Last updated: September, 2026
These guidelines apply to every review submitted to Reviews.BalletHelpDesk.com. They cover who can submit a review, how reviews are verified and published, what content is not allowed, how we moderate reviews, how we protect reviewer privacy and how programs can report a concern. In this policy, “program” means a summer intensive, a year-round training program or a ballet competition.
Who can write a review
A review can be submitted by a parent or legal guardian of a dancer who attended the program, or by the dancer. Each review should describe one dancer’s experience at one program in one year. For each dancer, program and year, we accept one review from a parent or guardian and one review from the dancer. We do not accept reviews of the same dancer’s experience from more than one parent or guardian. Families with more than one dancer at the same program may submit reviews for each dancer. Dancers under 13 are reviewed only through the “Parent with Dancer Input” option. If we receive reviews beyond these limits, we will contact the reviewer and publish only one.
Reviews for dancers under 13 must be submitted by a parent or guardian using the “Parent with Dancer Input” option and the parent’s or guardian’s email address. If a review lists a dancer under 13 and was not submitted this way, we will not publish it. We will contact the email address provided to confirm who submitted it. If the dancer submitted it, we will ask a parent or guardian to resubmit, then delete the original submission and the dancer’s email address.
The following people may not review a program: current and former staff, faculty and board members of that program; anyone with a financial interest in that program or a competing program; and anyone whose dancer did not attend the program.
Verification and publication
Each review is verified through a one-time link sent to the reviewer’s email address. We use the email address to confirm the submission and to contact the reviewer about the review. We do not publish email addresses or other identifying information, and we do not share them with programs.
Reviews are published individually once approved, including when a program has only one review. When we launch a new category of reviews, such as ballet competitions, we may hold the first reviews until we have collected enough to launch that section of the site.
Reviews are published without names or other personal information such as email addresses.
Writing a review
Reviews may include opinions, including negative opinions, about any aspect of a program. When a review includes factual claims, the reviewer should state how they know them: whether they observed something directly or learned about it from someone else, such as their dancer or another family.
Content we do not publish
We do not publish reviews that include the names of other dancers or details that would identify them; comments about another dancer’s body, appearance or ability; comments about faculty or staff that concern their personal lives, their appearance or anything unrelated to their professional role; personal contact information; threats or harassment; or slurs or language targeting people based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability or national origin. Faculty and staff may, however, be discussed and criticized in their professional roles.
We also do not publish reviews that are promotional, submitted by someone with a conflict of interest, or copied from another source. We do not publish statements accusing a specific, identifiable person of a crime unless the reviewer states that they witnessed it directly, and we may contact the reviewer before publishing such statements.
Safety concerns
Reviews may describe safety concerns, including inadequate supervision of minors, alcohol or drug use, abuse, harassment or unsafe housing. Before publishing a review with a serious safety allegation, we may contact the reviewer to ask how they know what they are describing. If the reviewer did not observe it directly, we will ask them to revise the review to say so, and the review will remain unpublished until they do.
A review is not a substitute for a report. If a child may be in danger, the situation should be reported to the program and to local authorities or child protective services.
Moderation
We read every review before it is published. We do not make substantive edits of reviews or remove portions of them. Every published review appears as its author wrote it, with one exception: we often fix noticeable typos/misspellings. If a review does not meet these guidelines, we contact the reviewer, explain what needs to change and ask them to submit a revised version. The review remains unpublished until a revision is received.
If a problem is identified with a published review, we move it to pending, which removes it from the site, and contact the reviewer. We move a published review to pending when it contains a specific factual allegation that would cause serious harm if false, such as a claim of a crime, abuse, harassment, fraud or danger to minors, and the review does not state how the reviewer knows it. We also consider whether the reviewer was in a position to observe what they describe. We also move a review to pending if it identifies another dancer, includes personal information or appears to have been submitted by someone whose dancer did not attend the program. A program’s objection alone does not cause a review to be moved to pending, and criticism of teaching, communication, housing, value or the overall experience remains published when a program disputes it.
Reviewers cannot edit or delete a review after submitting it. To revise or remove a review, the reviewer must email info@ballethelpdesk.com.
Independence
We do not accept payment to publish, remove or reposition a review. We do not accept advertising from any ballet training program or from any competition reviewed on our site. We occasionally accept advertising from ballet festivals and other events that are not reviewed on our site. Some ads on our sites are placed automatically by an advertising network, and an ad for a ballet training program may appear through that network. We do not select those ads. We have no direct financial arrangement with any ballet training program or reviewed competition. A program’s staff appearing as guests on our podcast has no effect on that program’s reviews.
Reviewer privacy
We do not disclose who wrote a review, and we do not confirm or deny whether a particular person submitted a review. We disclose reviewer information only when legally required, such as in response to a valid subpoena or court order. Where the law allows, we will attempt to notify the reviewer before responding.
Reporting a concern about a review
A program that believes a review violates these guidelines or contains a false factual statement may email info@ballethelpdesk.com. The email should identify the review, quote the specific language at issue and explain the concern. Programs may include documentation that relates directly to that language.
We will confirm receipt within five business days. We will review the concern against these guidelines. If it meets the standard described in the moderation section, we will move the review to pending and contact the reviewer. The outcome may be that the review remains published, that the reviewer is asked to revise it or that the review is removed. We will notify the program of the outcome. We will not share the reviewer’s identity or their communications with us.
We do not remove reviews because they are negative, because a program disagrees with the reviewer’s assessment or because other families reported a different experience. Documentation of a program’s written policies does not by itself establish what a reviewer did or did not experience. Programs cannot currently post public responses to reviews.
Changes to these guidelines
We may update these guidelines. The date at the top of this page shows when they were last updated. The current version applies to all reviews, including reviews submitted before an update.