Kids ‘N Dance

My child attends the gym and ballet class. Miss Sophia is a wonderful, engaging teacher who teaches the children dance fundamentals with an emphasis on FUN! She really does do the technical work with them to improve their positioning, posture and body movements with the right amount of letting them have freedom to keep them engaged. She also was great at kindly disciplining my son when he tried to push at the front of the line for an activity. I was so glad she did that to show that she is the leader of the classroom and that kids cannot «get away» with negative behaviors. Plus, the gymnasium section of the class is really cool! They do trapeze, silk swing, rock climbing, balance beam, tumbling, etc. It is not just running around on foam blocks like I imagined it would be :).

This place is awesome and so much fun for the kids! Teacher Hannah is just amazing with the kids. I don’t know how she teaches young children to act, sing and dance so well. I highly recommend this place for anyone interested in getting their kids involved in dance or theater.

This review is for the week long Princess Camp with Katie: we absolutely adored this camp. The princess crafts, the themed dances and warm ups, the instructor – all were to perfection. My newly 4 year old daughter was ecstatic to come every day and thrived in this class. The performance at the end of the week was superb. My only improvement would be to add a helper to the class. Katie was amazing and so good with the kids, but just someone on hand to walk kids to the bathroom and small things like that. Excited to try another camp at this location! Thank you for an awesome week!!!

My daughter was just in a play with Teacher Hannah.
Teacher Hannah was able to get a group of four year olds
to perform a pleasing and coherent play!
My daughter really liked working with Teacher Hannah.
She is consistent and warm and helps everyone feel that they
can be a contributing actor ! Thank you Kids N Dance for finding such
Competent and warm teachers !

Class quality really depends on the instructor. When we first enrolled Nov. 2012, the ballet instructor was amazing. However, only after 2 classes, she’d quit, to be replaced by Katie on Sats. Katie doesn’t have command of the kids, like the previous instructor. Kids are doing their own thing and running around. It is now becoming more like a play session, rather than a pre-​ballet class. If I wanted it to be a play session, I would go to Gymboree instead of here. Disappointed.

Very disappointing! The owner was non approachable, unprofessional, fake and needs to learn about customer service. The others have to respond to her so no comment… The facility is dumpy and needs to be sterilized.
Go to Walnut Creek instead, we did.

We just had my daughter’s 4^th birthday party there. It was a fantastic 2 hour party with her choice of princess dances. Natalie, the teacher, was warm and engaging. The girls left happy and very tired. Thank you for a great birthday.

During the last year my 8 year old daughter has taken 4 sessions of hip hop, 2 sessions of ballet, performed multiple routines in 2 recitals, performed in a production of Annie in summer camp and is currently taking hip hop and jazz all at Kids n’ Dance. During this time she has blossomed as a performer due in very large part to her beloved teacher Reagan. My daughter was pretty self conscious a year ago but she really wanted to take hip hop. We started taking classes in Oakland and she connected with Reagan who has been very patient and encouraged her to take more and different classes. We now go to Lafayette twice a week to take classes with Reagan. Reagan’s passion for dance has totally inspired my daughter and she really looks forward to her classes every week.

An odd combination of good and just okay. The umbrella-​big organization has the benefit of flexibility in giving credits and rearranging schedules. My daughter’s teacher (Reagan) clearly has a strong work ethic, but I don’t think she was made for working with kids. She speaks in the worst fake, syrupy Barney voice when she’s running the class, and switches to a cold voice when giving correction. Told one 4-​year-​old today, «come into the circle, I don’t want to have to pull you.» And she doesn’t really have any interest or attention for who these kids are.
All that said, my daughter loves the class, but then again, kids like Barney and cotton candy, so what do they know?

My daughter attended a birthday here a few weeks ago and since then knew she HAD to have her 5^th birthday party there. Miss Christine was AWSOME!!! My Daughter had the most fun I’ve ever seen her have at a birthday party. The prices were very excellent and worth every cent. They made her feel special and I would definitely do it again. Maybe for my 7 yr olds next birthday.

I have given Kids n Dance enough chances! Although teacher Christine and some of the activities they do are about the only redeeming qualities, I was unimpressed with the other teacher and the lack of sanitary measures that are taken there. I think they should find other ways to cut back on their budget than with cleaning and take the time to wash the yucky stuffed animals. They could also be a bit more helpful with trying to find the age appropriate classes for their students and consider drop ins. I wasted several weeks worth of money.

Hey, what do I know about ballet studios? I just know that my 5-​year-​old daughter really enjoys her class here. Reagan, the instructor, has boundless energy and enthusiasm that makes all the difference between the girls hating and loving the class… and they LOVE it. Amazing to see someone teach class after class and not run out of patience or energy for what she does.
Another big plus is the genius idea of putting a video camera in the studio, hooked to a television monitor in the front room, separated by a large curtain so the kids don’t feel like they’re being watched by all the adults. Stage fright gone, they can really let go!
Be prepared for the 6′ x 8′ space in the front room. It’s way way too crowded to fit the parents of 12 ballet students in such a small space.

I took my girls to Kids N Dance for a few sessions. To the studio’s credit, my girls did enjoy the class and ask to go back. I was less than thrilled. Their teacher, Kiva, never seemed to me like she actually enjoyed what she did. She always seemed in a bad mood and was a bit short with the kids. There was a lot of obstacle course type stuff in the class and less dance. We took a class from Ace Dance Academy in Walnut Creek over the summer and they actually taught dance for the duration of the class, the teacher is happy and enjoys teaching. We won’t go back to Kids N Dance.

We decided to give Kids ‘N Dance a try. Based on the website’s descriptions, we signed our lovely 2 year old for the 16mo.-3y.o. dance class on Wednesdays. Before the end of the first class, we knew it was not a good fit. The length of «free play» far surpassed 50% of the day’s activities (the website suggests only 15min. of «free play»). The rest of class offered questionable dance content.
Out of a sense of fairness, I offered to pay the proprietor the full single class fee (rather than the 14 weeks I was being charged). She generously offered CREDIT in future classes. The value to that seems clear. The last communication I had with Kris Mueller, the proprietor, ended with her pledge that the charge would be dropped. That was 6 weeks ago. Big surprise– no dropped charge.
The weird thing is if she had acted like she truly was concerned about providing the class as described, she wouldn’t need to take such an aggressive financial posture with clients. Clearly, she is in only interested in collecting as much money on the front end. Kids nor dance seem to be her interest– buyer beware!
Kids ‘N Dance truly deserves no stars, but that is not a Unilocal option

Why do we love Kids ‘N Dance?
— Kristin is the BEST teacher — so dedicated, so kind and caring, tons of enthusiasm and energy
— It’s cheap
— Easy parking out front
— No strict dress code
— Flat screen TV so parents can watch their kids but kids can’t see their parents
— Single drop in classes available, 4 weeks, 6 weeks or 12 weeks — lots of flexibility and options (but no free trials)
I highly recommend Kids ‘N Dance. So far we’ve taken then the mommy and me creative movement class and now we’re doing creative movement/​pre-​ballet. Both classes follow similar formats: warm up (play time for the younger kids with mats, tunnels, balls), dancing with stuffed animals (called babies), lining up on a bench and doing an individual line routine which consists of different types of jumps over rubber animals: Hopper (grasshopper), Blueberry (lizard), and Emerald (snake). Then it’s story time, dress up time (recently the kids were kings, queens and dragons) and then more dancing to music sometimes with other props such as ribbons. The class ends with a hand stamp and drawing to color to remember the theme of the class.