyone could even say "come in " " hold on" etc.... yes you heard that right the fire marshall, Mr. Foster, accompanied by one security guard knocked and opened a dressing room door filled with children who were changing ! I am mediately pushed the door shut in his face and said you need to wait kids are changing! In the room was myself one of my staff members my young eight and under dancers and one grandparent. I told Mr. Foster to give us a moment to get the kids together before he and the security guard could enter. Once I reopen the door and told him it was safe to come in, He stated he needed to come in and check through all of our bags. It didn't occur to me at the time ,that was a weird request from a fire Marshall, so complied. When he entered the room I asked him "why are you here"? "What can we help you with "? At the this his tone quickly changed and that question triggered a very heated argument between myself and a fire marshal Mr. Foster. I stayed to him numerous times "This was a Dance Competition" and we were not doing anything wrong. I asked him repeatedly why he came back to our dressing room in the first place? I wasn't understanding why he was back there in the first place bothering and harassing myself and my dancers. Gerald Foster not once answered my question as to why he had enter my dancers dressing room area! Myself, and Mr. Foster exchanged many words loudly ,at that time, and that he said he would remember all of this for the following day, and that he had the power to kick us out at any time. He stayed i didn't know who I was messing with..... he also was unaware of who he was dealing with clearly ! I stayed "My full name studio name and told him to write it down for the following day" and that "He was a weirdo for coming to a kids dressing room with no reasonable cause". He then stayed " who's chair is sitting in front of your dressing room door ? I said " one of my staff members who happens to be a male put it outside of the door so that he could leave the room when dancers were changing " Mr. Foster stated you cannot have any chairs outside of the door. It's a fire hazard. We agreed and quickly brought the chair inside. If he initially came to the dressing room, because of a chair sitting outside the door, there was no need for him to enter at anytime. he tried to use the chairs, a cop out because I don't think he even knew himself why he had to come back to our dressing room.
At that time he exchanged more words with my other staff member and the grandparent once leaving the dressing room. I immediately notify the dance competitions owner and that was kind of that for myself and him. The owners of the competition spoke with him, and I thought at that time that we wouldnt have anymore further problems ..... boy was I wrong ! The Competition owners assured us there was absolutely nothing that we had done wrong, and that they their selves were a little confused as to why he was doing and saying the things that he was saying, as he had no authority to do so. I watched Mr. Foster and the owners of imagine dance challenge have a heated conversation that took place backstage for a duration of about 30 to 45 minutes. The owners of imagine dance challenge, then reassured me again that they were very apologetic of what happened and that we were not in the wrong. I mean, how could we be? We were literally just doing normal dance competition things. I stated to the dance competition owners that I could not understand why he was specifically targeting our studio as he had not made any sort of disruptions with any other studio. Not one !!!! Mr Foster was actually super pleasant to other studios, at least that I'm aware of . It was just like as soon as we walked in the door he looked at us as a problem. Weird right ? Let's get into day 3 ......

May 14th it's not even 9 AM and I walk into a very upset parent and Dancer...... my male Dancer had been once again, harassed by Mr. Foster and the security team about a dressing room situation. It was brought to my knowledge that the owner of the dance competition had told my male dancer he could change in the teacher staff room so that he could be close to his group of female dancers to get his make up done before entering the stage. Once the owners of the competition had walked away from my male dancer, and his mother here comes Mr. Foster. Mr. Foster kept stating there are no men allowed in the dressing room area, which is very contradicting seeing as how the night before. He had gladly help himself back there with another security staff member both males, there were other male dancers from other studios going in and out and the judging staff also had male judges on the panel along with the owners of the dance competition were men. We once again brought the issue to competition staff and following Mr Foster once again had a heated argue with imagine dance challenge, spoke rudely to them and also reminded them he had the authority to kick everyone at the competition out of the venue. Throughout the day he taunted my dance moms. Mr Foster went out of his why to wave in parents faces, make smart remarks as they walked by, and he had the nerve to enter the theater every time DDC took the stage. He stood in the back corner and watched the DDC greatest that took place on stage. Not with the intention to support dancers but to taunt everyone he had been harassing all weekend. So again why was DDC the target of all this chaos???Yes DDC does not look like your average dance team ! However we are not criminals, we committed no crimes. We started no fires. We simple attended a dance competition along with every other studio in the building. Our dancers and parents did not behavior in any manner that would cause this type of treatment. Please someone make it make sense. Why us?

Lastly I will say these events that occurred truly made myself and my team feel very discriminated against , by simple being who we are. We felt unsafe and had to carry a very heavy toxic energy with us all weekend long. My dancers and parents did not deserve this! I did not deserve this and I will not let this slide....We as a team are demanding both Imagine Dance Challenge Utica Fire Department and The Stanley Theatre do further investigation on Fire Marshall Gerald Foster to better understand why this situation occurred. It is imperative, that this never happens again, and that dancers, especially minority dancers never feel this type of harassment an embarrassment at dance competition ever again.! Dancers should feel safe and protected in these atmospheres, not judged, harassed and degraded. This occurrence is totally unacceptable and due to it we will never attended event again at the Stanley theater nor attended any event in Utica Ny. I find it very disheartening that those who are meant to protect us make us feel the most unsafe this has got to stop!!!!!!!!!!

Lastly to Imagine Dance Challenge
Just because it didn't directly happen to you does not mean it's not important. And saying sorry isn't enough. Speak up for your minority dance teams and dancers !!!! "You stated you could write an letter take this further " but your not because why??? Let's talk about it ? Unacceptable!!!!

The definition of a Fire Marshall is:
an official who is responsible for enforcing fire regulations or investigating fires.

Duties include : The fire marshal's main responsibility is to conduct fire investigations to determine the causes of fires. If the fire is deemed incendiary, the fire marshal conducts the criminal investigation, which aims to identify and apprehend the offenders. Fire investigation is a systematic inquiry into a fire incident.

Non of this listed above did Fire Marshall Gerald Foster perform on the weeks of May 12th-14th !!!! Rather he targeted a minor dance studio and did and said what he pleased. He treated us as criminals and constantly reminded us of his power over us the city of Utica NY

PSA: Let's talk about.... long story but listen up!!! This is a must read for all dancers, studio owners, dance competition owners etc... I debated even making this post, but after long thought , I came to the conclusion that it was very important for others to know what went on. Myself and my team are still very traumatized from the events that occurred.

Y'all know I never post but....... I cannot remain silent!

Now let me start by saying in over 30 years of attending and being part of numerous dance competitions. I have NEVER experienced what myself and my team of dancers and parents experienced 2 weekends ago on May 12th-14th at Imagine Dance Challenge. This event was held at The Stanley Theatre In Utica Ny. Anyone who is familiar with a Stanley in Theatre knows they have a very strict policy as far as bringing food into the venue and having security check bags at the door. No Big deal right? Super harmless! All my dancers staff members, parents and myself. We're all checked upon arrival every time we enter the Stanley theater. We agreed to those terms before even choosing to attend this event. Now what we did not sign up for was to be continuously harassed, threaten to be kicked out, taunted, degraded, and racially targeted by Utica Fire Department own Fire Marshall Gerald Foster. Your probably asking yourself how and why? I myself am still asking these same questions , because the events that took place happen with no reasonable cause. Let's start with the timeline.....
On Friday May 12th is when the events began......
Dancers entered theater and all were thoroughly checked, etc. My male dancer and his dad were harassed by both Fire Marshall Gerald Foster and The Stanley Theatre security team in regards to a men's dressing room situation. My dancers were told the men's dressing room was in one area by Imagine Dance Challenge staff and them told by the Fire Marshall Mr. Foster he must move and that parents would not be let in to help change dancers. This nights occurrences were very mild, but unnecessary. It was in the way fire marshal, Mr. Foster spoke and addressed my young dancers, and their families that initially set the tone .Seemed to not make any sense but we let it go and moved on. That brings us to day 2....

On Saturday May 13th. Myself , my dancers, their parents all entered the competition very early morning, preparing for a very long day.Everyones bags were thoroughly checked, and we went straight to the dressing room to prepare for the kids for the stage. Everything was going fine until..... we got a random knock on our dressing room door, this knock followed with an opening of the door before anyone could even say "come in " " hold on" etc.... yes you heard that right the fire marshall, Mr. Foster, accompanied by one security guard knocked and opened a dressing room door filled with children who were changing ! I am mediately pushed the door shut in his face and said you need to wait kids are changing! In the room was myself one of my staff members my young eight and under dancers and one grandparent. I told Mr. Foster to give us a moment to get the kids together before he and the security guard could enter. Once I reopen the door and told him it was safe to come in, He stated he needed to come in and check through all of our bags. It didn't occur to me at the time ,that was a weird request from a fire Marshall, so complied. When he entered the room I asked him "why are you here"? "What can we help you with "? At the this his tone quickly changed and that question triggered a very heated argument between myself and a fire marshal Mr. Foster. I stayed to him numerous times "This was a Dance Competition" and we were not doing anything wrong. I asked him repeatedly why he came back to our dressing room in the first place? I wasn't understanding why he was back there in the first place bothering and harassing myself and my dancers. Gerald Foster not once answered my question as to why he had enter my dancers dressing room area! Myself, and Mr. Foster exchanged many words loudly ,at that time, and that he said he would remember all of this for the following day, and that he had the power to kick us out at any time. He stayed i didn't know who I was messing with..... he also was unaware of who he was dealing with clearly ! I stayed "My full name studio name and told him to write it down for the following day" and that "He was a weirdo for coming to a kids dressing room with no reasonable cause". He then stayed " who's chair is sitting in front of your dressing room door ? I said " one of my staff members who happens to be a male put it outside of the door so that he could leave the room when dancers were changing " Mr. Foster stated you cannot have any chairs outside of the door. It's a fire hazard. We agreed and quickly brought the chair inside. If he initially came to the dressing room, because of a chair sitting outside the door, there was no need for him to enter at anytime. he tried to use the chairs, a cop out because I don't think he even knew himself why he had to come back to our dressing room.
At that time he exchanged more words with my other staff member and the grandparent once leaving the dressing room. I immediately notify the dance competitions owner and that was kind of that for myself and him. The owners of the competition spoke with him, and I thought at that time that we wouldnt have anymore further problems ..... boy was I wrong ! The Competition owners assured us there was absolutely nothing that we had done wrong, and that they their selves were a little confused as to why he was doing and saying the things that he was saying, as he had no authority to do so. I watched Mr. Foster and the owners of imagine dance challenge have a heated conversation that took place backstage for a duration of about 30 to 45 minutes. The owners of imagine dance challenge, then reassured me again that they were very apologetic of what happened and that we were not in the wrong. I mean, how could we be? We were literally just doing normal dance competition things. I stated to the dance competition owners that I could not understand why he was specifically targeting our studio as he had not made any sort of disruptions with any other studio. Not one !!!! Mr Foster was actually super pleasant to other studios, at least that I'm aware of . It was just like as soon as we walked in the door he looked at us as a problem. Weird right ? Let's get into day 3 ......

May 14th it's not even 9 AM and I walk into a very upset parent and Dancer...... my male Dancer had been once again, harassed by Mr. Foster and the security team about a dressing room situation. It was brought to my knowledge that the owner of the dance competition had told my male dancer he could change in the teacher staff room so that he could be close to his group of female dancers to get his make up done before entering the stage. Once the owners of the competition had walked away from my male dancer, and his mother here comes Mr. Foster. Mr. Foster kept stating there are no men allowed in the dressing room area, which is very contradicting seeing as how the night before. He had gladly help himself back there with another security staff member both males, there were other male dancers from other studios going in and out and the judging staff also had male judges on the panel along with the owners of the dance competition were men. We once again brought the issue to competition staff and following Mr Foster once again had a heated argue with imagine dance challenge, spoke rudely to them and also reminded them he had the authority to kick everyone at the competition out of the venue. Throughout the day he taunted my dance moms. Mr Foster went out of his why to wave in parents faces, make smart remarks as they walked by, and he had the nerve to enter the theater every time DDC took the stage. He stood in the back corner and watched the DDC greatest that took place on stage. Not with the intention to support dancers but to taunt everyone he had been harassing all weekend. So again why was DDC the target of all this chaos???Yes DDC does not look like your average dance team ! However we are not criminals, we committed no crimes. We started no fires. We simple attended a dance competition along with every other studio in the building. Our dancers and parents did not behavior in any manner that would cause this type of treatment. Please someone make it make sense. Why us?

Lastly I will say these events that occurred truly made myself and my team feel very discriminated against , by simple being who we are. We felt unsafe and had to carry a very heavy toxic energy with us all weekend long. My dancers and parents did not deserve this! I did not deserve this and I will not let this slide....We as a team are demanding both Imagine Dance Challenge Utica Fire Department and The Stanley Theatre do further investigation on Fire Marshall Gerald Foster to better understand why this situation occurred. It is imperative, that this never happens again, and that dancers, especially minority dancers never feel this type of harassment an embarrassment at dance competition ever again.! Dancers should feel safe and protected in these atmospheres, not judged, harassed and degraded. This occurrence is totally unacceptable and due to it we will never attended event again at the Stanley theater nor attended any event in Utica Ny. I find it very disheartening that those who are meant to protect us make us feel the most unsafe this has got to stop!!!!!!!!!!

Lastly to Imagine Dance Challenge
Just because it didn't directly happen to you does not mean it's not important. And saying sorry isn't enough. Speak up for your minority dance teams and dancers !!!! "You stated you could write an letter take this further " but your not because why??? Let's talk about it ? Unacceptable!!!!

The definition of a Fire Marshall is:
an official who is responsible for enforcing fire regulations or investigating fires.

Duties include : The fire marshal's main responsibility is to conduct fire investigations to determine the causes of fires. If the fire is deemed incendiary, the fire marshal conducts the criminal investigation, which aims to identify and apprehend the offenders. Fire investigation is a systematic inquiry into a fire incident.

Non of this listed above did Fire Marshall Gerald Foster perform on the weeks of May 12th-14th !!!! Rather he targeted a minor dance studio and did and said what he pleased. He treated us as criminals and constantly reminded us of his power over us the city of Utica NY

Get a jump start on summer registration!!! Stop into the studio every Thursday in May! Join the DDC Movement today 🖤🧡

Dominique's Dance Creations Dance�Diversity �Creativity
Open and Performance Classes for ages 3-Adult!
Professional / Compet

“Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better.” — Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., speech excerpt from “A Knock at Midnight,” 1958
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image: Maranie Staab (), Last Chance for Change march in downtown Syracuse NY. Mural of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by artist London Ladd depicted in the background, 2020.