We review the progress of ESO/WFI Imaging and VLT/FLAMES spectroscopy of large numbers of individual stars in nearby dwarf spheroidal galaxies by the Dwarf Abundances and Radial-velocities Team (DART). These observations have allowed us to show that neither the kinematics nor the abundance nor the spatial distributions are easy to explain in a straight forward manner for these smallest galaxies. The main result is that dwarf galaxies show complex and highly specific evolutionary and metal enrichment processes, especially at ancient times. This conclusively proves that these small galaxies are not the surviving equivalent of the building blocks of the larger galaxies in the Local Group.