A little about me...

I really don't like to tell people about my life. I have had a lot of bad experiences with people I trusted. So I'm taking a huge risk writing this. I may make some more so-called friends. I'm a graphic artist who is trying to earn a living. I design products for a POD, that is a site that prints the products for the customer. I love dance, food, coffee, cats and many other things, I'll tell you more about them in the future. I once had a stalker, before it was a crime. My house was stolen by a squatter and a dishonest bank.

With my husband, we have a dance school that was our way of earning a living for years. My husband is a dance teacher and teaches classical and modern dance. He is an excellent choreographer. I have always worked in the school office and also designed costumes and did the publicity for the school.

About 10 years ago Claudio decided to hire teachers to work under his direction and to teach Hip Hop, a style that he didn't do and wasn't interested in studying. He recognized it's utility for the students and thought they would enjoy learning it. Hiring these teachers meant that we earned less, not more, but we thought it was in the student's best interest. Did anyone ever tell you they got rich running a dance school?

We had various experiences with the teachers, many were very poor teachers, many were not at all reliable and missed work for any and every reason. Claudio substituted for them so the students didn't miss classes. We also found a few good and even excellent teachers, but they often changed jobs or got married and had children, so they gave up dancing.

Our school has exams with an external examiner and this meant that Claudio often had to tutor the teachers and their students so that they achieved the desired standard. Claudio taught the adults and the advanced students. Claudio was never offensive or mean to the teachers, he did everything he could to help them.

We had courses in our studio and in a nearby town in a space we rented by the hour.

I'll give them names to identify them.

In 2011 we had three teachers who taught Classical dance. Sally was a very poor teacher, but the students liked her and Claudio kept her on but didn't give her any more students or new courses. She only taught a few classes. She found a job with a supposedly rich Moroccan immigrant who was going to open a date factory and began to frequently miss classes, trying to reschedule them, without even asking us, at absurd times, like 9:00 pm for 8-year-old students.

Constance seemed to be a fairly good teacher, she only taught one class of preschool children and Pilates for adults. The children were well disciplined.

The other teacher, Filippa, was a better dancer and had begun with enough Classical and Modern courses to earn a comfortable living, but many of the students left the school from her courses. They were always reduced to the minimum number of students the contract permitted, just 5 students. She studied teaching at the university but was a very poor teacher all the same. After a couple of years she began to blackmail us, pretending to be paid €5000 under the table each year to save on her taxes, otherwise she would send a tax inspector that she knew who would ruin us.

Neither of these teachers could have prepared the students for an exam without help.

We also had a teacher who taught Modern dance for amateur students and Hip Hop, Rosie, and two other Hip Hop teachers, Mina and Zina.

The students that took Classical dance learned the basics of Modern as part of their program, Modern for amateur students was for children (and their parents) that just wanted to do an activity that let them move and participate in the school recital and outdoor exhbitions. They weren't interested in really learning to dance.

They were divided by age groups, but were basically the same level. Older children were naturally more coordinated than smaller ones. The courses were popular because there was no need to study or learn difficult steps. Rosie taught five courses and earned a good living. She quit her job with an editor because "It was boring to sit at a desk."

Hip Hop was divided into age groups reflecting a certain progression. Rosie also taught Hip Hop, and Claudio was not very impressed with the results in her classes. He decided to hire new teachers for the new "baby" students and for adult beginners. Mina taught the little children and the result with the kids was respectable, but she was very brusque with the parents who complained constantly about her lack of manners.

Zina worked very well with her adults and they progressed quickly. Claudio opened a new course for beginning adolescents with her. She said she could teach Modern, but a beginners course was a total failure.

The last few months of the year Zina announced that she would open her own school in September, about 5 miles from our school in another city. We didn't think it was a problem, her contract only forbid opening a school nearby.

Zina spent the entire summer taking our students to the movies, to restaurants, to ice cream parlors. She called the adults and the children and sent them messages every day. So it wasn't surprising that most of them went to her school in September, even though it wasn't nearby. We certainly couldn't afford that kind of treatment for the students with our prices.

We began the next year with fewer students and we were amazed at Zina's behavior, that she told us was absolutely correct.

The year 2011-2012 went by and the recital was held in June. Constance was pregnant and we had replacements for her with the children and Pilates. At the end of the year the adults from the Pilates course came to my office and said, "If Constance returns we are all quitting Pilates, no one can stand her." I promised to find a solution.

Shortly before the beginning of classes in September we got a call from Mina. A "once in a lifetime" occasion had presented itself and she couldn't return to our school. She was mysterious about this great occasion and we thought she had entered a professional company or was included in a tour as a dancer, or maybe she was getting married. We wished her the best of luck. She asked to be paid right away.

Normally the instructor's payments are made the next working month, which means that June was paid in September. I sent her payment even though it was an unexpected expense, the school earns nothing in July and August.

When we opened the school we discovered that Mina had opened her own school nearby and had promised special treatment to our students if they left our school.

I told Constance that I thought 8:00 to 9:00 pm was late for a new mother, so instead she would teach two lessons for children in the afternoon, the same hours, just earlier.

In June Sally had told us she was leaving the school as well, the date factory was about to open. It wasn't a problem for Claudio. He decided to give the two classes that Sally taught to two of his students, Caroline and Jade. Caroline would teach the smaller children and Jade, who was studying to become a teacher, the older ones who were more advanced.

These two girls had studied with Claudio for years, Jade, since she was a child, and Caroline had begun dance as an adolescent. Jade had physical qualities, like beautiful feet and a long neck and arms, but was lazy and not very coordinated. She had also grown to about 1,80m, too tall for most dance groups. Caroline was coordinated and had a good memory. She applied herself and learned well for a late beginner, but didn't have the stage presence necessary to dance and didn't seem to understand it's importance. Both had studied modern with Filippa.

Because we had many requests for Belly Dance we hired a teacher, Terry, who also helped in the office, since there weren't that many classes. Filippa had asked to work in the office, although I really don't know how she expected that I could trust her. Filippa and Rosie were extremely jealous of Terry as a dancer.

In November the owner of the building, an apparently wealthy man from Prato, announced that the gym that occupied the other half of our floor was leaving. Great news, since the owner was a shady character. I had taken a course with the Olympic Committee that recommended opening a restaurant in your building to help pay the expenses. We wanted to rent the former gym to create a restaurant and then use the proceeds to open a spa for the mothers to use while waiting for their children. We also wanted to have art shows and dance performances in the restaurant area. The shady owner of the gym broke all of the windows before he left and most of the mirrors.

The owner, who had rented to us since 1999, promised to repair the windows, a normal part of any business rental. We noticed a lot of water marks on the ceiling, but he told us the roof was repaired and they were old stains that had never been painted over.

We rented the building and began to get ready to open, we laid parquet in the large 10x16 meter room, we put in the pipes for the kitchen, we bought the bar furnishings. As soon as it began to rain, it rained in everywhere. You can't open a restaurant in a building that isn't up to code. We contacted the owner by email, phone and in person. He always promised to fix the windows and the roof but never did. We had programmed some art shows and had to organize them in the hallway due to the leaks.

School went on and we were determined, although angry. In March Rosie asked me if I could pay her three months in advance because her father's business was in difficulty since they had never paid their taxes. I told her we were not in a position to bail out small businesses. Our students hadn't paid those months yet. We had loads of expenses already.

The recital was held in June and there were remarkably few spectators, which further damaged us. We were not able to pay the rent for two parts of the building for July and August. A few other years we had been in the same condition, but we normally caught up in September.

A few days after the recital we participated in an outdoor exhibition. Rosie couldn't come, Filippa had an important activity. Jade was off on vacation in Indonesia or Bali. Constance was visiting relatives in Naples. As I was working as the sound technician I saw Sally and tried to say "Hi" but she seemed to be trying to hide from me. I thought "How strange!"

A few days later one of the mothers called Claudio and told him that Rosie, Filippa, and Sally were all there in the girls dressing rooms. They told them that they were opening a school about half a mile from us and the students should go there in September.

A few days later Rosie came to school to collect her payment and even asked for an advance. My husband said, "What do you know about Sally?" Rosie replied, "Nothing, why?" Claudio said, "And what do you know about a school opening half a mile from here?" She admitted that everything the mother said was true.

We confronted Filippa and she said it wasn't true, She wanted to meet with us in a bar. We went there and waited for her. We didn't order because we thought we would get something when she arrived. Filippa was late, just like at school. When she arrived she said let's not order anything, we'll sit at the tables outside. To me this was embarrassing, a bar isn't a waiting room, but she was a strange person at the least. She said she wanted to stay at our school. Rosie had asked her to work for her, but she didn't want to. Her only condition was that we paid her for June before the first day of school.

Caroline said she didn't know anything about it and would never work for Rosie.

Sally and Rosie spent the summer wining and dining the students and their parents, just like Mina had.

The Friday before we opened I paid Filippa, who insisted on meeting us on a busy corner near some trash bins rather than in the office. Over the weekend Claudio called her to propose a change in the timetable of some classes and she told him she didn't remember saying she was coming back. She was going to work for Rosie.

This left us with very few students to pay all of our expenses.

I was not able to catch up in September. The roof of the entire building was leaking. The first days of October a court order was delivered, the owner was being sued and we could not pay any rent to him until the lawsuit was settled. At the end of the month, we were advised that the owner was evicting us for non-payment.

And we received a visit from two tax inspectors. They were not even interested in looking at our books. The material was "too heavy" to carry to their office and they "knew" it was all fake anyway.

We turned to a lawyer who told us that it was impossible to evict someone who could not pay due to a court order.

We tried to contrast the tax inspectors, but in Italy you are guilty unless you can prove your innocence. How do you prove you never had something? They aren't reqiored to have any proof of how much money you were paid, you have to prove you didn't get it. They say, you were paid in cash and you spent it, how do you prove you didn't spend cash? So they levied a huge fine for money we never had.

The year went by, we organized our recital show in a smaller theatre. During the year three people asked us if they could organize a course of musical theatre at our school. We had plenty of free hours so we readily accepted.

In September everything seemed to be going well. The lawsuit concluded awarding a much greater payment than originally requested to the person who sued the owner. We began paying them the 24,000 euros they were due to receive.

Caroline told us she was not coming back. Her students didn't return either. The place where we had held classes for several years in a nearby town told us they didn't want to have dance classes there because the noise bothered them. About a month later a student told us she saw Caroline outside the building every Tuesday and Thursday. We decided to pay a visit and it was true. She had made an agreement with the owner and she and Rosie were holding classes there.

0n 23 December we were evicted. Our lawyer did not answer the phone. The owner's lawyer was there and laughed at us and said, "You will learn that the law works differently in Prato."

We had the Christmas break to find a new location for our school. I felt very sick and had a bad cough. My doctor was off on vacation until January 9th. We found temporary studios to rent by the hour and reopened spread out in several places in our town and nearby.

When my doctor finally came back she sent me directly to the hospital. I had a pulmonary emboli. I spent most of the spring in the hospital or at home.

In February we found a new studio. The owner was about 50 years old, and said he had been trying to rent the building for months, we could move in right away. The owner of our old studio gave us two days to remove everything, an impossible task. The first day he came by about 4 pm and said we could only stay until 4.30. Once we had moved what we were able to salvage, we were supposed to sign the contract. At that point the "owner" told us that his father was the owner and he didn't want to rent to a dance studio.

Our courses continued in various places all Spring. I had an operation on May 5 to remove the pulmonary emboli. Thankfully it was the only kind that can be operated on, or I would not be writing this. Briefly, they open your sternum, remove your hear and replace it with a pump that oxygenates the blood and then remove the coagulation from the lungs. They put the pieces back together like an old Chevy and you're good to go, if everything works out. I came back from the hospital June 2 and went directly to the recital show as the sound technician. (Please don't tell my doctor.)

All the while Claudio had been juggling courses, substituting absentee teachers and looking for a new studio. He had only seen one well-adapted building, but the owner didn't want to rent to a dance studio.

Jade, the three people from the Musical course and Constance said they wanted to help us because we were nice people who had so many bad things happen to them. Jade called the rental agency offering 4 months of rent as a deposit and the owner gave in. That is, Jade offered it, but we had to pay since none of them had any money to invest.

We had decided to set up a new not-for-profit company as a new beginning. All of them wanted to participate and help us. None of them wanted to be the president, and Jade told us her mother could be the president and her father the treasurer. We decided to ask someone else and our choice turned to Terry. She had been a loyal employee and by then was quite famous in her field.

We rented the building, spending all of our savings and taking out a loan of €25,000 to adapt the building. For the first ten days or so the three people from the Musical group helped us lay parquet. Jade came by one afternoon to help paint and her father came by three times to help with the electric system, being an electrician. We also spent a lot for a paid electrician who worked many hours.

My husband and I are very handy, the Musical group didn't seem to know which part of a hammer is the handle. Claudio patiently tried to teach them. Of the three, one spent most of the time sitting on the floor taking selfies, one said he was unable to do whatever was needed at the moment and one seemed to sincerely try to help. They then went on vacation to Greece and Claudio and I continued alone. We built walls, unloaded and set up the bar, painted and cleaned.

When they returned it happened that Terry and Claudio were doing a show at the beginning of an automobile race to earn money for the school. I was alone at school. The Musical group and Constance made their appearance. They told me I hadn't worked enough while they were on vacation and they were going to sit on the bar stools and see how long it took me to unload a pallet of furniture and office supplies.

Actually, I had had open heart surgery just over three months before and I wasn't supposed to lift anything. They didn't care and said, "If you don't do it we'll take all of the students to a different school." It was the beginning of a year of blackmail and insults.

Terry, Claudio and Elizabeth had also invested to renovate the building and pay four months in advance for the rent. We planned to complete the renovation over several years, but Jade, Constance, and the Musical group continually threatened to leave unless the work was done immediately. To keep them in our school, we spent what we planned to spend in two or three years in just one year, using all of our savings.

In the year 2015-2016 Claudio had given Jade the opportunity to teach a Pre-school course, in addition to the course she usually taught. She managed to teach the Pre-school course without any superlative successes but did complete the year. In 2016 2017, a few pre-school pupils that continued from the previous year, along with other new children of the same age, formed a Pre-Primary. Younger children formed a new pre-school class. These two courses were entrusted to her.

During the school year she unexpectedly left for the usual trip to Thailand or Indonesia.

Her behavior with the parents and between the parents and the school, was inappropriate. For example, she told me, that all "her mothers" had said they would not enroll children in school for the second period, beginning in November, because we didn't want to install a heater. In truth, she knew that we had already contracted with a firm to put the heating in and that it would be finished in a few days. When I contacted the parents told me that I should not allow myself to contact any of "her parents."

Although all the councilors were supposed to be equal, Jade pretended to be paid for every lesson she taught even if the Association did not have the money. We were, according to her, supposed to pay it out of our personal funds. Claudio and I worked the entire year for just a tiny part of our investment and no real pay. She would actually stand next to me while the parents were paying and pretend that I give her the money she wanted for the lessons directly from the parent's payments so that the school could not use the funds to pay the rent and the electricity.

At the beginning of April 2017, I began to insist that Jade and the Musical group give us the receipts for the payments we made to them for the year 2016. They had never given them to the association, and they were necessary to complete the economic balance-sheet for 2016 that was due by 30 April. They clearly did not want to deliver these receipts because the Musical Group always presented themselves to the parents as volunteers. Truthfully they took a rather large salary directly from the cash they collected personally from the students (against any sort of normal practice). Jade told the parents that we did not pay her.

In May she attended (and may have even organized) a meeting where she and her friends from the Musical group vulgarly offended Terry and me. A few days later they organized another meeting, without inviting Terry, in which Jade, Constance, and the Musical group ruled that I could no longer set foot in the association and that Claudio could no longer be the artistic director. If he didn't accept their conditions, they would not give us the music for the children's dance numbers and so would ruin the end of year recital for them.

During the hours of their lessons, that they pretended to be paid for, Jade and Constance organized meetings with the parents of their students. They told them that the exams are worthless, Claudio is not worth anything and he had held the students back by having them take their RAD exams each year. The students should have followed Jade and Constance's own system of teaching which is much better.

Throughout the school year 2016 2017, Constance had always criticized our school in front of mothers and students. She told Claudio she knew how to teach much better than he, and so Claudio did not help her with the students as he had done in previous years. The results of their exams were very poor.

Despite our attempts to satisfy their requests, in June they organized another meeting, with only Claudio and me, without the president. They told us that they were the artistic directors. As far as the money we had spent for the association was concerned, it was our gift to them.

Devastated, we turned to a new lawyer. The lawyer found a way to remove them from the association by voting the definitive council as was indicated in the statutes. In the statutes of the association, signed by all of them, it was clearly indicated that only adult students, teachers, and council members of legal voting age were entitled to vote.

Since there are technical times for convening the assembly to vote, they took the opportunity to campaign with the parents, telling them that we were depriving the children of their right to vote. This completely false because the children could not vote, nor can parents vote in their place. But their constant insisting created doubt in the parents, and some parents were even very offensive about it.

The assembly was held on 3 July.

As expected, several parents of children and teenagers arrived and some of the adults related to the musical course. Terry (the president) tried to open the meeting and Jade, remarkably over-excited, shouted over her words that she had to read a letter and it was her right to speak first. Being uncontrollable and rather menacing, after marking the list of those present, Teresa could not prevent Jade from reading her letter full of accusations and simple lies in which at last she and her colleagues resigned. Their "loyalists" began to shout loudly, giving no one the chance to speak. They claimed we had to sign their letter and give it back to them, but we refused.

6 loyal followers, plus two people who had never been members, delivered their resignation as members. The parents of 5 underage members, who were not themselves members, resigned. Dunia Gonfiantini, who was an adult member resigned along with her two daughters. A mother delivered the resignation of her daughter. The outgoing councilors told us that they would take away all of the students.

This was followed by a delirium of screams, slamming doors so violently that the wall was damaged, insults, one of the parents who had resigned attacked me saying that she had seen me beat the mothers of the little girls. Obviously an absurd allegation.

They started looking for a new building as close as possible to our school to take the students with them. They promised that they would do a wonderful international method that we don't know, and probably that the students would have paid less. They told us we couldn't do anything since Filippa had done the same thing and nothing happened to her.

They founded a new school just one mile from ours, after trying to convince the owner of our building to remove us and put them in instead. This is illegal and the owner informed us.

The most shocking thing is that they sent a SMS message to all the parents saying that, if they wanted, they would present them at the RAD exams, just as we do.

It seems almost needless to say that we are now in grave financial difficulty.

I'm trying to learn intollerance. Every one of those people had many reasons to be thrown out, but we tried to make them reason and even tried not to hurt their feelings, while they probably didn't care if we lived or died.