I cannot give Nicole enough praise for all she did for my now husband and me. We took 4 dance…read morelessons with Nicole before our wedding on April 28, 2018. Best investment in time and money. Nicole is so patient, and she really helps out beginners. Neither my husband or myself knew anything about dancing. Neither one of us ever dance, even in school at school dances. Nicole taught us easily to follow steps that we can use for the rest of our lives. I highly recommend taking a lesson from Nicole. Regardless if you are getting married or just wanting to learn how to dance. She makes the time super fun. I felt like the process of learning to dance with Nicole really brought me and my husband closer together. Thank you Nicole for all your talented work. We are looking forward to taking another lesson with you.

Chassé & Sway provided the best surprise for my husband's birthday. "Flash mob" she put her people…read moreand some of our personnel together for the surprise. People need more dance in their lives! Very efficient and professional from a business perspective. Special thanks to Nicole for helping to put this together. Diane Eggert

As far as belly dancers go...I would say average, but as far as belly dancing teachers are…read moreconcerned.....TERRIBLE!!!!! If you are considering buying one of those great Groupon or Living Social deals so you can learn how to belly dance - SAVE YOUR MONEY!!! It became obvious to me why Sabrina had to invest in those types of deals as a way to advertise - because the most obvious and convincing form of marketing, word of mouth...would only be a detriment to her!! The organization itself is completely unorganized. I called multiple times to clarify how to register and what the exact specifications were for enrolling. I left numerous messages BEGGING for a respons. I needed to know what exactly to bring, if I could go to different studios and whether or not I had been moved from the wait list to the class. I didn't want to drive all the way down there and then find out I didn't make the cut off. But why even have a wait list option, along with submission of a phone number and email address....if not only are they NOT going to use those forms of communication...but they won't even answer the phone when you call or submit emails!! Nobody has any idea what anyone is doing!!! It is so freaking unorganized...it's painful to watch!! But the worst part, is the teaching!!! There was a lot of "Do This" but absolutely no, "let me show you how". When you ask questions, it becomes obvious that Sabrina becomes frustrated and would rather you just didn't talk at all. It's so sad when a class of 20 girls has NO ONE doing any of the steps correctly!!! There are no use of examples or techniques or hints or guidance at all...you're just thrown in and told to do it!! It was clear that Sabrina is a very unhappy young lady and sadly, her negative energy was just exploding like vomit all over her students. It's frustrating and terrible to be stuck in such a waste of time...but I paid for the Groupon....so....hmmmm. I'm not sure what I want back more, my money or my time!!!!

I purchased a KGB deal (like a Groupon) for belly dancing from Sabrina and my experience was as…read moredisappointing as the other 1-star reviews. The website didn't give clear clear instructions that I could figure out about how the classes are set up, but they're set up on a monthly schedule where you learn a dance or a style at th beginning of the month and start a new one at the beginning of the next month. Not knowing this I showed up to a class on the last week of the month. I don't think she recognizes her students because as someone who had never been to a class before she passed around a lined book asking everyone to sign their name for priority registration since the new month would be starting and "all the Groupon users will be signing up." Implying that someone like myself with a coupon will get crap registration and possibly be set back another month against someone paying full price for lessons. Why even sign your business up for deals then? Maybe you get better treatment if you go and just pay the regular price for lessons, I don't know, but I left and won't be going back.

Going to Eliza's belly dance classes is the highlight of my week. She's a fantastic teacher and…read moredancer.

Hired Eliza for my husband's 40th birthday party. From start to finish, she was very professional,…read morecommunicated well, and was extremely reliable. She told me what she needed to make the show the best it could be but was also very willing to accommodate the party needs (ex: the party was going to be in the sand so had to make some minor adjustments). She text me a week before the party to confirm she would be there which I very much appreciated. She showed up on time and was very patient with us while we had to 'hide' my husband since it was a surprise. The fire show was SPECTACULAR from start to finish. We received a ton of compliments afterwards!! I highly recommend hiring Eliza for belly dancing / fire show.

Mary is a great teacher. She knows dance, has a great personality and ability to teach. She's fun…read moreto work with and one learns quickly under her guidance.

Mary Manzella was a wonderful dance teacher for 1st time wedding dance for couples who have not…read moredone partner dancing before. I was referred by another friend who had their wedding a month ago. My wedding date was two weeks before the date. Mary was able to help us prepare us a first dance for us in two weeks. It was intensive training but my partner and I made it through. Mary did suggest that if you do a first wedding dance is to preplan at least 2 to 3 months ahead before the date of your wedding. Don't fret Mary was so patient with us. She is pretty good at getting back with the phone calls the same day if you are interested in hiring her as your dance teacher for your wedding. I would highly recommend her.

Pearl is an AMAZING choreographer!!…read more My husband and I found her through Yelp, and requested information about getting our first dance choreographed. Within a week or so, we met and she had already conceptualized our whole dance with the song we had chosen! Even though we're not dancers, we were willing to take risks (and I'm so glad we did) as we dipped our toes into the world of lyrical dancing. She made sure to walk through each step with patience and great detail, in a way that matched our learning styles. Not to mention, each lesson was fun and engaging, and became the date night we looked forward to every other week! The final dance turned out great, and we received so many compliments (even to this day)! I'm attaching a video that our friend captured in the meantime, while we wait for our videographer to send the official one for reference. Kevin and I would 1000% recommend Pearl to anyone who wants to learn, is willing to take some risks, and have the most memorable time working on some amazing choreography! Thank you so much, Pearl!

Pearl is simply amazing and you'd be a fool not to book her…read more To get an idea, I have no dance background and have avoided dance for decades simply because I'm a slow learner, I'm easily confused with patterned steps, I get frustrated quickly such that I give up, and I look like Elaine on Seinfeld when I dance. I came to Pearl with a simple mission : teach me how to dance country in one month so that I could ask a special lady, "May I have this dance?" I was ambitious. I wanted to learn El Paso, Schottische, Sidekick, and Shadow in no more than one month to be adequately prepared to dance at Nashvilles in Rochester, NY. Pearl wasn't phased. She didn't think I was crazy for trying such a stunt and she was confident I could succeed [even though I wasn't so sure despite assigning myself this mission] Pearl didn't know the country couples dances and i was fully aware of that when I signed up with her. It's very clear on her website what she is versed in. But, she's a professional dancer and an experienced teacher. All she had to do was look at videos of the dance styles a time or two and she had it down immediately. It was unbelievably amazing to someone like me who would watch for hours just to fail. I truly did learn ALL of those dance styles in one short month. And although I didn't get the chance to ask that special lady that one night, I have since discovered that I enjoy country dancing immensely and I can thank Pearl for fostering that development and confidence. Now, I've asked Pearl to take me through her unique dance program to learn the language of dance and apply it to Country Two Step. It's not memorizing steps, patterns, or combinations. It's like learning concepts, theories, and vocabulary so that when you take your follower on the dance floor, you have all you need, to dance however you feel, in that very moment. I'm not stressed out about, okay first I turn her, then I put her in a wrap, then into a neck wrap, then switch places, then go into cape position...now, "Finish her!!" [Mortal Kombat reference] No, I do what I feel and I have fun with it, every time. I've only had a few of those lessons so far and it works. I get comments from long time country dancers who are surprised that I've only been learning for less than 2 months [which is really more like 1 month because of the other dance mission] And, I notice that I don't learn as well in other classes who are trying to teach memorization of combinations; all my anxieties return and, more importantly, I don't remember their lesson. I remember Pearl's. Pearl is very kind, patient, energetic, and effectively communicative in both her words and actions. It makes for a great lesson each time. If you want to learn how to dance, whether the style is listed on her website or not, just ask her, and put your trust in her that she won't let you fail - because she absolutely won't. PS - for all you brides and grooms to be that are looking for help with their 1st wedding dance event, I personally got to see a couple grow from rigid timidness to graceful fluid movements in 7 lessons. The choreography that Pearl created fit their chosen song so well. Altogether, it was very heartfelt, endearing and awesome.

There are some great places to learn to ballroom dance, but Champion is probably your best bet, so…read moremany great teachers, classes, and awesome dance floor. Regardless of level, Mary Murphy and her team will take care of you (and don't forget their dance parties)!

This rating is unfortunately based on our experience trying to book classes. We weren't able to…read morecomplete an experience with the academy even though we have seen such great reviews. At least three months in advance, I reached out to Champion Ballroom Academy to book a couples dance lesson for my fiancé and I to practice our wedding dance. We were connected with one of the instructors via text. As we got closer to the date, we had a conflict come up and asked to reschedule. I reached out to the instructor multiple times but she didn't reply. I also called the academy directly and they said they have no way to contact the instructor to confirm availability. The time came and passed, and we had no contact at all. It's such a bummer because we heard great things. Hopefully this was a one-off experience and not becoming a regular thing.

We watched The Nutcracker performed by the California Ballet School at the Poway Center for the…read morePerforming Arts. This is the first ORIGINAL San Diego production Nutcracker by Maxine Mahon. I don't remember going to other productions where I laughed and felt warm with Christmas spirit. The show was nicely choreographed. The sled was beautifully made for the first show in the 60s and still in today's production. The costumes were so detailed and fabulous. The dancers were a fix from the school's students and professionals. Very nicely done with a short 2-3months of practice!!!

My child has been taking class on Saturday mornings with Ballet A since June…read more I have been fortunate to have had California Ballet School recommended to me by a few families who have been with them for years. My child enjoyed the trial classes which pushed me to sign her up for the rest of the quarter and another. The instructor at the time, who I believe was a sub, made it fun, engaging, and relatable to the kids, all while being able to teach ballet technique and etiquette. I just wanted to pose a concern that I have been observing for weeks before bringing this to light to the manager whom I don't know ever received my emailed concern as I received no reply or acknowledgement to say the least. The instructor of this particular class is a talented dancer and it is evident in the general material she teaches. She has the potential to be a very good instructor. However, I don't believe she is aware that her teaching approach and voice tone is at all appropriate for her class full of 4 year olds... You see, I teach 4 year olds too in my own respective field, and in a class of multiple 4 year olds, I understand where it can be challenging to teach. A variety of attention spans, personalities, and abilities fill this class... They wiggle. They talk. They get silly, and it sometimes gets in the way of what needs to be done within the short hour. I get it. This age is tough to teach. But in the same respect, they are still only 4 years old. And it's not enough to yell at them when they are talking to their peers during transitions. IE "There's no talking in ballet!!!" as they move from the bar to doing across the floors or "I shouldn't have to wait this long for you guys to be ready!!!" "QUIET VOICES!!!" when they aren't waiting in first position. Or when she is explaining a combo that needs correction, she says "Let's play number 1 or number 2", but what does that mean to a 4 year old? And how will this type of sarcasm truly help them improve on pointing their toes and keeping their legs straight? Especially when they aren't being taught the very basic foundations of ballet... like simple body and spatial awareness. They are only really starting to grasp what learning is, and when the material isn't engaging enough they'll lose interest and start doing everything else but what the teacher wants them to do... which starts to happen by the middle of class. While I understand the seriousness of dance etiquette and learning dance technique, as a former dancer myself, dance will continue and come natural with many of these kids, if it is made relatable and fun. Many of these families, like ours, are here because they want to learn! And there are more approaches to teaching this age other than what has been displayed by the instructor these past few weeks. My intent is not to shame or complain or anything but rather to shed light on what I've observed thus far. However the instructor is just too young and inexperienced in teaching young children and I hope this feedback finds her somehow to be able improve her techniques towards something more appropriate to 4 year olds.

A beautiful gem of North Park, Decir Tango has a spacious floor and has an amazing teacher. I love…read morethe way Patricia Becker is wonderful at engaging the class with her teaching style. It helps elevate everyone to have a good time while navigating the challenging pastime of learning to Tango. It's important for me that Tango is learned in a safe and nurturing place and that is exactly what I've found with Decir Tango. Good Class, Good People, Good Tango!

I hate to differ but I did not have a pleasant experience at Decir tango. As someone who tries to…read moredance with as many women as possible, I was confronted by Paricia publicly to cabaceo properly and not push the women to dance with me. But let's face it, women go the Practica to dance and not sit and get bored. She could have done that in private and it would have been much better received. I guess she prefers to have the women sit and wait rather than dance and enjoy. This is particularly true for beginners as she watches over them carefully and discourages anybody from dancing with them. I never force a woman to dance with me and if she says no, I accept it and move on. There are many women that are not familiar with cabaceo or cannot see potential partners when they signal them to dance and they are quite surprised when I mention mirada and cabaceo. Also, in a small and friendly Practica setting with 6-7 women, I find it unnecessary to cabaceo and insist on the full 9 yards. I also see people hogging a partner and not changing partners at the cortina and Patricia is OK with that, so I don't know what gives. She certainly seems to have one set of rules for her regulars and another one for any new dancers. Anyway, I was reluctant but ready to accept her criticism and move on, but then I found a dollar bill on my seat. I am not sure why that happened. It took me some time to understand why would anyone do such a thing. I guess she thought she can irritate me even more and get rid of me quickly. Well, she succeeded. I will never go back to her Practica again but I feel sorry for the many women that will sit there and wait for a dance while some dance only with their regulars. They just have to talk to Patricia and try to change her attitude. From experience, I think changing her attitude is very difficult but nothing is impossible. It is malicious acts like this that make some people quit tango altogether. I could have accepted it quietly and move on but I think such malicious acts should be reported to avoid future unpleasant experiences.