Pasadena Civic Ballet

I have been dancing with PCB since I was 4 years old. I loved it! I met my friends of a life time here and teachers are great! They are so creative in choreographing for shows! I loved dancing in the company and PCB is definitely my second family.

My daughter attended PCB for 4+ years and overall I am so grateful for her time there. I feel the owners put a great deal into the studio and the productions which is why I feel so many girls stay from pre-​ballet at 3.5 years until they graduate high school.
PCB offers beautiful *original* productions. The hand painted animated backdrops, lighting, costumes, etc. all make the school’s performance a true production and experience for the audience. There is a Solo Fête (typically in winter), full-​length ballet in February and the year end performance in June (typically Father’s Day weekend). The youngest girls are only in the June show and starting in Ballet 1 they can audition to perform in the February ballet as well.
Ms. Michelle — is an AMAZING dancer and teacher. She teaches ballet to the younger girls and hip hop to the entire company. She is a gem and as another reviewer noted the owners are wise to keep her!
Ms. Elizabeth — is a former professional ballerina and is simply stunning to watch. She has a way of pushing dancers in ways that feel playful and whimsical. Often my daughter would leave her class sore but did not realize she was working that hard while she was in there.
Ms. Zoe — has an eye for detail. She notices small details and requires the dancers to work to correct any area that needs work. It was in Zoe’s class I could see the most growth in my daughter’s ballet technique. Zoe also takes time to communicate with parents what their dancer should do at home. While Zoe is strict she is very loving.
Ms. Tanya — For us Tanya was the fun teacher because she tends to teach choreography! Halloween Week Tanya always had a special dance for the kids to learn and perform for the parents. She is like a second mother to many of the kids and like in a typically family she yells at times but she also hugs and her love of all the dancers is apparent. Tanya puts so much into this studio sometimes I feel she needed to clone herself.
Ms. Angela — teaches ballet, tap and musical theater which included voice work as well. We have had her for ballet and tap.
I feel this studio blends technique with friendship and fun. Very few studios in the area are able to offer the diverse selection of classes that PCB does. My daughter’s best friend left the studio to focus exclusively on ballet which my daughter wanted to do as well so we have made a transition but I am so thankful for the love of dance that PCB helped to cultivate.

As a past student, I can attest that the owners and the teachers at this «company» do not care about the students’ improvement as dancers or development as artists. For starters, don’t let «nonprofit» fool you with this company. The incredibly high class prices are imbalanced in comparison to the poor quality of the teachers, most of whom are either disinterested in the students or show blatant favoritism that degrades students’ confidence.
Pasadena Civic Ballet not only fails to provide a solid ballet foundation for its students, but also lacks qualified instructors in other dance genres. Two words: false advertising.
If you want your child to have a quality dance education, this school is far from the perfect fit.

As I was searching for a ballet school for my 5 year old girl (reading reviews, asking around) I decided on this school.
Since I was to drive 13 miles to get there, I called the day before and specifically asked if the class I was interested in was still open for new students. The answer was a cheerful yes, and on next morning off we went on a 13 mile drive.
Well! Not only the class was not open, it was cancelled for good. And apperantly no one at that school had spoken to me on the phone (even after I gave them the exact time of the call).
They mumbled something about Friday class, but didn’t even finish talking about that. It was obvious they didn’t care, feel bad, or apologetic. To them it was my fault and «too bad». They did everything to avoid giving me the owner’s name. And never gave me Tina’s (the owner, I still have to check their public business info) contact number.
Moral of the story: if you read bad reviews, it’s a bad business. If the owner hides from its potential new students, it’s a bad business. If they lie to you just to make yoon one iin, it’s a bad business.
I’m taking my money to a more deserving business.

Pasadena Civic Ballet is one of the warmest and most inviting studios I have ever stepped into! As I danced at PCB, I not only learned great dance skills, but also made lasting friendships. The teachers at PCB are all highly qualified and are always a joy to work with. Dancers here are all very lucky to be a part of this family, and I can say that my friends and I have enjoyed all the years we spent here.
One of the biggest highlights of being a dancer with PCB is the fantastic opportunity to participate in the productions during the school year. All of the productions I have danced in/​watched have been colorful, lively, and entertaining (to say the least).
PCB also offers a great summer workshop program, where dancers are exposed to various styles of dance. Over the years, I have received training in styles such as hula, African, self-​defense, gymnastics, etc. These summer courses, along with the ballet, tap, jazz, character, and hip hop training that is offered during the regular school year, have helped me become a well rounded dancer.
If you are looking for a studio where teachers are highly trained, students are friendly and fun, and the dance training is top-​notch, then this is the studio for you.

Ms. Michelle is a great Hip Hop teacher! Our daughter’s had her for ballet and Hip hop. kind and very talent! Owners are smart to keep her!

Absolutely disgusting experience at this studio. No child should ever be subjected to the disdainfful and utterly disgraceful behavior of the owners or instructors at the studio.
1. My son attended the school 3 days a week for 3 years. After 3 years of lessons they were not able to teach my son Epaulement (what direction you are facing), Arabesque nor Adajio at center floor. They were always able to send me monthly statements and accept my money. Today my son is proudly flourishing at literally one of the most prestigious art schools in the world and can do any one of these three and more in his sleep. And if your wondering, PCB had nothing to do with him getting into the art school. My family scrambled like mad to get him trained by other schools and instructors that were at least as interested in teaching their pupils as they were interested in taking my money.
2. There was horrendous bullying by a few of the other dancers towards my son. (i.e. negative language for developmentally disabled or sexual preference) I do not hold the young culprits responsible for this. I mean they are walking around with the brains of an adolescent or tween. I absolutely know 100% the adult instructors of the classes knew what was going on yet did not intervene. Once, after we spoke to one of the owners, the owner came into to the class and gave a 1 minute generic «be nice to each other and we need to connect as a whole» speech. Oh ya and she also remembered to hand me my monthly statement that evening.
3. When we pulled my son out, we left numerous messages asking for one of the owners to call us back. We wanted to tell them why we pulled our son out. We were hoping to avoid ever, ever, ever having such a negative horrendous experience thrust upon another child in our community. The office receptionist called us back numerous times stating she was returning our call. We always thanked her for calling and told her we wanted to speak to Tania (the owner). The owner never did call us back. Ya, she did send us a final bill if you were wondering.
I’m fully aware you may look at my review and state «Wow that guy is flaming mad». Actually I’m not, my son left 2 years ago, I was flaming mad 2 years ago. Today I am just hoping to alert people to the real PCB. Check out my other reviews, I usually leave good reviews.

In what world is it okay to teach children through humiliation?
As a former student at Pasadena Civic Ballet I find the supposed «teaching» methods implemented abhorrent.
Highly abusive and disorganized faculty.
The productions highlight the non-​existent technique that the faculty instills in the students.
What’s the point of being a part of a dance school where you have to go to another dance school to remove all of the awful habits you learned at Pasadena Civic Ballet? I know from experience.

What a lovely place. I so appreciate the «uniform». The girls are required to wear. Just simple guideli Ed to follow. It was a welcome relief from the costumes that were typical in other classes. This is a gentle and loving intro into ballet for the family that is considering serious training. Don’t get me wrong this isn’t intense, it’s a baby step in that direction. The little ones are exposed to older girls who have trained and are ery accomplished. My daughter was so delighted to see theses older friends preform. It is a lovely place!

If I was reviewing the teachers solely, I would give them at least 4 stars, but because this is a business, I have to give it a low rating. My daughter took dance here when she was 5 and was in pre-​ballet and tap. It was a little too much so she dropped the tap and just stuck w/​the ballet class. We really liked the teachers she had, no complaints there.
Where my complaints come in is when the final production came up, we were told we had to buy 6 $ 20 tickets (if you had 2 kids, you got a deal and only had to purchase 10). I know many shows require buying tickets but first of all, it really should be on the website all the expenses that will be incurred for the production (the costume rentals, etc.). OK, so we have to buy tickets, but instead of giving everyone a chance to buy decent tickets, they let the upper classes get first choice and go on progressively so that of course, our class got the last choice of tickets and we were in the nose-​bleed section. We have no family here and certainly nobody else who wanted to spend $ 20 in the nose-​bleed section to see a bunch of kids dance so we were stuck with 4 extra tickets.
We were ASSURED that we would be at the top of the extra ticket list for others to buy off of us (which we weren’t) but it didn’t matter. Even though we (and several others) made sure to place our names on the list for extra tickets, an email went out to the families that people were looking for extra tickets and to let them know if anybody had any. Of course we called and actually spoke w/​the director and said we were on a list to sell back and we were told rather matter-​of-​factly that our tickets weren’t good enough! I felt like, «if those people weren’t concerned about selling their tickets in the first place why shouldn’t ours get sold first?». We were fuming! And they didn’t care one bit. So we ended up w/​4 extra tickets that nobody would buy, we tried to get them sold at the box office, but no, they didn’t sell. We could barely see our kid from our seat but the only saving grace was that a woman from the venue (San Gabriel Mission) helped us get seats in the front box seats (she really took pity on us). Imagine that, a total stranger unrelated to the ballet company was the best thing about the whole experience. PCB kept saying, «Oh, it will be worth it to see your pretty girl on stage in such a fancy venue». Well, not if I couldn’t see her. And to boot, my kid’s class literally walked in a circle on stage – NO DANCING for about 1 ½ minutes and that was it! Yes, the show was beautiful but it was mostly the teachers dancing and the older kids. I saw my daughter’s teacher about 10 times. I paid for her to show of her stuff basically.
And I should mention they chose Father’s Day for their production. Also, they have 2 days for their performances because they have so many classes that some classes dance on Sat. and the others dance on Sun. If your kid is in more than one dance class and you have classes that end up dancing on both days, you guessed it, you have to buy tickets for both days if you want to see them dance for each class. Same if you have two kids in different dance classes. It’s awesome! And, on top of that, if you take ballet in any of the other classes (Ballet I and up) be prepared to shell out more $$ for their Spring Ballet show and a few other «fancy» shows along the way.
We were very nice people, never complained until this happened, showed up on time and paid our monthly bill. They lost a regular paying customer to save themselves the cost of one month’s tuition (the price of the unused tickets). Stupid.

Our daughters have all danced at PCB our eldest for almost 14 years … the instructors are exactly what the say they are. Their biographies are on the school website. The school trains boys and girls that want to enjoy ballet and dance just for fun or for kids that would like to be more serious. It depends how dedicated your child is! They put on wonderful productions from traditional ballets to original choreographed numbers. The older students have the ability to travel abroad and are taught by top notch professionals. We love PCB!
Little Mermaid Ballet

I took classes here as a young child starting at the age of 5. By the time I was 12 I was part of the Company.
They teach wonderful, wonderful technique. I took a couple years off (high school) but when I started dancing again my turn out and all the fundamentals were embedded in my body.
As a kid I was really frustrated with dance and all the hours I had to be there, but as an adult I am forever grateful.
They have relocated from their original location, and their new studio is fabulous, my niece is currently taking ballet there.
They have a «belt» system similar to Karate/​Martial Arts and every year you have to audition to make it into the next level. The highest level is when you make it into senior company and no longer wear a belt and get to travel with the company and perform.
I am a proud alumna!
Currently costs are about $ 850 for 20 weeks.