Coach Excludes Young Biracial Dancer From Team Hug During Hartford Dance Competition

After replaying the moment between her daughter and the dance coach, Shaniah's mother says her and her daughter's feelings are 'valid'

A dance mom has removed her daughters from Dance Xpressions studio in Plainville, Connecticut, after her 6-year-old was humiliated on stage by a coach who visibly excluded her from the team’s group hug during a dance competition in Hartford.

In a now-viral TikTok video, the young biracial dancer, Shaniah, stood alone as she watched her coach, Nadia Boucher, run on stage and embrace her other three dance peers. The coach appeared to ignore Shaniah, who attempted to lean in for a hug. In the video, the audience can be heard reacting to the gesture.

“Shaniah came off stage devastated!” wrote Melissa Breglia.

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Breglia is Shaniah’s mother, according to NBC Connecticut, and the situation has left her heartbroken. At first, Breglia thought she overreacted about the incident between the coach and her daughter until she rewatched the moment on video.

The coach “gave everybody else a hug except for Shaniah,” the mother said. “Shaniah came up to me and said, ‘Mommy, how come [the coach] didn’t give me a hug? She hugged everybody else.’ She said, ‘Mommy, I did all my moves, I smiled the whole time…and I didn’t get a hug, but they did.’”

Moments later, in the dancers’ dressing room, Bregalia addressed the incident with the coach.

“I went up to [her] and said, ‘How dare you? How dare you make my child feel less than?’ She instantly stiffened up and said, ‘I didn’t do anything, why are you yelling at me?’ I said, ‘you had her standing on the stage alone. She leaned in to hug you, and you sidestepped her.'” The coach denied her actions toward the young dancer.

The March 24 video has garnered over four million views, and the dance studio, which has seemingly deleted all of its social media accounts, has reportedly accumulated loads of negative feedback from supporters worldwide who stand with Shaniah.

The child’s mother said the studio released a statement to team parents faulting her for the situation. Breglia followed with a March 26 TikTok to thank supporters for standing up for her daughter. However, the message also detailed the emotional weight the studio has placed upon her 6- and 9-year-old daughters. She is deeply saddened by studio parents and their children who put dance first and turned their backs on her daughters. As of that April 2, only one team member had reached out to check-in.

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The mother advised parents with children of color to teach them about their culture. She believes parents who raise their children in spaces like Dance Xpressions are doing them a disservice.