California Dance Academy

Our daughter has been training at CDA for 2 years and has excelled. The teachers are fantastic and the recitals keep the kids focused on manageable goals.
We now have seen two NutCracker ballets performed by CDA and with all honesty can say it equals the production of the LA Ballet. The costumes and choreography are modern and the energy and skill from the dancers is amazing especially when you consider their age.
Thank you Robin and Jen for creating this environment!!!

To be honest I haven’t stepped foot in here in years, but the great experiences and teachers helped mold me into a Vegas headliner and international performer. They introduced me to my love, the stage.
If it is still run with the same love and hard work, I highly recommend this academy!

My daughter has been attending CDA for 7 years now. They provide quality instruction and my daughter loves it.

Turn your air conditioner on!!! The teachers are great but it’s always way too hot in here.

Great! When my daughter decided to transition from gymnastics to dance she was terrified of being stuck in a beginner’s class with kids half her age — CDA was able to provide age approrpiate classes and gave her the attention and training she needed to rapidly advance to an intermediate level in record time. The other kids were very supportive and welcoming and made my daughter immediately feel right at home. Her teachers were and are encouraging and attentive. The owners are involved on a daily basis and know every kid by name. I really could not ask for more and my daughter, who is LOVING dance, could not be happier. Oh — and an added bonus is the Triple Talent acting, singing and dancing camps now at CDA (formerly in Woodland Hills) that are offerred by the day or by the week over holiday breaks and during the summer. Fun! As the old commercial says, «try it… you’ll like it!» :)

After an exhaustive search of dance schools in the San Fernando and Simi Valleys, we finally found ourselves at CDA for our 4 year old daughter. I believe it was our fourth studio to actually enroll in, in addition to the several ‘trial classes,’ we visited.
What we wanted: Tap and Classical Ballet training, brought to the little ones in a fun way without degrading into pop or hip-​hop dance/​music, bubbles and disco balls. CDA had this fantastically. Teacher Lori worked very well with the class of little ones. As I told her, sometimes it was like hearding bumble bees in there, and she was patient and thoughtful with them. I cannot remember the other teacher’s name, but if Lori was out the substitute was also wonderful (a problem I’d had with other studios).
Additionally, at CDA really seemed to «get» that young children do not want to stand on a stage in front of 200 people sitting in a huge audience in the dark at nap/​bed time. This was the ONLY studio I found that held a separate, small ‘recital’ in the studio for the youngest children in front of their immediate families. Our daughter’s first Ballet performance was completely positive for her, and all the other children. No one stood frozen in the middle of a performance or left in tears like I saw year after year when I was in dance recitals.
The one and only negative I can come up with was the ‘parent viewing area.’ It was one row of chairs, across a hallway that people would constantly traverse to get to the other studio, or stop right in front of you to get ready. It could be hard to see at times. Given all else, it’s certainly not enough to ding them a star… you just might want to bring a book for those times you can’t watch. Additionally, they had a drawing and a toy area to help keep younger siblings occupied during classes.
It was with huge regret that we left the studio only due to a family relocation. We’d finally found Preschool Ballet Nirvana only to leave prematurely. I encourage others to try out a class — we were very happy there.

This is a cool little dance studio! Just came back from a Tahitian Class for adults. The main studio is pretty big, and the the 2^nd studio isn’t too bad in size either. The schools seems to focus mainly on children’s classes, but any place that also offers adult classes is cool in my book. I’ll certainly come back for the hula/​Tahitian combo class in Sundays!