City Ballet School

Adult open classes here are fantastic and the facility is beautiful.
The teacher lineup is consistently the best in SF — all experienced and professional.
Amazing SFB principal Joanna Berman has been teaching on Wednesdays. Yuri Possokhov, Christopher Stowell, and other big names rotate in and out as teachers. Great pianists. Always a great experience.

Really disappointing… I had a professional ballet dancer visiting and suggest she take a class at City Ballet. She made it all the way down to City Ballet this morning only to find that the class had been cancelled with no replacement teacher.

A school for those interested in «real» classical ballet education, in the Russian tradition. Our daughter transferred here 2 years ago; we are very pleased with the intense and high level of professional training as well as expansive performance experience. The quality of the teachers is outstanding. And, most important of all; our daughter «loves» her school.

Exceptional ballet program for the serious aspiring professional. City Ballet SF School is by far the best program in the Bay Area. The teachers are professionals — very talented Dancers, Choreographers and Teachers. My daughter did a 4 week summer intensive. There were approximately 20 children in the class. We’ve been told by other parents that is common for students to stay a minimum of 2+ years at each level. The Teachers are wonderful coaches and care very much for the students. The students are very nice and supportive of one another.

Super cool and friendly place for vaganova based classical ballet! Can’t wait to go back…

I have to add my voice to those who were disappointed by this school. I don’t care about the location (half the schools in the city are in the shadier parts of town because you need a big, cheap space for any form of art), but I care a great deal about technique. My parents were dance professionals. My father had his picture on the cover of Dance Magazine. He toured world wide with his own company. I’ve danced since I could walk, studied ballet for many, many years and taken master classes with some truly great dancers.
So I was dismayed when I saw the way my daughter’s six year old body was treated by her Level I teacher (Galina A, the school’s director). You can’t move children’s bodies like that without a) teaching them terrible habits that will injure them later and b) stretching their flexible bones and ligaments inappropriately. The class was over-​crowded and too little time was spent teaching actual positions to the students. Just standing still in ballet requires using every muscle in your body. That kind of control takes time and attention to detail to teach, not thoughtless repetition.
After my daughter received enough attention for me to realize how bad this class was, I removed her summarily from the premises. Please, find somewhere else to take your children to learn ballet.

Parking! Parking! Parking! Need I say more? Oh ya… FREE Parking!
The only class I have taken so far is Pascale Leroy’s Adult Ballet class on Wednesdays from 9:30 — 11:00am. I am hooked. She is a very creative, kind, patient, and always encouraging. She is a real ballerina… so beautiful to watch when she demonstrates the exercises. As a dance instructor myself, I learn so much from taking her classes. I wake up excited to get to her class and leave feeling like I’ve really danced my heart out… and this feeling rarely happens for me from taking a ballet class! My only complaint is that it is only offered 1x/​week right now.

This school provides excellent training in a friendly, family oriented atmosphere. The artistic director, Galina Alexandrova, took over the school in 2003 and she has been producing students with excellent technique and artistic sensibilities. They also produce two shows a year with fantastic choreography by Yuri Zhukov. Master teacher Lupe Calzadilla is also a wonderful teacher. All in all, this is a great school for serious ballet students.

I thought Pascale Leroy was an excellent teacher. She provided insightful feedback while keeping the flow of the class. She made everyone feel comfortable, which is amazing considering the different level of dancers in the class. If only I had started with her earlier, since she will now not be teaching during the summer session. Hopefully, I will be able to take one of her classes when she starts back up in the fall.
Yes, the facilities are not as nice or spacious as other studios, but I think the quality of Pascal Leroy’s teaching makes up the difference for me.

I have been to this place a few times. The first time, I really hated it. Since first impressions can be wrong, I came back a second time and I still hated it. The facility itself is a nice one. However, the location is a terrible one, even without considering there are small children taking ballet and other dance classes here. The times I have been I have felt the same way, the place was impersonal and just gave off a bad vibe. It didn’t have that lived in, or rather «danced in» feeling, and almost just felt like a big empty warehouse. I took a ballet class here, a morning one. There were alot of older dancers, and some semi-​professionals. The teacher definitely had her favorites. The people she had known for a long time were the only ones that got any attention. Lil old me, did not get a single correction, look, or even encouragement. I am not a beginning dancer, I have danced 15 years, Four of them in a semi-​professional dance company. I know what qualifies as a good teacher and a good class. This did not cut it. I was very disappointed with this place as it makes you expect so much more. By the way, the dressing rooms also suck. No privacy what soever. Awkward.

3.5 stars
Remember the ‘Moonlighting’ theme by Al Jarreau?
«Some walk by night
Some fly by day
Nothing could change you
Set and sure of the way.»
I couldn’t help but sway and swagger as a jazz class was spinning chaînés across the floor to it. But then, I heard Rihanna reverberating down the hallway, «Please don’t stop the, please don’t stop the music…». And another class was getting their Shirley Temple-​tap dance on (I love adult beginning tap dancers, they look like big uncoordinated kids). Add that to the congas from my rehearsal and you get a taste of the flavor that City Ballet has to offer. It ain’t all ballet folks, it’s a dance studio!
They offer a variety of dance classes, studio rentals: hardwood and marley floors. I always enjoy stretching on the bars; I like to pretend that I’m a classically trained dancer minus the tutu;)
«Shake the stress away» at City Ballet. The facilities are clean and there’s a free parking lot. They have great performance photographs and posters on the walls too. The dance love is definitely palpable here.
Just be cautious bc the location is pretty shady. To get to the front door, you have to maneuver through narrow alleys from Market or Gough. At night, the parking lot is poorly lit with occasional loiterers. No «moonlighting strangers who just met on the way» for me please.

OOOOOO, I wish I could say I made a great choice. I’m mixed here. I had my son in their capoeira program and that was good. Master Low (from Brazil) was the instructor and he was pretty intense to watch. My son liked the class, but it seemed like the owner’s son got all of the attention. Sigh. I guess that’s just the way life is. In any case, the way that we found out about City Ballet is Master Low was teaching children Capoeira at their school through an art grant. So my son trained under him for two years and decided to give it up. He is now practicing kung fu at doc fai wong.
My daughter started ballet when she was four. I will first say that I studied ballet for seventeen years, and this is NOT the place that I would have picked for her. But convenience dictates here. I can’t say what the upper levels are like, but with the little ones, there is very little ballet training and more emphasis on movement. I’m not opposed to body movement, but say that it’s a movement class from the offset. She went in thinking she was going to be a dancer, but the year that she was there, she didn’t dance at all. She dreaded going. So we just didn’t force her.
The studio has an uppity sort of feel. You know the kind where parents talk about their huge trust funds and how much real estate they own. The cruises they take… Interestingly enough, this place is about a half a block away from the Power Exchange. Soooooooo, when you walk in their parking lot, make sure you avoid the condoms that liter the the lot.
the 2 stars are for capoeira.