Very positive experience this past year with my 4 yr old daughter in their preschool…read moreballet/tap/tumbling class. My daughter's teacher is the best of all dance teachers we've ever had. She is fun, enthusiastic, and diligently teaches them real dance moves; they are not just having fun movement and play time. We came to jwsd a few years ago with my older daughter for a month and I was not happy with the teacher, who I later discovered was a permanent sub and not a regular teacher, or the waiting area, which was dark and difficult to see the dancers. However, all that has changed since then. They have made improvements to the waiting area so that there are TVs showing both dance rooms and comfortable seating. My younger one appreciates the side playroom and outside playground as well. I love the family feel of this hideaway dance studio and am glad we gave it another try! Don't be dissuaded by the notices to wear a coverup or the dismissal outside. The positives of the great dance class far outweigh the small inconveniences, and I appreciate the commitment to dance etiquette, even though it was something new to us.

Still at JWSD and still loving it. I truly feel part of this family... actually we are family…read more They are our dance family. My girls love the teachers and they have all been taught by the same teachers, because staff remains loyal. They don't leave. That's why i love this studio. Worth the 30 minute commute one way for me. Don't let a ugly review change your mind. Take from someone who's girls have been here since 2008!

My soon to be 6-year-old has just completed her 2nd year at Dancers Workshop. They are an…read moreincredible organization, and my daughter has thrived under their direction. She absolutely adores her teacher, Ms. Naomi, and wants to be in all of her classes. We've done the ballet/tap combo class for two years and added the jazz/hip hop combo class this year, and my daughter always comes out of the class with the brightest smile. Watching these kiddos do the shuffle step in their tiny tap shoes or hot steppin' while Gettin' Jiggy With It is the embodiment of joy in human form! 10 out of 10, would recommend!

This studio has been such a magical place for our dancer! She has confidence, has fun, and learns…read moreevery time she comes to the studio mostly due to the amazing teachers and the environment they create. Ms. Lori and Ms. Kristi have been a source of positivity and guidance since the day she started two years ago, and we are beyond thankful for them both!! Thank you DW for a great experience!

I am notorious of not being able to stick to an exercise routine. I tried cycling. It lasted a few…read moremonths. I could not bring myself to run. I tried yoga.... it worked for a while, then I got bored. When a friend mentioned Bollywood Shake's dance classes, I gave it a try. That was July 2010. I am still going to classes every week. I first took it at the location near McNeil & 183. They no longer have classes there now that they have their own studio on Anderson Mill. I go to either the Shirley McPhail or the South Galaxy locations. By now, I have had 4-5 teachers. All of them are amazing dancers. Almost all of them are great teachers. I recommend it. It's a great and fun way to exercise.

A woman cannot live by salsa dancing alone. So when Groupon offered a 50% discount on a month's…read moreworth of Bollywood classes (4 classes) I jumped at the chance. The classes take place at the Galaxy dance studio in south Austin. The studio is bright and airy and the sound system is great. My class was all female and had about 10 people in it. The class instructors were welcoming and friendly and started the class with short warm up, then introduced us to several traditional moves, and then began teaching us a choreographed dance. It's great exercise ('cause your hands are above your heart for almost a full hour and there is a certain amount of jumping involved) and great fun. So much so that I came back (at full price) for a second month and gave lessons as a birthday gift to my best friend. I hear that Bollywood Shake classes in north Austin have the more advanced choreography/dancers, but as a beginner I'm perfectly content taking the south classes. Harippa!

Dance Institute is an outstanding place to send your kids who are interested in dance! I moved my…read moredaughter to DI b/c of its ballet program. Having danced for many years, I was looking for a studio who would take ballet seriously. Ballet is the foundation for all dance genres and without proper instruction, a student will not master the proper technique to perform at his/her best. My daughter has improved tremendously under the instruction of Linda Holland. Her love for dance has exploded and now she dances with the Dance Institute Performance Academy, one of DI's award-winning competitive dance teams. DI also has a hip hop dance team called Street Heat. Its many talented hip hop dancers have also competed extremely well. The facilities and resources available at DI are not found elsewhere in Austin. If you are looking for a great studio to grow your child's passion for dance, Dance Institute is the place! Check it out!

Nobody puts Baby in a corner…read more Really, that's all you need to know. That and... come on guys, do you want to be Johnny's cousin manning the record player (excuse me, Ipod) again, or would you rather be Johnny singing "She's Like the Wind"? Er...ok that came out totally wrong. This is the Dance Institute, a beautiful brand new school built from the ground up specifically for the purpose of teaching you to shake your maracas or for your children's pointe preparation for Julliard. You might not think this is too special, what with dance schools all over the place, and Austin still not widely considered a bastion of dancing, despite the fact that Ballet Austin is the 4th largest ballet company in the U.S. But typically dance schools are constructed in preexisting spaces, and they do the best they can. This place is, well, bangin', from the design standpoint. Some pro dance folks have shown up here from out of town already to give workshops, and say it is one of the most killer dance spaces they have ever been in. Open, airy, that sort of thing. So if you care about that, voila! A very nice space to learn in. The Dance Institute's logo incorporates a couple doing a hot salsa or ballroom type number, and it is the partner dances that DI is primarily designed for (at least in terms of sheer physical space and adult classes), if you ask me. Their space is huge though, so really they can teach anything they want in there. In addition to the ballroom dance classes that start you on your way to Dancing With The Stars type stuff, and social dancing classes like salsa or two step, they also teach pilates and yoga. I am not familiar with their fitness classes, so I cannot comment on them, but they do have them. They also have regular social events (with byo beverages, last time Monichacha O and I attended) which are preceded by mini lessons in a variety of social dances that you can choose to pay for, or not, if you are already skilled in that sort of thing. On my 5 year journey to learn how to do some ballroom dancing here in Austin, I have taken lessons from many people, and at most of the schools in town. As I have improved, this has led me to become a picky picky bastard about my teachers. DI has several of the finest in partner dancing that Austin has to offer. And imho, Austin does not offer a whole lot of fine partner-dancing teachers (though I believe their number is slowly increasing). Teachers I like at DI: my faves there are Sabrina, Kat, and Denis. I do tend to favor the Latin dances, though, so these are the folks I have had experience with who I like, who do latin. Sabrina, the Ballroom Director, has had years of dance training, and uses a lot of crafty plain language descriptions to help you figure out why you can't seem to do a box step after 50 attempts Edison. Kat was a professional ballet dancer and not only teaches the ballet program for kids (I do not think there is an adult ballet program there now) but is a superb salsa dancer and instructor as well. Often she will get folks to go out to salsa dance at local clubs in town. Denis is a former U.S. 10 dance champion (this means that he and his partner competed against other people in ALL the dances they do on dancing with the stars, really really well) from Russia, yet despite being from a country that churns out seriously hardcore ballroom pros sorta like Bela Karolyi makes gymnastics champions, he is quite nice and caters to your ability without making you run through the snow like Stallone in Rocky IV. Additionally, you can take private lessons from all their folks rather than group classes, and they do lessons for couples getting ready for dancing at their weddings. Ok, so why not the 5 star? 1. they are located in BFE for a big chunk of Austin - you can see from google maps that Sitio Del Rio is near 2222 and 620. If you don't live close by, you are going to be burning a lot of gas to become Johnny Castle or Baby. 2. they are probably the priciest in town, though with the current state of the economy, perhaps they've got some deals going. 3. The number of truly intermediate to advanced dancers that are available at this point in time, in Austin, who frequent their classes there (or anywhere in town), to do Latin Ballroom, is still pretty low. This probably doesn't apply to most folks in the universe, but it does to me, so. The Dance Institute is pretty sweet. If they were closer to the heart of Austin, I'd say there is no good reason you shouldn't give it a shot to get your dirty (or Fred Astaire & Ginger Rodgers' style) dancing on.

We are going into our 4th year at Shirley McPhail School of Dance and our experience has been…read moreexceptional. Watching my girls dance at this studio has created memories that I'll cherish for the rest of my life. There's nothing like watching your daughter dance on a big stage in front of an audience in a beautiful costume! The instructors have been amazing to us. They have always made my daughters feel safe and well cared for. Everyone that we've met, from the owner, director, manager, instructors, and sales associates in The Dancers Den have been nothing but kind, welcoming, and helpful. My daughters are always excited to go to their dance classes. We also love the other dancers and families that we've met through SMSD! The directors of the studio put in so much work to make dance a wonderful experience for the dancers and their families. The recitals are phenomenal and they split them into 4 shows that are 1 hour and 15 minutes each, so you don't have to stay 3-4 hours to watch your child at a recital. To the wonderful staff at SMSD: we see how hard you work, and we appreciate everything you do for us! Thank you for fostering a love of dance in our children!

We have had the most wonderful experience at SMSD. Not only does our child talk about dance class…read moreevery week, we've really felt like we are a part of a family at SMSD. We've enjoyed every teacher and can't say enough about the management. I'd recommend SMSD without a doubt!

First off let me start by stating I am absolutely obsessed with the owner Mrs Tab! She is so sweet…read moreand helpful every step of the way! My 4 year old had Ms. KitKat and my 7 year old had Mrs. Bain and I am so thankful for their patience and kindness towards my girls. Learning ballet at any age can be a challenge but they made it so fun and disciplined! The girls also took hip hop and that was a joy to watch them learn and grow in dance! Thank you so much for all the love and support you have given my girls! Best dance place they have in central texas hand down, huge recommendation!!

I'm only giving them a 2 star because my daughter liked her instructor…read more We did a 2 year old class. They would start a few minutes late and end a few minutes EVERY TIME. The owner and her adult daughters frequently bicker in the lobby. The owner and others gossip about other parents. My most recent time, my daughter had to use the restroom. When I took her back there, there was no toilet paper, soap, or paper towels. A male teenager up front said that they are going through it too fast so they won't be providing it and the owner gave me a toilet paper roll to bring back there but then said I had to bring it back. I then had to take my kid out to the car to use hand sanitizer. LOL. It's so sad, it's comical. I would use caution when deciding on this place.

I can't believe I forgot to write a review of this guy's class. Guess I was trying to forget the…read moreawful treatment and lack of professionalism I received from the instructor. Tony was incredibly rude toward me when I attended my first dance session with him. The other students were more helpful and polite than the instructor himself. I'm not the most coordinated person. I'll admit that and appreciate any person's patience when teaching me a sport or activity that requires a decent amount of coordination. I believe I was learning Polka or foxtrot at his class, but I was struggling with getting the coordination down since I was a first-timer. Tony was going about making sure that the students were on the right track. He looked frustrated that I wasn't getting it, and finally started to berate me. He asked me: "Why don't you understand how to do it correctly? Can you not understand English?" I was stunned and furious to say the least. He wrote me off as a foreigner unable to understand English based on looks instead of being patient like a teacher should be. I'm a native English speaker and was born in the US, unlike him, but saying something hurtful so casually like that wouldn't be acceptable even if the person wasn't a native English speaker. I've heard that South America had horrendous racial tensions, so I could see that Tony brought its racism with him when he came to the United States. If you're not an Anglo or Hispanic person, and don't have any experience with dancing, then expect Tony to say something rude when you don't understand his dance lessons on your first try. I excused myself and went to cry in the bathroom for a few minutes for the poor treatment. Then discreetly left the building. Lo and behold, the man had the gall to follow me to my car! He even positioned himself so that I couldn't slam my door without hitting him. He started advertising his other classes, and gave half-hearted encouragement since I was a beginner. As far as I'm concerned, the "encouragement" was too little to late when he burned a bridge by criticizing my English listening skills. I won't try learning how to dance again thanks to this man even if it's for my own wedding.

Tony has been a great dance teacher. I have been taking group lessons and private lessons for…read moresalsa for one month now and I have learned a lot of new steps and the technique of how to do the steps properly. He is very detailed in explaining how to do the moves in the most efficient way, starting from the very basics. The Sunday class where he teaches salsa, swing and country two step and Argentine tango is so much fun! I also like the Wednesday Batchata and Kizomba class. One of the best parts is when we go out dancing after class as a group to practice. I feel much more confident when I go out dancing then when I did before I started. I appreciate that Tony is patient and kind with all the students, no matter their dance level. Sometimes the more difficult or advanced moves take a lot of repetition, but he never makes us feel rushed. I have learned a lot in class -- even more than just dancing! And I recommend Tony's classes to anyone with an interest in learning partner dance.

Unfortunately I would not recommend this studio. We paid $285 for the recital package and there…read morewere only 3 practices total. Communication and organization were poor throughout the session. At one point parents were texted only 10 minutes before practice (cancelled), even though we live 20 minutes away. Costumes were handed out only two days before recital, leaving almost no time to address sizing issues. No measurements or sizing confirmation were done beforehand, and my daughter's costume was extremely oversized and unwearable. The only solution offered was pinning it, and a refund was declined despite the costume not fitting at all. After being with the studio for over a year, this experience was disappointing enough that we decided to withdraw our daughter from future classes. I would also like to add there was one practice my daughter left her water tumbler and I text the teacher immediately and asked to grab it the following class and we were just ignored completely.

Tap n Toe school of dance has always treated my daughter so well in her journey for performing…read morearts. They offer a variety of classes from tap, ballet, hip-hop, jazz contemporary and free special-needs dance. They work with the children each session to memorize several counts of eight that end up into a dance performance at the end of the season. The dance performances have been everywhere from malls to downtown at ballet Austin where they put on a beautiful production for all the children. My only wish is that they would work harder to traditionally refine each movement.