A Connecticut dance mom is furious by how her biracial daughter was treated by a coach at a dance competition. And as she shares her frustration with the teacher and the studio on social media, a now-viral video of the exchange has thousands of other people just as heated.
In a video, Nadia Boucher, a coach at Dance Xpressions in Plainville, Connecticut, is seen rushing the stage after her students compete in the Headliners dance competition. She gets down on her knees to scoop three of her white students up in a hug. When a fourth student, who is biracial, reaches out to hug Boucher, she gives her the cold shoulder and backs away. But don’t worry, Boucher’s actions didn’t go unnoticed.
“That was rude,” someone in the audience can be heard saying in the clip.
You can watch the exchange yourself here:
The dancer’s mom, Melissa Breglia, shared her frustration with the coach and the dance studio in an emotional Facebook post.
“It absolutely breaks my heart to watch this... Shaniah came off stage devastated! Why would a “teacher” treat a child so poorly!” she wrote. “My daughter deserves an apology and I will continue to share this until THEY FEEL AS BADLY AS SHANIAH DID!! And the studio feels justified and released a statement to the team parents as if it was MY FAULT!! I STAND WITH MY DAUGHTER!”
Thousands of others were there to stand with Shaniah as well, calling out Boucher’s bad behavior in the comments.
“That was rude as hell, how can someone treat a child like that, shame on her,” someone wrote.
Since she posted the video, Breglia gave viewers an update on the situation in the comments, telling them that she has since pulled her daughters out of Dance Xpressions. Breglia says that while Shaniah and her sister are heartbroken since they’ve left, the director of the dance studio has ignored her requests to talk about what happened.
“Im glad everyone gets to see the truth... unfortunately I get to wipe the tears from my kids faces because they worked so hard all year to have their passion ripped from them... They refused to even have a conversation today when I called the director, she hung up in my face. As if she didn’t make THOUSANDS off of my family...” she wrote.
Reading Breglia’s heartbreaking message left other parents ready to get in formation to make sure the teacher and the studio are held accountable.
“Melissa Breglia maam let us know the name of the gym, my daughter does competitive cheer so I know first hand how this must’ve felt.. WE RIDE AT DAWNNNN!!!!!” someone wrote in the comments.