A video from a dance competition in Hartford last week has gone viral. The video shows a dance coach hugging a group of dancers after accepting an award, but not hugging the one Black student in the group. The dance studio is called Dance Xpressions and is located in Plainville. Melissa Bregli a is the mother of 6-year-old Shaniah, the dancer who was left out of the hug. “[The coach] gave everybody else a hug except for Shaniah,” Breglia 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.’” Breglia said she approached the dance coach in a dressing room after the incident. “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 side stepped her.’ She said, ‘I didn’t do that. I didn’t do anything to her.’” After the competition, Breglia said she worried she had overreacted, until another audience member sent her a video of the interaction on stage. Breglia posted it to her TikTok, and it has been viewed more than four million times. “Afterwards I really thought that I was overreacting in what I saw, until I saw the video and realized everything I’m feeling is valid, and everything my daughter is feeling is valid,” Breglia said. The dance studio now has dozens of negative reviews on Yelp from people all over the country. Their social media accounts can no longer be found, and their phone’s voicemail was full when NBC Connecticut attempted to reach them. Breglia said her daughters were removed from the program. “I got a letter…dismissing my child, my children, from the program. That I had been aggressive with staff,” she said. “At no point in time was there a conversation about your actions, an apology towards my daughter, there was no acknowledgement that anything was wrong.” “I would like her held accountable. I would like to make sure that other children don’t go through the same thing,” Breglia continued. She said her video has reached people all over the world. While they now look for a new dance studio, she said her family is grateful for the outpouring of support. “This has reached globally. I have had people from Australia, Germany, UK, Ghana reach out to me, and just say, please hug that little girl and tell her that you have support, you have people that want to give you a hug,” Breglia said. ...read more read less