Durango Dance owner accused of paying staff late, from personal account

Durango Dance employee Melinda (Harmony) Morris was excited about her new job until she found out that her paycheck was rejected by the bank due to insufficient funds in the company’s bank account.

Used for news purposes under the Fair Use Doctrine.

Durango Dance, LLC is a business in Durango, Colorado that provides a place for children and adults to attend dance classes. It’s Registered Agent is Miriam Morgan.

“My first check that I got from her didn’t bounce,” said Harmony Morris. “But then again we’re talking like a $100 some odd dollar check. So, I at the time wasn’t suspecting that anything other than a disgruntled employee had happened.”

Alarmingly, the second paycheck that Morris received from Morgan did bounce due to insufficient funds, Morris said.

“And then came my second payroll check. I deposited it in my checking account. I don’t have overdraft protection or anything on it. The bank teller looks at the check and kind of gets this funny look on his face and says, “do you want overdraft protection on this just in case?”

“I looked at him and said “that’s a payroll check. I’ve never heard of a payroll check bouncing.” He lifted his eyebrow and says, “well you’d be surprised.”

“I was like, “no, i’m good. I don’t need to add anything extra right now.”

“I go off. I pay my bills thinking I had the money in my account.”

“Three days later I went to pay my electric, and they were like, “you’re declined.””

“I was like, “what? I just deposited my check. There’s no way.””

“So I called Miriam, Morris said. “I’m freaking out. My check bounced. What the hell is going on?”

“She said that she pulled funds from Durango Dance to pay the rent at Mancos Dance because I didn’t have enough money in that account.”

Morgan allegedly apologized and then brought Morris cash, Morris said. Morgan did pay the overdraft fee for the bounced check, Morris said.

“I was like, ok mistakes happen. We’re going to let this ride. I got my money. That was stressful. It’s all settled. She made it right.”

“Then, my next payroll check came by, and it bounced. And again, at the time I was paying bills. And I was like, ok Miriam, this isn’t cool. My check just bounced again. This time she Venmoed me my money, but not the overdraft fee. I had to cover that.”

“And then the third time I had a check bounce, that’s when I said, “ok Miriam, I can’t keep doing this. We need to figure out a way where I’m getting paid and getting paid the full amount on time, it’s not bouncing. This is not right. I’m literally about to walk out on you over this. This is not ok.”

Morgan knowingly wrote paychecks to Morris knowing that the bank account wouldn’t have the funds available for the balance of the check to be deposited into Morris’s account, said Morris.

I asked Morris if Morgan writing her those floppy paychecks was just negligence.

“Not a chance,” said Morris. “Not when that broad of a pattern has been established that she’s continuously done this over 8 years to one employee a year. Her best friend and C.O.O. was the one who came out and gave me that information.”

Morris said that Morgan offered to pay her on Venmo temporarily until she figured it out.

“Morris said, ok this is going to be temporary. I’m ok with that. Let’s just go ahead and do Venmo, Morris said.

And, temporary turned into my entire year and then plus employment that I was there.

Then that led to me having to beg for my funds. I was supposed to get paid every Friday, every two weeks. There was days where I begging for my money on a Saturday and a Sunday and a Monday and a Tuesday. Miriam, I still need my wages. Hey this is the fourth reminder. When are you going to send that?

She would just completely blow me off.

Over time in my text messages, you can see me become increasingly frustrated even though I remained professional.”

More Durango Dance staffers confirm late payments via Venmo

Two former employees in addition to Harmony Morris were willing to talk to me anonymously to confirm that they too had been paid late via Venmo. They also said that they had to remind or beg Miriam to pay them their wages.

One of those former employees was an administrator who said that she managed family accounts for Durango Dance for nearly four years. At first, it was only the teachers whose checks were bouncing. Then, there came a time when Miriam wrote her a pay check, but asked her to wait to cash it. The employee claimed that Miriam’s husband Venmo’d the employee some of the wages owed. Eventually, Bank of the San Juans would not cash her pay checks, the employee said. Bank of the San Juans froze the account, the employee said.

After two of the administrator’s checks were declined, Morgan resorted to sending payments to the administrator via Venmo, the former administrator said.

Ultimately, the former administrator at Durango Dance ended up resigning from her job there due Morgan’s alleged payroll misconduct.

Months later, the administrator’s W-2 arrived late, she said. Her actual earnings did not match up with the earnings reported on the W-2, she said.

A total of nine staff members received their wages later than was mutually agreed upon ahead of time, the administrator said.

Another dance instructor who spoke with me anonymously also said that she was paid late via Venmo. She also had to beg for payments from Morgan, she said.

Durango Dance Owner Miriam Morgan failed to respond to a written request for comment on this story sent to her via email.

Here’s a screenshot of the actual Durango Dance Venmo business account.

No records of open wage claims associated with Durango Dance

Durango Dance employee Harmony Morris said that she filed a complaint over the bounced paychecks to the Colorado Division of Labor.

An employee with Colorado’s Division of Labor Standards and Statistics said that there are no records of complaints associated with Durango Dance Foundation, also known as Durango Dance.

Good afternoon,

This communication is in response to your recent records request, which the Colorado Division of Labor Standards and Statistics received on Wednesday, August 20, 2025. The Division is unable to provide the requested documentation because it does not exist. The Division has no claims associated with Durango Dance Foundation, also known as Durango Dance.

The Division shares a public spreadsheet of all violations of Colorado wage and hour law issued by the Division on and after April 13, 2017. We also share a public website for most Citations & Appeal Decisions.

Thank you,

—
Kelly Douglass

Operations and Fiscal Manager

Division of Labor Standards and Statistics

Here’s a copy of my original CORA request:

———- Forwarded message ———
From: Adam Howell <athowell@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Aug 19, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Subject: CORA Request
To: <cdle_pr@state.co.us>

 

Hello Records Custodian,

Please provide a copy of all publicly-available documents pertaining to complaints that were filed against the Durango Dance Foundation, also known as Durango Dance, whose Registered Agent is Miriam Morgan. Their ID Number: 20211346529

Please exclude any documents that would require more than an hour worth of staff time to locate and produce.

The records that I’m requesting are intended to be published as matters of public interest in an online publication.

Adam Howell

08/19/25, 05:48:27 PM

While Durango Dance was not on the state’s list of companies in Durango that had wage claims against them, there were three companies worth noting:

Adam Howell is a writer who believes in free press and the importance of the constitution. He can be reached by clicking on this link to the contact page.